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 hours
in addition to the time they spent in the classroom, and that is impossible to achieve with regular
homework.”
Prof. Yolanda Rivera
School: 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 Fuentes
O-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 Villablanca
O-S Spain

“Every afternoon they study what was presented that morning in class. It’s great.”
Prof. Natividad Cerezo
IES 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.

• 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.

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 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 Delibes
Vice Counselor of Education Autonomy of Madrid
Madrid, Spain

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

Dr. Rafael Aragunde
Secretary of Education
San Juan, Puerto Rico

“O-S is a vote for our youth”

Alejandrina Matta
Education Vice Minister, Ministry of Education
Panamá

“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 Lopez
Quality 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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