Canada

Reflecting on some of the projects that caught my eye at the World Innovative Teacher Finals in Brazil 2009… by Fiona Beal

This was a music project done by two very friendly Canadians…I can’t remember the details though. They also did some recording while we were there and Wellington from Nigeria was lucky enough to be included!

Cheryl from South Africa was delighted to meet the author of the book that she based her project on (High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them by Jean-Francois Rischard) . He was Vice-President of the World Bank till recently – and was the final speaker at the conference. (He has apparently completed and submitted an 18 page assignment to Trevor Manuel for South Africa.)

‘SCA’s Young Voices have established an online virtual community to showcase collaborative local, national and international school based projects. The Young Voices portal acts as a forum for students to ‘voice’ and share their opinions, discuss contemporary issues and express their culture whilst sharing others’. This project won the Community section.

Ant behaviour…

Quite a few Maths projects

To be or not to be… tolerant: That is the question Make students conscious of the impact the Holocaust had world wide, through analysis of its causes and consequences in the past, present and future.

He invented a ‘Newton’ that can answer any question about Newton using Windows Messenger… has won awards in about six countries…teachers flock to learn from him at his school in Singapore…but he didn’t win a place at the Innovative Finals!

Fruit-growing in Brazil

Would love to know what this one was about.

The science of bread-making…

For the students ‘we wanted them to consider environmental assets existing in their communities. Our desire was for students to start to understand the concepts behind sustainability - we needed to start with the known and then move outwards. We decided to shape a unit of work around a topic familiar and then gradually draw the connections and develop deeper thinking as students became comfortable with the learning process’. Huge collaboration here. (He won)

The project utilised game based learning as a context for learning within 6 cluster primary schools, concluding in an innovative transition event involving activities using Guitar Hero. On transfer to secondary school the pupils continued their use of the game as a context for learning and social interaction. Huge collaboration (he came second)

I was quite surprised that this project came second in one of the categories because it did not seem innovative to me since I have initiated such a project twice in the last six years!

This project from the USA won the Content section. This same two-teacher group competed in the World Finals two years ago – 2007. ‘Students were given a tic-tac-toe project guide that focused on the Industrial Revolution. Students could select three projects in a row, in a column, or across a diagonal. The projects were varied to allow for differences in learning styles as well as allowing students to use various technologies.

Maths using the tablet PC - Singapore

There were so many more….70 altogether …but that’s all for now!