The STEM Teacher Community was established to enhance learning processes aimed at promoting academic, emotional and social excellence among Arab-Bedouin students in the Negev. The Teacher Community operates while keeping in mind the unique cultural and social background of the Arab-Bedouin society, as well as the opportunity and achievement gaps that exist relative to the general population.
The Teacher Community within the framework of Tamar Center, is a unique foundation for meeting the special needs arising from the pursuit of the promotion of excellence among Arab-Bedouin students.
Goals
- Establishing a sustainable learning community
- Instilling teachers with a feeling of belonging, professional ability and autonomy
- Inculcating teachers with a deep familiarity and understanding of the existing opportunity and achievement gaps in society
- Establishing a teaching model to promote academic, emotional and social excellence, that has undergone cultural adaption
· Study of culturally adapted teaching practicum
About the Program
The STEM Teacher Community is recognized by the Ministry of Education and entitles participating teachers to 30 accreditation points.
The STEM Teaching Community accompanies Tamar Center programs’ activities throughout the school year and provides teachers with a framework for joint learning, as well as provides the space for further and deeper examination and reflection of their daily activities.
Methods
“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” -Plato.
The program is based on the Joy of Learning theory and using experiential teaching and play as optimal motives for student development and promotion of spontaneous learning.
Students simply enjoy themselves, and have fun together while playing games and participating in activities that will encourage natural discourse and language use.
The sessions are organized so that all students are exposed to activities, songs, short texts and educational tasks that stimulate the natural desire to learn and discover. The aim is to provide students with the motivation to continue learning independently, in their own free time; to create the positive impact that will influence them to continue reading, listening to music, playing with friends and even creating videos in Hebrew. This all reverts back to one of the basic principles of the joy of learning: when students take pleasure in education, it is a natural motivator for independent learning and the awakening of the basic instinct of curiosity.
Students’ Testimonials
Ella Asa , Student
“When I started Tamar Center’s Talk It Out project, I was looking forward to the beginning of the school year to meet the students. Still, it meant meeting 13 new people, trying to get to”
“When I started Tamar Center’s Talk It Out project, I was looking forward to the beginning of the school year to meet the students. Still, it meant meeting 13 new people, trying to get to know them as much as possible, and also knowing that we will be going through the coming year together week after week, and that I’d be trying to be as good as possible [at teaching] for them. I soon remembered how much fun it is to be in touch with a bunch of smart and sweet individuals who just want to learn. [I realized that] I can talk to them about everything and challenge them. I look forward to our weekly conversations, to hearing about what happened to them over the past week and to learning something new together in an exciting engaging way. These conversations are very fun for me too, just as the students try to learn Hebrew, I also try to learn from them and improve my Arabic vocabulary with one or two new words. The zoom conversations always make me want to have many more conversations [with the students] in Hebrew,and I hope that I can meet everyone face to face already.”
Marim Alnsasra , Kuseife
“I’m participating in the Talk it Out program with a university student named Ella. In the first meeting of the program, I [surprisingly] felt very comfortable, even though I did not expect to feel so . ”
“I’m participating in the Talk it Out program with a university student named Ella. In the first meeting of the program, I [surprisingly] felt very comfortable, even though I did not expect to feel so carefree studying with a group of new students that I did not know and not knowing the instructor. Ella asked me if I would open the camera [in the zoom meeting] and I opened the camera without feeling self-conscious. She also asked me to talk about myself and my family, I openly explained about myself and had no problem sharing with everyone. Studying in this program is very relaxed and comfortable, the girls and I talked freely without feeling shy and we really got to know each other. “