Stardate 16th October 2008
Group work
In the training course we’ve been set a group work project. This has pros and cons attached to it. If I lay out my concerns I can explain it better. I know I work best with people to sound ideas off. Ideas can be developed and rounded and many of myself doubts can be eased. However it also goes the other way if I’m doing all the creative work and the others are just riding on my let’s call it brilliance then it’s less worthwhile. A member of my group will be away again for a number of weeks leaving us to take up the slack. If I had known they weren’t to be available for this time would I have been as keen to have them in my group? The other group member is very good and we have progressed the project well. They have researched and provided useful source material that has for me provided a springboard to my ideas, helping me think back to my art college days when many of the types of topics were covering in this curriculum were dealt with. I’m slightly concerned how the curriculum will be finally fixed in the way were proceeding. Any written piece needs an overall coherence and each dealing with session weeks separately could cause it to be fragmented. I submitted my sessions early to the others with the hope they would do the same and with all the parts together we could further discuss and refine it as a whole. Until I get the rest I can’t see if we’re all on the same page in the progression. I need plenty of time to panic and refine my work, as I have mentioned earlier academic projects don’t come naturally to me so I have to work hard to get through them. People taking holidays midterm is an annoyance as a teacher it makes planning the session difficult as a learner in a group project it places the burden of responsibility unfairly on the others. But as it stands we have to make the best of it. A learner in the group chose to do the project alone, and as such is close to completing it. It may have been a simpler solution. There is a presenting the project to a validation panel element to the task, I’m nervous about speaking on subjects I’m not confident in, but I’m also able to argue strongly on something I know , I’m concerned a member of my group speaks before they think and this in itself could compromise us. We will have to see.....
Friday, 17 October 2008
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Gold stars for all
Stardate 8 October
Well a normal feeling week. The lessons were both good work-shopping ones. I’m trying to think how I could have improved them without reducing the productivity; I think I gave a good amount of attention to all the learners; I am concerned in the evening class that a couple of the new learners haven’t returned but I was thinking about this. I’m sure some people enrol on courses for unexplained reasons that are there are some benefit advantage to it. If I was to guess or speculate id say one of the missing learners was there for such a reason. But I don’t actually know they could be stuck down a well for all I know. The new learners all learn at different rates. One of them is hugely unconfident and I think concerned that other learners are progressing faster than she. I have spent time explaining that it’s not a race and her time is better spent getting her feel for the tools and building her skills at her own rate and has her own understanding of what she’s learned. I don’t want to chase her off or intimidate her from the course as in my experience; they do all get the hang of it. By the end of the lesson she had cut out her project fairly well and you could see the proud look of achievement on her face. I am taking care now to praise the learners more and to draw other learner’s attention to successes, as it helps promote a stronger social feeling, which has a twofold benefit firstly they feel better about themselves and secondly they stick with the course and I get to keep my job.
Well a normal feeling week. The lessons were both good work-shopping ones. I’m trying to think how I could have improved them without reducing the productivity; I think I gave a good amount of attention to all the learners; I am concerned in the evening class that a couple of the new learners haven’t returned but I was thinking about this. I’m sure some people enrol on courses for unexplained reasons that are there are some benefit advantage to it. If I was to guess or speculate id say one of the missing learners was there for such a reason. But I don’t actually know they could be stuck down a well for all I know. The new learners all learn at different rates. One of them is hugely unconfident and I think concerned that other learners are progressing faster than she. I have spent time explaining that it’s not a race and her time is better spent getting her feel for the tools and building her skills at her own rate and has her own understanding of what she’s learned. I don’t want to chase her off or intimidate her from the course as in my experience; they do all get the hang of it. By the end of the lesson she had cut out her project fairly well and you could see the proud look of achievement on her face. I am taking care now to praise the learners more and to draw other learner’s attention to successes, as it helps promote a stronger social feeling, which has a twofold benefit firstly they feel better about themselves and secondly they stick with the course and I get to keep my job.
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
before and after sweat tears and laughter
Stardate 1 October
Inspection day
For the lesson we have been asked to try something new with the learners. I thought about it then decided to attempt a glass painting demonstration. This is actual stained glass not something not we have done before. I bought a kiln over summer with the intention of beginning to learn this craft and have been attempting test pieces with varying levels of success. If it can go wrong it has gone wrong but I think this is all part of the learning process. I eventually was able to find a book teaching these skills but there is really no substitute for experience and my experiences of this are minimal. As a craft it seems to have more in common with pottery painting. The demonstration I plan to do blue peter style, as a series of steps as to paint 1 piece from start to finish would be impractical due to the drying times required. I will talk about the stages and the reasons for the steps required, paint a little to demonstrate, I think on the demonstration parts I have already prepared, then if time permits fire one, although I doubt ill have time to take it from the kiln. I’m curious to see how it goes myself. I have the same session to do again in the evening so ill be pleased to hear any suggestions the inspector has.
Well I was successful after a fashion; there are changes to be made to my paperwork some obvious well cock-up’s relating to scheme of works compared to lesson plans but other things need making more relevant and well apparently self explanatory, I’ll have a look at it as I do this project which is curriculum design and will aid both things. The demonstration went ok but I need to ask more questions to check learning and understanding its strange it’s easier in the evening class as there are more new learners there the difference is, some of the learners in the morning session have been on the course longer than myself And well look at me weird when I do the teacher Dan bit. In the evening class they roll over and let me scratch their ears, but I resolve to do the whole addressing the group and being in charge, one of the suggestions of saying the time when the demo will start worked well and in the evening class I checked learner knowledge before I started. Next week ill make this more cogninent, seems unfocused and sprawling.
Inspection day
For the lesson we have been asked to try something new with the learners. I thought about it then decided to attempt a glass painting demonstration. This is actual stained glass not something not we have done before. I bought a kiln over summer with the intention of beginning to learn this craft and have been attempting test pieces with varying levels of success. If it can go wrong it has gone wrong but I think this is all part of the learning process. I eventually was able to find a book teaching these skills but there is really no substitute for experience and my experiences of this are minimal. As a craft it seems to have more in common with pottery painting. The demonstration I plan to do blue peter style, as a series of steps as to paint 1 piece from start to finish would be impractical due to the drying times required. I will talk about the stages and the reasons for the steps required, paint a little to demonstrate, I think on the demonstration parts I have already prepared, then if time permits fire one, although I doubt ill have time to take it from the kiln. I’m curious to see how it goes myself. I have the same session to do again in the evening so ill be pleased to hear any suggestions the inspector has.
Well I was successful after a fashion; there are changes to be made to my paperwork some obvious well cock-up’s relating to scheme of works compared to lesson plans but other things need making more relevant and well apparently self explanatory, I’ll have a look at it as I do this project which is curriculum design and will aid both things. The demonstration went ok but I need to ask more questions to check learning and understanding its strange it’s easier in the evening class as there are more new learners there the difference is, some of the learners in the morning session have been on the course longer than myself And well look at me weird when I do the teacher Dan bit. In the evening class they roll over and let me scratch their ears, but I resolve to do the whole addressing the group and being in charge, one of the suggestions of saying the time when the demo will start worked well and in the evening class I checked learner knowledge before I started. Next week ill make this more cogninent, seems unfocused and sprawling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
