It’s not every day that American multinational software corporation, Microsoft pays a visit to a Roodepoort primary school.
That was more or less the case on Friday 31 May when Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNetSA and an administrator of the Partners in Learning (PIL) Network for Microsoft paid a visit to the school to monitor the progress of the exciting African Storybook Project.
According to Yolandi Ferreira, who is an English educator and the coordinator of the African Storybook Project at the school, “We want to encourage pupils to read for enjoyment.
“We have just completed our online course on Digital Storytelling and now we are waiting for stories suitable for Grade 3 students around Africa to read to be submitted from teachers and schools in South Africa by Friday 21 June.
“It is planned that these stories will be displayed on the African Storybook Project website when it is launched in July”.
Megan added that, “The kids are so excited about writing a story for a genuine audience and purpose. They have been told that only the best ones will make it to the website – so they are really keen to make sure that their stories are good.
“The portal of stories will be great – but the African Storybook Project is also doing worthwhile work in terms of encouraging good writing. Thanks to Yolandi and Nolene (computer teacher from Laerskool Helderkruin) for running with this project at their school and presenting such a fantastic lesson.
“We would like them and anyone else who is writing with a class to consider entering their Learning Activity for the Microsoft Innovative Educator: Expert Competition. The way teachers plan and present their story writing lessons at their school will be unique and really worthy of using for the competition”.
If you would like to find out more about your class writing a story for the African Storybook project and the incentive for the school that submits the most usable stories see the blogpost There’s still time to submit a story suitable for a Grade 3 reader for the African Storybook project.
• Details: Visit the website www.schoolnet.org.za or phone Megan on 011 403 5777 or Laerskool Helderkruin on 011 764 2506.
