Nicci Hayes, a Drama and English teacher at Victoria Girls’ High School, was awarded second place for her Grade 8 class’ Lights Camera Action! project at the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Awards ceremony in Johannesburg on 30 June.
Nicci Hayes, a Drama and English teacher at Victoria Girls’ High School, was awarded second place for her Grade 8 class’ Lights Camera Action! project at the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Awards ceremony in Johannesburg on 30 June.
Hayes was one of three teachers from the Eastern Cape who came second in the community category. Winners received a laptop from Dell SA Development Fund and Digital Curriculum Content from Learnthings Africa and Mindset and Hayes also received a smart HTC cellphone as part of her prize.
The awards are a collaboration between Microsoft South Africa and the Department of Education. Major support is also garnered through investments by the Africa School Technology Innovation Centre (STIC), Dell SA Development Fund, SMART technologies (and its local distributor VastraTech), Learn things Africa, SchoolNet SA, Mindset and The Teacher magazine.
Trudi van Wyk, who is the national director of curriculum innovation at the Department of Education said, "The awards represent the pinnacle of work done to create local communities of teachers who can share challenges, ideas and best practice solutions with their peers, supported by Information and Communication Technology."
The Lights Camera Action! project involved making short videos for organisations that serve the community. Learners were required to find a ‘client’ who needed a video to promote the organisation, film it and edit it for them. These videos ranged from being a call for help, to raise public awareness or inform the public of how a business contributes. Hayes ays, "Flying to Jo’burg, networking and seeing how other teachers use innovative teaching was fantastic." She also said she was proud of the work her Grade 8 drama students did in making the project a success.
The winners were chosen from a host of entries submitted by teachers around the country, all of which showcased how information and communication technology can be used to make teaching in urban and rural schools more effective. The projects were independently judged on innovation in the use of technology and in teaching methods, all against the backdrop of how this positively impacts the experience of students. Out of thousands who applied and 20 finalists from all over the country, Hayes came second, beating the other four finalists in her category.
Hayes is proud of her girls as she calls them for making the project a success and she is greatful for the recognition and honouring of the work they do in Grahamstown.
