Are We Cheating With the Arts?
If you are a teacher on the 21st Century, chances are you know how important the arts are for education and academic achievement. Scientific research has been urgently pointing us to the rescue of artistic programs in schools, voicing out how the arts wire the brain for learning. “Music makes you better at Math”, is one […]
Empowerment Through Engagement: Lessons Learned
Three years ago, all of us at Orenda became fascinated by the idea of participatory development; the idea that those who were the beneficiaries of aid should be given the chance to design the solutions that best fit their needs. We came to Islamabad, fresh with the belief that we were ready to get the […]
Let Them Lead: Empowering Rural Youth Through Education
Before I started my one-year poverty alleviation service at Mendai, a remote mountain village 27-hour away by train from Beijing, I was talking to the local government officials. They told me I was wasting my time with those Hmong people: “I can assure you,” one of them said, “their whole lives are about waiting. […]
Bringing the Real World into the Classroom
Teaching sixty students is challenging, but is also a gift. It is an opportunity to make a positive impact, no matter how small, on the students. I am a second year Teach for Qatar fellow teaching grade 7-math at a public school in Qatar. While exploring this opportunity for impact, I realized more than 50% […]
Building Entrepreneurial Culture at Moroccan Universities
Entrepreneurship is the ability of an individual to move from idea to action. It entails creativity, innovation and risk-taking, as well as the ability to plan and manage projects to create value. Entrepreneurship training plays a key role in developing these abilities and behaviors, promoting self-employment at the same time. University entrepreneurship programs and modules […]
Scaling Up Cross-Sectoral Collaboration For Refugee Education
Today there are approximately 21.3 million refugees worldwide, over half of whom are under the age of 18. In parallel, the global average time a person spends in refugee camps is now 20 years. Regrettably, education in this context remains a second order priority, which means that refugee children are born and raised in suboptimal conditions for intellectual and […]
Six Sources That Can Help Teachers Think Like Entrepreneurs
‘Entrepreneurship’ is an immortal buzzword. A simple online search will provide you with over 146,000,000 answers (and multiple pictures of Richard Branson) of which the first one (by Wikipedia) will give you the following: Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which typically begins as a […]
Can Learning Increase Intelligence?
All eyes are on her. It’s her worst nightmare, and everyone is watching as she is about to be gobbled by shame. She hopes no one can notice her shaky legs, her flushed face. The long moments of silence are only disrupted by hurtful whispers and badly concealed giggles. The teacher is still waiting. “Well? […]
“Local is Lekker” – Innovation Is Best When It Is Local!
“Local is lekker” is the South African way of saying ‘things from home are usually the best’ (my paraphrase of the meaning). This phrase can apply to anything from sport, to food or culture. I really think that “local is lekker” when it comes to innovation in education too. Innovation one of those buzz words […]
Refugee Crisis: Education Aid is Only a Click Away
I often find my daily news feed packed with harrowing visuals and reports of people risking their lives in search of a better life. Emergencies – natural and manmade – big and small – are forcing millions to flee their homes, cities and countries for foreign lands. We are witnessing the highest levels of displacement […]