foolfillment: the blog

Monday the 14th of April sees the publication of the draft outcomes for Technologies. I’m really looking forward to seeing what is in them and where we may be going, Technologies is such a broad name and it could cover anything we wanted it to, hopefully there won’t be a trap of covering everything – and in the end nothing to a reasonable depth. At the same time I hope we will not be sticking too closely to the ‘traditional’ view of technical where all we teach is how to make sawdust and filings, and instead we are able to position ourselves so we can teach at the forefront of advancing technologies and keep up with the demands of industry – whichever industry that may be at the time.

I also hope deep down that design will feature heavily in a way that will embed design into everything that we as technology teachers do, and also into what every other teacher does.

Awkwardly that date coincides with something else which you may, or may not hear more about later – although that may actually save my skin a little (anyone worked out what I’m on about?)

Image credit: Red Bridge – Originally uploaded by El Fotopakismo

Last week I wrote about my visit to Prestonpans Primary School, well tomorrow is the return leg.

At the start of this year, way back in August/September time, I still had the chance to do some observations around the school. I remember seeing a number of 1st year classes and being struck (again) by the huge range of subjects and teachers that they encounter. Our pupils live an incredibly experience-rich life, and the way most of them adapt to all the different personalities – teachers and classmates – they encounter is nothing short of a marvel.

It’s easy to forget about what happens around the rest of the school and become stuck inside your own departmental bubble, and sometimes I think it’s important to take that step back and just marvel at how the majority cope with such a dynamic life. In most walks of life outside of schools you are in a comparatively slow changing environment where the people with whom you have to engage and the subject areas you have to recall do not change every 50 minutes, so when a class arrives at my classroom/workshop and are a little hyper then it is pretty important that there are stable expectations (and the support to meet those expectations) to help them settle down and become grounded again. Without taking that step back occasionally it is easy to fall into the trap of wanting a class to ‘just’ behave, rather than working to see how I fit in with the rest of the school.

The question is, what can be done when those expectations and supports are not clear to the pupils as they move around the school? It must be easier if you have your own classroom (is it?) but when you are in a CDT department and flit between any of 6 different rooms, all being left in different states by different teachers it becomes pretty difficult to keep things settled. I suppose it takes a consistent approach and attitude from all staff in the department, but does that diminish your opportunity to make your own mark on a class atmosphere?

A rather rambling post but, my main point is it will be interesting to see what my primary visitor makes of life in a busy secondary school. I’ve tried to plan a wide range of classes for her to visit tomorrow and I wonder what her expectations of the visit and the pupils are. I think she’ll be astounded .

One of the great things about being an NQT is that you get a lot more time to do the sort of things that other teachers can’t quite fit in so easily, one of these is the chance to observe other lessons throughout the school.

This afternoon I was able to watch Digital Katie’s friend Jack Tennent teach computing to a 3rd year class. One pupil in that class is also in my 3rd year Craft and Design class – a class that has not been going as well as it might. This afternoon’s lesson was with a much smaller class but the difference between then and my classes was still very marked. The main reason behind that I think is the different environment and a few missing faces, but one big contributing factor to my problems, I think, is the content of the lessons. Today there was a series of short achievable tasks, a whole class game related to the material, and then some free time as a reward at the end, whereas in Craft and Design at the moment the class are working on a long running project with not a lot of scope for doing anything else but the project.

Allow me to use a metaphor, if I was planning a long walk for myself, say from Lauder to Dunbar, then I would probably plan to follow the Herring Trail route – pretty much a direct route over the Lammermoors but one that is fairly committing and offers no easy escape route. On the other hand if I was taking someone along with me who isn’t a big walker and is really more interested in learning a few more outdoor skills then I would plan something different like an easy coastal walk that could be split into little bits and allowed us to escape to a road and catch a bus home or spend a night camping.

At the moment my 3rd years are somewhere on the Lammermoors and while some of them could be making good time and enjoying the scenery there are enough of them who have blisters so that everyone is being held back. Basically they are not able to cope with the project and I need to find a way of getting them onside again. I also need to find a way to spend time with those at the front so that they don’t go the wrong way and get lost.

I had a brief but very worthwhile conversation this afternoon with the pupil who is in both this class and in mine, he told me that what I am doing with him is no fun. I totally agreed, being in that class at the moment is no fun for me or for them, but making it better with the current project will be hard. This was not news to me, I had a conversation at SLF last week about just this class. The suggestion was to throw out all the course content as it is and come at it from a different direction, I know this is what I need to do but I feel like I’m committed at the moment and my only option is to push on and try something new when we start the next part of the course. Unfortunately that is their final project in Standard Grade and the one which they get graded on, I need them on side before I start that so I’m trying to work out what short bits of work I can do with them to win them over in between now and then.

I’ve also been given a maths class to watch tomorrow, again with the same pupil – the lad will think I’m deliberately following him!

IDEA has just announced its ‘call for submission’ for Thaw 2007. IDEA is the Industrial Designers of Edmonton Association (so not local) and Thaw is an event which gives “visitors an opportunity to view and purchase innovative and original products and ideas.”

The brief is interesting, in short it is ‘imagine there was no oil.’ I don’t see anything stopping schools in Scotland taking up this challenge, there is no benefit of actually submitting to this event – the only prize as such would be recognition so the costs would far outweigh the benefits – but a local (within school or authority?) equivalent competition could be feasible and would tie in very nicely with areas of the curriculum, citizenship for example. Of course most of the crafting that happens in schools is with wood or metal anyway so ruling out plastic isn’t too much of a hurdle, but try coming up with a new CD case, or redesigning most of the stuff in your kitchen.

via Land+Living

[tags]idea, design, sustainable development, schools, thaw2007[/tags]