At QFI, we create meaningful connections with the Arab world by creating a global community of diverse learners and educators and connecting them through effective and collaborative learning environments —inside and outside the classroom. Here are some of of our tools, resources, and grants that you can use to go global!
1. What Teachers Need to Know: The Middle East – podcast series
We worked with Primary Source on the creation of a series of educator podcasts focused on current issues and cultural topics in the Middle East titled, “What Teachers Need to Know: The Middle East”. Listen to episode one, "What and Where is the Middle East, Anyway?" here.
2. Teacher Professional Development Grants
QFI provides Teacher Professional Development Grants for K-12 educators in the social sciences/humanities and arts fields to participate in high-quality professional development events to enhance teachers' abilities to teach about the Arab world or Arab culture. Learn more and apply here.
3. Al-Masdar
QFI's Open Education Resource (OER) site, Al-Masdar, is the premier online source for Arabic language and Arab Culture teaching materials, opportunities, news and events relevant to teachers and students.
4. Tilemaker App
The QFI Mosaic Tilemaker App is a web-based application that introduces students to the fundamental concepts of Islamic art and architecture. Users are exposed to the historical background and the centrality of repeating geometric designs in the art and architecture of the Islamic world. Most importantly, students are able to design, save and share their own mosaics! Create your own tile here http://tilemaker.teachalmasdar.com/
5. Madar Al-Huruf
“Madar Al-Huruf” or “wheel of letters” in Arabic, is a free language tool that introduces users to the Arabic alphabet. Anyone who is unfamiliar with the Arabic alphabet can write his/her name by matching English letters and sounds to their Arabic phonetic counterparts. Due to the success and demand of the physical Arabic wheel, QFI developed it into a mobile app. The app can be downloaded on iTunes or on the Google Play Store here.
6. Classroom Resource Enrichment Grants (CREGs)
CREGs are supplemental grants that aim to provide Arabic teachers with much-needed teaching materials for their classrooms. Learn more and apply here.
7. Service Learning Resources in Arabic
In partnership with the National Youth Leadership Council, QFI supported the translation of important service-learning resources into Arabic. including the K-12 Service-Learning Standards for Quality Practice.
The complete set of resources, available here, includes worksheets, tip sheets, and information — which together form the core of what any student or educator needs to begin executing meaningful service-learning projects.
8. Resource Kits
QFI's Arab World Elementary and Middle School Resource Kits provide teachers and students an introductory background to the history and geography of the Arab world and the basics of the Arabic language. These kits also provide Common Core standards-aligned lesson plans in Mathematics and English Language Arts which teachers can use as stand-alone activities or integrate into their existing curriculum.
9. Arabic Yoga
Arabic Yoga is a class that utilizes yoga poses to teach Arabic words taught in the first Arabic dual-immersion program in Texas, Arabic Immersion Magnet School (AIMS) - a QFI sponsored program.
We worked with AIMS to develop a lesson plan and video demonstrating a fun way to learn the language.
10. Arabic Honor Society
The Arabic Honor Society fosters and supports student engagement in Arabic language study at the high school level, and offers students a pathway to college and their future careers. This includes financial awards to support participation in summer study, study abroad, and college tuition. Learn more here.
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