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from the Advisers
David Jordan
Marallaneng School, Ficksburg
- Project Advisers Hein de Lange / Chantel Rose
- Township Secondary School G 8-12
- 189 Grade 8 students in 5 classes
Contact and training with learners, educators and
SMT
Learners were met on a daily basis from Tuesday to Friday
On Tuesday I tracked all 5 classes by drawing up a schedule
of visits to each of the 5 classes to ensure that I saw different
Learning Areas and different teachers as I wanted to assess
learning styles, the range of the curriculum and the attitude
and behavior of the students. I was able to see English, Natural
Science, Art and Culture, Life Orientation and Technology
and got to teach a class as a substitute when it was discovered
that the teacher for the class I wished to see at a certain
time was absent. It was a very rewarding experience and made
me want to go back into the classroom, having not taught at
this level for over 15 years. The students were attentive,
keen, friendly and polite. I am grateful to the G8 leader
who arranged the visits and escorted me to rooms and introduced
me to the students. At the end of the school day I talked
to all of them in the quad about what we would like from them
for the Project and I was aided by Ronald from the local radio
station who encouraged the kids to come in and broadcast.
On Wednesday Mr de Lange and I taught all the students in
four groups for an hour at a time in the computer suite. At
the present stage there are only 20 working machines, which
are neither networked nor connected to the Internet, but work
is in progress and by next week the server will be up and
running. We began the lesson with the mind map and then introduced
a number of tasks in Word: Mr de Lange and Mrs Rose had been
at the school the previous week and introduced the students
to computers for the first time so that they could all load
Word and save and retrieve a file. With 40 students in the
room and only 20 machines the students are forced to share
a chair but do so without a second glance or murmur, no-one
objects to where they are seated or with whom – this
would not be the case in the UK! The questions asked involved
discussion and reporting and the learners helped each other
with the keyboard skills: out of the 4 groups only one required
help with typing to speed things up. The questions asked included
“what 3 things they would change in their school if
they were the Director of Education” and “what
is good and bad about living in a township?”
Thursday consisted of the students organising and presenting
a range of activities from dances and singing to drama, readings
of stories, demonstrations of games and descriptions of artwork.
These were recorded using both video and digital cameras,
with the students themselves handing the equipment and making
choices. The students had chosen what they wished to present
and in the case of the drama had spent the afternoon before
planning and rehearsing under the direction of one of the
girls. When the staff saw this they were amazed and the laughter
generated by the audience during the 20-minute performance
in the quad brought in some of the workers and secretarial
staff. Although the play was in Sotho we could follow it and
the body language, facial expressions and delivery were amazing
– I only hope that the staff watching will use it as
part of their assessment for A&C.
Two SMT meetings have taken place to discuss IT policy and
to investigate their use of ICT.
Two G8 staff meetings have also taken place to set the guidelines,
discuss ideas and clarify issues.
Training issues for staff were discussed and a plan of staff
training is being developed by Hein de Lange: this will be
in addition to the work on the ICDL.
Whilst in the office I asked to see how the records for
students were created and kept and was shown the tables used
for the G9 and G12 students. I learned that SMT collected
the data by hand, drew out a table and completed the results
using a calculator before handing it to he secretaries to
type out as a table in Word! I took the initiative of asking
for a set of results and then in the evening spent a couple
of hours or so designing and creating Excel spreadsheets in
which to collate the data so that I could create graphs and
comparative records.
Staff may well need support in applying their ICT skills
to problem solving.
Sights and Sounds information gathering
Using both the video and digital camera I have been able to
record our journeys and visits, a tour of the school and all
the performances by the pupils. There is over three hours
of video and around 150-200 digital images so far!
Follow this link
for Dave's Diary Log
Reports from the Project Advisory Team
Here are some reports from the MirandaNet team: more will
follow.
- Andree Jordan,
e-Lapa Adviser for Retief High School
- David Thomas,
e-Lapa Adviser for Heilbron School, Heilbron
- Mara Chrystie,
e-Lapa Adviser for Gelukwaarts School, Van Stadensrus
- John Cuthell,
e-Lapa Adviser for Ikanyegeng Combined School, Ratanang
- David Jordan
, e-Lapa Adviser for Marallaneng School, Ficksburg
- Mara Chrystie,
e-Lapa Adviser for Unitas Welkom
- Tom Rank,
e-Lapa Adviser for St Bernard’s High School, Motheo
District
- Lawrence Williams,
e-Lapa Adviser for Retshedisitswe
Article in the Volksblad, October 28th
2004
World ECitizens Newsletter
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