Makhudu Machaba has won the #ispasuperteachers competition a 3 times now and has gone on to win other national competitions as well. This competition is clearly the start of great things! Hear what she has to say about why you should enter the #ispasuperteacher competition and then head on over to the regitration page here: www.ispasuperteachers.co.za

This year we have decided to change the format of the #ispasuperteachers competition from submitting projects to submitting ONE Wow lessonplan. Why did we decide to do this? 

In the past teachers were taken through a whole project  design and development process using ICT (Information and Communication Technologies). This was quite a lenghty process and the project was implemented with learners over a period of time in their classrooms. As it was quite time consuming, both the planning and development as well as the implementation of the project, quite a lot of teachers felt that they did not have enough time to implement their projects properly. Some teachers worked on their projects for quite a few years, fine tuning it every year and they usually managed to eventually get into the list of finalists! 

So this year we decided to make it easier for teachers to enter. As we all have to teach our lessons ANYWAY, submitting any one of our lessons is far more achievable in our busy teaching schedules. Most of us are using ICT in one way or another, either during the creation or the implementation of our lesson plans, so it make sense to open the competition and make it more accessable to ALL teachers. ​If you or your learners are in any way using laptops, cellphones, tablets, audio players, interactive whiteboards or any other form of tech, apps and gadgets, in any way, now is your chance to enter what you do and how you do it as a lesson plan for the competition. It should not (nessasarily) take you any extra time, unless you REALLY REALLY want to win! 

We know that some teachers are just starting off and others are doing mindblowing things with tech with their learners in their classrooms. ​This competition caters for both newbies and over achievers! As there are two categories, newbies and teachers with limited recources do not have to compete against gurus and well resourced teachers. As teachers will have a chance to share and soundboard what they are doing with their peers in the competition, you will learn an amazing amount from everybody and get some fresh ideas by looking at what others are doing. 

For this purpose we created a social learning Facebook group. Not only can you use it to trouble shoot any isues that may crop up, you can also learn more about different kinds of lesson plans and how we can use all the existing as well as new teaching models and frameworks to enhance our lesson plans. You will also get a chance to evaluate your own growth as an ICTchampion using your tech superpowers.

Lots of teachers are still scared to use ICT in their classrooms. Tech can be tricky and daunting. By creating tech infused lesson plans, your lesson plan can be used by other teachers in the future. It can give them some ideas and inspire them to innovate and dabble with different tools and apps to make their lessons come alive! All lessons will be made available freely as open education resources, after the competition for others to use in their subjects and topics. Your lesson plan may be just the thing to encourage others to start using ICT with their learners. 

Hear what one of our previous finalist and #ispasuperteahcers 2018 Techteacher winner has to say about the competition. 

We all know that we need to prepare our learners for a working life after school. We know that we have to get them ready to cope with growing technological advances and the fouth Industrial revolution. But what exactly does this mean for  my classroom? How do we make sure that our learners leave our care with confidence, knowledge and skills that will ensure that they will be responsible citizens in our future world? 

It can all start with our lesson planning. If we make sure that we incorporate all the skills, knowledge and content that will extend and prepare our learners for the future, no matter what that holds, then we have done our job well!!. How exactly do we do this? The first place to start is to understand what 21st century skills are and how we can incorporate it into our lesson planning. Watch the following video and think about how you could make sure that you incorporate the following elements (the 4 Cs)  into your lesson plan!

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Creativity
• Critical thinking ​

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​Feel free to post your favourite 21st century resources and articles into the lesson comments! (Just click on comments below the heading)

This year the #ispasuperteacher competition is encouraging teachers to produce one WOW lesson plan to enter into the competition. All competition participants will be guided through the process of developing a technology infused lesson plan, taking into consideration all factors that can contribute to making it an inspiring lesson for our learners. 

The fact that teachers only have to devleop one lesson plan will also hopefully make it easier for all teachers to enter the competition. The registration process requires that teachers have to come up with a lesson plan idea that can then later be enlarged upon during the second stage of the competition process. During this stage we will collaboratively discuss ways of enriching our lesson, not only by using technology, but to also by creating depth by looking at various frameworks like the TPACk model, SAMR, 21st century skills and various learner centered teaching strategies. 

The good news is that you do not have to do this alone as we will all be supporting one another and learning from each other. It should also not be to much of an extra effort as we have to teach the chosen lesson in any case, we might as well make it extra special. 

So what happens to our lesson plans after this competition? 
All lesson plans will be aded to the DBE cloud as open educational resources (OER) for other teachers to use and to expand upon. By entering the competiton you are agreeing to make your lesson plan available to other teachers. One of the criteria that the judges will use, will be to access how well your lesson will work in different  class contexts. 

To learn more about OER, see the OER commons website, where teachers from accross the world share lesson plans, courses and resources for use by other teachers. https://help.oercommons.org/support/solutions/articles/42000014835-what-are-open-educational-resources-