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. 

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

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)

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

What does teaching look like now?

We have been back at school, doing onsite teaching for number of weeks now, post lockdown. Things have changed for me as a teacher. There are definitely some things that I am glad to see the back of and some things that I will be keeping on.

Hapara workspaces were an absolute marvel during lockdown. I had my work sorted onto workspaces for the first time this year as I was sick of loosing track as to where the students were up to and was going to give workspaces a really good try this year to help me with this. Blog post here. I was slow at our school coming to the workspaces party as other staff have been comfortably using them for a number of years and I have been happily picking their brains about the best way to do things. During lockdown, this became a totally different reality. It was no longer testing to see if it made things easier, it was full on “we are using this now” mode.  It was so good to be able to share work so easily with the students this way, it was all set up for those students who like the big picture and I could see students accessing and starting the work even if they weren’t coming online to talk to me during the Google Meets.
I will absolutely be keeping up with using workspaces with any new work that I plan in the future. I also really enjoy making them look pretty!

As some of my students were unable to come online and do work during lockdown, I have been spending a lot of time making help videos for my inquiry group to support them with their project work. Blog post here. When I asked them a few weeks ago if these help sections were of any use and how I could make them more useful.

"I don't really watch the videos but the examples are useful"

"I watched the first video. It was ok."

"They were useful. No they weren't too long. Yes I could understand what you were saying".

Not sparkling feedback, but not bad either. I have received more informal feedback since then. The Year 12 students are asking where their help page is like the Year 13 one. The Year 13 inquiry group are telling me they are up to where the help stops, am I making any more. This makes me think that this has been more helpful than I originally thought so I will definitely be expanding on this idea and try to include support like this in each project. It will be a fair amount of work to prepare but once it is there it will be really worth it. I have been drawing on my experience while doing Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher in 2015, where I looked at designing MOOC style courses. One of my main takeouts from that was short and sharp sections that were on task and to the point. Link to this work here.

Having the table top boxes of drawing equipment has been a yes and no from me. We had to do this when we first came back to keep the social distancing rules in place. Blog post 1 Blog post 2. I have kept them since going back to semi "normal" and I am not sure they are staying. I twitch every time I see how messy and mixed up they are and this is really not something worth getting grumpy over so they will probably not stay much longer. The tables are back in groups though. I absolutely HATED the rows.

Not sweating the small stuff. Hey. We are still in the middle of a huge global happening that doesn't make for great viewing if you watch the news so I am definitely still in the "don't sweat the small stuff" mode and am trying to make the class a good place to be with minimum nagging and maximum support.

What do I want from lockdown to stay? The MUTE BUTTON!!!!

Drawing Demonstrations While Engaging in Social Distancing

In my previous blog post, I explained how I have set my classroom up so it can be used safely during Level 2.

This is OK till I want to show them "stuff". Online stuff is easy as I can airplay to the HUGE TV I have in my classroom.  When I want to show them any drawing skills. I can connect up my webcam drawing board to the laptop and still send it over to the big TV so the students can see what I'm drawing. My usual method is to get the students round one desk and I show them drawing skills up close. We can't do this at the moment so my webcam is getting a good work out.

The other good thing about this method is the fact that I used Quicktime to show it through my laptop so I hit record while I did the demo. Easy peasy rewindable learning videos.

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. 

Preparation for being back in the class

I am very happy to be back at school next week in my classroom. To prepare for that I have been trying to work out my seating plans. I have big double sized tables so I'm thinking one student per end of table as they will be a metre apart then. The only problem is, I can't really picture how many of these I can fit in lines down my classroom. I normally have them in groups. I have done a roughish plan and put students names on desks ready but it might all be up for shuffling when I get in there on Monday and start moving the tables round only to find they don't fit the plan, especially on that right hand side. Never mind, I have online junior classes in the morning and don't see my in class seniors till the afternoon, so plenty of time for shuffling if needed.

I have also sorted out table boxes of equipment so the students don't have to get up and wander round for the stuff they need. When we are drawing normally, I have boxes of equipment in place in the room and the students move to get what they want when they need it. They can't do that at the moment so I have put together packs for each table. If they sharpen their pencils into the boxes, we will be having words!! I will include a paper cup to sharpen into.

Adding Extra Help for Students who can't get to Meets

I have been concerned about my senior students who can't get to online meets while we are on lockdown. I fully understand the various reasons for this (working being the main one), but I worry about how they will cope with being so far behind the students who have been coming to class when we get back to "normal".
My inquiry group are some of these students (my Y13 class) so I thought I would try something different.

I have added a page to the class site that is specifically for help with the individual aspects of the current project we are doing.
I have recorded myself talking about the different activities they have to complete and put up the example that I work through in the video for them to use as an example.

As of writing this blog post, I have only just started this so it is no where near complete. I have emailed the link to it to that class to get their feedback and to let them know it is there for them to refer to.

Link to page on class site.
Link to workspace - I have purposefully not put all of the activities on this workspace for this class yet as I have a couple of students who would try too much at once and they have enough to cope with. All of the activities are set up on the class site  and when we are ready, will be transferred to the workspace to aid tracking.

Teaching Online - Sketching

I wanted to do some drawing with my seniors. We have been working on Google docs etc for the whole time we have been on lockdown so we really need to get on with some drawn work. I have been doing some experiments on how to set this up - blog post here - and I decided to to use the webcam and paper and pencil.

Here is my set up for today.

I set up to do drawing with my Year 12 class P1 this morning where I want them to look at drawing design elements from their chosen design era. None of them turned up today (email conversations about the docs they are working on were going on through the session). I decided to run the session anyway and record it so it can be used to look back on and be rewindable,

There is not a lot of talking on this recording as I did not have any students in the online meet. There is more towards the end where I am describing what I have done. I looked at Arts and Crafts particularly as my most frequent visitor at Y12 chose this design era to look at.

For P2 I got three of my Year 13 boys come in and it was great to test the set up in a real situation to see how it went. This video is the lesson with the Y13 boys. Nothing really happens till about 5 minutes in when they start joining the class, just me scuffling about and then the drawing stuff starts about 9 minutes in. We focussed in on drawings skills today to warm us up as we haven't done any drawing in AGES. On the whole, the set up worked really well. The webcam has a few issues focussing sometimes but it is only a cheap one. I could try setting my camera up in a similar manner as it has the ability to be focussed. Sounds like an excuse to do more experiments!
As I said to the kids today. It was so good to hear the scratch of pencil on paper.

Using the Tinkercad Class Feature

I have used the Tinkercad class feature for the first time today. It's great. Really useful.
I have used Tinkercad a lot with my intermediate classes and to be honest, getting them to make their own accounts has always been a bit of a pain in the bum. As we are working / teaching / learning long distance from home at the moment, we didn't need this added stress so I thought I would give the class feature a go. Why didn't I try this before??

I put basic instructions of what to do on the class site and then realised that the Tinkercad class gives us a unique url to use to get tot he class. So that was even easier as I could put a button on the site for the students to click on. Then all they needed was the nickname in the class (Tinkercad just used their first names) and we are good to go.

There will end up being two buttons here after next week for two different classes, but this will be ok as they can only get in the class where their email is set up so it won't cause a problem.

It is easy to get to the classes that i have set up. It is just a button at the top of the page.

My two classes that I have set up so far are there. I have just tried it today with one. 

Then the really good thing is that i can see the work that have been doing on the dashboard, where I also have access to open the files too if I need to.

This is going to be a HUGE help over this working / learning / teaching from home period as I am planning on using 3d design with my Y9 and Y10 classes starting next week as we have new Technology rotation groups with our junior classes.

Thank you Tinkercad :D