Tag: TGR EDU: Global

As educators come through the TGR Learning Lab for the very first time, they often hear the excited chatter from students busy tinkering and creating. From the mechanical sounds of gears rotating within the 3D printers to EV3 robots zipping up and down the hallways, there is a palpable energy throughout the building.

These educators quickly catch onto the enthusiasm coming from the students who are given the unique opportunity to move beyond textbooks and truly take charge of their learning. Having worked with both students and educators, what I’ve come to recognize is that regardless of our age or life experiences, we all have a natural curiosity and a desire to be life-long learners. Teachers love to be just as engaged as their students. It reminds them firsthand of what their students will be challenged with when they learn new concepts.

After years of reaching young people across the country through education and youth development programs, Tiger Woods challenged his foundation “to make bold choices, explore unchartered territory and reach millions of kids around the world.” Now in its 25th anniversary year, TGR Foundation has met his challenge and celebrates two million students reached.

International STEM Studio is an amazing initiative. I learned about it after the CEO of Soronko Academy, my boss, attended the inaugural training in 2018. She came back with a new perspective on how to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at the academy and how to organize training of the trainer sessions to enable her to share the knowledge she had gained with others, who trained in different parts of Ghana. When she asked me if I would like to take part in the next cohort of the International STEM Studio, I jumped on board with excitement. I couldn’t wait for the growth in the knowledge I knew the training session would come with. I thought about my students, and I knew this was an opportunity to provide them with better education and guide them toward achieving their goals. On July 25th I embarked on a trip to the flagship TGR Learning Lab in Anaheim, CA sponsored by the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to participate in International STEM Studio.

I’ve been a teacher of primarily science for a long time, more than 30 years, 19 as an international educator. Currently, I am working as a science teacher in the small Balkan country of Kosovo, but I’ve also lived and taught in eastern Venezuela and southeast China near Hong Kong.

Last spring, I received an e-mail from my current director at the Quality Schools International – International School of Kosovo suggesting I apply to TGR Foundation’s International STEM Studio, a week-long professional learning program bringing educators together from around the world. It looked like a good opportunity because I am very much interested in keeping current in my own education and professional growth. When I was selected to participate, I was very excited.

This summer I had the chance to examine the role of TGR Foundation from a global perspective. It started with a speaking role at Global MindED’s annual convening in Denver, CO where we discussed how organizations reach a diverse population with their work. The latter half of the summer took me to Israel where I examined the complexity of creating a STEM-integrated workforce by better preparing educators to meet the changing world facing their students. And most recently TGR EDU: Global trained more than 50 educators from around the world to transform their teaching through a focus on inquiry and problem-based pedagogy.

Working toward its goal to reach millions of students through education, TGR Foundation recently had the opportunity to present at the 29th annual Central and Eastern European Schools Association (CEESA) conference in Warsaw, Poland. The theme, Making the World our Classroom: One Less Brick in the Wall, was a clarion call to participants hailing from 50 countries and 70 schools, to remove barriers and focus efforts on developing a more relevant and globally-centric approach to education.