A look at Khanya and ICT in schools with Kobus van Wyk

I’m privileged to have known Kobus van Wyk, former director of the Khanya Special Project, for a number of years. The Khanya Project has been by far the most successful project of it’s kind in South Africa, overshadowing anything other education departments have attempted. The project, which is coming to an end in March 2012, [...]

Social Media in the classroom?

I can still remember being a part of what is now called the “backchannel” of the school classroom. Like everyone else, I passed notes to my friends and snickered rebelliously when the teacher wasn’t looking. Today, the “backchannel” consists of texting, Tweeting and uploading to Facebook pages.

Why not hold a TeachMeet in your area?

I can hear you asking, “A TeachMeet? What is that?” I asked the same question before attending the Partners in Learning Institute in July 2011. Baldev Singh, one of our presenters, who is a founder of http://imagineeducation.org in the UK introduced the idea to us. He said this informal type of professional development is starting [...]

The importance of failure

Yesterday evening I went to my twelve year old son’s parent evening. Not a single teacher had anything negative to say about his progress. He is bright, working hard and achieving an A aggregate. He received a wonderful report, and I should have been very happy, but I wasn’t.

Learning to Change – Changing to Learn

This video motivates the need for a re-evaluation of the classroom for an ever changing learner. We have a responsibility to really look at how we might make learning more inspiring, more related to what learners already know and more related to what they are interested in.

The BEST Teacher Ever!

There’s a story from many years ago of a primary school teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson and as she stood in front of her fifth grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said she loved them all the same. But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.

Jigsaws – Quick Ideas for Developing Spatial Literacy

Teach your learners to do jigsaw puzzles of varying complexities from an early age especially if learners come from homes, backgrounds or cultures that do not have access to pastimes like this. WHY? This month’s theme was connections. Jigsaws are all about connections, from placing the pieces correctly to make the picture, to connecting hand-eye [...]

Quick Ideas for Developing Spatial Literacy – Latitude and Longitude Battleships Game

Here’s a great idea for using the classic Battleships game in a different way. Ideal for early adolescents. Ships are placed on intersecting points which are identified by latitude and longitude coordinates, and not in the squares. This game is good for teaching them the correct way to say coordinates, and with a bit of [...]

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