The Safety Glasses are half worn

Star date 5 march 08

A really ordinary week seems in both classes everyone is busy with their own projects and they just don’t need me anymore. Seriously we seem to reach a point in the term where the majority of the learners are engaged in what we in the trade call “learning” getting on with it. I walk from learner to learner questioning them on their progress. I used this quiet time to formally asses the learner’s practical usage of the health and safety procedure. At the start of the course we talk about the risks and what can be done to minimise and prevent injury but assignment 3 calls for a formal assessment to be performed and this seemed to be as good a topic to cover as any. I walked around observing and scoring each learner out of five according to the task they were involved with I also videoed the assessment to assist when I come to feed back to them I have spent some time editing this recording and flagging things for discussion. Reflectively where are the weak points in the H&S? How can we improve things? With a review and discussion we can as a group improve

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Quaking with sucsess

Stardate 27 feb

Inspection time, oddly I ended up sort of relaxed come the day I think my brave survival of the night times earthquake had re affirmed my mortality and the utter futile nature of existence. So I thought what could possibly go wrong. Other than printed out versions of all my paperwork replacing the messy usual scrawl I didn’t nothing different. As I mentioned earlier if I fake a big lesson just to be successful then what am I learning. The first must be an honest reflection of what I do, if I’m shit I can be branded as such for working in my own way and then I can reflect if my future is in teaching. I got there in plenty of time set up my little demonstration space, nothing big the week before would have been a better observed demo, but they aren’t always needed. I decided to do the crisp start to the lesson thing; everyone had already arrived and were busy with things. “Good morning I would like to start the lesson by recapping some health and safety, In the event of an earthquake place hands on heads and climb under the tables “ 0.o barley a titter , I think I was the only one it woke up is the reflection the solution is don’t try to be funny. Most of the lesson passed of dealing with individual assistance and the demonstration which may have been slightly mistimed. But as the two learners it applied to won’t be both in on the same day for two weeks it was as good a time as any. The lesson was successful I have a signed review that proves it. Some points were raised which I found interesting. A specific demonstration table would be good a materials table would be nice also as would materials. Also a MORE SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO DEALINGWITH THE LEARNERS, that sounds like a great idea but amidst the chaos there is one. I try to give attention to who needs it on a the jobs stopped basis then see everyone to record their progress, the level of assistance required is tricky to judge

Some learners actively don’t want ma help preferring to reach their own solutions others would happily let me make a project from start to finish. Balance lies somewhere in between. The evening session was very similar I need to enquire about the final exhibition, as it doesn’t coincide with the Excel show in September. How can I make learners get materials? Some wont get off their asses to the damn shop or order online. What do I say to make them do it?