Our month of May(hem) has almost drawn to a close, but it does mean that Junacy (June + lunacy) is not far off. This last week saw part of the team in Johannesburg, where we met with schools and organisations, interviewed teachers using technology in the classroom, and hosted evening events at St David’s Marist in Inanda, Sandton.

We touched down to a bright and sunny but very chilly Johannesburg on Tuesday 24 May, and on collection of our cars our team split into three groups and headed off to various meetings. Neels and Carine met with SAASTA‘s science awareness division, where they will be organising for us to present our resources to teachers in Gauteng. Mark had a follow up meeting with Joy Rosario at the Department of Basic Education in Pretoria, and Natalia and I went to meet with a representative from RMB who is wanting to set up a foundation for technology in education, with the focus being on pre-primary and primary school children and after hours fun education. We all met up at our BnB in Craighall (Craighall House) where we were shown to our rooms, and then headed out for a quick lunch before going to St David’s for teacher training on FullMarks and to get set up for our first evening event.

On arrival at St David’s we were met by Nicci who is the HOD of physical sciences, and who has played a huge role in organising for St David’s to host us for our three evening functions, as well as help set up teacher interviews. After being shown the auditorium and classroom for our first night of presentations, Mark and Natalia facilitated the teacher training, Neels made final preparations for his life sciences presentation, and Carine and I headed out to finalise our handouts and buy refreshments for the coming evenings.

By 18h00 we had our first arrivals for our presentations, which that evening were on life sciences and languages. The St David’s chef provided us with lovely warm finger foods for our guests. Everyone huddled inside and enjoyed the snacks, and chatted amongst themselves and to our team. We had 11 teachers present for languages, and 14 for life sciences. Mark began with a combined presentation in the auditorium, where he explained what Siyavula is all about, and what openness and sharing means to us. Neels then took the life sciences teachers next door for his presentation, and the languages teachers stayed in the auditorium for Mark’s talk. Both talks went very well, followed by much conversation afterwards as teachers asked the team for more information.

Wednesday morning saw Carine and Mark meet with the Marang Centre for Mathematics and Science Education at WITS Education. They had never heard of Siyavula before but were excited by what we do. As part of a course they offer, they will ask their students next year to critically analyse and review the content and exercises in FHSST, which will help us improve our books. They would also like to start a workgroup on FullMarks where they will share assessment items. Neels, Natalia and I stayed at the BnB working online, where we stayed cosy next to the gas fire in the lounge. We all met up for a quick lunch at Rosebank Mall, after which Mark and Carine met up with the Learning Channel. Neels, Natalia and I headed back to the BnB to work, as well as make final preparations for that night’s function. We all met up again at the school for our maths and physical science evening, where we were expecting a large turnout.

Prior to this evening’s presentation, we organised with Nicci and the school to interview her about how she is using technology in her teaching. On our trips to KZN and Johannesburg (and this will continue in Cape Town), we have approached teachers who we know are incorporating technology into their teaching, and asked if we could interview them and where possible film them using the technology in class. We would like to make these case studies available online, which will show how technology can be used effectively in teaching, while showing teachers’ experience around using the various tools available, and how they have adapted their lessons and approach to teaching since using technology. We would love to interview others, so if you (or if you know of an innovative teacher) would like to be interviewed, please let us know! Nicci was happy for us to interview her, and shared with us her experience of using technology in class.

Our maths and physical science evening saw a turnout of 56 teachers, which is a record attendance for us. Once snacks and drinks had been enjoyed by everyone Mark began his presentation which again began with and introduction to Siyavula, openness and community and sharing. This was followed by specific maths and science resources that are available online, such as the Khan Academy, PhET Simulations, and many more. Mark also showed a video of Vi Hart who has some fun maths doodles on her blog, and as everyone was keen to stay on he ended with Sir Ken Robinson’s RSA Animate talk on changing education paradigms. The evening was very successful with Mark receiving a vigorous round of applause, and teachers staying on to ask Mark’s advice, which resulted in us all staying on at least an hour after the presentation had ended!

On the Thursday morning Neels, Mark and Carine headed off to meet with Mindset, and we are now looking into a possible collaboration with them. They have an assessment bank of 20 000 questions which we can pull into FullMarks, which will really bulk up our assessment bank. Natalia and I went to St David’s, where we had organised to film the geography and one of their maths teachers teaching in class with technology. It was very interesting to see how they incorporate it into their lessons, with the geography teacher using only technology to teach, and the maths teacher incorporating both a SMART Board and traditional workbooks in her lesson. This was followed by another quick lunch, and Carine and I then left for SSB, a small private school in Randburg, where we filmed a maths teacher using technology, followed by a one on one interview with her. Here we saw the teacher allowing learners to come up and play with the programme she was teaching with, giving them a chance to experiment and interact with the various tools. We all then met up at St David’s that evening for our final presentation, which was on IT and technology integration.

Our evening function was again well attended, with a total of 21 people arriving. Mark presented the introduction, and Neels took over to present on tools that teachers can use. Neels gave a fantastic talk where he spoke from experience about using the various tools, and many resources that exist online for free. This talk was also well received, and resulted in a meeting being set up for the following morning with St John’s College. The Siyavula team then went out for a well deserved team dinner (at that stage it was almost 10pm and many restaurants’ kitchens had already closed!), where we discussed the happenings over the last few days and how everyone felt about the trip.

The team’s last morning in Johannesburg started early for Mark and Neels, as they headed off for their meeting at St John’s. This was a productive meeting which will hopefully result in another visit to Johannesburg to facilitate the compilation of their own physical science textbook on Connexions. Mark and Neels returned just in time to collect Natalia and head off to the airport, and see Carine and I before we returned to St David’s to film one on one interviews with the geography and maths teachers, and then film Nicci teaching with technology in her science class. These interviews went really well, and we were able to gain insight into how and why technology is brought into lessons and what the teachers have discovered in terms of best practice.

Overall it was a great trip to Johannesburg, with Siyavula being very well received by teachers and schools, and us gaining some great insight into technology integration in the classroom. We are now in the final stages of preparing our CAPS aligned maths and physical science textbooks for the submission for the government approved textbook list! Bring on June (acy)!

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