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:

The nonprofit Digital Education Institute (DEI) has issued a call for the country's teachers to enter the 2019 ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year Competition by visiting www.ispasuperteachers.co.za.
 
Registration for one of South Africa’s longest-running annual ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) in education competitions is open – and will  close on 3 May 2019.
 
Following registration, competition hopefuls must then apply cutting-edge ICT thinking to lesson plans and submit their final lesson plan entries by 28 June 2019.
 
ICTs are bringing a new age of education to South Africa. A new era of Open Education Resources (OERs) is dawning to supplement the use of textbooks as learning resources in the classroom. This worldwide OER movement is rooted in the human right to access high-quality education.
 
This year, for the first time, the ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year Competition requires educators to create innovative curriculum-aligned, ICT-infused lesson plans. This is to showcase their prowess in using technology to enhance classroom teaching and learning. These lessons will not only be considered for the competition, but will also be shared as OER for other teachers to use in their classrooms. 
 
The prestigious ISPA SuperTeacher Competition is funded by South Africa’s Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) while The Mighty Pen Education Magazine (www.themightypen.co.za) is the media partner for the competition. This digital magazine can be viewed across a range of devices.
 
Held every year since 2001, the ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year Awards have emerged as a much-anticipated fixture of the annual iWeek Internet industry conference and exhibition. The iWeek event takes place around September each year and this year’s conference and exhibition will be hosted in Johannesburg.
 
According to project manager Milford Malunga at DEI, “The ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year Awards are well-respected in education circles, both for their longevity and for the huge role they have played in encouraging teachers to pioneer ICT.”
 
ISPA’s project has equipped over 5 000 teachers with ICT skills thanks to continued commitment from ISPA’s members who pledged their further support at iWeek in 2018.
 
In previous years, only educators who had participated in ISPA's 'Train the Teacher' ICT skills programme were eligible to submit projects for adjudication by the ISPA SuperTeacher judging panel. Opening the competition up to all educators currently teaching at schools throughout South Africa recognised that tremendous strides have been made in equipping local teachers with the kind of ICT skills that they may want to showcase, even though they may not have received these skills through ISPA and the DEI’s ICT in education interventions.
 
There are two competition categories this year and each of the ISPA SuperTeacher award-winners will receive a trophy as well as various sponsored prizes.
 
Please visit www.ispasuperteachers.co.za to register for the competition. You will find more information here on the two award categories as well as detailed competition entrance requirements.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION regarding this press release 
Contact Sharon Ries
Digital Education Institute
M:  074 743 8984

Let it not be said that we had a fake time!!!! Even though we did explore the world of fake news, went undercover and became trolls, we had an authentic learning and sharing time. As always everybody shared their experiences and wisdom and we all emerged to a safer online reality. Thank you WASPA for making this annual #waspa online safety workshop possible and giving all our teachers a time to share and learn from one another. 

The Gala dinner was indeed a very momentous affair as we were swept up and transported to another world of glitz and glamour on the waterfront! The ultimate hoghlight was of course the award ceremony where our top teachers, Matema Jacobeth Malatji, Leanne Bishop and Khatija Osman walked away with the coveted prizes. 

Let's look at a few of the moments that were captured.... 
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