My own challenges and opportunities

If I think about the challenges in my personal life, I would say that combining my work, my family and the training course was a huge challenge. luckily I have some wonderful colleagues, friends and family. They have helped me to make it through. Also at the training course I have come to meet some wonderful people, and together with them I have made it this far.

Challenges at my workplace: At my school we are trying to do a lot of administration digitally, because at this moment a lot of administration like marks etc, is filled in manually and it can be strenuous. But not everybody is happy because some of them still do not see the benefit of using technology, so what we have to do, we have to convince these colleagues to use ICT.

At the course I would say that one of the challenges was to work in a group, sometimes a lot of problems occurred because they did not keep their promises if it came to working on the assignments etc. But it was also an opportunity for me with regard to my leadership skills, which was to be able to let the group work together through it all. So after the assignment was done, I felt satisfied that even though it was not always simple to work together, we still did it.

One of the projects I am particularly proud of is the project of module 17 with regard to one of the MDG's, in our case it was decent work and economic growth we did a project about teaching students how to write a business plan and in this way encouraging entrepreneurship.

We started from the bottom and the result was amazing.

Module 10: Lesson Plan

In this module we had to write a lesson using 21st century skills.

This lesson plan was to be written according to a template which we received.

This is the     Lesson Plan Degrees of Comparison   which I submitted for Mr. Fred.

During the practical lessons at school, we also had to deliver some lesson plans. These lesson plans had to be executed during school hours in the classroom.
Before making a lesson plan we got some INSTRUCTIONS and the lesson plan had to be written on this TEMPLATE

My tutor was Mr. Andy Plak.

During this time I submitted Lesson plan Access

Before that I delivered this  Lesson Plan Samenvatting (Summary)

Module 13 : Educhange

In this module we had to collaborate with stakeholders to identify and address a local problem for which education can create a positive effect.

As SDG we choose " Decent Work and Economic Growth.
Our project was about teaching students of the economy stream of IMEAO-3 who are in their final year to write a business plan.

Our stakeholders were:

- The school (IMEAO-3)
- The students
- The Ministry of Education
- The Ministry of Trade and Industry
- The Chamber of Commerce.

The project was successful thanks to the effort of my group members and the different stakeholders.

You can see the whole  development of the process here

We also worked on this document.

Here are some impressions.

                         This was at the start of the project. Talking to one of the stakeholders.

                                   Student engagement

                            The students presenting what have been taught to them so far.

                              Last day of the project. Students getting their certificate.

ROLE PLAY Stakeholder engagement for buy-in.

During this module we also had to do a stakeholders' interview. The goal was to see an interaction between the stakeholders, using an interactive format of stakeholders' engagement, a round table discussion where you present your project in front of a small assembly of stakeholders.

Role play stakeholder engagement

Using ICT's to Enhance Learning

A Project we did was called " Encouraging English Elementary School".

Our goal was to develop methods, systems, tools, services, products etc. in order to encourage learning, in this case English, at a fun, educational, entertaining and easy way,. We came up with a prototype which is a method where, by using karaoke, the pupils  learned new words and  made sentences with these words.

The target groups were students of the 5th grade, because in Suriname teachers start teaching English at the 5th grade, so to pupils between 10 - 12 years.  

You can watch the blog  here .   For the project we did this presentation   and used this ICT Tool

We also made this video  of the project.

As a teacher I started to use ICT's in my classroom and also encouraged students to do so.

For example, I had to explain some economical terms like "inflation", GDP etc  so what I did was I made groups of three to four students. I asked each group to do some research, and explain it to me at the next lessen. The students came up with videos from Youtube, Khan Academy etc.

I noticed that the students are also very interesd in ICT, because previously students  used only tradional methods for a presentation, but nowadays they use a lot of ICT's, One assignment they are doing now is to write a simple business plan and present it. Some students used a mixture of traditional tools and ICT's. 

One group's business plan was about a child care center. This group created a play room and used ICT's to develop and present their business plan.

TechCamp

I participated at TechCamp 2015, organized by the American Ambassy and the Backlot.

TechCamp focused on using technology in innovative ways in the education system. TechCamp participants and trainers came up with ideas on how to solve problems regarding infrastructure in schools (no internet) and how to encourage collaboration among teachers across Suriname who want to make a difference in the educational system by using ICT's in their classroom.

For a closer look, visit : 

http://ow.ly/UQu1w

Certificate Cohort 1

CERTIFICATE FIRST YEAR

On the 28th of October, I received my certificate for ICT in Education (year 1).

It motivates me to continue. I also hope to finish the second year successfully.

Module 2 Project "Encouraging English Elementary School

Encouraging English Elementary School

Our goal was to develop methods, systems, tools, services, products etc. in order to encourage learning, in this case English, in a fun, educational, entertaining and easy way. We came up with a prototype which is a method where, by using karaoke, the pupils (from the elementary school) learned new words and made sentences with these words. Afterwards we practice conversations.  

Looking at the reactions of the target audience, we could conclude that the project was a success.

A group's picture.

A summary of our project