Developing A Digital Workbook

When schools closed at a moment’s notice three weeks ago, teachers and students were expected to immediately make a transition from the physical classroom to online learning. Not without difficulties, many teachers rose to the occasion and are now using available platforms and tools. The Ministry of Education, school networks, education organizations and municipalities are offering the teachers assistance and provide them with resources and support.

As soon as the dust began to settle, the picture that emerged is of excellent and committed teachers who made the transition effectively, while others are still lagging behind. This gap is even wider in the social and geographic periphery of Israel, in which many municipalities were not as instrumental and resourceful, schools were not as organized, and families have less access to computers and space that is needed for learning. Under these difficult circumstances, the teachers and students in the periphery who wish to use online learning, need to improvise.

Even under these difficult circumstances, the teachers of Teach First Israel, have been making a substantial effort. These are teachers that relocated to development towns and cities in the periphery in order to fill teaching positions, and now feel even more committed to keep the teaching and learning going. They report that they rely on smartphones that are available to students, send files and pictures via Whatsapp and use voice messaging and conversations. They say, however that they lack lesson plans and tasks that are adapted to this environment.

Therefore, they are proposing to issue a call for proposals to harness 20 TFI middle school mathematics teachers who are willing to join an immediate online development project. These teachers will work together with their colleagues from school, and will be guided by the Weizmann Institute to prepare together 20 mathematics assignments and lessons plans, that are suited to be used by smartphones. The assignments will be based on the current context of the Corona pandemic, and aim at a high mathematical level, aligned with the 5-6 levels of PISA.

The assignments will be tested by the teachers in their online classrooms, and following the feedback, they will prepare a digital handbook that will be disseminated via the internet and through online workshops with at least 80 additional teachers. The development and testing stage will be conducted during the coming couple of months and the handbook will be published towards the coming school year.

* The text presented above shows the grant as approved by the Foundation Board / Grant 398