By Hamna Aamir | Senior Associate, Development & Partnerships
Dear partner,
We hope you are well and Ramadan Mubarak! As the month of blessings is upon us, we at Teach For Pakistan are grateful for the opportunity to reminisce over your immeasurable support that allows our Fellows and students to reach for the stars. In the last few months, your Zakat has supported 155+ Fellows and their 10,000+ students in their leadership journeys and towards creating exceptional classrooms. Our second-year Fellows are also on their way to concluding their Fellowship journeys and joining our 215-strong Alumni network to work towards educational equity across the country! Teach For Pakistan has been actively recruiting Pakistan's top-talent for our next Fellowship cohort, and we're excited to take you on our journey over the next few months, particularly as we prepare to expand to and place Fellows in both Islamabad and Karachi in August 2024!
In other exciting news: Teach For Pakistan's 2024 Zakat Campaign is now live! This year, your Zakat will enable our Fellows to teach 12,000 students in 80 public schools in under-served communities across Islamabad and Karachi. Our Fellows teach not only to improve our students academic outcomes, but also to nurture the skills they need to become exceptional leaders to lead their communities and the country to a brighter future.
Following is a glimpse into some of the many ways your contributions facilitate transformational classrooms and aspiring leaders:
Disruption to Harmony: Leveraging gratitude for student success
First-year Fellow Shahrina teaches Science and Math to 4th grade boys at a public school in Sihala. When she started teaching her students, she was alarmed by what she found - students would act insensitively towards one another and be inconsiderate of each others needs. This worried her not only because students were being disruptive, but also because it created a hostile classroom environment, whereas she had envisioned her classroom to be a safe space for students.
To solve for this, she decided to adopt a practice where her students could learn the importance of appreciating those around you- Positive Posts. Shahrina decided to implement this in her classroom and was facilitated by your contributions through which she purchased the materials needed to make this possible. She initially found the boys struggling with expressing their thoughts, but soon saw a remarkable shift in their behaviour. Her students now had a platform to understand what they meant to one another but also in creating spaces for them to express themselves emotionally. The students' behavior became less disruptive and they channeled their energies into their academic growth, thereby also improving their learning levels.
Your support contributed to a shift in Shahrina's students and classroom culture, and most importantly, gave Shahrina the opportunity to tackle challenges with innovative solutions.
Classroom Stars: Catalyst for change
When Fellow Hafiza Iqra began teaching her fourth graders, she was concerned with what she came across - disruptive behaviour, difficulty in following instructions, and arguments among students that lent to an overall unfavourable learning environment. She set out to create a positive classroom culture that would be conducive to learning and student outcomes.
Iqra created a comprehensive classroom management system that relied heavily on collaboration and teamwork. Her system leveraged reinforcements and rewards for positive behavior - Iqra began identifying 'Star Students' who exemplified outstanding behavior and showcased the spirit of teamwork and collaboration, and rewarded them with medals, tags, and certificates. Iqra soon saw that her students were working together and attempting to strive for excellence in the pursuit as well as adjusting the ways in which they interacted with each other!
While Iqra's students learned the importance of working in collaboration, Iqra was able to bring her classroom vision to life.
Fostering Joy and a Love of Learning
First-year Fellow Nirmal teaches English, History, and Geography to 6th graders at a public school in Nilore. When she first began teaching, she quickly realized that many of her students operated with a fear of punishment. Nirmal's vision for her classroom was for learning to spark joy and to foster active engagement and learning. To work towards both outcomes, Nirmal first introduced the concept of 'Star Students'- she would pick a student and observe whether they adhered to classroom norms and completed their work. If so, she rewarded them either with stationery or medals! The prospect of being a Star Student motivated Nirmal's students to not only exhibit their best behavior, but also in putting their best foot forward in their learning. Her students slowly but surely developed a love for learning, without fear or concern of being punished.
Nirmal also designed and printed interactive worksheets that reinforced lesson materials. They included activities such as crossword puzzles, jumbled up words, matching categories and comprehensions to these worksheets focused on improving students' literacy. When handing them out to her students, she could see their excitement at learning something new. She noticed that her students began to demonstrate a greater command over the language and felt confident enough to use English words and phrases in the classroom, something she had not seen before.
Through your support, Nirmal made sure to stop at nothing to achieve her classroom vision, and her students were able to inculcate in themselves both a love and responsibility for learning.
Give your Zakat today.
Support other Fellows like Shahrina, Iqra, and Nirmal in providing exceptional learning opportunities to their 12,000 students and play your part in enabling the educational leaders of today build a brighter future for tomorrow.
Donate now and double your impact. All donations will be matched 100%.
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