foolfillment: the blog

Thursday is the busy day, I started off with a new topic for my third year graphics class - sections. Using Inventor I showed them an object that another teacher had dreamed up - hte orthographic views wouldn’t tell you exactly what the object looked like in real life and were slightly ambiguous which led nicely to showing the usefulness of sectioned drawings. A lot of them seemed to grasp it straight away but others seem like they need more time to understand what the different orthographic view represent in the first place - before any cuts.
I took a fourth year class on the same topic later in the day, this is a really good class and they got the hang of it straight away, most anyway.
I also had a nice 2nd year class, this is the class that had been getting cover material who I took through marking out their wood last week, now that their teacher is back he’s taken them on to the next stage - actually cutting it out.
Also had PCS where I started them on the mirror frame, the sheets are for the wrong level though and don’t show the correct joint so I had to change what Iwas saying very quickly and then try to get them back to the right thing. This was a poor lesson in terms of teaching, I really should have prepared better but I hadn’t actually expected to be in with them today.
Finished off the day with 1st years, they’re a nice crowd and I can get on with them really well. In my last placement the PT said that when you first start teaching the seniors are pretty daunting and the first years are great, but once you;’ve seen them grow up over the 4/5/6 years then you can still get on with them in the much the same way you did when they were first years. I hope this is true.

First teaching day of the week, it seems like along time ago now but that’s possibly because I didn’t do much teaching, I was in a few of the usualy classes giving help to individual pupils most of the time.

I’ve got it back in my flat at last. Couldn’t have come sooner.

I feel really tired today, I suspect it is something to do with having done nearly nothing over the weekend. It being the holiday weekend meant I didn’t have any chance to do most of the things I had wanted to like work on my project and ended up just reading and taking a few half decent photos from along the Clyde.

That was on Saturday morning, I decided to go for a little stroll as the weather was pretty good and found myself along by the Science Centre (I really should go in one day instead of just looking through the window) and saw there was some people having a bit of a bounce on some ropes from the Tower. I went over to have a wee look and found out a few things, the guy I was talking to has possibly one of the best jobs you could ask for - working for The Rope Access Company - where he spends his days climbing about on buildings and things that you couldn’t get to otherwise. Anyway, they had ropes tied from near the top at a height of about 100 metres and he was at the end near the ground. With a semi-static rope you get about 5% play so over that distance he was able to bounce right along the platform in 5 metre arcs - ‘looks like fun’ I said, ‘yup’ he said in a way that could only make someone jealous.

It’s a pretty incredible structure really but I won’t bore you with that now - just look at the photaes on flickr
Anyway that was the most I did this weekend and now I’m tired. I feel like I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment which I can’t deal with now. Ordinarily I’d be fine but so much of what I’m doing involves internet access and I have none at my flat at the moment. I need to get myself completely sorted before next week for my project but it’s a little difficult trying to arrange a research project on wikis without any internet. Time to go, I need to get things done before I fall asleep.

That was a good day! ?rd year graphics first off, most of the class are getting to the stage where the ask for help out of habit and when I go to help they tell me exactly what they are going to do and it’s the right thing. Easy. Start on something different next week, maybe sectional drawings.
Then S2, thisis a class that have been copying out of books for too long while their usual teacher has been off. The main problem is that I can’t teach them practical work unless there’s a qualified tech teacher there, but today I hedged my bets that the teacher would be back next week and started them marking out their material. I managed to spin out the lesson so that they were occupied the whole time and were doing something more relevant than other periods. It was pretty satisfying to be able to come into a class and just teach it without having to have spent a long time preparig and just wing it. Obviously not the best practice when I’m going to be getting crits but it is more like the real teaching world.

Then S2 after break, unfortunately the PT was called away for personal reasons and missed the lesson but I was able to get them started on written work that they had started on Tuesday - again I couldn’t teach them any practical things.
Next period I had off to prepare for things so I made up a sheet of six isometric cubes and made a sample sheet of them rendered in different materials.

After lunch it was a joyous S4 class in the library. These are a buch of kids who have sat and done next to nothing on their folio for about three weeks. The other class is far ahead. I tried being a bit more authoritative with them this time, there are a group of about 4 who talk constantly so I tried standing right by them at the start and jumping straigh in when one of them talked, it had no effect whatsoever, the one I would be talking to would just answer back or try to justify their shouting or occasionally be quiet while the others just carried on talking. It was infuriating, the other teacher doesn’t have much luck with them either - it’s a constant stream of low level interruptions.
I got to finish off the week with S1 graphics though and that was fun. I started off by reminding them of all the different things toremember while rendering and got them to render one of the cubes in pencil with different sides darker or lighter depending on the light direction - they managed very well. I got as far as doing an aluminium block and some started a piece of pine when I was reminded that we onl;y had a couple of minutes left. There was a little difficulty getting them to stand around the table so everyone could see each time but with a little pestering they got the hang of it.

Well, in a little while I’m off to The Goat in Glasgow to meet up with some of the people involved in bringing education to blogging and wikis and the read/write web in general. I don’t expect to know anyone there!

A busy day, stating with a nice quiet test for some 4th years, having just marked them this afternoon I know I’ll need to cover a lot of things with them soon.
Next up was 3rd years that I’ve covered, they have been doing written work out of books but I started them on a new design folio today and the change in the class from yesterday was immeasurable.
Third period was graphics with 3rd year, business as usual.
period 4 with the 1st years, tried going back to doing some sketching with intention of improving their rendering skills tomorrow.
P5 was an S2 class starting a new model, I didn’t do much there.
P6 spent marking the tests.

S2 first up, I did a little intro to metals wich seemed togo down well. I used some photos of things from around Glasgow and talked about the different materials they were made from - this seemed to make it much more interesting to them than just pictures of iron ore.
I’m writing this on Wednesday, I will try to come back and fill in the blanks but at the moment I’m knackered!
I remember I took another 3rd year class for a lesson on anthropometrics, their third, I explained what the word meant, asked them if they could explain it back, they couldn’t, I explained it again a different way and saw if they understood - no - so did it again, eventually one person clicked a little. Drip drip drip, eventually like in chinese water torture they will buckle and remember it. I moved on to some work where thye wrote out a little bit f relevant text and copied a 5th-95th%le diagram and then asked if they knew what anthropometrics meant - no. It can be quite frustrating this job sometimes!

This week is a short one, Friday is a holiday, and some of the kids are already on holiday mood. It’s the ScotEduBlogs MeetUp on Wednesday night, I’m writing this here in case I forget. A couple of cover classes first up. One is boring. They are both classes I should be with anyway but the teacher is off. The first one is a class that should be doing woodwork but I can’t do practical work without a real tecky teacher in the class so they are doing written work on hard and soft woods - Fun!! The other class is great, it’s a first year graphics class. Still busy doing isometric drawings but it’s really gratifying to see that some of the ones I thought were struggling are now really getting the idea of it. Unfortunately a lot of them son’t really enthuse about the drawings despite being able to do them well.

Over break time a had to do some phoning so I am getting used to the real life of a teacher - doing work all day. After break it was a 3rd year craft class - marking out ideas for a fish slice. It’s a noisy class and most of them just don’t act anything like their age, pushing and fidgetting, poking and talking, giggling and generally just not listening or doing what they should for more than about 3 seconds.

Next up I thought I was getting a break but no, it was time to do some 4th year folio work in the library. They are supposed to be sitting a test this week but it isn’t going to happen because they just don’t had the preparation time.

After lunch it is my favourite class, if I’m allowed to have one. It’s a 3rd year graphics class, so a subject I am very comfortable with and it happens to be a very capable class. But what’s gone wrong today? They are noisy, move around the class all period, and aren’t able to concentrate nearly as well as I’m used to. Oh well, I gave them some homework to do for Wednesday.
Last period off to prepare some things for tomorrow. I would normally be with 5th year.

So, now: how to make 5th to 95th percentile interesting and seem relevant…

I went to Dunoon yesterday to see the Camanachd CUp Final, it was my first shinty game and probably not my last. It was a little disappointing that so few teeth were lost and no bones broken as that was what I was led to expect to happen but it was exciting none the less.

BBC SPORT | Other Sport… | Camanachd Cup glory for Kingussie

Before the start I picked Kingussie as my team, it turned out to be the right decision as they put 4 past Fort William.

My other team didn’t fare so well unfortunately, going down 2-0 to Arbroath.