Greetings!
I am pleased to share with you various activities that have taken place over the past two months, and our plans for the coming year.
Salute to Special Education Teachers and Their Students
To mark its 10th anniversary, the Athena Fund will hold a salute to special education teachers, kindergarten teachers and their students with special needs. The event will include a performance of A Chorus Line, the smash hit that ran on Broadway for 15 years and set a world record for number of shows.
The musical will be performed for the first time in Hebrew, with all of the great songs and the amazing choreography, directed by Tzadi Tzarfati and starring Maya Dagan, Dana Frieder, Yechezkel Lazarov and 30 actors and musicians.
The event will take place at the Cameri Theater, Tel Aviv, on Wednesday, 23 May at 20:00. Reception will begin at 19:15.Tickets for the benefit are available for a donation of NIS 1,000 (VIP), NIS 600 (Gold) or NIS 300 (Silver). Please contact Daphna Tamir: daphna@athenafund.org
All proceeds from the sale of tickets and sponsorships will go to support the Athena Fund’s activity to provide iPads and training for special education teachers, to advance their students with special needs.Your generosity in helping to support this effort will enable us to continue empowering Israel's special education teachers and giving their students an opportunity for learning, communication and future employment. I would appreciate if you would spread the word among your friends and relatives, and ask them to join the effort.
If you cannot attend the event but would like to make a donation, please click here
EduTech 2018
On 12 March the Athena Fund, together with People and Computers, held the EduTech 2018 Conference and Exhibition about ICT in Education. The conference theme was the future school, and experts from Israel and abroad came to offer their insights. The conference addressed technological developments that change the way students learn in schools. It included a display of solutions by leading Israeli companies that help schools implement the innovative systems, for the benefit of both student and teacher.
The conference opened with greetings from Yaffa Ben-David – Secretary General of the Israel Teachers Union, Jacob Shuri – CEO of Bank Massad, Roni Dayan – Director of the Information Technology Department at the Ministry of Education, and Adv. Ravit Dom – CEO of Amal Group.
Uri Ben-Ari, President and Founder of the Athena Fund, delivered the opening lecture. He spoke about technology as changing pedagogy and the need implement advanced technologies in the world of education. Among other things, Ben-Ari addressed the changing labor market, noting that 50% of professions will disappear within a decade (tens of millions of jobs). He noted that innovative learning environments are being currently being developed that use advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality.
 | Jukka Tulivuori, a counselor at Finland's National Education Agency (right), Prof. Guoli Liang of the University of Wisconsin in the US, who also serves as Executive Director of China's National Elementary and Secondary Alliance (fourth from the right) and Prof. Esther Insa Calderon of the University of Barcelona (sixth from the right) with Athena Fund’s managers |
Prof. Guoli Liang of the University of Wisconsin in the US, who also serves as Executive Director of China's National Elementary and Secondary Alliance, talked about future schools. Prof. Liang is considered one of the world's leading experts in education, and the Chinese government has asked him to lead the development of the third-generation model of schools, or as Professor Liang calls it – School 3.0.
 | Prof. Guoli Liang of the University of Wisconsin in the US, who also serves as Executive Director of China's National Elementary and Secondary Alliance |
Another lecturer was Mr. Jukka Tulivuori, a counselor at Finland's National Education Agency. Finland is considered one of the most advanced countries in the world in education. The National Agency for Education deals with implementation of national education policy, preparation of national core programs, development of education and teaching staff, and the provision of services to the education sector. Among other things, the agency promotes programs for international cooperation in the field of education. Tulivuori discussed Finland's success in creating and promoting a high quality education system.
 | Jukka Tulivuori, a counselor at Finland's National Education Agency |
Merav Horev, Deputy Director of Headquarters for the National Israel Initiative at the Ministry for Social Equality, presented Campus – the National Initiative for Digital Learning. Campus is an open digital platform that enables all Israeli citizens to connect to a personalized learning experience by the best lecturers in their fields.
The conference included a special panel of mothers who succeeded in communicating with their children with special needs through an iPad, after many years without communication. Hagit Ron Rabinowitz, a journalist and a senior lecturer in the field of autism, and herself a mother of a child with special needs, led the panel. She was accompanied by Karen Man-Levy, mother of a child with special needs, Rina Cohen – National ICT Instructor in Special Education at the Ministry of Education, Orly Leifer – Principal of Shikmim Special Education School in Rishon Letzion, and Kinneret Hanani Yehudai, mother of a child with special needs. Two teens with special needs also attended the panel, and one of them demonstrated how he operates a robot that he programmed. All of the panel participants praised the Athena Fund's contribution to special education.
 | A special panel of mothers who succeeded in communicating with their children with special needs through an iPad, after many years without communication. Two teens with special needs also attended the panel, and one of them demonstrated how he operates a robot that he programmed. |
Another panel included principals of innovative and special schools. The panel dealt with innovative learning environments, adapting schools to the modern age and using advanced technologies in schools. Among other things, the panel discussed "M21 Spaces" – the Ministry of Education's moves to characterize and plan educational institutions according to 21st century needs. As part of these processes, a program was created in cooperation with the Pedagogical Administration and the Teaching Staff Administration to promote innovative learning spaces for teachers who lead innovative pedagogy. The panel was attended by Miki Arian Kadaria – Coordinator of Planning and Design of Learning Spaces at the Ministry of Education, Gennady Kamnetzky – Deputy Director of the Development Administration and Senior Director of the Division of Mapping and Planning of Educational Institutions at the Ministry of Education, Eli Peretz – Principal of Mevo'ot Negev School, Max Sivan – Principal of Amal Shevah Mofet School, Keren Raz-Netzer – Principal of Meitar High School in Ganei Tikva, and Dror Aloni – Head of the Kfar Shmaryahu Local Council. The panel moderator was Yehuda Konfortes, Editor-in-Chief of People and Computers.
A special session dealt with advanced technologies implemented in the field of education. Liron Zuckerman-Kanaan, founding partner of Edge Marketing Technologies and a virtual reality and augmented reality expert, discussed the future of virtual reality in the education system. Prof. Esther Insa Calderon of the University of Barcelona introduced a virtual reality system for science studies (the human body). Chen Lev, one of the founders of StoryBot, presented a game console without screen based on sound and motion.
 | Liron Zuckerman-Kanaan (left), founding partner of Edge Marketing Technologies and a virtual reality and augmented reality expert, discussed the future of virtual reality in education. Prof. Esther Insa Calderon of the University of Barcelona introduced a virtual reality system for science studies |
The conference concluded with a lecture by Adv. Ravit Dom, CEO of the Amal Group, on the future school in the new global world.
Distribution of computers in January-February
In the past two months, the Athena Fund distributed over 440 mobile computers of various types to teachers across Israel:
iPads were distributed to school and kindergarten teachers in Be'er Ya'akov, Efrat, Bat Yam, the Golan Regional Council, Daliat al-Carmel, Sderot and Um el-Fahm, as part of the iPad for Every Special Education Teacher program.
 | Special education teachers with their iPads |
English teachers in Lod and Ramle received mobile computers as part of the "Laptop for Every English Teacher program".
The teachers of ORT Technological Education Center – Bet She'an and teachers of Mizpe Hayamim elementry school in Ashkelon received laptops as part of the "Laptop Computer for Every Teacher program".
All teachers will also receive 120 hours of professional training.
In the 2018-2019 school year, we will provide iPads to 3,000 school and kindergarten teachers as part of the iPad for Every Special Teacher program, and laptops to about 1,000 teachers as part of the Laptop Computer for Every Teacher program, in over 30 local authorities nationwide.
The Athena Fund's programs have become a success story, and today more than 18,000 teachers in 1,430 schools and kindergartens in 127 local authorities and over 400,000 students have benefited from improvement in the level of studies. An additional 60 cities and regional councils are waiting for donations, in order to introduce the program into their schools and empower teachers.
New program – Laptop for Every English Teacher in Israel
The Athena Fund has launched a new program – Laptop for Every English Teacher in Israel – in which English teachers in Israel will receive laptops and 120 hours of professional training. The new program aims to distribute 13,000 laptops in the coming years.
The first English teachers to receive laptops are in the cities of Lod and Ramla.
Mastery of English at a good level, especially in the Internet era and in the global environment in which we live, is a basic condition for integrating into many professions in the labor market, and for daily conduct in various fields. Providing English teachers with laptops and professional training will enable them to improve teaching of the language, use various visual and audio aids, prepare lesson plans, and find a wide range of teaching materials on the Internet. This will enable them to provide their students with the knowledge and proficiency in the language necessary for their success in later life.
The program is being implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Education’s chief inspector for English Language Education – Dr. Tziona Levi, and Roni Dayan – director of the Information Technology Division. The distribution of laptops to English teachers in Lod and Ramla is made possible thanks to the contribution of the Athena Fund and the Wolfson Foundation, and with the close partnership of the Israel Teachers Union's Professional Advancement Fund, Bank Massad, the Ministry of Education and the local authorities where the computers are being distributed.
 | Teachers with their new laptops
| Follow-on Programs
We are working on preparing additional programs to empower teachers, including a program to provide laptops to math teachers and one to provide tablets to teachers on agricultural farms. These efforts are being made in cooperation with the chief inspector of Mathematics Studies, the chief inspector of Agriculture and the Environment, and the Science and Technology Administration at the Ministry of Education. As always, these initiatives are being undertaken together with our strategic partners at the Israel Teachers Union and Bank Massad.
Please share this update with anyone who might be interested in participating in the Laptop Computer for Every Teacher in Israel program, such as mayors, managers and directors of education departments, school principals and teachers, as well as donors, volunteers and others who would like to help us and contribute to the program’s continued success.
If you would like to donate to empower teachers in Israel, please click on this link.
If you would like to join the Athena Fund fan page on Facebook please click on this link.
Uri Ben-Ari,
President and Founder
The Athena Fund
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