What we do

STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES

1. Education Beyond Borders will assemble teams of teachers that will work on developing best educational practices teacher workshops based on the destination country’s curricula. For example, areas that we have focused on are Mathematics, Science, Information Technology, and Health education at the grades 6 to 9 levels. These areas are easily transferable as they are fairly consistent worldwide. We feel that by concentrating on these areas, we will increase the motivation and efficiency of the teachers and, therefore, increase the success rate of their students and increase their chances of graduating. The teams will also develop workshops/seminars that will demonstrate best ways to deliver the variety of lessons with little to no resources, as is the case in many rural areas of developing countries. Other best practices that will be developed will be in the areas of alternative assessment and classroom management since many of our colleagues in developing areas have very large numbers of students in their classrooms and/or a large variety of age, grade and ability levels in one classroom. There are already plans to extend our workshops to include early childcare & literacy, peace, environmental and entrepreneurial education, and adult education. The focus of a particular project will be dictated by the needs of that community.

2. As an example, Education Beyond Borders will send teams of people to deliver the materials/resources developed in statement 1 above in the form of workshops and seminars. These workshops will be scheduled during holidays to best accommodate participants’ needs without loss of work. The workshops will be of various lengths (minimum of 4 days) and may be mobile. Participants will then be encouraged to go back to their local communities and teach their colleagues what they have learned thus maximizing our efforts. As we become more experienced, we plan to a have a few teams working with various developing nations. We have already implemented projects in South Africa and Kenya and are exploring expanding to other African nations, Central and South America.

3. Education Beyond Borders will also connect teachers globally through information technology. For those developing areas that do have the capabilities to connect to the Internet, we will coordinate teachers working together through an online environment in an effort to bring students from across the globe closer together. It is hoped that through these connections a greater knowledge and appreciation of the world and its citizens will develop. These projects will look very similar to: the Global Classroom Initiative (www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/gci) and ePals (www.epalscorp.com/). Ideally, teachers and their peers from various countries will collaborate on lessons that would allow their students to work together on topics of global importance and relevance and ultimately they will learn more about their new friends and their respective countries. For example, students in a senior social studies class in Canada would pair up with similar students in South Africa to work together on a project exploring the realities of affirmative action in the other’s country then would present to their respective classrooms. Another example would be students in a grade 8 science class pairing up to be lab partners to test how altitude effects the boiling point of water. One student at sea level in Vancouver another in the mountains in Quito, Ecuador.

We will also encourage Canadian classrooms to develop a supportive relationship with other classrooms by having them hold fund-raising events (these could take the form of bake sales, pep rallies, sales of cards/jewellery produced by their peers in developing countries and numerous other student-run events) to help bring greatly needed resources to their peers in other countries. There are endless opportunities for growth and learning that can be realized through these global bonds that are developed between teachers, students and their peers.

4. Eventually, Education Beyond Borders will hope to be able to assemble teams of teachers that will be able to travel on a moment's notice to assist in setting up temporary schools and working with teachers in areas in need of emergency education relief due to unforeseen disasters like an earthquake. These teachers will take as much of the needed supplies with them as possible.

5. Education Beyond Borders will actively seek funding as follows:

Occasional fund-raising:

The way Education Beyond Borders will be structured is we will have provincial chapters who will be responsible for fund-raising in their local areas. This may take the form of concerts, bingo’s, auctions, etc. and may occur at least once or twice a year depending on local funding need. There is also the possibility of a large-scale national fund-raising event, like a concert, that would be held annually.

Since members will also be located in schools throughout Canada, there will be opportunities for small-scale, student-driven fund-raising to support the initiatives of Education Beyond Borders. These could take the form of bake sales, pep rallies, and numerous other student-run events. For example, sales of cards/jewellery or other items produced by student peers in developing countries (like South Africa) will promote a sense of empowerment to those disadvantage students allowing them to realize that they can assist in raising funds for their school through this joint entrepreneurial project.

Regular fund-raising:

Education Beyond Borders will actively seek funding through various foundation grants (UNESCO, CIDA, World Bank), through local and national teacher federations (Canadian Teachers’ Federation), through corporate sponsorship (Cisco Systems, DHL, FedEx, Apple Computers, Air Canada, various publishers), and through on-going donations from individuals via our web site.

Other than money, sponsorship and donations can take the form of: transportation (car rentals, air miles), technology (network and communications support/service, computer equipment), shipping and storage services, donated school supplies and resources, etc.