Lockdown Drawing and Giving Feedback

 We are onto the drawing stage with my Y11 and Y12 classes now. Even though we are on lockdown, the show must go on. 

I have written a few blog posts about setting this up

• Setting Up for Teaching Drawing Online
• Using Lego for Cross Sectional Visual Aids

The school has sent out sketch books, pencils and coloured pencils, So I know that the students have some basics that we can be. using to move on with.

Yesterday and today, I have had a few students through my Year 12 class, who are all working on slightly different projects so I have been drawing with them individually or in small groups, targeting their specific project ideas. 

I have been uploading my examples that I do with them online into a folder so that they have access to them and can get a better close up view rather than just seeing them on a Google Meet. Link to folder here.

When it comes to feedback, it proved to be difficult for me to see their work clearly enough when they held it up to the camera during a meet. To overcome this, the students have been photographing their work and sending it to me so I can give them more detailed feedback as I can see it clearly.

I then used my camera set up to record me drawing for them so I can give them ideas on how to improve their work. This is what I would do if we were in the class. I would sit next to them and draw on a different piece of paper and give them ideas for improvement.

I have shared this with them on a Google presentation with some notes. My initial idea was to share a Google Drawing with them so I could annotate their photograph (Google Drawing is always my first thought!!). This was not a good option, however, as you can not embed a video directly onto a drawing (please sort this out Google!). I decided to go with a Google Presentation for feedback and have decided that this is a better option anyway as I can embed videos, give annotated feedback and we are able to keep the same presentation for all drawing feedback as we do it.

Here are two examples of feedback given today. I have shared these with the individual students. 

Lockdown Cooking with Y9's

 I have been teaching a y9 food class this year. With the help of the fabulous Mrs Heka, TIC Food Technology, I have been having fun in the kitchen with 3 lots of Year 9 classes over the year. With being on lockdown at the moment, I met my new Year 9 class rotation while we are all at home. I have been sending them theory work to do, kitchen hygiene, safety etc and then I saw that the wonderful Mrs Heka and Mrs Hamer were doing practical lessons with their Y7 - Y10 classes. I then felt sorry for my class that I wasn't giving them that option to have a go if they were able to.

Link to the Food Tech section on my class site

With the support of Mrs Heka, I have had the confidence to try doing practical from home with the Y9 class for the last two weeks. Last week we made pasta from scratch and a nice sauce to have with it. I had one student come on with his Mum. They were all ready to go with the ingredients. I had sent the class the ingredient list a week in advance. There was another two students in the meet, but they were spectating, cheer leading. 

This week, the topic was hot cakes. I had two spectators this week. The student who was planning on coming to cook was unable to make it. I decided to do the practical anyway as I had two students in watching and I recorded it. My chef from last week can then access the video if he wants to have a go. 

Multimodal set up for Year 8 3D Design on Tinkercad

 Tinkercad is awesome at any time but during lockdown it is great. My students can do 3D design from home and they are supported by the lessons that Tinkercad make, taking you step by step through individual skills. What is also really useful is the "class" that you can set up. This makes it super easy to see the work the students are doing without them having to share it with you.

I have tried to set up my class site with step by steps and videos to help them with skills to go along with the Tinkercad ones, They can then see the steps being done on video. My Y8 group have just started learning the skills so I have been working through tasks with them as well as making them videos that they can watch in their own time. I have tried to keep my videos nice and short and to the point so they are targeted to specific tasks and skills.

Link to page on class site

Great blog post from Deborah, explaining one of her Tinkercad lessons.

Using Lego for Cross Sectional Visual Aids

Some of my Year 12 class are ready to continue with their design work. We are onto design development and they need to include details like cross sectional views. When we are on site, I get the students to make shapes in 3D with plasticine to cut in half, so they have a visual understanding of where the cut surfaces are so they can draw them on paper.

I have set up my drawing area for online teaching, Blog post here, but I needed to find a way of explaining cross sectional. views in 3D for them.

I made some blocks out of Lego. One was a solid cube, one was a solid cube made in two sections and one was a hollow cube in two sections. I made them all the same size so i could relate them back to the original one that is not cut in two.

Here is a brief section from the lesson today. It was great to hear the students drawing and then showing me their drawings on the camera so we could see that everything was being undserstood.

Lego Algorithms

 My Year 7 coding class are learning what algorithms are. As we are on lockdown at the moment, I am thinking of things they can get stuck into at home.

As I am busy building Lego at the moment, following the instructions, I thought we could have a go at making our own Lego instructions for someone else to follow.

Here is where the work is set up on my class site.

They can choose what ever they like to build and break it down into what steps are needed to get it across clearly to someone else.

I have included a video for them so they can use remove.bg to get rid of the backgrounds in the photographs of their lego pieces.

Here is my example step by step to make yellow boy.

Setting Up for Teaching Drawing Online

 We have been on lockdown for getting on for 5 weeks now and my students need to get on with their drawing work. We have done loads of work that can be done online on Google docs etc but it is time for a few of them to move on. 

I had a chat with a couple of them last week about getting some drawing done in the next week and they are keen so it was time to get my set up sorted out.

On my desk I have arranged it so that I can draw live on a Google Meet with the students and also record my drawings for them to try in their own time.

I know being able to draw with the students next week will make me feel so much better.

Using Wordwall for Learning New Words

Today, Mr Cunard in our PE department played a game with use using the flip grip option on Wordwall. He then shared the link to the website. When I checked it out I found there was a load of options and templates to choose from.

I decided to try the Match Up template to have a go at a word game for my Y7 and Y8 coding classes.

It was easy to put the words and definitions.

You can send the link to students via their email, so they can play the game in a browser window or you can grab the embed code and put it onto your class website, which is what I've had a go at here.

I made a video to explain.

Prepping to Learn about Algorithms

 My two new intermediate coding classes have got to learn what an algorithm is. They have to know and show what this is both in a non digital and digital way.

Link to algorithms page on class site

I have started with them finding three things that they know about and breaking them down into input, algorithm, output. I have made an example for them to look at and made an explanation video for them to watch after the lesson to remind themselves what to do. I also found a good explanation video on YouTube.

The second activity on this page is to be done in their own time while we are in lockdown. They have to write instructions for someone else to follow. They then have to analyse how it went and write up any changes they would make to improve their instruction (debugging).

I have written these activities to line up with the tracking document linked to the Progress Outcomes. Blog post here about this tracking sheet These activities are linked directly to Progress Outcome 1.

At the top of the site page, I have included some extra reading for the students and extra activities for them to try.

Online / Distance Learning - Graphics with the Intermediates

 We are on lockdown at the moment, and our classes with our intermediate students are still going ahead.

My Year 8 graphics class are making a start on the clock design project. I have been working on elements in my class site for them so what is on there is more useful and supportive.

They have been coming online for our weekly lessons, so I have been making support material to help them continue when they are not with me or they need reminding about what I have just shown them. This hopefully will help the students who are unable to come online too but it will definitely help when we are all back at school as they will all be at different places in the project.

Over the last two weeks, we have been working on -

• Types of clock
• Design Brief
• Reference images

The links go to where the work is on the class site. There is instructions, templates, examples and explanation screencast videos.

Link to whole project - as of writing, the support materials have only been added to the above sections.

We are not connected as a class via the Hapara teacher dashboard, so we keep a class shared spreadsheet. This is also useful as I can put the links to everything there for them in one place so they can get to their work and support material quickly and easily.

This is the same spreadsheet from the start of todays' class to the end showing the difference in how much work they have done.

Here are a few blog posts from this work

Jasmine

Militina

Useful Online Design Tools

 Here are some useful online design tools that I keep on my class site for quick access.

Link to page on class site

Lockdown teaching - using examples and videos

 As we are in the middle of a Level 4 lockdown again, I have been making sure there is more support on my class site for my students. I know I will see a few of them in class Google Meets but not all of them.

I have been making more examples and taking them through the work with more videos. I use Quick Time Player to. make my videos as I work on a Mac, but Screencastify does the job just as well.

Some examples of what I have been working on are here.

Intermediates - Clock project

Intermediates - At home coding challenges

Year 11 - Design Brief

Year 11 - Types of Seating

Year 11 - Materials

Year 12 - Design Brief

I have also been letting my students specifically know that these resources are there when I send the calendar invite out to the meet. The links take them straight to where the work is. Hopefully, this is making it easier for those students who are unable to come to the meets to keep plodding along with the work.

Online Activity - Coding Challenge a Day

 This is for my Y7 and Year 8 coding classes. I have set them up on my class site so they can work through a colour set in a week if they want, pick and choose from the sets or basically do any they want.

Link to class site

Here are the individual sets

Link to Red Google Drawing

Link to Blue Google Drawing

Link to Green Google Drawing

Online Design Activity - Colour Theory

This is some preparation for my intermediate design students. We are going to look at colour. 

Link to presentation

My Class Site - 2021

 As my inquiry is all about my class site and how I can make it a more supportive environment, I thought I would do a screencast of what it is looking like at the moment.

Link to site

Student Feedback on Support Videos

 

My inquiry is based around making the class site a much more supportive and multi modal environment for the students to use.  Blog post 1 here  Blog post 2 here  outlining how I see the inquiry problem.

Part of that recently was to make examples and support videos of the design brief process for my Year 12 students. I purposefully only did part of the process to see if there was any use for this support.

Link here to where this is on the class site - as of writing this blog post, I included support up to page 4 of the design brief document.

I have recently received feedback form two students from that class who are further ahead than the rest of the class.  

Student A was the first to get ahead of where I had included support. He comes to talk to me one to one a lot and we discuss together what he is working on at the time. I asked him if the support on the site had been helpful. He had used it but he still comes to me to talk one to one. Then I asked him if the support on the site was any good as he was talking to me a lot more than the rest of the class. Did I need to improve or change it to make it more useful. He does use the site but he really likes to talk one to one so he can go over his work in detail and get ongoing feedback so he knows he os on the right track.

Student B came to me this week as she had got as far as the support on the site had and was asking me where the next ones were. I asked here if she had been using the videos on the site up to now and she said she has been using all of them. She said they were really helpful. This student is very hard working and always likes to keep up to date with her work and she said the videos helped her with this. She is very self motivated and will work at home and email me regularly to check her work. 

When I look on YouTube, where I have uploaded the videos, there is definite evidence of the videos that I have made for the Year 12's so far this year being watched.

Coding Prep for my Y8 class

 I started teaching coding with my own class (not team teaching), last year. My two Y7 classes played with the mBot robots (sorry, we WORKED really hard, no playing *cough*). When we went into lock down last year (twice), my lovely class were still coding with me via Google Meet and they were sending me the code to check on my mBot at home. Crazy, crazy lessons. 

Blog posts with Digital Technologies as a label,  

Blog posts with Distance Learning as a label,  

link to particular blog post about coding the robots in lockdown

Those lovely teams are now in Y8, so we are moving on with our coding. We have done some refresher work from last year (as it was last year and I only see them once a week) and now are moving on. My Dunn wants us to try using a Microbit to code, so I took one home over the long Easter weekend to play with. (*cough*.. work with). There is a simulator on the Microbit coding website with some great step by step activities. I decided to use the TInkercad Microbit simulator though, as it is in the electronic circuits section and we can connect the microbit up to lots of external components and control them them.  I used the learning activities from the microbit site, worked my way through them and then made screencast videos myself as I did the activities on Tinkercad.  Another good reason to use Tinkercad is that I can put my students into a class and they can use the programme without having to make an account themselves. I had used this feature last year with my Intermediate graphics class last year on lock down and it was great and really easy. Blog post here

Link to coding section on my class site.

I have given the coding section on my class site a bit of a spruce up, sorting into sections ( we also had a go at coding the drones round an obstacle course last year  - what chaos that was!!)

I have put a section on for the microbit coding page as well as Tinkercad so the students can have a go at both when they are confident (they don't need a log in for the microbit one, but I cant spy on them either).

On the Tinkercad Coding page on my class site, there are 2 sections, Codeblocks and the Microbit Simulator.

We all had a go with designing with codeblocks to get them confident in using Tinkercad. It also gives them another place to use there great coding knowledge.

On the Microbit Simulator page, I have split it into some Basic Skills, for them to get used to coding and using the simulator. We went through these together last week and then the videos are there for when they forget what I said in the class and look back on it again when they are out of the class. 

Then there is a start at some activities. The first one is to make the simulator play Rock, Paper, Scissors. The students flew through all the skills and were soon on challenging each other with Rock, Paper, Scissors. I had coded the one microbit we have so far with that code so they could play it with a real microbit too.

We are ordering and getting a class set over the end of term holidays s they can all have a go with putting their code on a microbit when we get back in Term 2.

The great thing about the simulator on Tinkercad, is that if we have to go back into lock down, the students can get their code ready at home, check it out on the simulator that it works then load it up when we get back into the class room.

This also fits with my inquiry this year. Even though the intermediates are not part of my inquiry, this way of working, using rewindable learning style videos, is very much part of what I am doing this year.

At the end of the lesson this week, the students had discovered between them that they could make animation on the little 5 x 5 LED screen of the microbit.

Here is a screen. recording of one of them that they made.

Lock down video help for NCEA classes

 Last year, while we were on lockdown, I trialled making screencast videos for my seniors to explain step by step how to complete tasks. Link to blog post

I know that the students used these videos as I load them as unlisted on YouTube so the video viewing stats are from where i have shared it.

As part of my inquiry this year, I am planning on seeing how effective using rewindable videos are in my mixed level / mixed ability senior classes.

Thanks to two lock downs before March, this has been forced a little earlier than the initial plan.

Examples are here of what I have put together so far for my Y11 and Y12 students. In both classes I have a mix of students who have done graphics and some who haven't. These links go to my class website.

Year 11 Design Elements

Year 11 Types of Seating

Year 12 Image Collection Research

Year 12 Design Elements

Year 12 Timeline

Year 12 Compare and Contrast

Considering that we are in the middle of the second lockdown this year already, the class spreadsheets are not looking too bad. (I have screenshot them without the names for privacy)

Intermediate Technology - With No Contact

 We have gone onto a week long Level 3 lock down in Auckland this week. Last week was the first time we saw our Intermediate classes for technology this year and now we won't see them this week. When we were on lockdown last year, our Intermediate classes got all of their links to our class sites and work from a central hub site so it was easy for the Intermediate teachers to send to the students at home. 

For this week, we will not be seeing them on an online meet so our work needs to be easy to access and understand with no input from the technology teacher. Their class teacher will be giving the students the hub site link to access at home and out work needs to go straight from there.

I have decided to give them work that we would be doing anyway in the project, just not yet if things were normal. We are designing and making models of pop up books in Graphics and one of the things the students need to do is think about different themes for their book. This is an easy task to do online on a Google Drawing and the students all know how to use them. I have included a short help video, just to go over the task in a screen cast and to show them a quick tip to get images with transparent backgrounds.

Link to page on class site

Lockdown - Take 2

 We are in the second lockdown and teaching from home. As part of our department planning we have just had to fill in what changes we have made to our lesson planning to cope with the teaching from home situation and what we intend to do when we get back to being onsite.

Here is my section from that document. There are more specific details under the table.

Ferguson Year 13 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on materials research and existing product analysis  for my Year 13 students during the next two weeks. This work can be done completely online. I only had 3 / 4 of my Y13 students come online last time so this research work can be done without me.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on the design development work that has already been started for my learners.  Year 12 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on materials research and existing product analysis for my Year 12 students during the next two weeks This work can be done completely online. I only had 1 of my Y12 students come online last time so this research work can be done without me.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on the design development work that has already been started for my learners. Year 11 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on materials research for my Year 11 students during the next two weeks. I had 3 regulars last time so this work can be done without me.. When we are back onsite, I will focus on getting the laser cutter fixed so they can finish their first project and they can continue development work for the designs for their second project. for my learners.  Year 10 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on Tinkercad skills, so they can use these skills for their design ideas when we start the project,  for my Year 10 students during the next two weeks.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on starting ideas for the product design project for my learners.  Year 9 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on coming up with ways that they can continue with the plan online,  for my Year 9 students during the next two weeks.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on starting design ideas based on their work in SOS and Health,  for my learners.  Year 7 and 8 - Based on what I learnt from the previous lockdown, I will focus on short activities that can be completed in a half short timeslot, for my Year 7 and 8 students during the next two weeks.  When we are back onsite, I will focus on starting the new work for the new rotation,  for my learners.

The details of this are as follows.

Year 12 and Year 13

The Year 12 and Year 13 class have been working on materials research in the class as part of their design development work. We have started reading about different materials together and I put a few examples of different materials on the class site so they could read in their own time too. Link here

When we went on lockdown again, I shared this template with them to collect their information onto. We also chatted individually about their designs so we could look for specific material suggestions online. These were then added to the materials research page.

These students also need to look at existing products as part of their design development work. I shared a variety of templates with them, all based on SOLO taxonomy. 

Product Analysis
Describe ........  Describe Self Assessment
Analyse Map ........  Analyse Map Self Assessment

I have tried to offer work to them that can be done without my input so they can get on with it even if they can not come to the scheduled meets.

Year 11

The Year 11 class have just started looking at materials that can be used in their seating design development work. We have been reading about materials together in the class and I have given them the link to the same site page as the Y12 and Y13 students about materials, so they can read and watch at their own pace.

With the students who came online, we have been looking at how different materials can be applied to the specification points they made in their design brief. Example that I worked through online here. I now have this example to give them as well as the information collection template to work through in their own time if they can't come to the scheduled meets.

Year 10

My Year 10 class have just started their new Technology rotation so we had not made a start on the project when we went into lockdown. I have given them the link to the Tinkercad skills instructions on the class site. Link here. They can work through the skills and exercises here and they can then use these skills when we get back into the class and start the product design project. This work can be done in their own time and if they come to the meets they can ask questions and watch me show how to do specific things they need to know.

Year 9

My Year 9 class have just started their new Technology rotation. We had made a start on the project before we went into lockdown so I have been focusing on putting work on the class site that can be completed online but is still definitely part of the project and provides useful skills.

Link here to class site page

Intermediates

My Design class have work that was already set up from the last lockdown and we will be using that again with this new group. Link here The skills they learn here will be used in their product design project when we get back to the classroom.

The coding class can learn the basics of using blocks to code with and can play some of the coding games I have set up on my site. Link here

Back on Site - Level 2 Syle

I was SOOOOO excited this week. We were due back on site at school to teach. The week started with with an awesome staff meeting in the auditorium, where the chairs had been set up with enough space between them. We looked like a huge group of people who have been sent to the naughty chair!. It was so good to see everyone in the flesh.
We have a rolling start for our students. Y12 and Y13 in on Monday. Y11 on Tuesday, Y9 and Y10 on Wednesday then the whole school from Thursday onwards. It has been so good to see the senior students so far this week.
We have had to set our classrooms up in "exam style". Basically all separate desks with spaces between to ensure the correct social distancing. I wrote a blog post about the seating plans and drawing equipment boxes for the tables. 

Here it is in real life in the class. I had to put the tables on a diagonal as they were too close otherwise and I think I am going to have to swing the computer tables round so they are facing each other. Other than that though, it was an ok plan.

All staff were given a sanitation pack too so the students sanitise their hands as they come into the class and the tables etc get cleaned with the spray between classes. I don't think my tables have been this clean or been cleaned so often in their lives. We are a messy lot in my room.

As a warm up activity for my students to do so we didn't have to launch straight into our project work, they were all given paper and they got to play with the new drawing packs on the tables and get used to not moving round to get stuff like they are used to in my room.

Instructions (given out in stages with time in between) - 

Draw a square, 4 circles, a triangle, a squiggly line coming off from one circle .. etc ...etc...

Some of the instructions were about how they were feeling - draw a face on the cloud to show how you are feeling  - colour the cloud to show how you were feeling this morning - put some weather coming from the cloud to show how you feel about tomorrow.

These were interesting as they showed me the mixed feelings they had about coming back and how they are not looking forward to another couple of days of online teaching again till the whole school is back on Thursday.

I possibly am going to have to sew my sleeves into my pockets to keep me from hugging students. It is very hard.