Ammon News - Amman, (Petra)--Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah met with two teachers today who won the top prize in the category of "extended learning beyond the classroom" at the 8th Annual Microsoft Partners In Learning Global Forum, held in the Czech Republic capital Prague.

Her Majesty congratulated the teachers on their win and applauded their creativity and hard work that won them the prestigious honor.

Arabic teacher, Rania Obeidat and ICT teacher, Ghadeer Obeidat, work at the Hatem Secondary school in Bani Kenanah - Irbid. The teachers briefed Her Majesty about the competition and their experience, and the effects of their project on their students and the local community.

The two teachers competed with around 200 teachers (112 projects) representing more than 70 countries in one of the top competitions for innovative teachers in the world.

Their winning project, Glimmer of Hope, focuses on the importance of early detection of breast cancer. Students designed a survey and distributed it to women in their small village. The results revealed that many of the women were hesitant, shy and embarrassed to do the test.

Following the results, the teachers took their work beyond the classroom and into the community. Working in cooperation with the Al Hussein Cancer Center the teachers were trained on how to detect breast cancer, provided training to the women of the local community.

With the help of their teachers, the students took the initiative even further by having a free day for examining the women in their school every three months.

The Jordan Education Initiative (JEI) invited 150 public schools from all over the kingdom in January 2012 to participate in the local competition where 180 teachers received training on project design by the JEI team. Three projects made it to the regional competition which was held in Morocco in September and ‘Glimmer of Hope’ made it to the Global event enabling it to win the top prize in their category.

JEI worked closely with both teachers throughout the whole process, mentoring and coaching them during the design and delivery of the project.

The Jordan Education Initiative (JEI), which was launched in 2003, strives to spur education reform and drive innovation in the industry through equipping Jordan’s classrooms with computer technology and cutting edge curricula.