Holy Cross Primary in Cape Town is a school without a playground.

The school has 600 learners and a staff of 16, as well as about 6,000 square-metres of unusable land in front of the school. The biggest problem is that the land is littered with rubble, glass and rubbish. There remains little other space for the children to use, and as a result, they spend their lunch breaks playing in the road.

Quirk, a digital marketing and branding agency, is located metres away from Holy Cross and decided to bring the learners a little 2012 cheer on their return to school this year.

“Think back to your school years, and imagine that at every lunch break you would have to file out into the street for a bit of R&R. Not an ideal thought, is it?” wrote Marc Coppin of Quirk on the company’s blog.

As it turns out, Quirk wasn’t the first to notice this situation, and there have been many attempts at cleaning the field. Unfortunately, that particular piece of land is tied up in political red tape, with the presence of land claim rights halting any attempts at improvement.

‘Well, bugger that’, said Quirk Cape Town, collectively, ‘we’ll do something about it, anyway.’

And so they did. More than 100 employees of Quirk made their way down to the field in December 2011, armed with black bags, steel rakes and garden gloves. During the course of the day they managed to clear almost four tons of rubble and have planted and fertilised grass across the field in an attempt to restore it to a condition that is suitable for children.

If more local businesses volunteered just a tiny amount of time and resources to a nearby school, we’d see a very different mindset emerge on businesses supporting education in South Africa. We can’t keep ignoring the poor state of our schools for much longer. My hope is that South African business will support education in a bigger and more hands-on way, much like the caring people at Quirk. You never know – in a few years you might just be employing a child from one of those schools … so make their education count.

Thank you Quirk!

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. His older brother is exactly the same, and I’m not happy. When I was at school my reports were equally glowing, and that’s the problem. I was also a Lazy A student. I sailed effortlessly through school and University, and I’m not complaining. But the problem is that I never amounted to anything. Not really. I became a teacher, and I hope that my students think I am a good teacher, but for someone who was top of the class all through school, I have never really amounted to anything. And that’s the problem.

All the research indicates that all over the world, Lazy A students are not amounting to anything. They do alright: of course they do. But they don’t go on to achieve what they ought to be achieving, and that amounts to a massive loss for our society.

If it’s all too easy, and you never get to push yourself, you don’t go on to achieve what you are capable of achieving, and often the really high flyers come from the ranks of those who have had to overcome some adversity, who have learned from the hurdles they had to overcome, who have learned how to succeed because it wasn’t just plain sailing all the way. It seems that what people really need in life to help them become successful is a good dose of failure along the way.

Winston Churchill is the archetypal example. His life was one long catalogue of failure preparing him for success! Increasingly our society is coming to understand the necessity of failure. In the corporate world companies prefer to hire employees who have been blooded by working for companies that have failed than those who have only ever known the blissful ignorance of success. Increasingly in Education, too, we have begun to recognize that we are doing our students a disservice if we make it too easy for them.

I’ve been mulling over what to do with my Lazy A students, the ones I teach as well as my sons. My eldest son is in high school now, and writing exams. My wife kept catching him on the computer, playing games instead of studying. He has his own company, called Back of The Bakkie Productions that he and a few friends have formed to create games. They are collaborating with someone in America who is helping them with the 3D modeling. He spent much of the time he was supposed to be studying for his exams, on Skype with his partners talking through some problems they are experiencing with the new games engine they are modding. I should have been angry. He should have been doing his school work, but actually I was as pleased as punch.

He will get a good mark in the exams anyway – he always does! But the time he spent working on the game is teaching him priceless lessons. He is learning to overcome what often seems like insurmountable barriers. He has had to start learning a programming language so that he can mod the game effectively. He has had to deal with copyright issues around the choice of music, and a host of issues around difficulties in collaborating with others. He has had to learn to deal with the criticism of others, and the bitter realization that sometimes you can’t get your way when working with partners. He has had to learn how to work around short-comings in the games engine they are using, how to cut his losses and start again, and how to accept times when he had to walk away and learn new skills before he could move forward.

These are hard lessons for a fourteen year old to learn, and I am really proud of what he and his friends have achieved. Most importantly there is nothing resembling the Lazy A students about his games design persona! He finds it hard, unlike his school work. He works tirelessly at trying to overcome his short-comings. Games design requires a really hard set of skills. You need to have enough programming knowledge to be able to tweak existing engines and add your own twist, but you also need to be creative, and savvy about the world out there. The group has constantly posted what they are doing on Internet forums to get feedback from other games designers and players. What really impresses me also is the amount of mentoring and support they have received from this community. It is a model of what education should be, and usually isn’t.

The Horizon Report for 2011 has listed Gaming in Education as the next big thing, and Games have a great deal to teach us. Multi-player games in particular. Games like the often derided World of Warcraft teach us that we need to set really hard challenges for our students to overcome, and then be extremely tolerant of failure, and very supportive in providing mentoring. In a game, there is no margin for error. If you fail, you die! But you can start again, and again, and again, until you get it right. Whatever level you are in the game, you are accepted as a full and important member of the group. Others will show you what to do, and help you along the way. And every time you level up, your achievements will be recognized and celebrated by the group as a whole.

By comparison, in our classrooms, we tend to reject the notion of failure and consequently make it all too easy for students.  I’m not suggesting for one moment that we need to throw the curriculum away and all start playing World of Warcraft all day! But we do need to learn how to make our curriculum a great deal more like a game, or we risk impoverishing our society by accepting failure because we do not accept the importance of using failure to cultivate real success.

By Anna Malczyk
The advent of the internet heralded the “information age”, a time when vast quantities of human knowledge were available to anyone with a computer and internet connection.

For education, the potential seemed endless: anybody could read and publish anything, meaning that anybody could teach and be taught. However, access did not equal utility. The sheer amount of information made it difficult to find anything that was accurate, relevant or high quality. Accessing the web soon became a matter of information overload.

People who are unfamiliar with a topic have no reliable way to assess the quality and correctness of information on it. They must rely on trusted experts. Recently, content experts have begun to appreciate this process of filtering, ranking and verifying information – considered under the catch-all term “curation”. Just like the curator of a museum chooses pieces to display, based on which are the most interesting, relevant and representative, a knowledge curator sifts through the available information and uses their skills and knowledge to assess, order and categorise it. This vital step lends meaning to the unshaped mass of data and makes it truly useful. It also means that some of the best-known experts rarely create their own content; they simply organise existing information in a reliable way.

Curators can gather knowledge on any topic – from particle physics to the latest sitcoms – and the web provides many tools to accomplish this. When it comes to educational material, it can be just as hard to find a good curator as it is to find good content. A curator needs four essential traits:

1.    Expertise in the field. First of all, curators must be skilled in and have a broad understanding of their fields, either through study or experience. This may seem self-evident, but many so-called “experts” simply promote a certain point of view or tailor content to favour their beliefs.
2.    Research and evaluation skills. A curator must have a strong grounding in the academic skills of finding and judging material on its reliability. Learners must be able to rely on the fact that the curator has found and filtered a wide range of relevant material.
3.    Creativity. The curator’s job is not merely reactionary; the best curators apply creativity to the way they organise, discover and present the information they find. On the web, information need not be static and linear.
4.    Trustworthiness. Above all, a curator needs a reputation for being unbiased, authoritative and reliable. This can arise from broad public recognition, respect in the professional world and long-standing contributions.

Universities and educational institutions have long been considered the curators of knowledge in society, and this applies equally online. While it may be possible to find all manner of raw data about a field, it can be very hard for a non-expert to put it together in a meaningful way, or discern good data from bad. Online courseware and teaching are excellent ways of melding the scope of the web with the precise skill and reliability of knowledge curators.

To learn more about online learning in South Africa, visit www.GetSmarter.co.za

This video motivates the need for a re-evaluation of the classroom for an ever changing learner. Initially posted on YouTube, one of the comments in reply to the video that particularly stood out was by user Katmarq: “Using technology and new and creative ways to re-engineer education does not mean all the old ways are wrong or bad or unnecessary. It certainly does not mean that traditional teachers wont be needed or that people can be replaces with “machines”. But with new technology, 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 following story was written in 1976 by Elizabeth Silance Ballard (now Elizabeth Ungar).

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.

Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed he didn’t play well with the other children, his clothes were messy and he constantly needed a bath. Teddy could be quite unpleasant.

It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold Xs and then putting a big “F” at the top of his papers. At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child’s past records and she put Teddy’s off until last.

However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise. Teddy’s first grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners. He is a joy to be around.”

His second grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle.”

His third grade teacher wrote, “His mother’s death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn’t show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren’t taken.”

Teddy’s fourth grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is withdrawn and doesn’t show much interest in school. He doesn’t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class.”

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself.

She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful paper and tied with pretty ribbons, except for Teddy’s. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper he got from a grocery bag.

Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of

perfume. But she stifled the children’s laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to.”

After the children left, she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class, and despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her “teacher’s pets.”

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he’d stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Then more years passed and yet another letter came. This time, he explained that after he got his Bachelor degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now, his name was a little longer. The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.

The story doesn’t end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he’d met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course Mrs. Thompson did.

And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson’s ear, “Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me I could make a difference.”

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, “Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me I could make a difference. I didn’t really know how to teach until I met you.”

Universities are revered institutions of higher learning and many people consider the education they provide to be essential to self-improvement, meaningful employment and the upliftment of society. Unfortunately, many universities have limited resources, have prohibitive fees and are physically rooted to a single locale, making attendance for the vast majority of the population impossible. However, things are changing.

Universities around the world are turning to the internet as a means of spreading knowledge, resources and education to the masses – all for free. Renowned names like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley are making entire courses available online – everything from recorded lecture videos and audio podcasts to reading materials and assignments – with the goal of educating those who are eager to learn, anywhere in the world.

The students don’t earn any official degrees or qualifications, and they don’t get the amount of personal support and feedback that attending (and paying) students get. But they do get free access to the most valuable part: the content and resources. As more universities get on board and expand their offerings, people from around the world can study virtually any subject – from Shakespearean English to astrophysics – at university level. This free, top-class education becomes easily available to those who would otherwise never have the opportunity to access it.

The benefits for the individual are clear. Whether studying purely for interest or working actively towards a professional skill set, anyone with access to the web can log on and learn. Open content provides vital access to knowledge and information for poorer or more marginalised populations, which can improve lives, uplift communities and even raise overall awareness of social and political issues. Better-educated and informed people are more likely to know and exercise their rights, create new work opportunities and strive for a higher quality of life.

The University of Cape Town is joining its international peers with its new UCT OpenContent endeavour. Its stated goal is to “showcase the teaching efforts of UCT academics and encourage the publication of open resources”, and it is achieving this by publishing courseware, textbooks, online tools and other knowledge resources. Though access to the web is still relatively limited in South Africa (about 11% have access to a desktop internet connection), it is valuable for emerging countries to begin contributing to the global knowledge pool, as this introduces valuable local perspectives and innovative new ideas to a worldwide audience.

To find out more about online learning in South Africa, visit www.getsmarter.co.za

This past Friday and Saturday I had the great priviledge of attending one of the most inspiring, outrageously entertaining, and compelling education conferences ever. This, of course, was the EdTech Conference 2011 hosted at the International School of Cape Town in Wynberg.

I’ve never seen ‘ordinary’ teachers this excited to use technology before. The vibe was amazing, and the learning and sharing that went on between teachers – both IT/computer teachers as well as classroom teachers -  was fantastic!

Day 1 started with an inspiring keynote address by Rev Dr Dion Forster who opened up the ears, eyes and minds of all the delegates. Dion is a published author, public speaker, blogger and new media advocate and certainly got the conference off to a good start.

Delegates were treated to presentations by Fiona Beal of Fish Hoek Primary and Karen Stadler from Elkhana House Senior Primary on free ICT teaching tools and resources that they have integrated with their curriculum lessons. Both Fiona and Karen are passionate about web 2.0 and shared their success stories with great enthusiasm to a crowd that was blown away by the sheer resourcefulness these two teachers display in ICT integration. Fiona reminded delegates that even although Fish Hoek Primary has limited funding available for technology, they have still embraced it full on. Fiona was a finalist in the Microsoft Innovative Teacher competition in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and represented South Africa at the World Finals with a blogging project entitled “Bonding Through Blogging” which connected a Grade 4 and 5 class with an elderly community.

Tim Keller entertained delegates with a thoughful discussion on the latest “buzzwords” floating around at the moment. From “Twitter” to “open source” to “apps” to “wikis”, Tim’s presentation focused on encouraging delegates to think about the possible applications that each tool or resource can have in the classroom environment. The culmination of this presentation saw delegates form groups centered on each buzzword and a lot of interesting discussion was created. Tim also gave delegates a look at the “Future Classroom”. It became apparent to me that it is really very difficulty to visualise what future classrooms may look like. Many of the teachers present seemed to share the view that the ‘teacher’ is no longer the sole source of all information in the classroom, and that resources such as Google and Wikipedia are fast becoming somewhat of a norm for learners and students who are wanting to enrich themselves with information.

Maggie Verster, a well-known school 2.0 activist, certainly made the point that everything we knew, or thought we knew, about information and knowledge sharing is quickly becoming obsolete. Maggie kept the delegates laughing throughout her great presentation on the latest tools she uses for information sharing. She gave a run down on Twitter, Diigo, Wikipedia and a host of other tools that teachers may be surprised to realise have a place in the classroom. Maggie has delivered numerous papers, keynotes, conducted workshops and developed resources to assist teachers to effectively use ICT and social media for professional development (through Personal Learning Networks) and in their classrooms.

Gavin Keller, principal of the Sun Valley Group of Schools, and Nicholas Hall, a candidate attorney at Michalsons Attorneys presented a talk on social media policies in relation to schools. Gavin started the discussion with some Facebook and blog ‘horror’ stories and Nicholas rounded off by presenting schools with various options they have available to protect themselves and their learners from a legal and moral standpoint when it comes to social media.

Arthur Preston, a Teacher’s Monthly author and headmaster at Lanner House School, gave a humourous (and very true!) presentation on technophobic teachers. From Arthur’s talk and subsequent group discussions, it is apparent that all schools – from state to private – have technophobic teachers. Arthur gave some ideas and thoughts on how to deal with teachers who have no interest, are too comfortable, or too scared to embrace technology.

Overall, the EdTech Conference was aimed at creating discussion and encouraging participation by all present. Teachers had the opportunity to try free tools and resources during the “interactive” lunch and tea break sessions. There was also much excitement created by the live Twitter feed where teachers could post comments, thoughts, questions and share links to tools that they make use of.

Comments shared by delegates regarding the conference included:

- “Thoroughly enjoyed this conference more than any other I have attended [and I've been to Aussie x 2 for same] – this by far is the most stunning conference.”

- “What I loved most EdTechConf 2011 was the chance to meet a hundred like-minded people, from across the country.”

- “Thanks to organisers of Ed Tech Conf. Excellent quality presenters , so much to do and think about now!”

- “This conference rocks!”

- “Thanks for all the cool ideas from best practice!!”

Visit the official EdTech Conference web site – www.edtechconf.co.za

The other day, I was having a casual conversation with a friend, talking about, what you would call in Afrikaans, “Land and Sand”.  Out of that unspecific conversation, it turned out that he was about to go on leave and because of time constraints and still having a lot of work to finish, he couldn’t mail-chat with me like we normally did. I particularly took interest in his motivation to pressure himself with work like that. He explained to me that his work is usually up to date, but he intentionally went an extra mile to make sure that his administration is beyond perfect so that his employer, who monitors his work during his leave time, finds nothing that could be faulted. Then he used a phrase that caught my attention that inspired the writing of this article – “wrapping up”. What immediately crossed my mind was the memory of those old films where they would be showing directorship and the final shooting of a movie. Just before these words were usually uttered, you would swear a moment of silence is being observed.  Once they have been said,  a shuttering applause from all who were involved, would then follow with great relief.

It then dawned on me that after the implementation and execution of any duty, doing the final act isn’t just adequate, one needs to “wrap it up” properly. It was as if wrapping up is actually an innate measure of a job successfully done. I took a closer look at what usually happens at schools during the forth term. I reminisced over the last six years of this particular term, where everyone is rounding up whatever year’s work he/she has been engaged in, be it an administrator, the principal and most importantly the teacher who has direct contact with learners. Going down memory lane, all I can recall is the a crawling week, immediately after the learners have fetched their progress reports. One would witness teachers sitting and doing nothing, just waiting for the clock to strike so they can go home. Some would be playing cards, monopoly, chess, scrabble or any game you can think of. Some would incessantly be asking for time off so they can run some errands in town. At this time of the year no one wants to do anything related to work.  When I thought of “wrapping up” I began to ponder.

I actually wished I could suss out  what was going through the minds of each educator. I asked myself if ever any person from the outside would pay us a visit and request from us the wrapped up work whilst we are idling peacefully waiting for the end of the day, would we be happy to avail our services at that point in time? The wrapping up I’m talking about isn’t just a particular grade performance or promotion schedule, the recording of retrieved books or a list of all those who still owe the school some books. No, I am talking about the real measure of a job well done. An indication that says to your soul as an individual teacher: “I have done my utmost best with these learners, I have taught them all that there is to be taught and I even went beyond the prescripts of the learning programme.” A confirmation that evokes feelings such as calmness and assurance that these learners, who have been under your supervision and guidance, can without any hindrance or pressure, blissfully progress to any of your colleagues classes. If it were possible, can one compare these learners who went through your hands to those in a relay race who confidently pass on the baton to the next runner because they know they did their best and they have the trust that those who are now in possession of the baton will continue with their own best until the last man wins? I couldn’t help but wish and dream of this ideal institution or school where all teachers, when faced with the afore-mentioned questions, can answer a proud “Yes!”. I wished for a school where individual teachers’ responses would inform us of a “universal wrap”. A wrap which, like in the movies when they say “let’s call it a wrap”, the director and all the crew members leave everything to the public and only anticipates positive results. When we as teachers hear the echo of such words at the end of the year, can we confidently be in a position to deafen the public with a thunderous applause, emanating from our inner pride?

Let’s try and make sure that we can proudly answer “Yes!” at the end of 2011.

Written by Johnny Modipa

My mother is a former teacher in the olden days of Bantu Education. Actually I mean she was an educator; I am aware that there are those who draw a line between a teacher and an educator. But a rose by any other name still looks like a rose and smells just as sweet anyway, so the person who teaches is a teacher, finish and klaar!

Well, my dear mother has narrated to me the legendary stories about the status that the teaching profession used to carry, and that it was the wildest dream of every parent to have a child who ends up being a teacher. It was the measuring stick of true intelligence. The heartbeat of the future.

Apparently, you were at the top of the food chain in the community when you were a teacher. You were respected beyond reasonable doubt, and your capacity to act as a mediator and counsellor in times of societal need was impeccable.

It is apparent that the learners were not only terrified of the teachers (for obvious reasons I suppose, I dislike the cane so much!), but also commanded honour and respect, even beyond the walls of the classroom. A learner would undergo the pain of hell fire for simply back-chatting the teacher, and would literally be expelled on the spot for threatening the teacher through any physical means, whether at school or not.

It is also apparent that this breed of teachers was producing fantastic results that were second to none; despite the inequalities that were engineered politically by the previous dispensation of apartheid. This generation of teachers produced the pillars of the community, some of whom played a vital role in the liberation struggle. It’s a pity they now drive BMW’s, that are not accounted for – praise God for political influence, amen!

Well, these teachers taught with passion, and took their profession beyond the normal requirements of their profession. To them, teaching was an art, not a job. They felt the subject. They knew the subject. They oozed the subject. They played the role of parents within and beyond the classroom, and carried out the demands of this role with dignity and distinction.

Well, I definitely believe what my mother told me because she was part of the set-up. Oh, and because she cannot lie to me; I mean, the elders do not lie, right? So yes, I accept what she was telling me as virtually an additional book of the Gospel.

But if this is the case, then what happened to that breed of teachers; has there been a silent apocalypse that was strategically designed to exterminate this breed of teachers alone? What she narrated to me sounds like fictitious folklore that the elderly used to stimulate my intellectual capacity with during the days when my currently sharp brain was a quivering wreck. That is, in comparison to what I have witnessed in my own two eyes, never mind the vast documented stories that I have gone through to cement this position.

Why is it that this profession does not attract the best brains in the country anymore, but has become a measure of last resort for those whose future prospects are dim due to their academic shortcomings or financial constraints? I dare to suggest that it has now transformed into a hotbed of incompetent individuals who have zero prospects at doing anything else. Of course, every rule has its own exceptions, and this does not seek to paint everyone with the same brush. Actually, there are bright sparks in the teaching profession; but the challenge is that some of them are neutralised by the toxic climate that prevails in this profession, while the rest are buried under the rubble of their incompetent colleagues and other known ills, and it takes an excruciating amount of effort and patience to find them.

Why is it that the teachers have now been relegated to a position of inferiority within the community? Is it because of the salaries? If so, why is it that certain lawyers who earn less than teachers are still regarded with prestige as opposed to the teachers?

Today, a learner calls a teacher by his first name, and is at liberty to give him a good hiding when he “steps out of line”, which is more often than not. What happened to the fear and respect that they used to invoke in the learners? For heaven’s sake, they compete for the same girlfriends, and the teachers end up on the losing side due to the handsome blessings that accompany the looks of the youth. Now you tell me, am I going to respect somebody who has just “fallen short” when pitted up against me?

What happened to a generation of teachers that looked at learners as their children, as opposed to potential girlfriends and one-night stands?

What happened to that generation of teachers that would vomit at the prospect of drinking in the same tavern with a learner, never mind drinking with the learner at all! The less said about those who pitch at work in their drunken stupor the better.

What happened to the results that they used to produce; the high degree of competence and the passion that they used to exude in the nature of their profession? It’s easy to find numerous scapegoats for this one: low salaries, curriculum changes, below-par education system, resource scarcity, unrealistic demands, lack of cooperation on the part of the Education Department, miscalculated transformation. The list is the size of my arm. But then again, weren’t the challenges worse off in the past than they are now?

I always say that there is nothing new under the sun. Some of the major challenges that exist in the present were still there in the past; in fact, they were at superlative proportions as compared to the current ones because even circumstances themselves were not cooperating in bringing to pass an adequate academic atmosphere. But something is definitely missing here, and it is high time that we claim it back; not for the sake of the profession, but for the sake of the generations that are, and those that are to come.

There is a need for the kind of teacher who will bring the plans together in these moments; a special gem who will raise the standard against failure and bring back the glory days of the teaching profession. Is it you?

“Sir, this is the most boring book I’ve ever read!”  I chirped my matric English teacher. “It’s got no relevance to us,” I continued as we plodded our way through another double period taking turns to read sections from “Shades”, our English set work book. The monotonous drone that was the tone in which most my peers chose to read their parts only exasperated the situation and drove home my point.

We were finding it a dull read. I’m not saying it is a dull book, (for those of you who haven’t read it, it isn’t badly written) but I don’t think it was suited to grab the attention of 18 year old boys living in the year 2004. Not only was it a dull read, but the whole classroom environment was dull. We were sitting in a bland classroom that had one lonely poster on the wall which had probably been left behind by the previous inhabitant judging by its faded appearance and dated look.

I almost think my teacher agreed with me as he half-heartedly defended why we were reading the book. There were so many other topics and themes we could be reading about that would engage us, I thought as I drifted off into a daydream and  began developing a vision in my head of a utopian classroom that looked something like this:

Before entering the classroom there is a thought provoking message on the door that changes on a daily basis, perhaps an interesting quote or breathtaking image. Something to set the tone and get some inspiration flowing.  As I enter the room, there is an explosion of colour as creative and interesting posters and murals adorned the walls and ceiling. The carpeted floor requires we leave our shoes at the entrance – one wouldn’t want to get mud on a pristine Persian rug now would you? The teacher, a leggy, blond, former swimsuit model strolls in (remember this an 18 year olds’ fantasy) and tells us she’s got some extremely relevant and interesting books to choose from for our set work. “This one’s about a drug addicts struggle to get clean and be accepted into society, and this one’s about the lives of the teenage children of New York’s rich and successful, purrs Ms McKenzie as she glances over at me and gives me an inviting wink.

Ok, so it’s a pretty far-fetched vision, but I was and still am convinced that if teachers can find more ways of relating to their target market then we’ll see an improvement in interest and therefore results. There is a big gap between teachers and learners, now more-so than ever. The things that interest children and teenagers now are very different to what they were as little as 5 years ago. I believe teachers should embrace this and tap into what makes the youth tick. Embrace technology and social trends and incorporate them into what you teach this generation to whom the words chip, boot, window and apple have completely different meanings to what they did to the previous generation.

Think like a business. You’re a teacher. Your ‘product’ is knowledge. Your ‘target market’ is your learners. In advertising, a business will do whatever it needs to do in order to make it’s product appealing to the target market. So package your knowledge enticingly. Make it colourful, and start thinking like a business.

Here are some more words that have taken on a completely new meaning thanks to technology. Use them in their new context to your class to “wow!” your learners.