Welcome to all the #ispasuperteachers Finalists to this year's iWeek 2018 "fake" workshop. We will be going out of our way to be as "fake" as possible in order to understand online safety and other fearful challenges facing us as we gear up for the 4th Industrial revolution. But don't worry we will be doing it all "relatively" safely..... Mmmmmm. 

I am Malatji Matema Jacobeth,a grade 3 educator at Diopong Primary School in  Gamakanye village Limpopo (Polokwane).I taught multiple of grades teaching social sciences ,arts and culture, lifeskill grade 6_7.Foundation phase ,I taught Sepedi,Maths,English and life skill grade 1_3.Presently ,I am placed in grade 3.Our schools is inclusive, I therefore cater all learners with love regardless their  learning abilities. I have a high level o responsibility, commitment, dedication and originality., I have a leadership skills ,I served as secretary in music, a  sports treasurer ,a Soulbuddyz Facilitator,which I have introduced to research and address challenges that learners and community come across day to day basis. A perma culture  project leader which I initiated to alleviate poverty for vulnerable children. In 2009_2010 I worked voluntarily as a supervisor for Khari Gude Literacy Mass Campaign project.I am SASAMS data compiler .I started computer lessons to equipped the foundation phase learners with the skill that have.Every duties assigned to me,I do them with passion ,enthusiasm and go extra mile.

I participated fully in sports, a basketball coach, a shot l put coach,a music conductor and I was elected as a basketball secretary Mankweng clusters. During my spare time, I do aerobics exercises, play Scrabble, reading magazine ,newspapers and going to church.

My project is mainly about teaching foundation phase learners Maths,using technology  to transform the negative attitude of learners towards the love of Maths. I have used  a projector in the classroom and took learners to the computer room for computer literacy lessons .I started working on it teamed with my colleagues and Toronto teachers mentored  by Sadike Welhemina. Around May  I had a serious challenge whereby my mother was sick. June  she passed on. I had a difficult time,funeral arrangements submission of the project, network problem ,password does not logging in.
​
My achievements,from 2009 up to 2015  I have received national awards from Soulbuddyz(Soul City) 2010 supervisor award from Khari Gude Mass Literacy Campaign .September 2016 National award in ICT,ISPA Superteacher. June 2017, SACE ,certificate of attendance.

My name is Dimakatso Sefora, a HOD at Saron Primary School in NW Province. I started working in 1993 and furthered my studies at UJ to obtain my Bed Hons. I then took short programmes in computer skills for Windows and Office, eSkills for teachers, mobile technology in teaching and learning with Unisa and passed all with distinctions.

In 2014 I entered National Teachers Awards (NTA) (ICT Category) and obtained position 2 at Area Office. I then entered again in 2015 and got position 1 at Area Office and 2 at Region. In 2016/17 I motivated educators to enter the NTA and I adjudicated at Area Office level for the ICT category.

Our community (Royal Bafokeng) also uses me to train adults and educators after hours. I take learners after school to a community centre to learn  how to use computers. Subject advisors invite me to teach educators about ICT Integration.

About my journey
It was not an easy journey but I managed, through the support I got from the ISPA community and team. My project was about Teaching with Mobile Technology with the grade 7(E-FAL).Our school is situated in a rural village of Bafokeng where we don’t have resources. I motivated educators to buy themselves laptops and tablets to help me so that we use them for teaching and learning.

Facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000118646373&ref=br_rs
https://twitter.com/dimakatsomargar
https://plus.google.com/107517670445427313186
https://www.instagram.com/seforadimakatso/​

I am Peggy Jona of Bakuba Primary School in Tabankulu Eastern Cape Province.I'm a grade 6 Maths teacher. 2015 Provincial Champ and National finalist in National Teaching Award in Mathematics category and 2017 Provincial Champ and National finalist in Primary school teaching. A Mathematics lead teacher leading Professional Learning Communities, where teachers meet frequently to share their teaching strategies   .  Started pushing boundaries of what technology could do in my teaching as soon as I came back from d United states of America in Montana Western , in a Maths project                                   

The ISPA project is about effective use of teaching and learning strategies to improve learners  performance in Mathematics so that they can reach International benchmark ( TIMSS- Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) through the use of Technological devices, from Smartphone, desktop and computers .Effective teaching and learning strategies that are accommodative to  progressed learners and to those learners with barriers to learning.. I am dedicated in assisting other educators with e- learning workshops. Assisting learners with  supervised extra classes, Individual classes, Tutoring,Revision classes,Homework clubs and Homework Assistants..I believe that Matric begins in grade R and that it really is possible to improve Mathematics results if focus is on Primary school teaching , if firm foundations can be built in Primary schooling where the root of Mathematics problem lies.

Online presence:
​https://twitter.com/Peggyjona1twitter.com/Peggyjona1
www.facebook.com/peggyjona1

​KHATIJA OSMAN has had many successful career paths before coming into the education field. She is currently a 4th year student studying Educational Psychology through UNISA. She is an intern at Durban Girls College. The internship program helps potential educators to grow whilst working alongside knowledgeable teachers, developing their teaching skills whist gaining experience.

Educational Psychology is her passion and since being a learner herself with previous learning barriers, she has understanding and compassion for all learners with different learning difficulties. She loves working with educators who only put their learners’ needs first.

On the 27th and 28th of April 2018 Ms Osman attended Google Summit held at Westville Girls’ High in Durban over the Easter Long Weekend. Over two days the Summit covered various workshops. She walked out of the Google Summit with the closing statement ringing in my ears.

• Who wants change?
• Who wants to change?
• Who wants to lead that change?
  
  

One of the apps that caught her attention was Flipgrid, the hosts spoke of how educators can integrate it in your classroom. How exciting she thought, something fresh she can add to her critique lesson the following week. She went to the Summit with an intention of building her confidence with technology and was looking for a new idea to bring into her lesson which was set for the week ahead.
As an intern one needs that X-FACTOR, in your lesson or you lost the learners before you begin. That day of her critique lesson, she went into school feeling silly and very nervous but tried the app, the learners instantly warmed up to this and the rest is history.
Y-NOT? / PROJECT V was developed from this summit. 
As an educator it is important to remember these wise words. 

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”  
 
                                                                                      John Dewey
 
Y/ NOT? Project V (simply means why not use vlogging in school?)
​
Why vlogging in classrooms?

• It is a video blog.

Basically, it is a look into a learner's ideas, opinion and researched or existing knowledge of a set topic or theme or anything general about life, their thoughts or anything else they might be interested in.

For several years educators have been sitting down, writing out their plans with their Aims and Objectives of that lesson and if you are like Ms Osman, plan a running commentary of her thoughts on a subject matter and what she would say in that lesson for her not to get side tracked.

Vlogging has allowed her to take this lesson planning to a whole new level and direction she translated it into something less time consuming, enjoyable and now plans what is relevant for her learners’ and according to their existing knowledge. She decided Video is one of the biggest ways that learners can communicate to their educators and the outside world. many people are taking well this concept of vlogging. People are doing it personally, but more and more people are doing it for their businesses as well. So why not we as educators do the same.

The innovative thing about a vlog as opposed to using the same teaching methods and assessment methods or homework methods, is that it is unstructured because a vlog is much more personal, it's a detailed, direct conversation the learner is having with the educator, most importantly it's not conservative in terms of how you feed your learner knowledge and content about topics. Most importantly the learner connects with the educator and other colleagues, especially when you have various sized classes. 

Vlogging lets people inside of your world. However, in terms of your learners, Vlogging lets you inside their world and not just see one little component but of their entire understanding or knowledge of the subject or topic and their day to day thinking of how their minds and thoughts how they are operating and processing information and knowledge.

Vlogging keeps learners thinking active and engaged in learning.
Vlogging is an educational brand with a specific focus, which is facilitating learning and getting learners to be psyched about school and psyched about learning through the craft of video production, so she makes sure that her vlog is focused on that specifically and every other subject is going to have a different focus or topic but with the same concept in mind, and each topic she sets is going to have a different personality in terms of the vlog and how it translates is up to the learners, that's developing and processing it.

This is a vivid way to educate an audience and for learners to demonstrate learning in terms of who they are. More so as an educator you can connect with them and it becomes a very effective way to facilitate learning and like Flipgrid says “Amplifying Learners Voices”.

Her learners’ vlogs are only through Flipgrid and Recap in terms of the topics and subjects that she covers at school.

This is a simple project and requires no very little to start and set up. It is small or no-crew production. 

• Herself
• the learners to carry the iPads to the class and
• one man from the IT department if needed.

 
Educators and Schools should now be creating ongoing vlogs, which are video blogs offering educational or informational content that increases learners’ learning skills and helps the educator to ease their work load.

While certain vlogs may focus on a daily or weekly topic, from different subjects, there are many vlogs that can focus on other areas, such as assessments or even exam preparations.

Vlogging will attract a high volume of attention to certain topics, it can aspire learners to establish a clear, consistent voice and deliver valuable content. This is possible to accomplish, with research and planning. Vlogging a topic or idea will be translated into a creative understanding of what you want to achieve.
 
Ms Osman loves to see the students engaging in relevant technology getting them excited about learning. This year has been busy and motivating for her, in the coming months she wants to move around to various schools to encourage and train educators and interns as well as learners’ on how to vlog.

 Ms Osman is on
Facebook https://www. facebook.com/khatija.osman.9
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kbo4942
Instagram: username: k.b.osman
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/kbosman78

What was my project about?  
My project demonstrated the creative and efficient use of ICT to enhance teaching and learning in the 21st century.
 
To teach is to 'impart knowledge to or instruct (someone) as to how to do something'. So often, a teacher gets stuck in his or her ways of teaching the same content in the syllabus year after year. The classroom setup has not changed over hundreds of years and yet everything else in the world is rapidly changing. Teachers are stuck in a tug-o-war: teaching for the end-of-year examination and trying to prepare their learners sufficiently for jobs of the future. Jobs that perhaps do not exist today. Classroom management needs to change in order to sufficiently prepare our learners with the demands of life after school and we are tasked with having to equip our learners to be successful in jobs that possibly do not even exist yet.
 
My project involved a fairly ordinary section in Geography (Population), and with the help of ICT, I made the content come alive. I was not teaching. I was guiding the learners to be at the centre of their learning. I used an augmented reality application to make words on a seemingly boring, blank A4 page, come to life. From there, there was discussion, thought, the asking of questions and…great learning. All learners were actively involved and this project was an absolutely wonderful journey to embark on.
 
A little bit about myself
 
I am a high school educator at Grantleigh School, situated in the heart of Zululand. I teach Geography, Social Sciences and Life Orientation. I will be honest and say that the use ICT in my classroom used to scare me a bit for two reasons: I did not grow up with a computer in my home so I felt as though I was slightly behind with my skills and, I was comfortable with being in control of the class (or at least I thought I was in control).
 
I was lectured at university on “how to be a good teacher”, and I was attempting to best implement all the facts I had acquired during my studies. This way of teaching did not last very long and I soon tossed almost everything out. I needed a fresh start and I longed for something different…I just did not know what.
 
I started surfing the net after school hours in the attempt to build my resources and I wanted to find ways to make my lessons interesting, fun and (most importantly) educational. I wanted to find ways to use technology to enhance the critical thinking of the learners. I came across numerous applications and websites (some good and some not-so-good) which I individually and incredibly slowly tested out in class. All the applications and websites I have used are free and everything is self-taught.
 
This is where my love for the use of ICT in the classroom developed. I love to see the learners’ eyes light up with excitement and wonder. It makes me feel as though I am adding one small piece to their puzzle of the future.
 
From there, my next passion developed (this is a more recent passion). I aim to help educators who feel trapped or overwhelmed at the thought of basing lessons on the use of technology. I would love to help educators who do not know where to start with the use of ICT in their own classrooms. I hope to empower the scared educator. I wish to transform their fears into power.
 
My online presence:
NEW TO Instagram J: insta.techclassroom

I’m Mabore Lekalakala, a permanently employed and qualified 23 years experienced Mathematics educator at Mapudithomo Primary School, Limpopo, SA from 07th June 1995 to date. My passion is developing young minds; helping them to develop positive values and be the best at what they do. As a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert 2012-2018, my focus is on innovation, value creation and being resourceful to the teaching fraternity through teaching and learning that develop fellow educators and learner's with 21st century skills.

My academic and professional expertise:
Graduate Teachers Diploma from Mamokgalake Chuene College of Education, National Diploma in Human Resources from UNISA, Further Diploma (Science field) and Bachelor of Education (Mathematics field) from Wits University. The combination of these diverse academic standing and skills traits set me apart from my peers in the education, training and teaching profession.

Awards:
Amongst my accolades and achievements, I have been recognised with various awards. I received the National teaching awards, in the category of Excellence in teaching mathematics (GET) on the 27th of February 2016. The DoE rewarded me with various prizes including a vehicle as token of appreciation for the work and contribution I am bringing to the education fraternity. I was a runner up in the category of Excellence in Primary Teaching for the same award in 2013. The recognition and acknowledgements of the National Teaching Awards were spear headed by the South African State President, Deputy President, the National Ministry of Education and dignitaries from different departments and sectors. As a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, I attended the Global Educators Exchange in Washington, USA from April 2015 to May 2015 representing Limpopo Province and South Africa. I received ISPA Champ Teacher for 2015 and Stars in Education in March 2013.  Being selected by the Microsoft Partners in Learning Forum in 2012 paved my way towards using technology and inspired me to venture and explore further into other ways of using technology for teaching and learning. Apart from all the stated achievements and awards, I am a Microsoft Certified Educator, equipped with technology literacy competencies needed to provide a rich, custom learning experience for students and ability to capacitate willing educators in the province, country and globally. This year, 2018, I have been selected as one of the top ten finalists in the ISPA prestigious national competitions.

Presentations:
I have presented in various conferences, teachers capacity building workshops and teachers’ forums, locally, provincially, nationally and globally. Most of the speaking and capacity building engagements were ICT Conferences, Edtech Summits, teach meets, webinars on various subjects, Skype presentations and road shows to a global audience.  I presented at the Edtech Summit Africa 2016 where the Edtech team, myself included, impacted on educators throughout South Africa, Swaziland and Ghana. Training workshops I conducted include the July 2015 Schoolnet ICT Conference in Durban, Cape Town e-schools' network, innovate schools’ ICT conference, Johannesburg Dainfern College EdTech Summit, Jane Furse EdTech Summit 2014 and Bloemfontein ICT and Classroom Conference 2013. I use local, provincial and national educational competitions, ICT conferences, online and face to face professional development training and social media communities to capacitated myself, pick up best practices, learn from others and set myself new benchmarks. I use the same platform to disseminate information on lessons learned and shared methodologies. Most importantly, my high priority is to strengthen the school and communities around me in my home province of Limpopo.

Project Based Learning:
I conducted projects with grade 6 learners at Toronto Primary School and Mapudithomo, that focused more on innovative content creation and safer use of mobile technology in and out of the classroom .The projects expose learners to a range of applications and software including Inspireware Maths and Science Programme, Microsoft Maths Worksheet Generator, Khan Academy, ixl.com, Geogebra, Flashcards, Kodu , Minecraft, etc. In my daily teaching, I use technological tools such as Office Mix, Sway, OneNote and PowerPoint, YouTube videos, quizzes, images and many more to bring reality into learning. I allow learners to create their own resources using technology. The created contents and resources are based on learners’ own contexts which is genuinely relevant to them. The combination of all tools ensures real life and meaningful learning and is an addition to all, excitement.  These initiatives encourage enjoyment of learning through modern technologies as part of promoting 21st century skills.

Strengths:
My strengths include amongst others an in-depth knowledge, skills and experience of teaching Mathematics, Science Languages and ICT as well as my desire to continuously learn and seek new ways of developing learners of the 21st century skills and attributes. Although I was not trained to teach with technology, through my own initiatives, eagerness, interests, self-directed learning, tenacity and will power to make a difference, I progressed to where I am now and accumulated the set of skills and attributes. Today I am a MIE Expert 2012-2018, an ISPA Champ Teacher, an NTA award winner, a trainer, a mentor to other educators and an extraordinary educator that has appetite for positive results and ground-breaking projects in the field of learning and teaching. I use technology in my classroom, transforming my interaction with learners and taking them to new heights with ease.

Ambition:
​It is my wish and ambition to see South Africa and the global community using the skills and knowledge of teachers like myself and those who came before me through the same career ladder to contribute to education and learning. 

 Thobela Nombuso Precious is my name a PL1 educator attached to Vulamasango Primary School.  I teach Mathematics Grade 5 and 6.  I am qualified Computer Science and CAT (Computer Application Technology) educator. The love I have for Mathematics and the skills of using technology made me to start integrating technology in my Mathematics lessons. I then became a Role Model by motivating other educators, mentoring and inspiring my learners and colleagues to use ICT appropriately.
 
I use ICT to enhance my role as a teacher. I demonstrated her skills by being creative and bringing flair to the way I teach and use ICT both in and out of the learning environment. I have been an Innovator and Change Agent and my innovative teaching practices and ICT in instrumental ways to change how my learners learn in the entire school and other schools in the circuit. 
 
In 2016 she enrolled a 6 month course with WITS University in ICT, and currently doing Honors in CAT, I model lifelong learning and I am continuously improving in professional practice and exhibit leadership in my school and professional community by supporting other educators’ development and understanding of the impact on learning of the effective use of ICTs.
 
In MSTA (Mathematics, Science and Technology Academy) I am a Grade 6 Mathematics facilitator at a provincial level. I was nominated the NTA 2017 and won in the district and Provincial level and became a National finalist in the ICT category, which has motivated me to inspire more educators, by starting a project called empowering educators with ICT skills to empower learners.
 
 The long term [3 year plan to be achieved by 2021] developmental objectives of the project are to improve the quality of education by effectively integrates ICT at Vulamasango Primary schools in teaching Mathematics. “For most children, regardless of disability, socio-economic status, culture, race or religion, technology is their savior”. Create an eco-friendly environment by using electronic books. Educators’ application of ICT in the classroom with the following levels of ICT competence.

1. Tools for management.
2. Collaborative tool for educators and learners.
3. Administrative tool to increase productivity.
4. Resource tool for curriculum integration.
5. Communication tool.

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/presh.okuhle
https://ae.linkedin.com/in/nombuso-precious-thobela-2a038812a
https://flipgrid.com/06e6fd
Pinterest: https://za.pinterest.com/thobela/
https://classroom.google.com/h