Kaz Akbar set up a full-day Montessori program & camps at all times regular schools are on holiday, including Christmas, March break and the summer, in addition to after-school and weekend programs throughout the year. Kaz Akbar developed his ideas for MindTech while observing the challenges of teaching technology in the public school system.

1. Kaz Akbar: From Training theKaz Akbar: From Training the
Future Wizards of TechnologyFuture Wizards of Technology
to Well-rounded Privateto Well-rounded Private
Montessori SchoolsMontessori Schools

2. A top the list of all the things the public
school system was hard-pressed to
provide in the past, up-to-date teaching
in technology was glaring earlier in the
decade. Keeping up with changing
equipment demands and necessary
teacher training has been a rearguard
action the past several years in the
schools, a flailing effort to stay abreast
of a computerized society that keeps
whizzing ahead.

3. Kaz Akbar, former school teacher in the
Greater Toronto Area is among those
who started his own summer camps and
after-school programs to address the
need. In the late 1990's, Kaz Akbar left
the public school system where he also
taught computers to become director of
MindTech Schools, which combine
academic and technology learning.

4. Kaz Akbar set up a full-day Montessori
program by day and then camps at all
times regular schools are on holiday,
including Christmas, March break and
the summer, in addition to after-school
and weekend programs throughout the
year. Kaz Akbar developed his ideas for
MindTech while observing the
challenges of teaching technology in
the public school system.

5. "You've got a huge generation gap in
the teaching staff," Akbar observes.
"There's a whole new surge of teachers
coming into the system who are very
enthusiastic about using the technology
and you've got an older generation of
teachers that are almost phobic about
it."

6. Kaz Akbar notes that sectors ranging
from robotics, telecommunications and
space travel to Internet use, graphics
and animation are being transformed
and are becoming so increasingly
expensive to afford that kids are going
to have a struggle to pick up the
required basic skills during their school
years or through the public education
system.

7. "We know that the kids are starving for
this kind of learning," says Akbar, whose
MindTech incorporates a full-day
Montessori school during the academic
year for families who want it, along with
after-school programs and summer
camp. "The whole idea is really to get
them started in the summer and then
continue with the after-school program,"
he adds. "Those children that attend our
regular day school will benefit
tremendously throughout the year."

8. Now, with three locations in Markham,
Ontario, MindTech offers summer day
camp on a week-by-week basis, with
such activities as sports, nature walks
and music lessons added to the
academic and technology learning.
Programs are half and full days, for
kids from pre-school ages to 12.

9. Kaz Akbar insured that as kids
progressed to using some of the more
sophisticated multimedia courseware,
programs included such areas as
biomedical technologies, space
technologies, flight technologies and
simulators, computer-aided publishing,
electronic communications, graphics
and animation and Web page design.
"Both in areas of Montessori and
Technology, the kids are teaching a lot
of the curriculum to themselves and we
find they are really able to handle the
material," says Akbar.

10. Summer camp may not be a phrase that
immediately conjures up robotics and
computer-aided design in the minds of
most parents. But Kaz Akbar found that
kids actually have as much fun learning
about these as they do kicking a ball.
Enhancing the educational development
of their kids makes the fun particularly
valuable to the parents.

11. THANK YOUTHANK YOU