Moving from AS91627 to AS91630

 My Year 13 class have to put up with their standards for DVC looking bad for a while as we work on the external first - AS91627

This then feeds through to the product design standard - AS91630

To help with this, last week we had a talk about convergent and divergent thinking and designing. Link to information on the class site.

We also talked about Biomimicry, and how it is applied to design.

This has led onto working on their first design ideas. So far they have done observational drawings of their chosen starting points and looked at the design elements of form and pattern. This now needs to feed into their first thoughts. We have got half way through the design brief, so they have interviewed their client and have an idea of what they are going to be designing. They have also started thinking about the functional, social and physical elements.

I want them to start their first thoughts / concepts before they write the specification in the design brief. This is because we talked about designing in a convergent way and I feel the specification will hold them in too much. This was a hard point to get to as they have to draw ideas without focussing too hard on the outcome. They have to show the influence of their starting points / form / pattern but not have it just look like a copy.

My examples of where they are up to are on the workspace for AS91627

This is my example of what I wanted them to try for this next step.

Here are examples form some of the girls who have got to this step first. I am really pleased with how they have managed this activity as it is a hard one.

Inquiry 2022 - Year 9 Food Tech - Trying to get engagement - Take 2

 At the beginning of the month, I started trying to get more engagement from my Year 9 Food Tech class by giving them choice of what to cook. Blog post here

To be honest, this did not really work very well.  They were still floating around the kitchen being annoying and generally getting in trouble.

The next thing that I have tried is making laminated recipe cards for each kitchen so they don't have to have their chrome books in the kitchen to be able to see the recipe. So far I have made ones for burgers where I included pictures of the equipment on the back and Mac n Cheese, with the method on the back.

This week, I tried to get the students to make them selves job lists using the method. They have three people in their teams on the kitchen so they had to write three lists of jobs on Friday ready for the practical lesson making brownies today. This was not much of a success. There was not enough detail in their lists as they did not break down the method into small enough steps. I decided to make their recipe cards for this week with an example job list on the back so they can see how much detail is needed.

What I also did differently today was show them the WHOLE process at the start instead of calling them back for each step. When I have done it step by step previously, this class has been difficult to focus on what I was telling them and not all of them could come round as they were in the middle of something. It caused more trouble than it solved to be honest.  Today, I had them all together focussing on the whole process and they then went away with their job lists and got on with it. The talk was really good, very work related and the team work in the kitchen was MUCH better. They all knew what to do and what each team member needed to do while other things were going on.

We shall see if this continues to work as a process with this class but I was very pleased with them today.

PD - Sesame Seared Tuna

 Today we made sesame seared tuna. This was sliced thinly and put on top of baked wonton wrappers cut into triangles. A salad was served with it with wasabi mayonnaise.

Link to sesame seared tuna recipe.

PD - Thai Chicken Peanut Cakes and Crispy Fried Tofu with Spicy Curry Sauce

 I had a great week with Mrs Heka's Year 13 catering class this week. They let me come and learn along with them while Mrs Heka is taking tham through some finger food ideas fo a function they are catering for later in the year.

On Tuesday I made Thai Chicken Peanut Cakes

On Thursday, the theme was bao buns, with the students making a variety of flavoured fillings. The filling I was in charge of today was tofu with a spicy curry sauce. Here is the link to the recipe that was used, with tofu replacing the pork.

Manaiakalani CLuster Create Workshop

 We got together as a whole cluster at Glen Taylor school for our Cluster Create Workshops

Here is the presentation that I presented with Robyn Anderson, where we were playing with the microbits.

Inquiry 2022 - Year 9 Food Tech - Trying to get engagement

 I have Year 9 Food Tech classes again this year. This means that I see 3 Year 9 classes over the year in a rotation. I personally find the. change over between rotations part way through the year difficult as I have just got to know one set of students for 12 weeks then it changes to another group. If I find it difficult as an adult, the students must find it even more so.

We are two weeks into our new rotation and the first practical cooking lesson on Wednesday did not go so well. They were not listening to me trying to explain the techniques they need to use and I was getting extremely frustrated with them. I did warn them in advance that I am a little more strict in the kitchen for two reasons, safety and the fact that it is not my room so I feel especially conscious of how we treat it. Luckily on Wednesday, the HOD Technology, the lovely Mrs Heka, came through just as I was at the point of glueing them to the ceiling. We settled and got on and completed our practical session. 

This needs to improve, so on our single period on Friday, where we would normally do the theory work for the practical use (recipe evaluation etc), I decided to focus on mindset and buy in instead,

I showed the students the list of practicals that we were going to do during the whole rotation and I got them to vote on what they wanted to make next Wednesday. Burgers came out on top by a MILE. We then looked at the recipe and talked about what all the codes for the measurements meant and what tools and equipment they would need to use. I am hoping that this will give them a little more confidence going into the kitchen next week, they know what they are going to make and what all the recipe elements are. I also found a Gordon Ramsay video of him making burgers and a video on how to make the burger sauce we are going to make. Watching the videos was great as they were commenting on things that they liked and wanted to include in theirs next week,

Here is the class website with all the overall planning  and here is the planning for burgers in particular.

I am hoping this gives them some buy in and engagement for the next practical session as they will be going in having made choices and have prior knowledge they can refer back to.

Planning for AS91068 - Undertake development of design ideas through graphics practice

 Planning for AS91068 - Undertake development of design ideas through graphics practice.

The whole project is broken down using the explanations on the standard. This ensures that i am planning for the highest levels. This is also useful for the students to know what they have to do for each level.

Link to doc here

This then gets laid out onto the class website, with links through to all the tasks, the standard, NZQA exemplars and the clarification. Each task page has instructions, reading and examples to support them through what they have to do.

Link to class site

The students work on Hapara Workspaces, so the templates and help are also put onto a workspace that we use to hand in the work.

Link to the workspace is here. - (as of writing this, this workspace is a definite "under construction" )

The good thing about this standard is that I can attach another couple of standards to the project - the Design Brief standard (AS91044) - link to work for that here. I can also do the rendering standard (AS91066) with this project too, when they are showing form, texture and materials on their design ideas. (another pile of "in process" planning here )

The external that i enter the students into for this course is AS91063. It is all about their freehand sketching through the design process.

I make sure I build in lots of opportunities for doing this. Here is the examples that I make to guide them. The designs are leading out from AS91067, so really all this work is one massive project.

As you can see, this planning was built around one standard but includes a lot of other elements that means the students can pick up more credits for the work that they do.One extended project that has 5 standards attached to it.

PD - Laser Cutter Presentation

 

Inquiry 2022 - What is Motivation

 My inquiry this year is about motivation. I have been round the school with a note pad asking staff and students what they think motivation is, how they motivate themselves and how they motivate other people.

Staff

• Something that makes me want to do something. The will to do something and the enthusiasm. When you reach the point of success or whatever your goal is.

• Be encouraging and positive towards other people. Thinking about my why and mainly my who. Being thankful and grateful.

• Impetus and having a reason to do something. It depends on what the end result is and if it is needed. Getting something going, pushing.

• Have a reason to get up in the morning. Family.

• Providing structure, day to day and big picture. Enjoying what you do even if it turns to custard occasionally.

• Taking on passion projects. Focus on things that I am passionate about. The ongoing success of these helps me to stay motivated.

• The burst of energy to do something but you need discipline to keep it consistent. Talk to the students about their interests to establish a connection. Are they in the mood to motivate themselves? Asking how the teacher can support them. Getting them to reflect on themselves with goal setting - what motivates them? Ask them about their why.

• Motivation can be cultivated with a classroom culture of hard work and excitement. 65% of it has to come from the students themselves with their buy in to what you are doing. Curiosity and wonder is the place where you need to start. Get them excited to learn and use this to get them to a place where they get to make what they want. Student agency - your planning needs to be flexible to incorporate their interests.

Students

• Inspiring - both the environment and someone's energy. Having a challenge.

• Consistently striving to do something that you desire. I remember situations where I felt helpless and weak and strive to be better than that. I try to be encouraging. I get them to seek help and guide them to places where they can grow further.

• It is difficult for me to get motivated. When I am on my phone I am on Youtube and TikTok. These keep my attention as they have interesting stuff. I learn things from them that I did not know before.

• I think about the past and how I was last year and I want to be better. Teacher nagging helps me a lot. I don't like it at the time but I know it helps me.

• My dreams for the future. I want to keep doing things that I enjoy and use them for a future career. I think back to the small version of me from the past who liked drawing and making things and I don't want to let that version of me down by not doing my best with it.