Gaza teacher beats the odds

Best Palestinian Teacher for 2017, was the title that math teacher from Gaza, Rana Ziyada, obtained in December of 2017. Rana, a 39-year-old and mother of four children, has been a teacher of high school for the past 13 years and it is the first time, she obtains such a title that came on top of a number of achievements.

 

Surrounded by her second-grade high school students at the Zahra high school for girls in the Shija'ya neighborhood, Rana was observing her students' mid-term math exams, looking cheerful and hopeful.

 

" Absolutely, I feel so proud of getting such a title, so proud because of the fact that Gaza's conditions are not that helpful. The moment I heard my name being announced by the contest's committee via  video conference from  the West Bank city of Albeira, my tears dropped out of happiness", Rana Ziyada, math teacher from Gaza, told the New Arab, commenting on her latest achievement at the level of the occupied Palestinian territories.

 

Previous achievements

 

As she now got the title of Best Palestinian Teacher for the year 2017, Rana has been working hard over the past several years, leaving some fingerprints throughout her teaching career.

 

" Actually, I have ever believed in creativity and the need to make any kind of development in the filed of teaching mathematics at our Palestinian schools. Back in 2014 and few months prior to the last Israeli war on Gaza, I thought of organizing an exhibition for mathematics, the first of it's type and it was such a risk for me. Through that exhibition, my students were able to present several mathematical theories by connecting them with real life situations and other fields of education. The theories were presented at the Abbas school in Shijaya neighborhood. The school itself was damaged during the 2014's war". Rana said at the Zahraa school for girls in eastern Gaza city.

 

The exhibition, held in 2014, was Rana's approach to more achievements, as the Palestinian Ministry of Education, rewarded her the Palestinian Award for Creativity, an Award presented by the Palestinian Prime Minister, back in 2015.

 

Her career

 

Rana's interest in education began many years ago, when she was a little child. " I spent almost half of my age in the Arab country of Algeria, where my father was himself a teacher. Every morning, I used to look up from my home's window into the nearby school, where my father was giving classes", Rana recalled for the New Arab.

 

Her dream to become a teacher was realized 13 years ago, when Rana joined the educational filed in Gaza, years after her family moved to the Gaza Strip, within the Oslo peace accords of 1993, signed between Israel and Palestinians.

 

" As a housewife and mother of four children, I have been able to well-manage my time. And I would thank my husband who has been very supportive to me, through ought nights and days of hard work. I used to spend many hours, communicating with my students and other students from the West Bank and even outside of Palestine, itself", Rana told the New Arab.

 

The title and web-quest.

 

Spending prolonged hours online was Rana's way to further engage her students in a useful learning process and this has been made possible by Web-quest, a technique that Rana has adopted for the past couple of years.

 

" During class room hours at the school, I face difficulties, using educational aids, run by electricity, due to prolonged power outages here. Hence, I began thinking of ways to make my explanations easier. I found out the web-quest through Google app. By designing the web-quest, I was able to enter all the data including related videos , math theories and exercises. My students and other students from outside of Gaza, have interacted via the web-quest page and a facebook group of my own", Rana explained to the New Arab.

 

She added that through online education, she managed to invite some math experts from the Palestinian territories, to some symposiums that were held at her school, via video conference.

 

" Once I invited Malaysian digital technology expert, Soon Seng Thah, for a viedo conference talk about digital technology applications, as he is considered to be a prominent expert of such technology, in his country. In another occasion, I invited a local Palestinian math expert from the city of Tulkarem ", Rana further noted for the New Arab.

 

Her students,

 

Her students at the Zahraa high school in eastern Gaza, told the New Arab that their teacher Rana has been able to teach them how to be creative and attentively involved in the learning process.

 

" In fact and without any complement, teacher Rana is an amazing teacher that has got us effectively involved in learning math. Her main quote to us is ' just begin solving exercises that look easy to you and try various ways of solving them'. Her web-quest technique has been a very useful means of both learning and communicating. We have not only been able to solve exercises, but also been able to interact with  people and culture of Palestine, outside of Gaza. You might be aware of the border closure that prevents us from visiting even our Palestinian towns and cities", Efaf Alzdoudy, a high-school student of teacher Rana Ziyada, told the New Arab.

 

 

Denied access,

 

The Palestinian Ministry of education told the New Arab that despite the fact that the ministry made all necessary measures and procedures with the Israeli side to permit Rana and two other Gaza-based competitors to attend the celebrity for Best Palestinian Teacher in the West Bank city of Albeira, Israeli authorities denied Rana and her colleagues access via the Eritz checkpoint in northern Gaza Strip, for no reason.

 

" First of all, let me please express our pleasure  that  Rana, from Gaza, got such an important title and that the Palestinian Minister of education, Dr. Sabri Seidam, was able to meet with Rana and other education staff at the Zahraa high school for girls in Gaza city. This comes following signing of a Palestinian unity deal in Cairo, last October. Actually, we are looking forward to more activities, in which Gaza is involved and we are planning to hold a summer camp for teachers from Gaza and the West Bank, to be held at the West Bank city of Jericho, this season. We hope that our Gaza staff will be able to enter via Israel-controlled border crossings", Sadeq Alkhedour, spokesperson for the Palestinian education ministry in the West Bank city of Ramallah, told the New Arab.

 

Recently, the Palestinian ministry of education has allowed 400 teachers on the PA's payroll back to their workplaces in Gaza, given a reconciliation deal between Hamas and Fatah, signed in Cairo last October.

 

According to the education ministry, Gaza's education sector now suffers from shortage of teaching and admin staff, some rehabilitation programs and some more new schools.  The ministry adds that there is currently a 100-school plan for constructing 100 schools, but this is pending approval.

 

Over the past 10 years of Israeli siege, many schools have been partially or completely damaged, because of frequent Israeli army attacks on Gaza.

 

"Also, I am pursuing my post-graduate studies, educational mathematics, at a local university in Gaza. What I am really hoping is that our Palestinian education sector  improves much for the best of our Palestinian students, irrespectively", Rana Ziyada, Gaza-based teacher and winner of the title , Best Palestinian Teacher for the year 2017, told the New Arab.