Education Beyond Borders

February 1, 2009

Dear Applicant,
We are seeking to create a multi-national group of about eight teachers to travel this year to South Africa, where they will participate in professional development activities with teachers located in the townships near Cape Town. This experience fits into Teachers Without Borders - Canada’s overall goal of closing the education divide through teacher professional development and community education.

The intent of this experience is to allow teachers from across the globe to work alongside South African teachers, to ‘walk in their shoes’. It is the hope and wish of the organizers that the connections established in this year’s journey to South Africa will continue well beyond 2009 and well beyond the few teachers involved. This year, being our second year, we will be including local teachers/NGO workers as part of the facilitation team to fulfill our goal of building capacity by creating a self-sufficient and self-administered professional development model by the end of four years.

Noble Kelly and Sharon Peters – the team leaders – traveled to South Africa last year and will be working to ensure that our workshops effectively address the needs of the local teachers in South Africa. Our hope is that this package begins to answer some of the questions you may likely have about the experience you are soon to engage in. If you have any questions at all about living in South Africa, local conditions, teachers’ experiences, or any further questions, please feel free to contact either Noble at noble@twbcanada.org or Sharon at speters@twbcanada.org.

Please see the Financial Information section for further information.

Regards,
Noble Kelly, President
Teachers Without Borders - Canada

The highest reward for a person's work is not what they get for it, but what they become because of it.
- John Ruskin


South Africa Trip Information Package Summer 2009

Summary: A group of teachers volunteer their time to work with teachers of various districts near Cape Town to improve teaching practices and build lasting connections with South African schools.

As many rural schools are now receiving donated computers and get connected to the Internet, they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the added administration and lack of skills to effectively implement and integrate computer use in their schools. A group of Information/Educational Technology specialists from Canada will be delivering two one week workshops to discuss and train administrators and educators on the issues around computer use and integration and seek to create relationships between South African schools and those within and/or outside the country for mutual learning on global issues and mentorship. We will also be working to build capacity within a local NGO to develop trainers and implementation models that will be put into practice in the interim.

Location: Townships surrounding Cape Town, South Africa

Dates/timeline (to be confirmed):

July 2nd or 3rd: arrive in Cape Town
Week 1 (July 6th to 9th): workshops at location 1

Week 2 (July 13th to 16th): workshops at location 2, (July 17th & 18th): ICT Bootcamp--an administrator/school management conference around educational technology issues

Week 3 (July 20th to 24th): in school hands-on implementation assistance and shadowing to reinforce workshop strategies and practice collaboration models

Note: there will be time built in for visiting various sites and you may add on to the end of the project if you want to spend more time in the schools or around the country.

Trip Leaders

Noble Kelly
South Africa Project Leader
Teachers Without Borders - Canada
noble@twbcanada.org


Noble Kelly has coordinated and participated in the educational trips to South Africa and Kenya and has visited South Africa on numerous occasions. He has been teaching and providing teacher training for over 17 years and has a post-baccalaureate in the use and integration of Educational Technology. He also sits on the BC teachers' Federation Committee for Action on Social Justice and gives various workshops and presentations on global education and social justice.

Sharon Peters
South Africa Project Leader
Teachers Without Borders - Canada
speters@twbcanada.org


Sharon Peters participated as a team member to educational trips to South Africa and Kenya and is coordinator of global exchanges between classrooms for TWB Canada. She is a high school teacher of English and computer studies and possesses an M.A. in educational technology. Her students' global projects have won multiple awards. Sharon is an active web/podcaster and has provided many workshops and presentations on the integration of technology in education.

About the Organisers

Teachers Without Borders - Canada
Teachers Without Borders - Canada is a non-profit, non-denominational NGO devoted to closing the education divide through teacher professional development and community education. Our organization focuses on the building of teacher leaders. We work primarily, but not exclusively, in developing countries, in order to build self-reliance, health, and capacity.

In short, the purpose of Teachers Without Borders is to invite, gather, distill, synthesize, and disseminate the best collective wisdom from teacher leaders from every culture to make all teachers even more effective in contributing to the creation of a world that works for all.

Our partner organizations in South Africa will be Edunova (www.edunova.org), Khanya (www.khanya.co.za) and Education without Borders (www.educationwithoutborders.ca). Please visit their respective web sites for more information. TWB – Canada has entered into a cooperative partnership with these organisations. The terms of this agreement will see TWB-Canada identify teachers for the term of the project, provide for most or all of the cost of: in-country transportation for TWB-Canada team, accommodations, food, printing, and other appropriate incidentals associated with the implementation of the workshops. TWB-Canada team is responsible for designing and delivering the best practice workshops to their South African colleagues.

These organisations will be primarily responsible for all organizational matters in South Africa in relation to arranging for: transportation, accommodations & facilities for TWB-C volunteers, lunch for all workshop participants, and printing of workshop packages. It is hoped that every effort would be made to find the most economical (if not even free through sponsorship) means of procuring the necessary arrangements stated.

Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.
- Danny Thomas

Payment and Financial Information

Fund-raising

All participants are encouraged to raise funds to participate in this program. All donations to this project (above $20) are considered charitable donations and can be issued a Canadian tax receipt. Some fund-raising ideas include:

*Student-led fundraisers: bake sales, chocolate sales (Cocoa Camino fair trade chocolate!), dances, performances

*Community fundraisers: pub night, local talent night, fund-raising ‘dinner’

*Donations from community organisations: Rotary club, Kiwanis club, local credit unions/banks, local foundations

*Support from school/district: either Professional Development funds or social justice, global initiatives, or solidarity funds/grants may be available from your local or provincial teacher organisations

*Direct personal donations: send out a letter to your friends, family, & colleagues—you will be pleasantly surprised by those who want to contribute. Many people support such international initiatives, but very few are willing to donate their time and energy to push forward such a cause. This is a terrific opportunity for your friends and connects to support a good cause.

Total cost

The cost of this trip is estimated as follows:

$3300 – flight cost to be covered by team volunteer (through personal fund-raising if needed)
$2000 – in-country costs (to be covered by TWB-Canada through fund-raising), includes:

*local transportation
*local accommodation
*basic food
*guides
*preparatory training
*all activities included in trip itinerary
*subsidies for food/transport for local teachers

These are budgeted figures and represent a fair estimate based on last year's expenses.

FUND-RAISING GOALS

Teachers Without Borders - Canada's fund-raising priority is to cover the costs of all in-country expenses for all operating projects. That being said, if we are able to raise excess funds with your help, then these funds would be used to subsidize volunteers’ travel costs. However, it is more than likely that you may pay part of these costs personally. We will consider receipt of the deposit an assurance that you understand that, due to the short time frame prior to travel; all flight payments are your responsibility. The decision to have participants pay for their flights upfront was to solidify commitment. Having participants pull out at a late stage can do irreparable damage to the success of a project. Remember that fund-raising can also continue during and after the project. Also tax receipts will be given for all personal donations.

Friday, April 17th $200 deposit*
Friday, May 15th all flight arrangements booked and paid**

* deposit is refundable only if the trip is cancelled by TWB-Canada. Deposit will be used to secure position on team; flights must be paid in full 6 weeks prior to departure (ie. May 15th)
** instructions on flight arrangements, including cancellation policies, visas, vaccinations, etc. will be forthcoming (this amount will vary on place of embarkation). Once receipt of payment is received by TWB-Canada, deposit will be ripped up. Note: if you have to cancel your participation on the project for any reason between April 17th and May 15th, deposit will not be returned.

To request an application form, email Noble Kelly at noble@twbcanada.org.

It's easy to make a buck.
It's a lot tougher to make a difference.
- Tom Brokaw

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