SHAWCO Academic Interventions

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Cravenby SS won the WC debating competition on Saturday and will go to the National competition in JHB in October. This happen in the school holidays so Nabeela Gafoor will be in JHB representing Cravenby Senior. Well done Nabeela and Cravenby.

Local teacher’s tech skills celebrated countrywide

2016-03-01 06:00



Gafieza Ismail, a teacher of Spine Road High School, won the national award for Excellence in Technology-enhanced Teaching and Learning. PHOTO: Lerato Maduna/ Die Burger
Gafieza Ismail, a teacher of Spine Road High School, won the national award for Excellence in Technology-enhanced Teaching and Learning. PHOTO: Lerato Maduna/ Die Burger

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Gafieza Ismail, an English teacher at Spine Road High School, who won the national teaching award for Excellence in Technology-enhanced Teaching and Learning, was recently honoured by Debbie Schäfer, provincial education minister.

The Department of Basic Education presented the 16th national teaching awards in Gauteng on Saturday.

Schäfer says: “We are delighted at Ismail’s success. She provides an outstanding example of a teacher who is dedicated to ensuring that her learners realise their potential.

“She provides an excellent example of a forward-looking teacher who understands the potential of using technology to enhance and support teaching and learning and she has demonstrated powerfully the important role that teachers have to play in the lives of young people, and the role that technology can play in supporting their education.

“We also congratulate Spine Road High School for providing leadership in this field, by allowing Ismail the freedom to experiment and develop best practice.”

Schäfer says the provincial government views e-learning as a game changer, and is therefore investing heavily in providing access to e-learning across the province.

“We will learn from Ismail’s example as we expand access to the future of education in this way. The Western Cape education department nominated Ismail for the national teaching award after she won the top teaching award in this category in the Western Cape last year,” she says.

CitationIsmail’s citation for the Western Cape award reads as follows:

“This young, very energetic and extremely dedicated English subject teacher, with eight years of experience in teaching, has embraced the use of information communication technology (ICT) in the enhancement of teaching in its totality.

“With only four years of teaching English to Grades 11 and 12 learners at Spine Road High School behind her, she has transformed her approach to teaching the subject and has incorporated ICT in all aspects of the curriculum.

“She is currently the head of administration at the school and the ICT coordinator and also provides training on e-learning at the school and in the district. She has conducted workshops on ICT for the district office and has also conducted workshops for the Progressive Principals Association focusing on the application of ICT in the classroom.

“In her classroom, the ‘Apple room’, Ismail uses the 25 Apple laptops and a Smartboard assigned to her to teach learners research skills and also to make electronic resources available to them.

“Learners have been taught the skills to use creative software and to structure documents and presentations. She introduced learners to software that aids their studying and note taking.

“She also initiated peer-tutoring programmes for her subject where stronger learners assist the weaker ones. She makes extensive use of video technology to teach in class and uses technology as part of revision and assessment.

“Her use of e-resources and a technology-enhanced approach to the teaching of English has brought rich rewards to her and the school. In 2013 the school received the award for the Most Improved in English Home Language and in 2014 the school received the highest average in English Home Language in Mitchell’s Plain and attained the first 100% pass rate in Grade 12 in Mitchell’s Plain.

“She currently has two teaching blogs, projecting her professional and creative development and allowing for greater exposure for the school and education. The blogs also allow learners to access educational and school content in her absence. Learners are therefore never left behind. She also has an Instagram account with her register class.

“An excellent innovation is the audio recording of her lessons for her Grade 12 learners. This allows learners to play back the lesson and do an analysis of what was taught. She also provides information on flash disks which allows learners to go back on previous aspects of the subject.

“Colours play a major role in the development of learning materials. In that way slower learners are assisted. This ties in with her philosophy of the holistic development of the child by incorporating all the senses of learning. She creates her own electronic resources for her subject.

“The resources are individualised and structured for the specific use of teaching. She shares these resources with the teachers in the subject department and in doing so, becomes the champion of the integrated approach to teaching and learning, especially focusing on the integration of technology.

“Outside the classroom, she started a motivational club, called Ins.P.I.R.E. (Inside people is real education). Through the club, she equips learners with the skills to articulate their emotions through the art of poetry and song.

“She also started a blog for learners where they post their own poetry. This blog has become a platform for expression and communication.

“She always encourages her learners to expect the best from themselves in spite of the many negative socio-economic conditions that they are faced with daily.

“She is an inspirational role model to teachers, learners, parents and the community. She is a pioneer of the digital classroom at her school and her district; she strives to ensure the equitable roll-out of technology whilst supporting and equipping educators with the skills to use technology effectively. Ismail is a worthy recipient of this award.”

Saturday School Orientation went well and we at SHAWCO UCT would just like welcome our new learners to the programme. It's going to be a great year.

SATURDAY SCHOOL HELPERS : We are in need of a previous Saturday School Learner to deliver a 10 min speech on Satuday the 30 Jan 2016.

This speech should be about how Saturday School impacted your current studies / life ect....

Please email short speech to [email protected]

SHAWCO Saturday School is starting their Orientation process on Saturday 30/01/2016 and we are so excited...

All leaners need to be at RW James building, Lecture theatre 1, Upper Campus.

Appliactions for or 4th and final batch is now available for application. Those who are still wanting to apply, may do so. applications are available on the SHAWCO web page: www.shawco.org/index.php/academic-interventions-unit
or email: SHAWCO SHINE Administrator -Cheryl Patel (t) 0214047709 (f) 0216506451 (Email) [email protected]
SHAWCO Head Office: (t) 0214066740 (f) 0214066741

Congratulations to all the matriculants.... Especially the SHAWCO matrics.... We at SHAWCO are very proud that you guys have been succsessfull.

The SHAWCO Academic Intervention Unit will be away on our annual year end closure.
applications for the SHINE programe for 2016 may be downloaded from our website: www.shawco.org (Shawco home page click AIU tab, under Shawco Shine, click Applications. Applications for Gr 10, 11 and 12 can be downloaded)
We at SHAWCO would like to wish all our staff, learners, stakeholders and members, a safe and prosperous festive season.
May we all reflect on the past year and smile on our achievements.

Love and light
Cheryl Patel

Check out the SHAWCO shine add for saturday classes in your local paper.

Most school will be distributing there final results next week. Question: have you considered extra classes. If you have been struggling with Grades 10, 11, 12... maybe the SHAWCO Academic Intervention Program will meet your requirements.
SHAWCO SHINE Administrator -Cheryl Patel (t) 0214047709(f)02165064517709 (Email) [email protected]
SHAWCO Head Office: (t) 0214066740 (f) 0214066741

The Closing date is extended to the 15 January 2015

Closing Date for 2016 applications is 04 December 2015....