Don’t tell me, show me!
The Classroom Teacher Training and Support Programme occurs for a minimum of one year in schools across Grades 4 to 12 assisting teachers to implement simple techniques to ensure better teaching and learning takes place.
Each year the dynamics in schools change – new teachers enter the teaching profession, teachers move to different grades, subjects and schools, management positions are altered – which all bring a loss of teaching continuity and momentum to the English subject teams within schools.
These factors necessitate on-going English content training of teachers in new skills and the correct use of learning and teaching support materials through:
- Uplifting, regular, fortnightly, ‘hands on’ demonstration lessons in each teacher’s own particular classroom
- Lesson, assessment and term planning.
S.M.I.L.E.’s presence and support helps to re-establish confidence, stability and focus – to motivate teachers to be the best they can be.
Trust, respect and friendship underly the relationships that are forged between the teachers and S.M.I.L.E. trainers in the teachers’ sacred space of their classroom.
I just got home from a 2 hour workshop and I’m feeling so inspired and motivated! I learnt so many valuable tools to apply to my classroom. I am so grateful for this workshop. Thanks Daniela Browne for your passion, it was such a breath of fresh air.
Thank you so much for the amazing workshop yesterday. I applied your methods in class today with my Grade 8s and for the first time I saw lightbulb moments with them in terms of poetry.
On behalf of Windsor Secondary and our Cluster we express our sincere thanks and gratitude for the informative and dynamic Workshop you conducted.
Thank you, Daniela, the workshops and resources are so enriching. We really appreciate your assistance and dedication.
Thank you for your continuous support. Very enriching and enjoyable Workshops you always present.
Your books are without doubt the most comprehensive language textbooks I have ever seen. We thank you for your hard work and dedication. It is very comforting to know that we as teachers have angels like you out there identifying the needs of our country and doing everything you can to improve the language proficiency of our learners.
We have worked through the textbooks and are really impressed by the quality of the books! This is a fantastic project where the money is well spent due to the high quality of the material.
Our teachers are very excited at the quality of the textbooks. They provide excellent scaffolding to support learning at various levels of Home Language competency and ability.
I applaud the team that managed to put together such and outstanding series. The Grade 12 book prepares learners adequately for their examination. I highly recommend this series.
Apart from the textbooks being CAPS compliant, they are visually stimulating, user friendly and relatable and very conducive to an interactive learning environment. It certainly is a privilege to be a part of a project of this magnitude.
Thank you for the awesome books, for helping us to be passionate about our subject again and for helping our learners to understand the work better.
I am very happy with the books as they are. I consider them to be one of the best textbooks available and I definitely endorse them. I have 34 years experience of teaching English.
The SMILE English Home Language Textbooks have been a huge success at our school and we would highly recommend this resource to other high school teachers.
The textbook is amazing. It is one of the best I have ever used. Well done!
It is a great privilege for our English Department to be included in your pilot programme for the Interactive English Home Language Textbooks across all grades. The strength of the SMILE textbook series is that it is highly interactive. The learners love the presentation, colour, pictures and fresh content matter while our teachers appreciate the user-friendly format and the high consistency between all the books of differing levels. It is an exceptional gift to receive these books for our learners.
We would like to thank the authors as well as the funder for their partnership and contribution in making it possible for each of our Grades 8, 9,10, 11 and 12 learners to own an Interactive English Home Language Textbook. Your textbooks have breathed new life into our lessons as the content deals with current issues which are relevant and informative.
We are indeed fortunate to have the opportunity to use these textbooks. Our learners are being elevated as language learners and credit goes to the team that complies these textbooks.
The layout of the SMILE Textbooks is superb. The learners respond well to the size of the text/ font and colour of images. The level is appropriate for English Home Language even though many of our learners are second or even third English language speakers. The SMILE Textbooks are a pleasure to use.
We are so grateful that we have been given the opportunity to use your amazing textbooks. Your books use such relatable examples for the modern teenager. The Grade 8 learners love them and the teachers do as well!
I cannot begin to tell you what a blessing it is to have the priviledge of working with these SMILE resources!
The students love your textbooks and they certainly are a dream when it comes to planning for teachers.
Thank you so much for the Textbooks. We are simply over the moon with their quality and modern touch! Thank you very much for offering to include us!