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.
The conference marked the first effort of TGR EDU: Global, our latest initiative launched to expand our programs beyond the United States. The CEESA conference allowed us to travel overseas to discuss the current state of education on an international scale, explore various opportunities for involvement and add our voice to issues that impact students around the world.
Founded as a result of the growth of international and American schools in Central and Eastern Europe, CEESA is supported through the Office of Overseas Schools (OOS) under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State. Not only do they ensure that U.S. families overseas are provided with a high-quality education, they represent some of the most robust learning opportunities for educators and students.
Through multiple speaking sessions, TGR Foundation representatives brought strategies to inspire inquiry and innovation among the educators in attendance. Moreover, the presentations aimed to ignite action among leadership, encourage partnerships and identify models for teaching and learning that eliminate obstacles preventing students from reaching their full potential.
However, the highlights of the week came from several meetings, often developed organically, with leaders from CEESA, individual school principals, teachers from a variety of schools and foreign educators who are working alongside OOS. It was inspiring to learn about efforts to leverage virtual and augmented reality from the International School in Istanbul Turkey, to learn about new ways to select and measure technology integration through the work of Sonny Magana, author of Disruptive Classroom Technologies and explore networking opportunities that could lead TGR Foundation in its quest to empower young people to pursue their passions through education.
While our classrooms sit in different corners of the world, what’s clear is that our goal as educators is in sync. We all believe wholeheartedly that quality education allows us to dream of a world where opportunity is universal and potential is limitless.
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