Mona Ewees

Bio

Mona has been a teacher and school principal for the first 14 years of her career working both in the primary school and high school context in the United States and South Africa. After being awarded a Masters degree in Education, Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Tech, she began working in a public school outside Richmond, Virginia. A move to Chicago offered her an opportunity to work with urban students and she taught 5th grade Math for a number of years at KIPP:Ascend in Chicago's West Side.

During her years as a math teacher Mona continued to improve her practice and in 2009 achieved United States National Board Certification. This was the same year Mona was accepted to be a Teacher Fellow with Teach With Africa, a teacher exchange programme between America and South Africa. This opportunity turned out to be life-changing, literally. During the two-month placement, Mona made a decision to accept a position as Instructional Specialist and eventually Principal at LEAP Science and Maths School, her TWA placement school, in Cape Town, South Africa. Working with township youth in South Africa ignited even more of a passion in her that every single child in the world deserves great opportunities. After seeing first-hand the outcomes of educational disparity on high schoolers, Mona shifted her focus to primary education and moved to Johannesburg to found SPARK Cresta primary school, the second school in the SPARK blended-learning network.

Mona currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa and works for The Breteau Foundation, an organisation that provides tablets and teacher training to under-privileged schools. At the Breteau Foundation, Mona is responsible for teacher training and classroom technology implementation in the South African schools and she is the lead teacher trainer for the five countries Breteau Foundation serves. Mona is honoured to put her passion into a technology initiative that currently reaches 7500 students.

“Every child deserves a champion — an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”
-Rita Pierson

Workshops

Purposeful planning to integrate technology and your daily CAPS objectives

In this hands-on workshop, teachers will explore games and apps on tablets that will allow them to create engaging lesson plans for their students. We will learn how to deliberately link technology fun with the CAPS objectives we are expected to teach in our classrooms. Little to no technology experience is required and the games reach across all subject areas so any teacher (and therefore all students) can benefit. Take these strategies back to your classroom tomorrow and watch your learners grow!