NEWS RELEASE                                   August 3, 2007     

Lt. Governor Owen praises five Washington state
teachers off to Jordan for exchange program

Follow their joint adventures by Web log (Blog)

Or one teacher's experiences at: http://kev-injordan.blogspot.com/

Lt. Governor Owen, center, with teachers from Jordan and Washington state participating in the Jordan Education Trust Fellowship/UW College of Education exchange program.  In the front row, from left, are Maha Harbi Abdelaziz Alshakhshir; Mawiyah Khazer Khalil Alhalasa; Owen; Mimi Heggelund; Abeer Abdel Jabbar Ali Al Hamad; Antonio Sanchez of the lieutenant governor's staff and Sanaa Mustafa Dawoud Al Reiahy. In the back row are Zeta Strickland, professional development educator from the Pacific Science Center; Vivek Srivastava, Michelle Luders and Marvice Thornton, all teachers in the Renton School District; Kevin Gallagher and Tina Anima with the Seattle School District; Jim Zimmerman, Hanan Abdalla Eid and Geda Condit of the Jordan Education Trust Fellowship.

OLYMPIA -- Lt. Gov. Brad Owen is expressing his congratulations and good wishes to a group of five distinguished Puget Sound area teachers who depart today (Friday, Aug. 3) for Jordan. The teachers are participating in an exchange program created by the Jordan Education Trust Fellowship in partnership with the College of Education at the University of Washington.

 “I know these five outstanding teachers will represent our state and our country well,” said the lieutenant governor, who became familiar with the exchange during their recent tour of the State Capitol and visited with the group in Seattle.  “They will also bring back much to share about Jordan to their students and respective communities.”

The five, selected by the University of Washington’s College of Education for their effective teaching skills, will reunite with five Jordanian teachers awarded Queen Rania of Jordan’s Excellence in Education Award. The Jordanian teachers visited the state for three weeks in July. 

Washington state teachers participating include Tina Anima at McClure Middle School in Seattle; Kevin Gallagher at Bryant Elementary in Seattle; Michelle Luders of Kennydale Elementary in Renton; Vivek Srivastava of Kennydale Elementary in Renton; and Marvice Thornton is at Dimmit Middle School in Renton.

To be selected for the exchange, the teachers went through several rounds of interviews and classroom observations of their teaching and were based on their teaching effectiveness, community involvement, parent involvement and innovative teaching strategies, according to Dr. Mimi Mimi Heggelund, with the Jordan Education Trust Fellowship, and Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education at the UW.

While in Amman, Jordan the teachers will make official visits with the Ministry of Education, the mayor of Amman, representatives from the Queen’s awards office and other stops. They will visit the five schools of the Jordanian teachers where the group of 10 will share their learnings, talk about their experiences and teach some of the new instructional strategies they have learned, Heggelund said.

The Jordan Education Trust was established by Geda and Phil Condit, former chairman and CEO of the Boeing Corporation. The trust has established a partnership with the UW designed to strengthen global understanding and citizenship.

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For more information contact:

Mimi Heggelund, Jordan Education Trust Fellowship, and Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education  (206) 221-3431 or mimih@u.washington.edu

Office of the Lt. Governor: Brian Dirks (360) 786-7707 or dirks.brian@leg.wa.gov