Starting to code with Python

 My Year 8 coding class came back to me today after their two week break. Last term we were working with the mBots, looking and binary and using the sensors on the mBot. Link to the mBot planning on my class site.

Today, we started playing with the Microbits - link to planning. The online app for using the microbits is great, as there is a simulator to test the code before you put it onto the actual microbit. You can code in either the blocks or python / java script. It takes you through activities with tutorials, step by step, to build your skills and confidence.

What we did today was to start with the block coding, as they were comfortable with that as they have done a lot of it with the mBots. We then did the same activities using Python and put screen shots of both side by side so they can compare and see what each part means. This was good as they could then change parts of one and see what what happened with the other. Being able to click back and forth between blocks and Python on the screen was really useful for this today. They could also see what rules were needed when writing the simple lines of code (like indenting).

This was all written up on a presentation by the students with examples of what they have been looking at and changing in the code.

Link to my example

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.

Inquiry 2022 - Teaching Actions likely to Accelerate Student Learning

"Form hypotheses about teaching actions likely to accelerate student learning."

Thoughts after student feedback :-

• Link what they do future plans and how they can use DVC as 60% of the student replies said that it was an important aspect as to why they chose the subject.
• Do mindset activities as a lot of the students do not have a good mindset in regards to their abilities in DVC
• Build skills slowly to give the students confidence
• Let the students choose to work together on a research activity or by themselves, depending on how they best concentrate and focus on their work.
• Give regular feedback as to how they are doing as some of their replies are about not knowing where they stand.
• Build in practice time with activities so it is not straight into the assessed work. This could prove difficult as the students do tend to. get a little too focussed on whether an activity is for credits.
• Make work available in multiple places.
• Make clear step by step support material.
• Teacher made exemplars were more popular than the NZQA ones. I will also pull out past student projects for them to see Tamaki College exemplars.
• Work one to one with students. This is important as all their projects are slightly different so they all. have unique problems to overcome.
• Have rewindable resources as the students particularly did not like being told how to do something once then being expected to get on with it.
• Make sure their is the planning there and the time given for them to aim for the higher achievement levels.

Inquiry 2022 - Tools, Measures and Approaches

 "Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools."

The focus for my inquiry this year is motivation of the students and how I, as the teacher, can affect that motivation in a positive way to enable achievement.

Asking Questions

One of the first things that I have done in my inquiry this year is to ask people questions.

• Teach first teacher who is teaching DVC alongside me
• Relief teacher who had my class while I was away
• Student working from home
• Students in the class

I tried to ask questions that drew out what they found helpful in how teachers present the work to them and what is not helpful.

Content Planning Monitoring
I am using workspaces and a class website to present the work to the students. These are used alongside emails and calendar invites (which end up in emails).

I am monitoring how the students are interacting with the content, talking to them and listening to them talk with each other. Changes can be made quite quickly if any part of the planning is confusing or not supportive enough. For example, I host the help videos on YouTube and this enables me to see how many times they have been viewed. This gives me an idea about how helpful they are being. 

NCEA Credits and Tracking

As my inquiry group are my senior DVC students (Year 11 and Year 13), I will be able to see how they are tracking along with their credits.

I also keep a spreadsheet of all the tasks and colour code them green, orange and red. This is up on the screen for the students to see what needs finishing off at a glance.

Ongoing Student Voice

Motivation is quite a tricky thing to measure so I think my best bet will be to keep talking to the students and getting their feedback as we go through the year.

I am not sure that a Google Form. will be the best way to keep doing this as they do need a bit of a shove sometimes to get them filled in. I need to come up with a quick way for them to indicate how they think things are going.

PD - Making Spanakopita with Year 13

 I had a great opportunity today to learn how to make Spanakopita alongside Mrs Heka's Year 13 Catering and Hospitality class. They are getting ready to cater for a function so have started trying out different finger foods with Mrs Heka so they can come up with a menu. 

This was sooooo tasty and so easy. 

Link to Google Drawing

PD - Tapasā - Carrying the Tapa

 

PD - Week 1 and 2 - OMG Tech PLD: 3D printing, Lasercutting and CNC machining

 We have had 2 weeks of PD from OMG Tech so far.

On week 1,  we looked at using Fusion 360. We looked at the basics and Krishna showed us how to produce a simple shape. A great tutorial to use is this one from Product Design Online. I worked my way through this tutorial after this first session and it takes you step by step through for a complete beginner.

We then went through slicing the design on Prusa Slicer so that it was ready to send G code to the 3D printer.

This came out really well when I printed it. We printed it fast so we could see it quickly but the quality was not bad.

Points to note when Krishna helped me to set up the 3D printer properly. 

• A really clean base plate - he cleaned it with hot soapy water and dried it
• Use cotton tissue to clean the hot print nozzle as the extra plastic stuck on there will come off on the tissue.
• Print the first few layers slower to ensure good adhesion to the base plate.

I really want a way for the students to be able to create an orthographic drawing digitally so that we can use that method when the new DVC standards come into affect. I had a go at making this design into an orthographic today. I was happy with how easy it was to do, the detail you can add and how it links directly to the 3D product that has been designed and drawn. Will Fusion 360 be efficient for this? I am not sure. I need to use it a lot more myself first before I make a decision.

Here are my written notes from the sessions.

Useful links

thingiverse.com

printables.com

Thomas Sanladerer - YouTube channel

CNC Kitchen - YouTube Channel

PD - Local Curriculum

 

Inquiry 2022 - Barriers to Learning

 

Reading - Barriers to Learning and How to Overcome them

Im my senior classes, I always have a range of students. 

• Year 11 - depending on the curriculum lines in Year 9 and 10, they may have had some graphics for both years, one year or non.
• Year 12 - they may have done NCEA Level 1 DVC at Year 11 or not.
• Year 13 - they may have done Level 1 and Level 2, they may have just done one of them or they may have done no DVC at NCEA level at all.
• Some have chosen DVC because they want to do it.
• Some are in the DVC class as there was nothing else on that option line that they felt like doing.

These situations create a wide range of experience and motivation in my students. I have a blog post about student voice about where they sit on this continuum here. I have students who want to do their absolute best through to students who are there to hang out and every where on the continuum inbetween.

1. I find that mindset is a huge barrier to learning in my subject. As soon as the words "I can't do this, I can't draw" come out of them, the student builds their own barrier and this is one that is the most difficult to get over.
2. Concentration is always a barrier to learning and being off task. Students are progressively over time having a shorter attention span and get sidetracked very quickly. I find this to be a problem as they have to spend extensive periods of time on the same project for DVC.
3. Students unable to come into school due to COVID restrictions and because they have had to get jobs to help their families has been a big problem. If they are not in the class but are still on the school role, then they are still on my list so my  responsibility to teach somehow.
4. Students having a very disjointed school, learning experience over the past 2 and a half years has meant it is very difficult for them to settle into the routine again.

My inquiry this year has its main focus on motivation. I will need to keep all the barriers to learning in mind when planning any interventions.

PD - Tapasā

 

Prep for AS91627

 My Year 13 students are working on AS91627 - Initiate Design Ideas through Exploration

We are at the "exploration" part at the moment which basically means we are making a right mess. Having fun though.

I have been away from the class for 4 weeks this term, so we are not where we "should be", according to the original plan but while I was away they started theory work on the next standard so the time was still used well.

My planning for AS91627 is a combination of the class site, a workspace, one to one work with each student as they are all using different starting points and made examples taking them through what they need to do.

Here is the link to the class site - we are up to working on the design elements.

This planning is all put onto a workspace too so the students can use this to log the progress of their work. I have written a blog post about prepping the workspaces for drawn work - link here

I have put the same support and examples on both the class site and the workspace and links to each one, so wherever the students connect with the work, the help is there and links to where they can submit their work when done.

Here are some of the students doing press printing with EVA foam for the pattern section of the work.

This next step os to analyse where the pattern elements are - rotational, linear, translational etc (they are always surprised when these maths terms come up!!), photograph their compiled sheets and put the photographs onto the evidence documents in the workspace.

Using workspaces with Drawn Work

 As part of our hybrid teaching planning, I have been making sure my Workspaces are more supportive in how the students use them.

The main ones I have been working on and are being used at the moment are here ...

• Year 9 Food Tech
• Year 11 Architect Research
• Year 11 Design Brief - not complete, as of time of writing this
• Year 13 Product Design - not complete yet as they are mainly working on the external standard at the moment.

My Year 13 class are working on the external DVC standard first, which means lots of drawing on A3 pieces of paper and making plasticine and card models. I have seen how useful the workspaces are for the students to connect to the work they need to complete, either in the class or at home.

This blog post here explains how I have set up the class site, the workspaces and the calendar to try and get a smooth workflow.

I wanted to have a go at using workspaces for the students drawn work too. I have set up one for my Year 13 class to use and have used the same ideas I have on my other workspaces in terms of links to the class site and worked examples made by me. The evidence column is basically just blank presentations that the students can put photographs of their drawn work onto. What I haven't included on this one is the how to videos that I have made a big part of my other workspaces. 

This workspace is an experiment at the moment so I will no doubt be including some help videos as we go and I make changes in response to how the students find working with it.

This will also be useful as a record of the work as we have had issues with work going missing between home and school in the past which is gutting when it happens as so much effort goes into the work.

Link to workspace

PD - Project RISE Update

 

Inquiry 2022 - Feedback from Students

 Student Voice - from Year 11 and aYear 13 DVC class

Ant reference to any other teacher or subject has been removed.

What year are you in?

Why did you choose graphics (DVC) this year?

Have you done graphics (DVC) before this year?

How would you assess your on graphics ability? Be as honest and clear as you can. Use whole sentences in your answer please.

I think I'm decent in graphics. I really enjoy the classes and actually like doing the work cause its easy to understand.

I think my design ideas are awesome but my practical skills are not nearly as cool.

I would say I'm not to good and not to bad, so I would say i'm average with my graphics abilities

i don't know

I feel that I am good in communicating in graphics when I need help. I enjoy creativity.

By put my focus on what task we working on and achieve all standard

I don't know.

I don't know

I'd say i'm ok.

My graphics Ability is kind of lacking, due to my creativeness losing its touch.I do have the ability to draw (kind of) but I know i can do better. I can handle the work presented to me but I know that during the drawing part of things It can be slower than It should.

I wouldn’t really know that much about my graphics abilities since i'm new to graphics but i can be creative in my own time or when needed.

I dont know Ms

What makes you feel this way about your graphics ability?

This will probably give away who I am but I think its cause I sit by my self. It really helps me focus on what I am doing.

Practical work ends up looking stiff or not how I want it to. It's to be expected though I hardly ever use my hands to create things.

Im not to sure on how to answer this question

i don't know

I feel comfortable in knowing that whatever might go wrong on a piece of paper, i can always improvise using my creativity ability.

my future pathways

I don't know.

I don't know

Because my drawing isn't good.

I just lack the creativity needed, I know I can do it but i feel like my brain isn't working or functioning properly in the moment

I would feel great but i wouldn’t know much about my graphics abilities since I'm still learning on what i'm good at.

I love art and since I can not take art because its on the same row with my other subject i decided to take graphics.

What would make you feel good / better about your work?

I already feel good about my work.

I just need more practice I think. I don't feel bad about my skills tho

maybe if i improve more by listening more to the instructions and do the work like how the teacher expects me to do the work. And maybe improve on my skills so I can be as skilled as my graphics teacher.

i don't know

If my work looked a bit realistic, maybe I’d be more happier with it.

listen to music and complete all the work

If I finish it.

If I feel like doing the work.

The feeling when I get my credits

I wouldn't know honestly. I just need to encourage myself even more

If i think about it more and have me time to think about how i feel about my work.

Work done.

What methods of teaching / learning work best for you?

In all of your subjects, what have teachers done to make it easier for you to learn in the class or at home. You don't have to mention teachers names or subjects if you don't want to.

I am a visual learner so I like how she shows us how to do it and explains it clearly.

Set up individual tasks on workspace // would send reminders thru email on whats due // showed examples of all standards for an assessment //

putting us into assigned groups or groups of choice, because people might be on different tasks, and the teacher can go to one group at a time to help out the group

They gave examples

Most of my teachers would sit down with me, one on one, and properly explained the given task. Gave examples on what is expected, as well as feedback on what to focus more on and improve. Send through tasks on gmail to finish, if learning from home.

Give us the information on site and the workspace and show us some example to make it more sense.

When the due dates for work is long.

When the teacher looks at my work and helps me to understand it better :)

By asking our teachers for help or try to pushing you to do better !!

- They always make sure that everyone understands before moving on to the next step

My teacher does student examples as well, which gives me a better view of what qualities of work my teacher wanted to us to do, by giving a student example it gives a realistic example and more accurate example of the difference between someone who is teaching the subject and who is learning the subject. The student example is someone in class who has finished the work and is the standard the teacher wanted thus giving a better understanding.

What made it easier was examples in graphics on calendars and workspace, videos.

Put everything on workspace.

In all of your subjects, what have teachers NOT done to make it easier for you to learn in the class or at home. You don't have to mention teachers names or subjects if you don't want to.

Some of them just send us the work and expect us to know what to do. They don't explain most of the time.

Not looked at their work before sending it out to the class.

not really sure on how to answer this question

They didn't give examples, so I had to ask them.

Sometimes, one of my teachers would rush through the learnings, giving me less time to prep for the merit or excellence part in my internals. It makes me frustrated and does not help.

give us too much information with no explanation

Probably when they send work late and due dates are short.

When I ask for help and don't help me

No comment

Not sure

XXX as much as XX is good at XX job, XX is too quick with XX explanations and expects us to fully understand after hearing about it once, XX expectations are a bit high seeing as XX expects us to already know the subject from the inside out. It's stressful but I really want to do well inXX class

By not making examples of what to do and not replying to my emails.

All the teachers are good and doing their work well.

Is there anything you would like to add about how you like to learn, how it is in your lessons or how your teachers give the work to you?

no

No, there is nothing else to add.

Individual working styles are the best way I can work.

nope

I like feedback as it helps me improve on the areas I need improving on.

No thanks.

No :)

No comment

Just to be able to see the examples or work in class

I need my teachers to be firm with me, constantly on me about my work. I've been losing interest/passion for learning and I know its affecting the quality and the pace of my work. I'm ashamed that its lead to this

Theres nothing i would wanna add my happy with what im learning in graphics.

I like it just the way it is now