You can only give what you have [Part 2]

FINLAND EDUCATION’S SUCCESS STORY

The level of education required to qualify as a Finland School teacher! You can only give what you have. I am not saying everyone should go and get a masters degree, but I want us to see the discipline of study and research that a masters programme gives.

These teachers in Finland as researchers! They study, they look at theories of learning, they come up with new ideas of teaching etc. No wonder they have a “whatever it takes” attitude. This is an attitude that we can copy. Don’t get to hung up on teaching children in a particular way. What if it is not working? Remember, children are born eager and ready to learn. So there is no child that cannot learn!

Of course, this attitude is underpinned by a solid foundation of knowledge and continuous development. When was the last time you went to a training course that you *paid for by yourself?* With so many low cost and free training programmes out there, there should be no excuse. As an inspirational teacher, you cannot give knowledge that you do not have. What is knowledge? Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness, or understanding of something. The break is coming to an end, what new familiarity have you acquired? What new awareness or understanding are you going to use when you get back into class? Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

You will learn more about these and more when you sign up for The Outstanding Primary Teacher Course with Mrs. Sophia Ovonlen aka Mrs O.

Course Content : 10 Modules covering pedagogical content in British and Nigerian curricula, high impact teaching strategies, effective 21st century strategies for teaching Maths, Reading and Writing, Assessment strategies Behaviour and Class management strategies, ICT skills for teaching and learning, CV and interview skills, professionalism and personal branding.

*The next cohort starts on 5th June to 21st August 2021Course Format: Live sessions, self study and assessment

Course Certificate: Given on completion in grades: Pass, Merit or Distinction.

Full Course Fee: N35000 Early Bird: N30000 (Ends on 24th May 2021)

Please click this link to register: https://www.inspirationalteachersschool.org/…/ …

Fun part: Whether you are an Early Bird or not, you get a whooping discount of 10% if you use a special code when you order! So go ahead and use it. The Code is: CHARLESC

Quality Assurance: ITS is a certified UK CPD provider

You can only give what you have

Finland is a relatively small nation in Europe with a staggering record of education success. This success has baffled educators and parents all over the world. I feel there is so much to learn from them. I hope to travel to Finland one day and just seat in a classroom to learn (practically) what their teachers do so well.

I have read that teachers in Finland have a “Whatever it takes” attitude when it comes to teaching. Statistics quote that there are about 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku. These teachers are professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates and required to earn a *master’s degree in education.*

Many Finland schools are small enough, so teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else.

What struck me is highlighted in the second paragraph. The level of education required to qualify as a teacher! You can only give what you have. I am not saying everyone should go and get a masters degree, but I want us to see the discipline of study and research that a masters programme gives.

PS: This content was culled from a Training Session facilitated by the great Mrs. Sophia Ovonlen aka Mrs. O. She will be giving us some Educational nuggets for teachers on MS Teams Saturday, May 15th, 2021. Mark your Calendars! To be Continued next week

FREE TIPS FOR EFFECTIVELY CARRYING OUT ASSESSMENT ON MS TEAMS

A great week to you there! I’m sure you must be preparing to set up end of term assessment questions for your pupils that’s if you’re not in the middle of assessment week already! Wow! It seemed just like yesterday when the term started! Look how far we’ve come. You deserve accolades jor!

Today, we will briefly talk about assessment. Now I have talked about the Assignment module in MS Teams before in a previous post so you could check it out. Now I will proceed to talk about another interesting way we can assess our learners effectively on MS Teams. It’s known as Forms and you can use it for CBT(Computer Based Tests) which self-mark and show your pupils their scores after they’ve submitted their responses. It’s actually a web app and is part of Microsoft365 suite. With your pupil signed in, you don’t need to worry about knowing who submitted which response.

You can also determine who can take the assessment. If the pupil tries to share the link with an outsider(someone who is not part of your Team’s Tenant or organization) they won’t be able to take the assessment because it would require a sign in! Now there are times you may need to use Forms for public surveys or for getting people to register for your training session. We will address this practically, in a training this weekend on MS Teams. So send me a mail at talk2charles2day@gmail.com if you’re interested.

To use Forms for assessment simply open a browser, visit forms.office.com and sign in with your Microsoft username and password. Then click New Quiz at the top left corner of the page. An untitled form will show up in front of you waiting for you to enter your juicy questions. Make sure they are multiple choice question type and don’t forget to indicate the correct answer among the options. Your pupils will only see it after they have submitted. You may also add some comments. Easy right? Till Saturday when we do this practically, it’s bye

FREE TIPS ON MS TEAMS USAGE

THE POWER OF PRAISE!

Hey! We’re back! Yes, we took a short break around half-term break, then International Women’s Day (IWD) happened last week where we celebrated women in education and the spotlight was on someone who I consider my mentor, Mrs. Ovonlen aka Mrs. O.

By the way her 100 mathsquare workshop which happened on Zoom over the weekend was a huge success… She makes maths look so…easy! If you missed it don’t worry I might just share the link next time, if she permits me. I plan to host her on MS Teams soon too.

So today, I will be sharing one feature on MS Teams that can help educators who have both virtual classes and on site or in-person classroom settings.
That is the Praise feature. Yes Teams incorporates that seemingly insignificant feature and the implementation is awesome!

Every class you create on Teams has a timeline or Post area like your Facebook or twitter timeline where you can post stuff that you want your students or pupils to see. Towards the bottom of the timeline you have New Conversation. Underneath you will see a couple of helpful tools among which is Praise
Simply click it and a pop-up window will give an area where you can type what you’re praising your pupils for.
You can also mention or tag the pupils just like you do on Facebook and other social media! Teams is so cool right?

After you’re satisfied with the preview, you may go ahead and post it.
If you’ve never used it before and you work with MS Teams, give it it a try. You’ll see the wonders it does for the children. They are literally proud of their achievement and you effortlessly get them to do activities like reading that will help them but which they might find uninteresting and mundane.

If you are not on Microsoft365, tell me, what are you waiting for?
We can’t wait for you to join us! MS Teams is the future of distance learning. It will not replace learning in-person totally but it’s not planning to go away soon either. Embrace it!
Till next time, bye!

WHY YOUR VIRTUAL SCHOOL NEEDS TO BE IMPLEMENTED ON MS TEAMS

Wow! It’s good to be back! The weekend was an awesome one for you I hope. It was a great one for me and a couple of professionals who joined me on the Skill Gifted Instructors . Skill Streams Microsoft365 Teams’ Tenant for a training session. It was a real eye-opener for them as we explored the awesome features of Microsoft Teams. When we talk about it here, it seems so farfetched but when we demonstrate those tips in a session like the one we had over the weekend, it is a different ball game altogether! Make sure you do not miss the next one! In this episode, I just want to show us some reasons why we need to implement virtual school using MS Teams as our platform app of choice.

#1 It is very secure. Security is something that is top priority for all organizations. You do not want a scenario where your school information is compromised by a data breach by a hacker or virus attack. Microsoft Teams takes advantage of Microsoft’s Security Infrastructure. All your recorded classes stay within your Tenant and no one outside your organization can view them or gain access to them.

#2 You increase your revenue. With COVID-19 came the need for distance learning. Yes we are gradually settling for physical school again, however, there will still be parents who opt for virtual school. If you do not have a virtual school service offering, you will lose this market segment completely. You do not want that. So go for a hybrid where you can attend to both physical and virtual classrooms!

#3 No Time Limits On Meetings. We all know the time limits imposed by apps like Zoom. If you want unlimited time, you need to upgrade and buy a license. With MS Teams, you get unlimited time on ALL your meetings and you do NOT pay a dime if you have verified your domain and have your school registered as an Education Account. You enjoy 100% on unlimited faculty and student Office A1 licenses.

#4 Everything you need is in one place! Yes. Teams is a hub where you have access to all of Office365 offerings including your favourite apps like MS Word, MS PowerPoint, and MS Excel! All of them are available online meaning that you can create documents on the cloud and access them from any device you connect to. Also you can give Assignments, grade them and give feedback all on the same app you use to have your virtual classes or make calls. The best part is that as the children do their assignments, their skill level increases and they are better prepared for tomorrow’s marketplace using these apps that have redefined the way we do business these days.

#5 Excellent Virtual Classroom Management Features. I have talked about this in one of my previous posts. As a teacher or meeting organizer, Teams gives you full control over your meeting. You can prevent your participants from unmuting their microphones and restore sanity to your meetings.

Do you still need to be convinced as to why you should use MS Teams for your school’s virtual classrooms? Then watch this space, because we will have more sessions where we will be exploring the Microsoft365 Apps and Services in greater detail. Now you might think this is only for educators, but we have had a couple of professionals from corporate world join us on these sessions. However, our priority is Office365 for Education. Do NOT wait one more second! Join the Microsoft Teams family today!

FREE TIPS FOR MS TEAMS USERS Still on Virtual Assessment Strategies & Code Of Conduct

Happy midterm break week! Some of us will be taking a break after a week of creating assessments, conducting it and grading it. Not forgetting the uploading of scores. It can be tedious, I know so we all deserve a break.

This Friday, if you are available, let’s have a practical session on MS Teams. All you need are a device, laptop preferably that has MS Teams installed and you need an active internet connection. Send me an email at talk2charles2day@gmail.com if you meet those requirements. It’s free. You need to practice these tips we’ve been talking about so far!

Let’s proceed to round up on assessment code of conduct. In addition to all I mentioned in my last post, you MUST NOT FORGET TO RECORD YOUR MEETINGS ESPECIALLY WHEN CONDUCTING ASSESSMENT!!!You wonder why I am emphasizing it right? Well, it’s because of what you could do with the recording.

1. It can be used as evidence in a case of exam malpractice. With the child’s camera on and mic unmuted, everything gets captured by MS Teams recorder. So no hiding place. The child’s eye movements and screen flickering before their faces can suggest they are going to other sites to get answers!

2. It can be used for research. Yes. You as a teacher want to conduct better assessments. By observing what went on while watching the recording you can put few things in place to have better assessments online or offline. A child may ask a question about one of your assessment questions that would get you thinking, “Hey, maybe I would have asked that question in a different way or maybe the options were not clear enough…”Yes research is very important. It is one of the reasons, Nigeria is yet to get things right. But we will get there!

Okay, I’ll stop here for now. Don’t forget to send me an email to book a spot for our Friday practical MS Teams Training Session. Make sure you enjoy your midterm break okay? You deserve to! Cheers!

FREE TIPS FOR MS TEAMS USERS #3 Virtual Classroom Management

Halo I am back! Do you remember the website I shared with you in my precious post? Well, I am thrilled to announce to you that our organization (Skill Streams) has been verified by Microsoft as a MQAI (Microsoft Qualified Academic Institution)!
That website I shared was very instrumental to the verification process. Time won’t permit me to go into details in this post but you can read more about the news and it’s far-reaching implications here: https://catchcharlesblogging.wordpress.com/…/major…/
Alright I know you cannot wait to read today’s post! I’ve been consistent right? Yeah it’s not been easy and again I thank the admin for approving it here.
Moving on, today, I wish to continue on classroom management features of Teams. So far we have looked at Effective Assignment Management strategies in episode 1. We then looked at virtual classroom management using Meeting options feature in episode 2.
This time let us examine another virtual classroom management feature in Teams. By the way, if you have not started using Teams, and all the Microsoft365 services it brings to you, I don’t know what you are waiting for oooh!
Ok, let’s talk! Today’s feature is relatively new. It’s called Don’t Allow Attendees Unmute. Yeah…simple right? You just don’t have the faintest idea of what that small feature can do for you as a teacher in a virtual class.
In my workplace we run a hybrid system. That is both online and onsite pupils are receiving instructions and learning at sane time by same teacher with support of the IT admin and a second teacher in class. Picture that for a moment…
Now if you have followed my posts so far, then you can now make your kids to be attendees upon entry to virtual classroom on Microsoft Teams. However, some naughty pupils may decide to just unmute their microphones at will. The thing dey sweet dem like DAT.. please pardon my pidgeon Engliah 
Some accidentally unmute when you’re in the middle of your interesting numeracy class and ruin everything you worked so hard to put together and deliver up till that point.

So how do you stop this misfortune in its tracks? Simply click on Show Participants at anytime during your class when you need absolute quietness. Then click the 3 dots aka ellipsis or more options menu at the top right corner next to the X [close]. You will see our Dont Allow Attendees Unmute feature sitting there, waiting to be clicked.
After a modal popup window shows asking if you are sure about what you want to do, you will suddenly hear the SILENCE! Everyone’s mic will be muted and disabled so the pupils cannot unmute! Yaaay!
Please NOTE: It will only disable unmute functionality for those kids who are attendees at the time of activation! So make sure you read my previous post on Meeting Options to find out how to make kids attendees before your virtual class even starts. Now do not forget to go click the Allow Attendees Unmute feature shortly before you need to ask your class a question or expect some form of participation/response.
Any teacher in your class can use this feature and help you while you present your beautiful, loaded lesson PowerPoint slides in PEACE!
You may also use this in your online staff meetings. Some adults too do not know when to unmute or are relatively new to MS Teams.
Trust me, you need it! Okay I gotta go now! If you have any questions or contributions please feel free to ask in the comment section!
Till next time, keep enjoying your Microsoft Teams and Office365 services!

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT FROM SKILL STREAMS!

Yes! We are proud to announce that our Microsoft365 tenant is alive and well! Part of the contributors to our success story is this beautiful website in the picture below! I know you are thinking but what can a mere website do?

Well, in our case it did a lot for us and I will try my best to capture the capacity of our Microsoft 365 tenant.

1. We can take up to 500,000 Faculties aka Teachers!
2. Now get ready for this… we can host a million, yes 1,000,000 students!

IMPLICATION? We can host your virtual school online and run all and I mean ALL the admin tasks for you while you and your staff just focus on doing the Awesome job of raising the next generation of Leaders! Awesome right? All you need to do is install MS Teams and we will give you the usernames and passwords that give you and your staff access to ALL the goodies from Office365!

Secondly, if you want, for a fee, we can help you set up your own Microsoft 365 tenant! It is not easy but yes we can do it together! We would consult for you!

Thirdly, as an academic organization, school or business we can help you host your virtual meetings. We can arrange the minutest of details including time schedules and keep notes, do all the attendance management and all the dirty work in the background for you! All you and your staff need to do is well…do your meetings! Your data is safe with Microsoft Azure Cloud services and Security is tight! Can you beat that?

We are so EXCITED! More news on this in posts to come! Bye for now!

In the meantime check out the website that won us the approval from Microsoft! http://skillstreams.somee.com

FREE TIPS FOR MS TEAMS USERS #2 Virtual Classroom Management

Good day! I trust the weekend was restful and well utilized. Remember, you are doing a great job preparing the next generation of leaders. It’s not a small task. You deserve accolades!

The first in this series was well received and I would love to read your observations in the comments. Did the Assignment feature we discussed help you? Why would you recommend it to other teachers who teach children who use Teams to learn from home? Okay, let’s move to today’s feature which is very useful for managing your virtual classroom Microsoft Teams. I will talk about Meeting Options feature. It is a life saver! You will not understand the benefits until you are in a meeting or class and a child or adult participant decides to mute you when you are trying to explain a very important concept to your class. In some other worse scenarios, the erring participants or student might make you become an attendee which means you cannot share your screen or even present your material to your class. Effectively, your class has been taken over by a terrorist and your day totally ruined! But that doesn’t have to be your story you know! Here is a feature in MS Teams that prevents participants in your meeting from successfully executing their coup d’etat in your virtual classroom. Now, it is very easy to use. First I strongly suggest that you create a meeting from inside your Class Team using the schedule a Meeting tool under Meet Now (at the top right of your laptop screen as of the time of putting up this post. Yes Microsoft moves things around to achieve a better User Experience with MS Teams).Next, after you have added your required attendees (some erroneously think this makes every participant an attendee. Don’t fall for that booboo!) and taking care of the start time and frequency of the meeting amongst other details, click Save at top right of your laptop screen. Bravo your meeting has been created. Now click the blue rectangle that represents your meeting in the Teams post area and please take a closer look at the top centre of your screen, just beside Time Zone. You will find Meeting Options feature. Click it and your default browser will launch immediately, showing you some options which time would not permit us to talk about now, You might be required to sign in with your Microsoft 365 login details if it is your first time. The other features are pretty self-explanatory so you can experiment with them. The one I am interested in for now is Who can present option. Default is Everyone which is a recipe for disaster in your online class or meeting. Change it to Only Me. Now do not forget to click the blue Save button! That is it. You are done. Now go back to Teams meeting schedule which you are editing and click Update or Close. The coolest thing about it all is that you can do all this in the middle of an ongoing meeting or class and it will take effect immediately. All the children joining your meeting will immediately become attendees no matter when they joined, early or late. You do not have to be pausing your presentation to check if a new child just entered your class and needs to be immediately made an attendee…No…Teams handles all that for you! It frees you to focus on other aspects of Class Management and effectively deliver your virtual lesson like the Pro that you are! Now if you are NOT a Teams user, can you see what you are missing? Come on, hop on the Microsoft 365 Train and join us! Please share in the comments if this was useful to you. Till next time, it is bye bye from me! PS: After last weeks post I got busy creating my website. You may check it out and tell me your review in the comment below. You may also contact me if you need something like that.

http://skillstreams.somee.com

The Era of Online or Distance Learning

Welcome once more to my blog. Yes, I have been away for a while, no thanks to work which constantly tries to suck one into it’s never ending routine. Today, I have decided to take a break and fill you in on what I have been up to.

It’s no longer news that COVID-19 has changed the world as we knew it few months ago. Everything has been affected by this change. Some changes were favourable. However, most changes were not. The economy took a hit and experts do not even have a clue how to fix the mess that we are have experienced so far in the wake of COVID-19.

Now because literally all sectors are tied to the economy, the education sector was also affected in many ways. Sadly, teachers who have always been familiar with poor remuneration now have to either deal with none or further depleted incomes. This is because the school model changed from an onsite one to an online one which is patronized by parents whose salaries have been slashed too. Hence lower revenues for schools to do business with.

I have been busy with Online school myself. The journey has been an interesting one so far, working with different tools like Google Classroom, Zoom, Edmodo and MS Teams.

Delivering lessons and training via these platforms has not been a smooth one largely because of poor internet connection services in these parts. However, it has been interesting enabling learning to continue in spite of the lock down. Recently, I also had the pleasure of introducing some professionals, mostly educators to MS Teams and other Microsoft 365 services at a session, which was held on MS Teams. It was really impactful. They kept asking for more sessions. Here’s what the flyer looked like:

There is a need to continue offering your services this period. Learning needs to continue to avoid a learning loss that would make the summer learning loss look like child’s play. You can still have your private home lessons online using the tools I mentioned. My favourite is MS Teams. With it, you can teach anything, as long as it can be done on a computer. You can also give assignments and quizzes and get feedback. Your income is guaranteed because there’s huge demand for digital skills.

Why not join us for a session, today? I will be hosting on MS Teams too, so you will need to have it preferably installed on a Computer. We could still work with a tablet or phone. You will enjoy the features better on a computer, however. I hope I can get to chat with you one on one on MS Teams soon. You may send a WhatsApp message to +2348029749530 to book your spot. See ya!