Four local teachers will represent SA in the international Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum Awards, in Finland. The teachers won the top four categories at the local leg of the competition yesterday.
Sarietjie Musgrave, of Eunice High, in the Free State; Thamsanqa Makhathini, from Mpophomeni High School, in KwaZulu-Natal; Jacqueline Batchelor, of Cornwall Hill College, in Gauteng; and Peter de Lisle, of Hilton College, in KwaZulu-Natal walked away with prizes and roundtrip tickets to compete against more than 100 teachers in the worldwide finals in Helsinki, in November.
"It's always inspiring to see the levels of home-grown innovation that our educators can create," says Trudi van Wyk, national director of curriculum innovation at the Department of Education.
Makhathini won the "context category" for the "Local is Lekker @ Mpophomeni" application. "Grade 11 learners would record research and interviews about the Mpophomeni Township pre- and post-1994, and then use their findings to create a Web site [using the application]," he explains.
Other winning projects include one that focuses on teaching analytical skills in conflict situations and prejudiced responses, a networking tool to digitally record and share dissections, and a project that saw learners utilise ICT to create awareness of the uses of indigenous plants and herbs in communities.
Microsoft SA academic programme manager Reza Bardien says the innovations were not focused on the technology per se, but rather on the way they presented a topic in a new and creative way. "The whole process on judging the applicants was based on the worldwide standards that will be used in Helsinki," he says.
"They [the teachers] are taking on their fair share of the challenges that we face in the classroom," says Microsoft SA citizenship lead Vis Naidoo.
Related story:
MS honours innovative teachers
Share
