CHALLENGES FACING TEACHERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY• Break through the generation gap

• Update teaching methodologies

• Align with technological advancements

• Challenge a dynamic, global and cybernetic student

• Effectively communicate the standards and demands set forth by the Education Ministry

• Increase the amount of hours that students will devote to studies

• Develop a Science and Math culture

• Innovate to do away with classroom boredom and absenteeism

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INNOVATION

Educational systems must respond dynamically to the needs of a student population that is facing the complex 21st century global challenges.

User friendly strategies and tools made available at the www.operationsuccess.com platform allow teachers to raise the Quality standards of education in the classroom and to meet the more important overall educational challenges.

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INNOVATION

Students today are reared in an environment where technology makes learning readily accessible at home and where digital content is just as real as paper, or books, or lab equipments are.

Operation Success has been designed to respond to the interests and preferences of a student population that belongs to the cybernetic generation (Generations X, Y and Z). These young people live immersed in the sphere of computers, the Internet, Xbox, PSP, Play Station, etc…

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O-S STRATEGIES:

• ALIGN TO O-S

• REVIEW AND PLAY

• O-S INTERNATIONAL CONTENT

• O-S TEACHERS CHAT AND FORUM

• MATH + SCIENCE = SUCCESS

• MY STUDENTS

• GET SET HERE

• ONLINE TUTORING

• MICROSOFT COURSES

• REPORTS

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ALIGN TO O-S

This module is designed as a teachers’ support tool regarding Education Ministry standards and demands that must be met in the classroom. The program entails the awarding of educational trips to teachers who remain in compliance with all alignment and quality standards.

Here teachers find a guide of the subjects to be covered, the contents that will be presented in the classroom and the itinerary that must be followed. These materials may be viewed in the classroom via the Internet, or printed from the OS platform in order to discuss them.

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ALIGN TO O-S

In this fashion, the section becomes a structured framework for teachers as they motivate students to invest additional time in homework after the regular school hours. This phase is the core of the section REVIEW AND PLAY.

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REVIEW AND PLAY

Students use this section after school hours, and here they review what was presented that day in class. While they do so, they compete for prizes awarded each week: computers, software, pre-paid mobiles and other electronic equipment. Every Friday a winner is announced in the OS Winners section.

Using these strategies, teachers see an increase in the hours their students dedicate to after-school study, a structured alignment with the Ministry of Education demands, and an improved atmosphere in the classroom, much more attractive and motivating for both the students and the teachers.

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“They practice all week after school, investing 4 to 5 hoursin addition to the time they spent in the classroom, and that is impossible to achieve with regular homework.”Prof. Yolanda RiveraSchool: Lysander Borrero Terry O-S Puerto Rico

“They’re enthused, entertained, and now they ask me for help. They never asked for help before, but now they do.”Prof. Luis FuentesO-S Chile

“I’m amazed that the kids spend up to 2 hours solving problems when with me, after a regular hour in class, they’re already tired.”Prof. IES VillablancaO-S Spain

“Every afternoon they study what was presented that morning in class. It’s great.”Prof. Natividad CerezoIES María de Molina, O-S Spain

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INTERNATIONAL CONTENT

Educational content is no longer limited to videos, books, or educational films. Present day technology allows a teacher to publish, share and download global contents. This OS section makes it easy for teachers to share an unlimited range of information that they may bring to the classroom. Indeed, the new technologies help teachers reach the wide array of subjects that their students are interested in.

INTERNATIONAL CONTENT, together with the CHAT AND FORUM FOR OS TEACHERS, widen the opportunities that teachers may use to prepare their students for a competitive globalized world.

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MATH + SCIENCE = SUCCESS

Today’s favorite and better paid careers demand highly sharp Math and Science skills.

To promote Math and Science among students there’s no strategy as effective and with such a powerful impact as the OS ADVENTURES competitions.

In the COMPETE segment, students make use of their Math and Science skills to vie for fabulous adventures to be experienced together with a mentor, or OS super- hero.

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MATH + SCIENCE = SUCCESS

The challenge is so intense that it captivates all students while it heightens their interest in these subjects.

At the end of the semester, the winner will represent his/her homeland in an international Math and Science competition called THE MAX. The first prize is a safari- like luxury adventure in South Africa or a travel adventure in Australia.

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“I don’t like Science, nor Math, but through these competitions for adventures I’ve found out that I’m pretty good at Sience and Math.”Silvana Romero, O-S Puerto Rico

“It’s like playing, but at the same time we’re learning.”Alejandra Espinosa, O-S Colombia

“It’s very interesting, quite a motivating way to study, out of the ordinary.”Susana Osses, O-S CHILE

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MY STUDENTS

Data on student performance along the weekly Reviews and Adventures Competitions remains stored under My Students.

Based on this information, each teacher has a ‘digital portfolio’ of every one of his/her students, an invaluable resource to follow their progress, detect areas of academic strength and those where more support is needed. From this section, the teacher may keep in contact with students, congratulate them for the time and effort they are investing in O-S tests, and convey an awareness of the nearness and availability that electronic communication makes possible.

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GET SET HERE

This is the O-S virtual classroom, where we keep the whole of the programme’s curricular content, strictly aligned to requisites and standards established by the Ministry of Education.

Still, there’s a lot more to this section. Here teachers find a treasure trove of videos, ppt’s and pdf’s that will add spark to every subject presented in class, a boost for students who are usually bored with the traditional methodologies.

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GET SET HERE

Through this dynamic section students may access, any and every day of the year, the educational materials presently in use, those that were presented before, and those yet to be covered. In this fashion, their education gains in scope and continuity, grasping the development of concepts – past, present and future – well beyond what they may have or have not assimilated in the classroom.

Operation Success is an educational design based on the constructivist model - with an emphasis on the Zone of Proximal Development theoretical framework – pedagogical principles that are particularly suited to boost the efforts of those students that self-organize as they strive for academic advancement.

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ONLINE TUTORING

Another way in which O-S collaborates with teachers is through Online Tutoring. There are times when a teacher must face the difficulties posed by students with poor study habits, some who scarcely participate in class, others who show limited learning abilities, and yet others who definitely need help from a tutor in order to internalize the teaching imparted in the classroom. It is a situation that only gets worse when parents are unable to cover the cost of a private tutoring service.

Attending to this need, O-S provides online tutoring by professors who are specialists in the required curricular fields and who stand ready to help the students by means of the OS videoconference system. This service, entirely free of charge, is offered after the regular school hours.

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MICROSOFT COMPUTER LITERACY COURSES

Teachers who remain hindered in their efforts by a lack of an adequate command of computer skills, must agree on the need to raise up to the challenge of computer literacy, an asset which is not an option but a requisite for 21st century educators.

O-S offers teachers a full certification on computing and Internet use, easily and at their pace, through online Microsoft tutorials. In Puerto Rico, the O-S Microsoft program awards a laptop to each of the first 500 teachers that successfully complete the certification process.

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REPORTS

In order to be able to monitor the progress of students participating in Operation Success, a system for the filing and updating of reports on student perfomance was designed. The more relevant reports are:

•

Amount of hours a student puts into OS studies after 

the regular classroom work.

•

Amount 

of 

exams 

completed, 

for 

each 

test 

and 

subject 

matter, 

during 

the 

Weekly 

Reviews 

and 

during the Online Competitions.

•

Amount of 

exams, for 

each 

test 

and 

subject 

matter, 

that 

were 

not 

approved 

during 

the 

Weekly 

Reviews 

and during each Online Competition.

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METRICS AND RESULTS

Five years of experience in the development of the project and its establishment in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Spain, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica have shown that its claims and promises of academic improvement are real.

During 2008, responding to a request made by Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Education, an experimental research project was designed to probe the impact on academic performance achieved by Operation Success. Developed by Careme, a prestigious consulting firm based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the study was conducted over a period of 18 months.

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• Results from that study suggest that there is evidence of the relation between a high level of participation in Operation Success and an improvement in academic proficiency.

METRICS AND RESULTS

• Most teachers (89 to 99.5%) reported that O-S students improve their attitude and performance in Science and Math, as well as in their overall academic work.

• The study shows that the impact is the same regardless of gender, and also that the improved academic proficiency is real and not the result of memorizing items from the tests.

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“Students participating in O-S stand ahead of the rest by 0,5 points over 10”Alicia DelibesVice Counselor of Education Autonomy of Madrid Madrid, Spain

“Operation Success is an example of the correct use of technology.”Dr. Rafael Aragunde

Secretary of EducationSan Juan, Puerto Rico

“O-S is a vote for our youth”Alejandrina MattaEducation Vice Minister, Ministry of EducationPanamá

“It is a very important opportunity to be able to bind the young people’s interests with the whole of the school’s potential”Mónica LopezQuality Dir. National Ministry of Education Colombia

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ABOUT O-S FOUNDER

Operation Success is the brainchild of Puerto Rican filmmaker Noel Quiñones, writer and director of Flight of Fancy, an award winning film with Talisa Soto and Dean Cain in the lead roles.

Selected as Best Picture at the Renaissance City Film Festival in Rhode Island, it was also recognized as Best Latin Film at the Hollywood International Film Festival.

Shortly after the Flight of Fancy premiere, the Puerto Rico Department of Education invited Noel to return to his homeland and share his vision and professional skills with students in the rural public high schools.

That experience changed Noel’s life.

A tour of the schools intended to provide the necessary insight for his work, left him overwhelmed. Everywhere he witnessed boredom in the classroom, conflicts between students and teachers, a lack of commitment to education on the part of the students, an alarming rate of absenteeism and low motivation in students as well as teachers.

The new awareness spurred Noel to turn towards a new objective: he would strive to contribute a way to overcome this troubling situation.

From that determination OPERATION SUCCESS was born.

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