Stardate 23 Jan 2008
The morning class went fairly well a section of it was filled with end of term paperwork. In the past, well and in the present if I’m honest. Learners have complained about the regular chore of filling in end of term assessment forms and progress reviews. With the extra training I have been able to more convincingly argue the relevance what on the face of it appears a meaningless task. Explaining how it allows me to sculpt the class to their needs. Also we completed most of the reenrolments for the new term. Unlike the evening ncfe level 2 there is no exam fee to be paid so numbers are fairly good again that said I’m fairly concerned that a few learners haven’t re enrolled but this appears to do with illness either theirs or their families or travel plans rather than anything I’m doing wrong .
The evening class numbers are still concerning me if everyone who has told me they are definitely coming comes we will have 11. Two of these learners 4 weeks into the course haven’t yet attended. But have contacted me regularly to pledge that they will. Regardless I have to withdraw them this week and re instate them next Wednesday, reflecting on the pgde lesson I’m somewhat at a loss how to run a course with such a shifting sand of attendees. I’m honestly not concerned that they will all achieve just how it will appear to an inspector. These are adults with real life commitments; they come because they enjoy it not because of the qualification. We will always lose out to a sick relative of a foreign holiday and if we chastise them they will not come and the course will close. This isn’t a course populated with 14-19 year olds these are adults they receive reward from the process and completion of a project not the certificate.
Back to the lesson
I demonstrated the leading up process that I had intended to do the week before. The demonstration ran long for a couple of reasons. Firstly the cartoon was overly complicated for the time allowed the explanation to why I didn’t do a simpler demonstration is two fold. Firstly it was loosely based around one of the learners own intended projects so I felt it valuable to tackle some of the challenges she would face and allow her to see some of the technical solutions. Secondly a number of the learners have already done traditional leaded lights and they could use the demonstration to compare my method to those they use. Talking through my demonstration I was able to discuss the ncfe workbooks further and as a group we argued the answers to the questions contained within. This was useful and I tried in the extra time allowed by the demonstration to relate it to what each of them was doing. And also I think convincingly argued the benefit of keeping all the source material for inclusion with the workbooks. I say convincingly because in the past, myself included, I haven’t always seen the relevance of assembling the research process as you would the working out for a maths problem. But as I progress in my teaching (I want to be an educator if the students are being called learners) I find the visual gathering of source material be it torn from library books or looted from churches, inspirational to the surrounding learners and the walk through step by step development process allows us to question what would happen if u went this route or that. The learner is the able to argue their choices consciously and say “I decided this I did this for that reason and chose not to do this because”
Woo isn’t that reflective learning (which I shall for the purposes of my own journal refer to as “Meditative Learning” for no real reason other than 1 it sounds cooler and 2 I can nod my head to questions and say “I shall need some time to meditate on the problem”. Perhaps at some point I can get a druidical robe but my mind has wandered so ill end
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