I want to make this syllabus content REAL!?

I always talk about how learning should be relevant, contextual and applicable to students lives. I always demonstrate how syllabus outcomes/content should link to real world stuff- so when students say “WHY are we learning this” there is a legitimate answer, OR, even better, the question isn’t asked- the link is THAT evident.

Tell my then, WHY do I have an assessment task scheduled for Preliminary Design and Technology that looks at design practice, designers and comparisons between their work in industry and what we do in school? WHY does the task ask for a written report that compares and contrasts designing and making when students DON’T get to have that experience? . . . oh jeez, I really can’t hand that task out?? . . . . REALLY?? :-/

Enter the NEW task!!

So, what’s the difference? THIS task will allow students to DESIGN, MAKE, MAYBE FAIL? MAYBE SUCCEED? They will get to HAVE A GO AT BEING A DESIGNER- designing, making- selling. The premise being that they will NOW have some practice to compare their designer to! 

The hard parts in writing this task:

• when we design and make we usually create a design folio- there is NO TIME for this process, an assumption has been made that the design process is ESSENTIAL and will be followed- therefore an evaluation could be conducted based on success and failures within each stage of the design process. SO this is how P2.1 will be assessed.

• we DON’T have a laser cutter on site, I have liaised with another school (bribing teachers with coffees and goodwill) to allow me to produce students designs- this could ONLY be done during weeks 3/4 of term.

• Students SHOULD be able to determine presentation methods determined by their audience. This is an important skill as designers. Yes report writing skills are important too, but that got scrapped so that students could choose presentation method, SO this is how P5.2 will be assessed.

• They should be able to compare and evaluate the success of their designs to those of a real designers, BUT, WHAT IF THEIR DESIGNS DON’T SELL on market day?? . . . I have created a BUDGET SALES PROFIT table- so that as long as they set out to achieve a profit, they will still succeed. (NOTE: yes 20 marks is a lot for this section, marking criteria includes use of computer graphics and laser cutting technologies)

• MATERIALS!!??? . . . I purchased all the findings in bulk from ETSY, and acrylic ”scraps” from Australian Plastic Fabricators this kept costs down AND we have a variety of colours in the acrylic. All profits will go to support our World Youth Day travellers from Gilroy.

• NO TIME FOR RESEARCH??!!! . . . I started a PINTREST board for students with bookmarks and links of relevant designers, illustrator tutorials, laser cutter videos/info. This should get them started! (and limit the time spent on this section so they can get to the good stuff quicker)

• The need to UNDERSTAND design is important. There is still a section that analyses and evaluates a designers work, hopefully this wont be presented in a report format (as it doesn’t need to be) AND hopefully the experiences they gain in the practical side of the project enable this section to be much more rewarding than just reading a bio on the internet.

This task has taken HOURS of planning, research and co-ordination, but, HOW could I say I was making learning contextual and relevant from WITHIN a classroom? By handing out a research report???

Assessment tasks can be evil. This task, to me NOW seems real, with learning and skill development in mind. I hope this task allows students to PLAY the part of a designer, so they can better understand their role, what they do and the technologies and processes they use. This class is such a CREATIVE group, I couldn’t have possibly imagined stifling them with a “report”. I can’t wait to see what they come up with, what they will make and sell, and HOW this will inspire them to form a career pathway in design.

Chrome VERSUS Safari on the ipad

There has been MUCH discussion on this topic over the past week since ipads have come to school in year 7′s bags.

I know where my opinion stands, and was asked to write a newsletter article stating pros/cons from an education point of view. Here is my two cents, feel free to disagree, you know where the comment box is- I may not reply

 

Year 7’s are getting into the swing of things with ipads- and there has been MUCH debate over which browser is best to use. This debate is much like an “apple versus android” dispute (it goes round and round in circles, pros and cons of each). But let’s look at it from an EDUCATION and CYBER SAFETY point of view, and here is what matters to OUR KIDS:

 Safari

• Works with parental controls, allows for safer browsing, blocks explicit content if controls are set as such
• Browsing history can be stored for reflection (and deleted too)
• Slow processing speeds when loading webpages with lots of content
• Works REALLY well with government initiative for cybersafety (reinforces our Pastoral and Integrated Learning program)
• Downloads PDF files as necessary- does require an extra step than Chrome to do so
• Easily collects bookmarks and offline reading
• Default browser on ipad, all links automatically open in Safari, there is no changing this setting
• Syncs favourites/bookmarks across mobile devices

 

 Chrome

• Upon download, comes with a “age restricted warning” upon download to confirm you are over 17 (is this an attempt to say “there’s explicit content on the internet, not our fault if you access it??)
• Can easily “incognito” browse so that history is not stored
• DOES NOT enforce parental controls applied on the ipad
• Happily plays flash content on sites
• Quickly loads pages and downloads files/attachments

SO . . . they are SOME of the facts that are MOST relevant for our students, overall CHROME is a better performing browser. BUT, in my opinion SAFARI is a safer experience, this is also a school endorsed recommendation. Discuss this with your children, explain what and why we want to protect them on the internet.

Do you have the CYBER-SAFETY button installed on their ipad?? – - – -> http://www.dbcde.gov.au/online_safety_and_security/cybersafetyhelpbutton_download/install_apple

And in the true spirit of the internet, browsing and meme’s – I created one fitting:

My pledge. . .

This post was initiated by two things: the fact that there are loads of blog posts written with 2013 goals, mottos for the new school year AND the fact that I don’t have any.

If you know me, you would know that I am not without goals and aspirations, but, I’m in a pretty happy place right now: in a job I love, teaching what I am passionate about and working with kids and people I care about. So really in my career right now, what personal goals could I aspire to?

2013 will bring lots of challenges, especially as I have a new job role at Gilroy (Leader of E-Learning), but, to be honest, I have not set a “goal” for this role either. As my twitter feed filled up with goals from others over the month of January, I started to wonder – HAVE I GOTTEN TOO COMFY? WILL I GO STALE WITHOUT GOALS?? . . . WHY DON’T I HAVE ANY ???

Yesterday I had this major epiphany about my goals, what a glorious moment that was – I comfortably realised I DON’T NEED ANY GOALS. . . Just for perspective, this glorious moment happened whilst standing at the photocopier scanning docs, and because you weren’t watching or nearby that glorious moment may have looked something like this:

For the record, no I did not take a selfie whilst at the photocopier, these images were taken when I FIRST received my staff laptop from John Therry High School in 2006. These images were taken at a time when I did NOT know how to turn an APPLE DEVICE on, let alone know how to operate photobooth (see futile attempt above) and that SCARY time before 1:1 begun. But, what has followed in the time since these images were taken has been a really fun journey of learning. Learning how to use a zillion different programs, apps, photocopiers, printers, websites, wiki’s, blogs, LMS’s, devices, gadgets, portals and coding — >EFFECTIVELY . . . . sheesh !!! no wonder I looked frustrated in some of the pics above, think of all the stuff I did NOT YET KNOW!! 

So, my epiphany came from that moment. I don’t need personal goals. My students, peers and environment can drive my learning and journey this year. But what I do need to do is make a pledge. . . . So here it goes:

“I, Monique Dalli, Leader of E-Learning  at Gilroy Catholic College, TAS teacher, technology junkie, nerd and geek, solemnly swear to NEVER EVER belittle or underestimate my colleagues. I promise to be compassionate when technology “isn’t bloody working” and help. I will aim do my utmost to assist my colleagues in their professional development, and in this role remember that the focus is not on “technology for technologies sake”, but on learning.

Looking forward to all that 2013 brings. Without a goal, but with BIG promises to keep.

Reinvigorating the old? Nah, change is WAY better!!

We all have those topics/units that run year to year and dont change. We feel comfortable in teaching them- we are experts in their content. But seriously, after teaching year 8 “satin boxer-shorts” for the hundredth time, the thought of another elastic casing almost made me wanna vomit. AS a staff we discussed ways to adapt and modify the unit . . . but, in the end the WHOLE LOT got a re-write! 

So, the NEW design situation and brief reads:

Design Situation-

You are a designer working for an accessory company and have been asked to design a new range of tech-bags that hold and protect a range of technological devices and hardware.

Design Brief-

Design and produce a laptop bag that employs natural textile materials including plant

and animal fibres in its construction and decoration that could be included in this range.  

Programming this unit has been an enjoyable collaborative process with staff in the English faculty teaching TAS staff hand felting processes and experienced textiles teachers showing me BETTER ways of finishing the project and sharing resources.

The unit runs under the ANIMAL PRODUCTION context area, and uses TEXTILES TECHNOLOGIES to produce a laptop sleeve. The unit has a digital “TEXT” that will eventually run through itunesU when ipads flow through next year.

I have attached the PROGRAM, BOOKLET, TEXT and ASSESSMENT . . . would love your feedback or any other resources that you think could be added!!

FIBRESMAKEFABRIC_BOOK

FIBRESMAKEFABRIC_PROG_2013

FIBRESMAKEFABRIC_TEXT

FELTING_ASSESSMENT

LAPTOP SLEEVE PATTERN APPROPRIATED FROM:

http://thecottagehome.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/laptop-kindle-i-pad-sleeve-tutorial.html

To flip, or not to flip. THAT is the question. . .

Last year was a year of trying new things, amongst the new “things” I tried – - flipping my classroom was one. This post is a little reflection of my flipped experiences and the reasons WHY I dabbled in film making last year.

 

. . . We had an AMAZING teachmeet at Gilroy in August, Simon Harper AND Polly Dunning presented their experiences flipping their classroom, even though I was reading a lot about flipping and its benefits at the time they really inspired me to start.

NOTE: I am not an expert at flipping, in my limited experience of flipping and from my esteemed colleagues/online reading this is what I knew:

• Flipping means students do traditional CLASSWORK at home 
• Cleverly, teachers make this fun, presented in an engaging way (video)
• AND the content that is covered is usually content that is traditionally covered in class
• ALLOWING for MORE class time to be spent on the analysis and application of content.

Sounds like a GREAT idea right?! . . . yeah- it is BUT my reasons for flipping were TOTALLY DIFFERENT!! I teach across all areas of technology in junior years, this includes timber, textiles and food technology project areas. We have 5 lessons a fortnight (5 hours) and only a 13 week rotation to complete a program, booklet, design folio and practical project.  . . .HECTIC!!!

I loved the idea of flipping, because:

• I typically demonstrated practical skills ONCE – then students had to mimick, copy or do

• Students watched my practical demonstrations that may have shown ONE particular method for doing something, there could be many applications (of a timber joint or decorative technique for example) time usually constraint this OR the busy nature of classroom numbers did

• My classes in 2012 had a diverse range of students- levels of language, literacy, numeracy as well as physical capabilities

• Some students were getting frustrated- at not being able to achieve a level of practical quality they expected

• Many students were visual learners, current resources were not tailored to their learning style

• Students WANTED to be more independent, they wanted to succeed on their own.

So, what REALLY propelled my to start to flip was- MY STUDENTS WANTED to become an expert in practical skills, they needed to have a DEEPER understanding of “something” before they were confident to try and apply it (I just want to be clear on something, I am not talking about their willingness to fail/make mistakes) – I am saying they WANTED TO DO BETTER, THEY WANTED TO WORK HARDER, THEY WANTED TO KNOW MORE and OUR CLASSTIME and MY CURRENT TEACHING METHODS didn’t allow it!!??

So, flipping essentially added extra hours to my classes. I used vimeo to upload my own video/links to edmodo, I also used existing youtube videos and tube chop to edit them.

I sourced videos on garnish techniques, handling pastry, sewing a closed seam, creating your own applique from felt, setting up jigs for a trimmer/router, using a router to create inlays, making your own bees wax polish and making the perfect white sauce.

I also made my own videos! With the help of another staff member we pre-recorded food demonstrations- students watched these on average 3 times EACH (this was 30-40mins of video time??!!) Students were also creating/sharing their own videos?? “Miss – can I film you doing this and practice at home?”  - –  umm OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!  (by this stage, I had totally gotten over the fact that once recorded, by voice sounds like a kid’s!! lol)

I dont really know if this truly is “flipping” ?? as I still felt the need in most cases to demonstrate and conduct the SAME practical demonstrations in lessons – BUT the videos really supplemented this and addressed all the concerns I was having. . . .

THE RESULT: I had VERY HAPPY STUDENTS. Their quality of practical work improved because they were conducting more research at home – I know, this really is a “DERR” moment right? And this is not too dissimilar to the benefits that Polly and Simon had explained at the TeachMeet, but you have to understand, the motivation that DROVE me to spend the time preparing all the videos/links WAS. 

Again, I repeat – I AM NOT AN EXPERT OF FLIPPING, making videos or screencasting (check out Simons blog for inspiring examples of this). Is this even flipping?? dont think so??- BUT, my students were pretty happy.

Polly and Simon certainly showed me a way of adding another dimension to my teaching that I will continue to use in 2013 – I seriously advise you to start whatever hybrid of flipping suits you !!

2012 in review . . .

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 8 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Providing iPad training for staff OFF SITE using GOGGLE DOCS!!

Teachers are busy people, we work ourselves silly until the silly season and holidays are here, we usually have those final days at school reserved for professional development and learning but seriously  who’s really awake? listening? coherent? 

Gilroy had the first stage of the 1:1 2013 roll out during the last week of school- PERFECT TIMING for staff to receive an ipad  as they could spend the holidays playing and exploring- BUT the downside is that staff and myself were tired in the last week of term, and too busy winding up 2012 to even think of what’s going on in 2013.

The solution was to create a set of online tutorials – I thought about hosting these on a website, but that would mean they were static, stand alone tutorials without being dynamic and collaborative. I therefore chose to create a PUBLIC GOOGE DOC FOLDER, by changing a single folders accessibility I did not make all my Google Doc files public. I also decided that SOME TUTORIALS should be collaborative, and others should not, again, changing the share settings to suit.

Currently there are 15 files in the folder, some are numbered, this creates a flow of “lessons” – - – staff teaching year 7 next year have the expectation to complete the first 5 as they are detrimental to the ipads operation and work flow in our classrooms – but as I add more, it is up to them if they feel confident to go further!

The bonus of this is that staff can COMPLETE PD IN THEIR OWN TIME, WHEN THEY ARE REFRESHED AND READY, refer back to the tutorials when required either by saving them onto their computer or accessing them online.

TUTORIALS CAN BE FOUND HERE – - – -> https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B-TXEjJntTRxb3g1NUo1SlRaVnc/edit

The files that are open for collaboration are for people to help shape, please contribute and add your ideas. Thank you to those who have already contributed, but also a specific thank you to Denise Lombardo as her “twitter teacher directory” is in there and has been MOST helpful

 

I have enabled sharing on the files so that others may use them too! Let me know what is useful to you and your colleagues :)