Sessions
Girl Rising Project has Changed a Community's Perspective toward Women at the iEARN Conference
Maha Alawdat
Kseifa Abu Rabe'a
Maha Alawdat
Dr. Maha Alawdat holds Ph.D I Composition and TESOL from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Master degree in foreign English Literature from Ben Gurion University in Israel. Currently, she teachers at a Multidisciplinary school, a college, and the coordinator of Women’s Political Leadership program. Previously, she taught at Indiana University of PA and the Language Center in the United States. During her career, she got a number of awards like Teaching Excellence Award, Graduate Women’s Leadership, Fulbright Scholarship, and Award for Dissertation Completion. She has also a number of publications including articles and poems; Lo-tech tools as episteme: Rethinking student engagement in the writing process and beyond, Standing Alone in Darkness, English writing students' perception of using Eportfolios in the writing class, and Israeli English teachers' perception of using ePortfolios. She started her journey with iEARN during the school year 2016-17 and continued to implement iEARN at school. During the school year 2017-2018, she implemented a number of iEARN projects like Girl Rising, Teddy Bear, Taking Kites, International Movie Club, and One day of a life. To spread the word among educators in her community, she arranged two workshops to introduce the iEARN projects and invited important personas from the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the American Embassy in Jordan.
Nawal Abu Rabe’a
Alhoor High School
Nawal Abu rabe’a
Nawal Abu Rabe’a has 26 years of teaching experience as an English teachers for all levels in Israel. She has a BA in English and Hebrew literature and MA in management. She is an English teacher at Alnoor Hura High School and ACCESS teacher too. She became a member of iEARN in 2017, as a part of the BRIDGE Program. Her students have participated in several projects such as Teddy Bear Project, Talking Kites, Tulips and Daffodils, the International Book Club, and Girl Rising.
Type: Roundtable
Location: Room 1306
Date: Monday
Time: 2:00-2:50 PM
This session is associated with a UN SDG!
This session relates to the Girl Rising iEARN Project!
Session Description
This presentation focuses on how an iEARN project, Girl Rising in this case, affected how a conservative community, like the Bedouin sector, to look differently at women. By organizing workshops and inviting members from the community to share what we have been doing with our students through iEARN projects affected their decision making and future plans. Going beyond the school walls to the community is one strategy for making iEARN known among many people. Also, publishing in the local newspapers encouraged different educators to be interesting in iEARN projects.
What will educators learn and be able to do at the end of the session?
By the end of the session, educators will be able to
- Be familiar with projects that leave positive impact on conservative community
- Learn strategies to expose the community to iEARN projects
- Exchange stories and experiences of success
Additional Session Information
One of the most fruitful results of Girl Rising project is initiating a training program for women from different backgrounds and ages. Women’s Political Leadership is the first of its type in the Bedouin sector and it located in Hura, where I live. I am the coordinator for this project and it is sponsored by Hura Municipality where those in power believed in the potential of women and their ability to lead and be part of decision making in the village. Our experience with Girl Rising is the spark for this initiative and which helped in arranging a long term course for women to be trained politically.