Joining Sefora at the winner’s podium was 2019 ISPA TechTeacher of the Year, Matthew Hains, of Saheti Secondary School in Senderwood, Gauteng. The two were amongst 10 finalists competing for SA’s longest-running ICT in education accolade.

The eight other finalists were Louise Fullard of Hoerskool Bergvlam, Fiona Beal of The Rock Academy, Peggy Jona of Bakuba Primary, Lyneth Crighton of Brescia House, Anel Flack of Hoerskool Standerton, Mabore Lekalakala of Mapudithomo Primary, Lady Hadio Mei of Moedi Secondary and Leanne Bishop of Grantleigh School.

Members of the judges panel who attended the awards event included Shadi Mathosa (ICT in education specialist), Deon van Vuuren (branch co-ordinator for Curriculum in Mpumalanga), Megan Rademeyer (programme manager at SchoolNet SA), Dorcas Tabane (ISPA) and Gerald Roos (Directorate: LTSM Policy Development and Innovation - Digital Learning Framework).

"These awards are very apt for rewarding teachers that are achieving high levels of competence in digital learning," said Roos. "They encourage a transformation of pedagogy and a deeper awareness and use of digital tools and resources for learning. It is therefore with great satisfaction that the judges congratulate all finalists in the ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year competition, and especially 2019 ISPA SuperTeacher, Dimakatso Sefora, and 2019 ISPA TechTeacher, Matthew Hains."

Sefora is a longtime participant in the ISPA SuperTeacher Awards and teacher training programme while this is the second time Hains has been named ISPA TechTeacher.

PrizesThe sponsors of the prizes included the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) who donated R25,000, SANParks, The Mighty Pen Education Magazine and ZADNA (The ZA Domain Name Authority).

The winners each received an ISPA trophy, a cash prize sponsored by the Industrial Development Corporation, four nights’ accommodation for four people at any national park in South Africa sponsored by SANParks, a subscription to the online magazine for teaching professionals, The Mighty Pen Education Magazine (www.themightypen.co.za) and a laptop and projector sponsored by ZADNA. Each finalist also received R1,000 each from the IDC.

Selection processTo be selected as finalists in the ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year Awards, teachers were required to register online and submit ICT-related lesson plans for consideration by the panel.

Many of the teachers had participated in the ISPA Sponsor A Teacher programme, focusing on ICT training managed by DEI and sponsored by the Internet Service Providers’ Association of SA (ISPA) and its members.

The finalists’ closing projects were judged to be the best amongst the many received that demonstrated the value of the teachers' newly acquired ICT skills.

The ISPA SuperTeacher Awards are an annual feature of the iWeek Internet industry conference and exhibition. Details on iWeek and its line-up are available at www.iweek.org.za.

When you have been teaching for a long time, lesson plans can seem unnessessary. You know what you have to teach and you can do it with your eyes shut. In some schools the departmental head can insist that you do dayly or weekly lesson planning as a way to make sure that you are teaching what you are supposed to be teaching! In this context lesson plans seem to be a great big pain! So, does lesson planning still have a place in the classroom? 

For our #ispasuperteachers competition we are aiming for lesson plans that inspire. Not just inspire our learners to learn , but also to inspire ourselves and our collegues to be more innovative! Sometimes we also need to challenge ourselves as teachers to come up with new ways to share what we want our learners to master! Sometimes we need to go back to the drawing board and look at the way we have been teaching the same old lesson for the last few years. Do we just use our textbook and wing it, or do we reflect on how we are teaching regularly in order to do it better next year? 

We have to prepare our students for the 21st century, for careers that do not even exist yet. They have be able to navigate the fourth industrial revolution. The future is all about coding and artificial intilligence. This all sounds great, but are we activily teaching to facilitate the skills and values that will help our learners to cope in this technology enriched world? 

This is where thinking about lesson planning can help. Technology will never be able to replace a good teacher, but to be a good teacher we have to make sure that our lessons are future proof, innovative and challenging. Just teaching from the textbook is not good enough anymore! Even if we are on a time challenged schedule!

When we write down what we have to teach in the form of a lesson plan, we can use a critical lens of reflection to see....

• Does my lesson just cover the subject topic's learning objectives or does it stretch my learners' imagination , creativity and teach them to work together to solve future problems? 
• Is my lesson fun? We HAVE TO plan for fun!!
• Did I use technology to do things that actually could have been done better using old methodology or... did technology inspire my learners to interact with each other and the content in a more engaged FUN way? 
• Is my lesson learner centered?
• How can technology assist in learners taking more responsibility for their learning and to be more creative? 
  
  

If we look at lesson plans as a way to bring all of the above into our classrooms, it can be a great strategy for renewal and getting us out of any boring routine we may find ourselves in. So, you can use this competition as a way to explore how lesson planning can bring back your teaching "vuma"! 

(If you have not entered the competition yet, quickly go and do so now! www.ispasuperteachers.co.za) 

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-

If you want to print out the instructions download the PDF tutorial walkthrough here: