Resources
Mona Ewees Mkumatela
Workshop
Using Technology to Differentiate: Identifying Students Unique Learning Styles and Analysing Academic Data to Guide Instruction
In this hands-on workshop geared towards Grade R-7 teachers, participants will learn how to use tablets to ensure all learners are reaching their full potential.  Often, students fall behind and it can have detrimental effects on their emotional and academic growth.  Similarly, students who are not challenged can become distracting to others. To address the needs of all students, we will first be analysing formal and informal academic data that can guide instruction. Then we will be using Maths and Language apps to create CAPS aligned lessons using varied approaches to reach all learners. You will walk away with many differentiation methods, including a differentiated lesson plan, to take back to your school  for immediate results.

 

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 has spent her time in primary school classrooms in public, private and charter schools.


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 be the founding principal of SPARK Cresta, 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 underprivileged schools. At the Breteau Foundation, Mona is responsible for teacher training and classroom technology implementation in the South African schools and overall programme management.  In the last four years, Mona has expanded the South African project from a two-school pilot, to an ever-growing programme serving 16+ primary schools in rural and urban township areas. Mona is honoured to put her passion into this global technology initiative that currently reaches nearly 7000 students and 200+ teachers.