It seems that the further we get into the 21st century, the challenges that educators face seem to grow harder to overcome: Thorny issues continue to emerge, leaving educators with few options that will appease all parties; limited resources increasingly frustrate their ability to offer comprehensive and quality education; advances in technology as well as the evolving interests of students themselves constantly require that educators adopt new skill sets; all the while, these same educators need to find novel ways to motivate their students, spark their curiosity and keep them interested in essential topics.

Rearden Educational understands these difficulties well, and with years of consulting experience in education as well as its solid grasp of the values, traditions, mindset and customs of the region, its team is ideally positioned to meet these challenges head on. And true to form, Rearden took those challenges by the horns, in line with its primary mission which is to advance education in the Middle East region.

Enter TeachME 2009, a first-of-its-kind convention whose aim, rather than to enrich the organizers, create networking opportunities for the participants or promote a new product, was in fact geared toward helping academic institutions and educators overcome a great many of the hurdles and conundrums they face.

This help came in the form of the speakers and presenters at TeachME 2009, the true champions of the conference, which was held at the Media Rotana Hotel in Al-Barsha, Dubai, on January 14-15 under the patronage of the UAE Ministry of Education. These heavyweights in education from around the globe gathered in Dubai and took on the task of knocking these barriers down one after another through their keen insight, inspiring teaching strategies and the pearls of wisdom they shared with the participants.

The speakers, which included established names such as Stephen R. Sroka, the keynote speaker for TeacheMe 2009, Anthony Cody, Kate

Shuster, Trae Stewart, Alison Schofield, Kay Allen, Glen O-Grady, and Peter Pappas as well as regional experts including Kamel Salim Dallal, Adel al-Dabaa, Hanadi Dayyeh and Sultan Nasr el-Dine to name but a few, expertly put their fingers on the core of the problems and offered unique insights on best practices to handle seemingly insurmountable dilemmas with ease.

The convention featured a series of talks and workshops in English, French and Arabic addressing a diverse range of topics, including the power of one to make a difference (Sroka), essential debating skills (Shuster), inclusive educational programs (Schofield), parental involvement in education (Allen), enabling innovation in education (O’Grady), podcasting in the classroom (Stewart) as well as many other topics of equal caliber.

Over a period of two days, participants, which included representatives of various public and private schools, international schools and ministries from various countries, were presented with no fewer than 60 different talks and workshops running simultaneously in seven different halls. And quite a few were interactive and illuminating, such as a live debate between two opposing student teams which explored the pros and cons of making teachers’ records public, a touchy subject if ever there was one.

But more importantly, the nature of the conference itself was a landmark in education workshops. TeachME 2009 sought to shatter the traditional mindset that educators were accustomed to, namely attending a linear event. For the first time in a conference on education in the region, participants were able to select subjects of interest to them from the array of talks being presented at any one time over the course of the conference.

Furthermore, while the subjects being addressed were all issues of concern to today’s educators, and presented by experts in the respective fields, TeachME 2009 sought to create a platform where educators from the region could explore strategies to adapt these insights so that they would conform to the Middle Eastern culture, thereby becoming far more effective tools in conquering barriers or bridging divides between educator and student.

TeachME 2009 also pulled off the unprecedented accomplishment of gathering a number of school operators around the same table, providing an opportunity for these organizations to compare notes on their early childhood education programs, the level of technology introduced into their schools, their focus on the quality of teachers they employ, as well as to share ideas and acknowledge their shortcomings and failures, all under the watchful eyes of the audience.

For the most part, and in the opinions of participants themselves, the Rearden team excelled in organizing this monumental event, the first in what will surely become a series of conferences that nudge the education sector in the Middle East until it reaches the forefront of the field in a global context, and hopefully joins the ranks of pioneers in education methods.

But while the Rearden team hit this one out of the ballpark, and they certainly deserve a hearty pat on the back for a job well done, there’s certainly some room for improvement. As a magazine that prides itself in being brutally honest in its criticism of other organizations, we would be culpable were we to turn a blind eye to our own team’s shortcomings.

While the speakers were flawless in the execution of their respective presentations, the organizers’ achievement was just shy of perfect. The taxing endeavor could have been far smoother with tasks being addressed further in advance, and speakers and attendees being provided with crucial information in a more timely manner, and attendees having access to more facilities.

But as a rule, conventions such as this have a habit of throwing the unexpected at you even after you take every conceivable precaution, and in hindsight, the Rearden team’s ability to handle these unforeseen challenges are a further testimony to their proficiency. Yes the convention could have done better.

But that’s okay because, after all, the TeachME concept is geared toward gleaning insight into education, and if the very organization of the conference becomes a learning experience for us, then Rearden is the better for it, and more importantly, better prepared to offer its loyal participants a superior event next time around.