Nurturing that which nurtures us
Athl is an open access database of highly engaging, bilingual learning resources that center and celebrate the students and cultures that make up the SWANA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa).
Our Mission
Our mission is to enliven our classrooms with responsive and vibrant resources that engage our youth with learning about themselves and their communities. We hope this will spark connection, compassion, and ultimately, meaningful contributions to a collective future in which success and cultural sustenance go hand in hand.
Athl supplements the often exclusionary curricula of the region, leaving our students without any meaningful representation in their own classrooms largely due to a paucity of available resources. In response, our framework takes up the everyday familiar realities of our students in an effort to promote authentic academic engagement, include them as valued members of their own vibrant knowledge community, and to excite them about their futures.
Who are we?
Ranya
Ranya received her Master's in English in 2015 from Boston College. She received her Bachelor's of Education in 2017 in British Columbia where she taught grade 5 PYP for three years. Ranya is currently teaching grade 5 PYP at Dhahran Ahliya School in Saudi Arabia. She is passionate about environmental science, inquiring alongside young people and building relationships. An educator who inspires her is her mom, Rima, who cared for other's children as her own for more than a decade. Rima brought joy, dance, laughter and art into her classroom everyday.
Tala
Tala has a Bachelor's in Psychology and received her Masters in teaching in 2013 in Portland, Oregon. She has primarily been teaching kindergarten since 2014, and more recently second and third grade. She is passionate about ancestral wisdom, community building, storytelling and of course, teaching and learning. An educator who inspires her is her jiddo (grandfather), Abdulmohsen. He was one of the first primary school teachers in Al-Hufoof, Saudi Arabia despite his lack of formal education past elementary school.
Why Athl?
Tamarix aphylla, or Athl in Arabic, is important to us as a symbol of our commitment to a place-based approach.
Athl is a shrub or tree that is native to the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. It is very well adapted to the conditions here: tolerant of our salty and sandy soil, and with a remarkably deep root system, allowing it to flourish in the desert conditions. Athl has medicinal properties that have been harnessed for centuries. Its qualities reflect our ethos: we need not look outside of ourselves for wisdom, joy or resilience.
Featured this week
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Data
Learners explore the concept of a pattern and practice interpreting data.
Unit:AstronomyIncludes
Data lesson slides, Video of the rotation of the Earth, Astronomy unit vocabulary
Get in Touch
We'd love to hear from educators, parents and students. Tell us how you're using Athl in your classroom — or how we can help.
We aim to respond within a few working days.