Knyp die Katz in die donker

A phone call.....Esangweni.....again. I answered the call. Donald Katz contacted me again about an Interactive Whiteboard not working. The educator teaching in the room was upset that she could not use the board whole day. Ok. That was surprise number one. I went there late in the day to help her. Unfortunately the key for the door could not be found, but she would not let me go. “We will find a way to open the door. You dare not leave”, she said. I was being held “hostage” here. After a long while we had to give up and as a result I had to promise I will stop there first thing tomorrow morning. What I liked about this lady was her tenacity to not let go and she is committed to use the Inter Active Whiteboard.

Off to the lab and surprise! Donald Katz was busy assisting some maths educators using Master Maths. A new educator was learning how to register learners. Another educator was busy with some Maths Literacy modules (the lady in the light blue jacket) while the third educator was busy going through modules on sequences and series. I believe that this is the type of school we want where educators are taking the initiative to teach each other. Also, educators who are willing to learn and to share will move this school forward. What did I have to do? Sit and watch him do his stuff.

Mr Mbotshelwa, the principal, was happy his school is moving along and after attending the iNET conference he was in good spirits. He and Mrs Phike have met new friends from overseas. Mrs Phike, the deputy, is happy that things are up-and-running at school but complained that the facilitators are not giving her personal attention, particularly science. But that is another story.....

TextBooks + EIAWB + LAB = Curriculum Delivery

Textbooks were delivered to some schools in the EMDC East Helderberg Area and EMDC Overberg after a free donation was received. These textbooks are brand new and can be used together with the EIAWB and the LAB to ensure the availablity of a wide spectrum of resources.

Seen with Khanya Facilitator Albie Smith, who transported the books to the schools, are Temperance Town PS educators Mr Sharief Davids and Mr G Louw and at Bloemenhof PS, near Riviersonderend, is the principal, Mr Danie Maloy and some learners.
Mrs Gaynor Krynauw of Books24/7 donated the books and Mrs Karin Pieterse from GBPS collected the books and delivered it to Khanya facilitator Albie Smith to distribute.

CCM = S (Care, Clean, Maintenance = Sustainability)

Taking care of ICT equipment together with frequent cleaning operations, will result into a habitational continuous maintenance program that will ensure Sustainability of all electronic equipment in a school.

Dust and negligence are factors to be attended to and must be eliminated. Start to be creative and put a wooden block or brick (wrapped in colourful paper or contact) under a plug and get learners to be responsible to clean e.g. the air filter of a data projector with a toothbrush, wash it and put filter in sun for an hour or two and fit it again in data projector.

Lengthen and Strengthen the life expectancy of your school' equipment !!

Albie S = Sustain

Meeting place of the minds

Mr Yali of Intlanganiso Secondary School has taken to using the IAWB in his maths lessons in the classroom. He had just completed a lesson on numbers (natural numbers, integers, irrational numbers, rational numbers) and was introducing the coordinates being plotted on a cartesian plane. We quickly installed freeware such as Graph and Geogebra for him to continue during the next lesson.

The grade eleven had a double period doing sequences and series. Mr Yali called learners to the board to explain their solutions. They were happy to comply. With a little more help the learners will become better instructors. The collaboration between peers while working on the board bodes well for a school who had a 67% pass rate in mathematics.

Off to the science classroom where Ms Dlova with her grade 9 class constructing formulae by using the periodic table. Using the Croc clips software she quickly got an electronic form of the periodic table and merrily explained how to put elements together to get compounds. While discussing different possibilities of how to approach the subject we needed to use the laptop while learners were taking down the examples explained. We quickly found the picture freeze button and went ahead to discuss the use of some applets in her teaching.

This school is using their IAWB technology while their lab is being revamped. This school will go far because of educator such as Xolile and Zodwa.