a round of applause

Stardate 18 Oct 07

I’m going to start off thinking about my lessons today. My evening acl class is half way through already but then its only a 10 week course all most a taster leading into the ncfe level 2 which I need to get a little more info on before I jump into. Tonight I feel the course went quite well. I’m trying to make more of an effort to present to the group its strange I’m fine talking to my learners but really get nervous talking as a learner. I think this is to do with the element of talking out of my field of expertise and also as a learner you feel you’re being judged, but as the teacher we have that little extra magic somehow. Either way I need to get over it. I presented a demonstration of bottle cutting last night. It’s not a skill directly related to traditionally stained glass, but in these recycling times it’s a use for those empty wine bottles. It was good I felt like a proper teacher with the group all gathered around me watching. It’s quite an interesting process using specialist tools and a candle and surprisingly seems to work most of the time. I got a round of applause any way. The learner I specifically organised the demonstration for managed to do it first time, so I must be doing something right. I also spent a little time discussing my idea to explain the feel of various pressures to my two deaf learners. When they first arrived I wasn’t informed of their inclusion in the group, so had no time to adapt my explanation of how to cut glass. Normally I describe the correct cutting pressure as making a sound like tearing paper. As u can imagine this is no use to a deaf student fortunately they were quick on the uptake and learned anyhow. The reflective process caused me to re evaluate the problem. My idea was this, using touch and texture to represent the feel of differently applied pressure. For this I used a plane piece of paper to represent to little pressure course sandpaper to represent to much pressure and a fine grit paper to be the idea pressure. I discussed it with them and asked them to tell me if it was a stupid idea or not, in the event of me receiving more deaf learners. They seemed to think it a reasonable plan they referred to the different pressures as vibrations. I expanded the concept to tackily demonstrate uneven cutting pressure

Re the class the night before, my micro teaching thing I need to think what I can realistically fit into a 30 minute session its weird it’s a long time to talk but a short time to demonstrate. Ill have to work something out

I don’t want to get so bogged down in the little details I miss the whole point. I would also like it to reflect my teaching style. Would be nice to hear no dan that’s all wrong what u know of teaching makes me laugh out loud or actually dan it’s a little weird u teach but I have learned how to do the objective. Which is the result id hope for; different demographics of learner need different approaches right. I don’t think I could teach what I do the same way Steve teaches what he does, and visa versa. Some of the ideas are interchangeable but not all. I am here to see what I can learn and what is of use to me. Most importantly what will improve my class and benefit my learners most. I could have technically the best class in the world but if no one wants do it, then it’s closed.

a round of applause

Stardate 18 Oct 07

I’m going to start off thinking about my lessons today. My evening acl class is half way through already but then its only a 10 week course all most a taster leading into the ncfe level 2 which I need to get a little more info on before I jump into. Tonight I feel the course went quite well. I’m trying to make more of an effort to present to the group its strange I’m fine talking to my learners but really get nervous talking as a learner. I think this is to do with the element of talking out of my field of expertise and also as a learner you feel you’re being judged, but as the teacher we have that little extra magic somehow. Either way I need to get over it. I presented a demonstration of bottle cutting last night. It’s not a skill directly related to traditionally stained glass, but in these recycling times it’s a use for those empty wine bottles. It was good I felt like a proper teacher with the group all gathered around me watching. It’s quite an interesting process using specialist tools and a candle and surprisingly seems to work most of the time. I got a round of applause any way. The learner I specifically organised the demonstration for managed to do it first time, so I must be doing something right. I also spent a little time discussing my idea to explain the feel of various pressures to my two deaf learners. When they first arrived I wasn’t informed of their inclusion in the group, so had no time to adapt my explanation of how to cut glass. Normally I describe the correct cutting pressure as making a sound like tearing paper. As u can imagine this is no use to a deaf student fortunately they were quick on the uptake and learned anyhow. The reflective process caused me to re evaluate the problem. My idea was this, using touch and texture to represent the feel of differently applied pressure. For this I used a plane piece of paper to represent to little pressure course sandpaper to represent to much pressure and a fine grit paper to be the idea pressure. I discussed it with them and asked them to tell me if it was a stupid idea or not, in the event of me receiving more deaf learners. They seemed to think it a reasonable plan they referred to the different pressures as vibrations. I expanded the concept to tackily demonstrate uneven cutting pressure

Re the class the night before, my micro teaching thing I need to think what I can realistically fit into a 30 minute session its weird it’s a long tome to talk but a short time to demonstrate. Ill have to work something out

I don’t want to get so bogged down in the little details I miss the whole point. I would also like it to reflect my teaching style. Would be nice to hear no dan that’s all wrong what u know of teaching makes me laugh out loud or actually dan it’s a little weird u teach but I have learned how to do the objective. Which is the result id hope for; different demographics of learner need different approaches right. I don’t think I could teach what I do the same way Steve teaches what he does, and visa versa. Some of the ideas are interchangeable but not all. I am here to see what I can learn and what is of use to me. Most importantly what will improve my class and benefit my learners most. I could have technically the best class in the world but if no one wants do it, then it’s closed.

I hope the laser show impresses

Stardate 12 Oct. 07
Today dear listener I would like to try to compare and contrast between my experiences as the learner (I want to be a student not a learner, sigh I suppose I’ll be a educator not a teacher soon but I digress) and as a teacher. The course I’m on and the course I run. I worry about the lesson planning as my course is run in a work shop environment, my time spent speaking from the front, is usually limited to primarily administrative duties such as acl and ncfe paperwork .Once my learners understand the health and safety issues and the basic skills they need to practice them. I like to guide and inspire my learners but I don’t want to tell them what they like or what they should make. This is for a few reasons firstly stained glass can be an expensive craft, and not everyone can afford to throw money as a project. It would probably be discriminatory in some way to press a learner into in to spending more than they can afford. That said some of the best projects I have made have been entirely made from clear glass but again I’m going of topic. I am trying to utilise the workshop lesson plans as I mentioned earlier. I’m hoping and I use this word advisedly the description of what each learner is achieving may be replaced with a photograph as a um *blushes* picture is worth a thousand words, digital photography has rendered the medium effectively free I consider it the perfect way to describe a piece of visual art so I’m striving to do that, in a educational environment so keen on ICT I’ll be annoyed if I have to print everything out ill give an example but to print out 500 colour photos is expensive and wasteful. Back to my point on a one to one basis I instruct my learners how best to improve their work and solve their individual problems. If each learner was working on the same project then I could devise a straightforward lesson plan. Differentiation prevents this from happening.
Sitting in college as a learner, I understand the reasons for the way the course is being presented but I feel its taking a lot of time to impart only a little information. Whilst there is an element of individual discussion it’s irrelevant to my questions. I noticed at the end of the lesson whist I headed to the door everyone else headed to ask Steve things “teacher will solve problems even if it takes an hour after the lesson doesn’t seem to apply me thinks “. I couldn’t help but wonder if the tasks would be better done during the lessons partially so problem solving can be attended and some peer discussion could be resourced. When the first task was set I felt a little pushed out to sea, the questions i had as soon as I began I haven’t been afforded the opportunity to ask.We have been asked to hand it in next lesson so if it’s wrong it’s wrong. Gill who set the task was so keen to emphasise to keep it simple but the lack of comparative interaction and perceived competition in the group, it’s anyone’s guess to what everyone else produced. I’ll be upset if I don’t win, I hope my laser show impress.

your gonna get it

Stardate 4 Oct

Wednesday’s lessons

The new students are starting to relax as is the teacher. In a practically based course the first few weeks by there very nature are quite hectic as each learner has different questions abilities and expectations from the course. Until the new learners have experienced and practiced the basic skills they won’t be able to contemplate what level of first project to make. We have spent some time discussing personal ambitions, inspiration, materials and planning. Once the learners have however briefly experienced the whole process, they understand enough to chose. The class of course isn’t exclusively new students, we also have returning students keen to develop there skill.

We are trying to get replacement heads for the grinders, and this set me thinking. For reasons I’m not completely certain about learners despite instruction tend to cut the glass out bigger than it needs to be with a view to grinding it down to the correct size. (Probably a confidence issue)I find this practice to be counter productive and spent time re explaining the methodology of cutting and grinding hopefully should remedy this. As a stained glass artist I’m basically a lazy person so if I can find a quicker way of doing something I will. Initial accuracy in the cutting process will save hours in the grinding. Cutting is infinitely faster than grinding. Also the financially aware will notice grinder heads are an expensive item to replace. So better cutting means less new grinder heads. (thinking always thinking)

They all get it eventually, I taught these people to cut glass, I always have this doubt “what if they cant learn “ but they do takes some a little longer than others. Despite all this damn paperwork there is some reward.

(I mean the satisfaction not just the money)

yay we get to eat the elephant one bit at a time.

Stardate 3 October

Well dear listener turns out all this time I should have been writing a personal development journal not a reflective journal but what’s in a name. We were instructed to divide the piece into 3 parts description analysis and action but as that’s sort of what I’ve been doing just less obviously. I have to read back through this later at some point so I chose to make it entertaining and relevant to me and my class. I find the reflective process perversely valuable, as it allows me to analyse what I’m doing both during and after a session.

How do teachers teach? That’s an Interesting question and a temporary change of tutor provided an opportunity to see a second way. Something I’ve noticed about my road into teaching is that my opportunities to see other teachers teach have been somewhat limited. Didn’t u go to school Dan? Well yes that’s a point, but before I Learned to play guitar or drive a car, id never really looked at how other people did these things. I had just been driven and entertained or in this case educated and not attempted to understand how the trick was done.

So to the lesson I quite feel I skipped a generation in the education field in that Gill was using a flip chart and markers yes I’ve seen them but when I was in college and school we were still using black boards (the lo-fi low lag alternative to the interactive whiteboards which I’m still waiting to get my hands on).I’m hoping technology has caught up in time to save me from publicly demonstrating my “Artists Handwriting” but Gills presentation style was a interesting contrast to Steve’s but equally valid and effective.

We looked at description analysis action and sorted some cards into the relevant sections. This proved more difficult than anticipated as we all derived different points from the cards but as usual fisticuffs saved the day.

Secondly we were told to bring in our reflective journals that I had previously been informed were private and not open to assessment growl well were all on the net you just have to find us

http://dan-reflectivepractice.blogspot.com/

What motivates a learner to learn? A kick in the ass, those were the days. We discussed reasons which may drive a learner to take up education.

The next section of the lesson troubled me an even vexed me a little.

Visual Auditory Kinaesthetic.

Not wanting to be cynical or disparaging in anyway but it felt like one of those sex tests they have in cosmopolitan “How sexy are you, who is your perfect partner” .The preferred learning style element got my heckles raised, it seemed to be more astrology than anything of worth. I’m sorry but what does where I breathe from have to do with how I learn? Deep breath

Enabling effective learning, I realise this ties into the previous heading that I was so down on but this is infinitely more useful and I can understand that a variety of different methods of explanation can help sit a idea in a learners mine in a more useful way (the way a pi chart can visually confer the data in a list, the way a recoding of a piece of music lifts the notes from a page)

The assignment

Yay we get to eat the elephant one bit at a time. That’s better for me, I was feeling unsupported and slightly over faced, but the way the lessons have progressed has been tailored to this first task. Dan like manageable chunks dan thinks that good

Interpretation of instructions

A few group tasks illustrated that differences in perception are not always apparent and whilst you can make a task fool proof, you cant make it damn fool proof,

we all get it in the end

The morning and evening classes contain quite a different demographic of learners, this is both good and bad as it keeps me on my toes and prevents me relying on just the one teaching strategy. This term we have six or seven new learners depending if the girl from last week returns. As the first lesson progressed I felt she was becoming self-conscious about her lack of progress. I tried to stress that the course is not only about stained glass, it’s also about meeting people and having some fun. The skills we teach are mastered at different rates. I feel it’s more important to get a feel for the tools what works and more importantly what doesn’t. I hope she’s back next week. Theses a lot of talk about differentiated learning, a course like mine I try to embrace all abilities. I am aware even going through the door of a college is a big step for some and I would hate to feel I had in some way driven her away. That said its surprising how pressure seems to be self generating. In the evenings lesson a student wanted to move on from cutting to grinding and foiling at the loss of some practice as to keep in touch with her fellow new learners progress. I let her as I don’t want to be a pipe poking crafts person. The road is long and in my experience if they attend they will get it.
ps dear captainslog, am trying to read a book on reflective learning. I appreaciate the language we speak but the author basks in her use of showy language "elide elucidated elision" i laughed when i googled eludicated http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elucidated
hahahahahahah

·lu·ci·date
play_w("E0097100")
(-ls-dt)
v. e·lu·ci·dat·ed, e·lu·ci·dat·ing, e·lu·ci·dates
v.tr.
To make clear or plain, especially by explanation; clarify

keep it simple dont show off..
sigh
still new lesson tonight ill keep u posted