Ashley, this is a brilliant idea which deals with improving the performance of teachers so as to help them properly shape the youth at school. I hope this idea involves the curriculum development centre of Tanzania so as to make it generally acceptable in the education system there. Secondly, the teachers should be facilitated adequately so as to motivate them promote this idea among other fellow teachers.
Finally, apart from the teachers/teaching methods, this idea should also identify and address the other causes of the poor results like student factors and administrative factors.
Congratulations Ashley upon being recognized and selected among the finalists of the Champions of Quality Education in Africa! I wish you continued success as you strive to provide quality education by helping teachers teach better and more effectively. You have created a success story. However, I pray that you network with potential partners to make better your innovation for more to benefit. Congs!
Thank you so much for your comments on our Teaching in Action program description. I appreciate your congratulations, and also the insights and advice you have offered. As you said, it is important that teachers do not just use what they have learned in the workshop in their own classrooms, but that they also share what they have learned with fellow teachers. We are working hard to equip teachers to be able to do this very thing, as particpants are provided with resource materials that they can take to their home schools and share with their colleauges. Additionally, the Teaching in Action program is instituting "professional learning communities" so that this model can be disseminated widely at the local level.
I would welcome the opportunity to learn more about your work with Science Education Communication Video, as this sounds like a very useful tool for instruction!
Thank you Samuel, and I do hope we continue to stay in touch.
I want to sincerely thank the organizers for this opportunity and for the few comments that I have read from colleagues even outside Nigeria, I feel so honored and I am humbled and will continue to do my best as a champion of quality education in Africa. I want to thank everyone for the very positive remarks that you have made and pledge to truly live up to your expectations and serve as a Champion of Quality Education in Africa. As a teacher leader and motivator, I will raise more champions in Africa and all over the world for quality education. I also want to congratulate my other colleagues who have been selected as finalists. I believe we are the ones that Africa has been waiting for and this is an opportunity to make a new determination and offer a new vision for quality education in Africa.
Also, I see this rather as a recognition that commissions you and I to a higher service to humanity and I pledge to live and work with other colleagues to bring the dream of qualitative and quantitative education for the millions of children in Africa and around the world to reality. Thank you Ashoka Changemakers for the recognition and thank you colleagues for your VOTE, which is not just for me, but for the 59 million teachers around the world who have never been recognized enough for the contributions they make and for the hundreds of millions of children who look up to us as teachers for their future. I hope that this will inspire many more to join the 14 of us who have been selected to work for quality education in Africa. I urge my colleagues who have emerged finalist to see this as a moment to truly give a new direction to education in Africa. Let us become the champions of champions for quality education in Africa. While governments in Africa and the UN are making effort to ensure education for all children (quantitative), let us use this recognition to serve as advocates and changemakers for quality education, so that the education of children in Africa will be both qualitative and quantitative.
For the 14 of us selected as finalists, instead of seeing each other as competitors, I will rather request that we work cooperatively as the people chosen at this time to promote quality education in Africa. Let us become the embodiments of quality education in Africa, and let us work to raise more champions of quality education and eventually produce qualitatively educated children who will address and overcome the many critical challenges (corruption, HIV/AIDS, poverty, etc) facing Africa even in the 21st century.
Dear Colleagues, this is a win-win situation for all of us. Let us work more collaboratively to ensure that quality education in Africa is realized. Whether we emerge as final winners or not, let us maintain this momentum and quickly forge a common ground for the sake of education in Africa. I propose that the organizers create a G14 group and a G300+ group for both the finalists and other colleagues who were not selected but passionately believe in quality education in Africa to work together as the new champions of quality education in Africa who will raise many more champions for quality education in Africa. In this way, we shall all be able to work transcending the borders of finalists and non-finalists to bring quality education to Africa. Thank you all for being a part of this and let us mobilize others to join this initiative.
I have seen first hand the wonderful impact of Africaid in Tanzania due to the great service of Ashley Shuyler. Her devotion to education and committment to the children of Tanzania is unparalleled in my mind. In a time when many people are only looking for personal rewards its great to see this amazing young woman perform miracles in a country so devastated with poverty and lack of education. Please help her to continue this great work in Tanzania.
Thank you for your very thoughtful comments about the work of AfricAid; your kind words and feedback mean a lot to me! AfricAid is very grateful for the support and encouragement of individuals like yourself. Together, we can really work to support the tireless work of teachers in East Africa in their efforts to provide high-quality education to their students. We are so thankful that you and so many others are taking the time to support us in this this work and in this competition! I will look forward to continuing to report good results for our Teaching in Action program in the years to come.
This is truly crucial work that AfricAid is doing. It is wonderful to see that results of the new system of teacher training are already being observed and that AfricAid has incorporated suggestions to scale out a highly effective model.
Thank you, Eric, for your words of encouragement. AfricAid and Educate! have identified very similar needs in the larger education systems of Tanzania and Uganda; I am so glad that we have this opportunity to learn from one another as we work to support students and teachers in their efforts to acheive their visions for their own lives, and for the systems in which they work and live.
I just wanted to say, keep up the good work. I think you're working for a really great cause, and I hope to continue to support your efforts in the future.
Keep up the good work Ashley. Jessica and I are behind you 100% . I voted for your program and hope that you won so that the monies can be used to take this great program and make it even more widespread.
Its great to see someone take an idea and a dream and make it what you have made this program.
Thank you so much for your kind note and words of encouragement, Tom! We also apprecaite you casting a vote for us! The results are announced next week, so we'll keep everyone posted.
Hard work and commitment is always followed by a reward! Congratulations, AfricAid, Tanzania, upon emerging the best in Tanzania and among the best three Champions in Africa in promoting quality education. I hope you will improve on your idea further by cooperating with other partners.
On July 28, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“I believe that this kind of an initiative could have a huge impact in Africa if they’re able to move teachers away from rote learning and basic memorization to more participatory centered methods. I would suggest that they look into other systemic variables that come into improving quality of learning since this may improve teaching practices in classrooms. It might also be very useful for this project, overall, to also draw on university partnerships with Minnesota and Columbia University to help provide more global input.”
“I would also love to see if they could try to find ways of assessing what kids are getting out of the training, in the training itself. I’ve found that in studies of secondary school teaching methodology that the expectation of what the examination is going to be has much more influence than virtually anything else on the teacher’s behavior, even teacher’s who have been training to do something else. This might be an opportunity for curriculum and examination reform.”
“I loved the fact that they’re focusing on teacher training and education. An initiative like this one can help support teachers in a different way, and will hopefully be part of a movement for broader change. Also, in terms of sustainability, the initiative also has a fairly small budget, so they should be able to raise the money quite easily. I was curious to know if the use of language (English vs. Swahili) has been a problem? ”
- Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” Judges: Escuela Nueva, Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, CARE (United States), African Leadership Academy, UNICEF
Comments
Ashley, this is a brilliant idea which deals with improving the performance of teachers so as to help them properly shape the youth at school. I hope this idea involves the curriculum development centre of Tanzania so as to make it generally acceptable in the education system there. Secondly, the teachers should be facilitated adequately so as to motivate them promote this idea among other fellow teachers.
Finally, apart from the teachers/teaching methods, this idea should also identify and address the other causes of the poor results like student factors and administrative factors.
You might want to take a look at this project: http://dsh.cs.washington.edu/
Congratulations Ashley upon being recognized and selected among the finalists of the Champions of Quality Education in Africa! I wish you continued success as you strive to provide quality education by helping teachers teach better and more effectively. You have created a success story. However, I pray that you network with potential partners to make better your innovation for more to benefit. Congs!
Hi Samuel,
Thank you so much for your comments on our Teaching in Action program description. I appreciate your congratulations, and also the insights and advice you have offered. As you said, it is important that teachers do not just use what they have learned in the workshop in their own classrooms, but that they also share what they have learned with fellow teachers. We are working hard to equip teachers to be able to do this very thing, as particpants are provided with resource materials that they can take to their home schools and share with their colleauges. Additionally, the Teaching in Action program is instituting "professional learning communities" so that this model can be disseminated widely at the local level.
I would welcome the opportunity to learn more about your work with Science Education Communication Video, as this sounds like a very useful tool for instruction!
Thank you Samuel, and I do hope we continue to stay in touch.
All the best,
Ashley Shuyler
AfricAid
I want to sincerely thank the organizers for this opportunity and for the few comments that I have read from colleagues even outside Nigeria, I feel so honored and I am humbled and will continue to do my best as a champion of quality education in Africa. I want to thank everyone for the very positive remarks that you have made and pledge to truly live up to your expectations and serve as a Champion of Quality Education in Africa. As a teacher leader and motivator, I will raise more champions in Africa and all over the world for quality education. I also want to congratulate my other colleagues who have been selected as finalists. I believe we are the ones that Africa has been waiting for and this is an opportunity to make a new determination and offer a new vision for quality education in Africa.
Also, I see this rather as a recognition that commissions you and I to a higher service to humanity and I pledge to live and work with other colleagues to bring the dream of qualitative and quantitative education for the millions of children in Africa and around the world to reality. Thank you Ashoka Changemakers for the recognition and thank you colleagues for your VOTE, which is not just for me, but for the 59 million teachers around the world who have never been recognized enough for the contributions they make and for the hundreds of millions of children who look up to us as teachers for their future. I hope that this will inspire many more to join the 14 of us who have been selected to work for quality education in Africa. I urge my colleagues who have emerged finalist to see this as a moment to truly give a new direction to education in Africa. Let us become the champions of champions for quality education in Africa. While governments in Africa and the UN are making effort to ensure education for all children (quantitative), let us use this recognition to serve as advocates and changemakers for quality education, so that the education of children in Africa will be both qualitative and quantitative.
For the 14 of us selected as finalists, instead of seeing each other as competitors, I will rather request that we work cooperatively as the people chosen at this time to promote quality education in Africa. Let us become the embodiments of quality education in Africa, and let us work to raise more champions of quality education and eventually produce qualitatively educated children who will address and overcome the many critical challenges (corruption, HIV/AIDS, poverty, etc) facing Africa even in the 21st century.
Dear Colleagues, this is a win-win situation for all of us. Let us work more collaboratively to ensure that quality education in Africa is realized. Whether we emerge as final winners or not, let us maintain this momentum and quickly forge a common ground for the sake of education in Africa. I propose that the organizers create a G14 group and a G300+ group for both the finalists and other colleagues who were not selected but passionately believe in quality education in Africa to work together as the new champions of quality education in Africa who will raise many more champions for quality education in Africa. In this way, we shall all be able to work transcending the borders of finalists and non-finalists to bring quality education to Africa. Thank you all for being a part of this and let us mobilize others to join this initiative.
I have seen first hand the wonderful impact of Africaid in Tanzania due to the great service of Ashley Shuyler. Her devotion to education and committment to the children of Tanzania is unparalleled in my mind. In a time when many people are only looking for personal rewards its great to see this amazing young woman perform miracles in a country so devastated with poverty and lack of education. Please help her to continue this great work in Tanzania.
Thank you for your very thoughtful comments about the work of AfricAid; your kind words and feedback mean a lot to me! AfricAid is very grateful for the support and encouragement of individuals like yourself. Together, we can really work to support the tireless work of teachers in East Africa in their efforts to provide high-quality education to their students. We are so thankful that you and so many others are taking the time to support us in this this work and in this competition! I will look forward to continuing to report good results for our Teaching in Action program in the years to come.
Again, thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Ashley
This is truly crucial work that AfricAid is doing. It is wonderful to see that results of the new system of teacher training are already being observed and that AfricAid has incorporated suggestions to scale out a highly effective model.
Thank you, Eric, for your words of encouragement. AfricAid and Educate! have identified very similar needs in the larger education systems of Tanzania and Uganda; I am so glad that we have this opportunity to learn from one another as we work to support students and teachers in their efforts to acheive their visions for their own lives, and for the systems in which they work and live.
Hey Ashley,
I just wanted to say, keep up the good work. I think you're working for a really great cause, and I hope to continue to support your efforts in the future.
Best,
Cameron
Thanks so much, Cameron. I really appreciate that, and it means a lot to me that you took the time to vote!
Take care, and keep up the good work yourself,
Ashley
Keep up the good work Ashley. Jessica and I are behind you 100% . I voted for your program and hope that you won so that the monies can be used to take this great program and make it even more widespread.
Its great to see someone take an idea and a dream and make it what you have made this program.
Tom
Thank you so much for your kind note and words of encouragement, Tom! We also apprecaite you casting a vote for us! The results are announced next week, so we'll keep everyone posted.
Asante sana, na wikendi njema!
Ashley
Hard work and commitment is always followed by a reward! Congratulations, AfricAid, Tanzania, upon emerging the best in Tanzania and among the best three Champions in Africa in promoting quality education. I hope you will improve on your idea further by cooperating with other partners.
On July 28, 2009 the judges reviewed the entries for the Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” competition and would like to pass on the following feedback (listed below) for your entry. Thank you for applying and for your hard work in the field. We are excited to archive your entry to serve as a leading solution for the worldwide community of innovators. We wish you continued luck with your innovative, sustainable, and socially impactful initiatives.
All the best, The Changemakers Team
“I believe that this kind of an initiative could have a huge impact in Africa if they’re able to move teachers away from rote learning and basic memorization to more participatory centered methods. I would suggest that they look into other systemic variables that come into improving quality of learning since this may improve teaching practices in classrooms. It might also be very useful for this project, overall, to also draw on university partnerships with Minnesota and Columbia University to help provide more global input.”
“I would also love to see if they could try to find ways of assessing what kids are getting out of the training, in the training itself. I’ve found that in studies of secondary school teaching methodology that the expectation of what the examination is going to be has much more influence than virtually anything else on the teacher’s behavior, even teacher’s who have been training to do something else. This might be an opportunity for curriculum and examination reform.”
“I loved the fact that they’re focusing on teacher training and education. An initiative like this one can help support teachers in a different way, and will hopefully be part of a movement for broader change. Also, in terms of sustainability, the initiative also has a fairly small budget, so they should be able to raise the money quite easily. I was curious to know if the use of language (English vs. Swahili) has been a problem? ”
- Changemakers “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” Judges: Escuela Nueva, Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, CARE (United States), African Leadership Academy, UNICEF