Here is an overview of the overall achievement of my class in terms of asTTle and PAT tests done over Years 9 and 10.
Maori students - DVC 2020
Ethnic breakdown of class
Monday, November 25, 2019
Jumpstart 2019 - Know my Learners
We have been into Jumpstart for two weeks now.
Here is an overview of the overall achievement of my class in terms of asTTle and PAT tests done over Years 9 and 10.
Here is an overview of the overall achievement of my class in terms of asTTle and PAT tests done over Years 9 and 10.
Friday, November 22, 2019
Bursts and Bubbles 2019 - Ideas I would like to Steal
We have just had our final CoL presentation for the year, Bursts and Bubbles, where all of the CoL teachers sum up what they have been doing this year in their inquiries. My talking frame for this is here. (it was actually a bit shorter on the day to make sure it fit into 3 minutes!)
While other CoL teachers were presenting, I was making some doodle notes of any ideas that caught my eye that I thought that I could "steal" and use.
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Autonomous Car - mBlock Coding Explanation
I have been coding my mbot to follow a black line and to stop if something is put in front of it.
Here is all of my code.
Here is a video of my code working (please excuse it's sideways viewpoint)
Here is an explanation of how my code works.
The next thing is an operator block and a sensor block. This is saying to check if there is anything less than 10cm away from the front ultrasonic sensor.
I then used an "if, then, else" control block.
I used this because it gives the chance to put two different options of actions for the mbot to do depending on a condition.
The ultra sonic block is placed in the if.
This is saying that if something is less than 10 cm away from the ultrasonic sensor, the mbot does the actions in the "then" section.
These actions are:-
The movement around the black line is put into the "else" section of the main control block. This is because it is the other thing the mbot has to do if there is nothing in front of it.
These sections are all put into "if, then" control blocks. This is because there needs to be a condition happening for the action to happen. If that condition is not happening then it will move onto the next code block.
All of these "if, then, else" and "if, then" blocks are wrapped by one forever around the outside. This is because I want the mbot to continue to check for these conditions all the time. If the forever was not there it would do it all once then stop.
Here is all of my code.
Here is a video of my code working (please excuse it's sideways viewpoint)
Here is an explanation of how my code works.
At the top of my code there is the start up block that lets my mbot know there is a line of code coming.
I then have a wait control block that is connected to a sensor block that is the button on the mbot.
I have added this so that the mbot will not start the coded actions as soon as it is turned on. I can wait till im ready and press the button for it to start.
I used this because it gives the chance to put two different options of actions for the mbot to do depending on a condition.
The ultra sonic block is placed in the if.
This is saying that if something is less than 10 cm away from the ultrasonic sensor, the mbot does the actions in the "then" section.
These actions are:-
- The mbot will stop, so it doesn't run the thing in front of it over
- It will show red light to show it is stopping
- It will make a noise as a warning
The movement around the black line is put into the "else" section of the main control block. This is because it is the other thing the mbot has to do if there is nothing in front of it.
These sections are all put into "if, then" control blocks. This is because there needs to be a condition happening for the action to happen. If that condition is not happening then it will move onto the next code block.
There will be 4 of these and they will be based around this binary information.
This works like this ...
The code for this section, with all 4 sections, looks like this, where all of these 4 possibilities are in their own "if, then" control blocks.
While it is following the line, a green light is showing so this is the first thing inside the else section.
All of these "if, then, else" and "if, then" blocks are wrapped by one forever around the outside. This is because I want the mbot to continue to check for these conditions all the time. If the forever was not there it would do it all once then stop.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
NCEA DVC Results comparisons
Last year, I did a results comparison of my Year 11 class over the last few years. I just did this class as it was my inquiry group last year. Blog post here.
I have decided this year to do a similar thing to track all year groups.
Link to spreadsheet here
I have been trying to see patterns. I have failed at that to be honest.
At Level 2 and 3 the conceptual design standard continues to be poorly attempted. This is on my list to improve next year and I have already made a start on that by redoing the Level 2 planning and have sent it off to be moderated by another Technology teacher.
It is always GREAT to get another set of eyes on my planning as I am the only DVC teacher at Tamaki. When I get feedback that gives input and suggestions about what to add to improve the planning or pointing out tings that I have overlooked, I LOVE it. I always try to treat this planning moderation process as sneaky PD as I learn loads from it. (thanks Terry!) Getting the work externally moderated by NZQA is a whole other story though.
I am so disappointed with the effort overall in the Level 1 course. So much unfinished work. There is a lot in Level 2 as well and it is because of this I have finally got my head around using Workspaces as a means to keep on top of things better next year. My workspaces journey is on this label on my blog.
Things that I am taking forward next year from previous inquiry work.
I find it fascinating that the things I really think will improve outcomes for my students are not related to drawing!
I have decided this year to do a similar thing to track all year groups.
Link to spreadsheet here
I have been trying to see patterns. I have failed at that to be honest.
At Level 2 and 3 the conceptual design standard continues to be poorly attempted. This is on my list to improve next year and I have already made a start on that by redoing the Level 2 planning and have sent it off to be moderated by another Technology teacher.
It is always GREAT to get another set of eyes on my planning as I am the only DVC teacher at Tamaki. When I get feedback that gives input and suggestions about what to add to improve the planning or pointing out tings that I have overlooked, I LOVE it. I always try to treat this planning moderation process as sneaky PD as I learn loads from it. (thanks Terry!) Getting the work externally moderated by NZQA is a whole other story though.
I am so disappointed with the effort overall in the Level 1 course. So much unfinished work. There is a lot in Level 2 as well and it is because of this I have finally got my head around using Workspaces as a means to keep on top of things better next year. My workspaces journey is on this label on my blog.
Things that I am taking forward next year from previous inquiry work.
- Use of SOLO structure to support written elements of the design projects
- The literacy structure for analysis writing.
- The mindset work to improve confidence.
- Clear layout of my class site to support project flow.
- Rewindable learning elements so students can always look back on what they and the class have done.
- Go back to using Google Plus communities (now that Google has decided not to bin it for education) so that students can see each others work and the work of past students. I only used it for my Year 13 class this year as I didn't start it with the other classes due to not knowing if it was going to go.
I find it fascinating that the things I really think will improve outcomes for my students are not related to drawing!
Monday, November 18, 2019
Bursts and bubbles: Speaking frame
The catalytic aspect of student learning my inquiry focused on this year was getting my
students to talk about their work and present it to each other and their client verbally.
students to talk about their work and present it to each other and their client verbally.
I identified this as my focus when I noticed that a lot of my senior students lacked
any confidence in their ability to do the work when they come to DVC.
any confidence in their ability to do the work when they come to DVC.
To build a rich picture of my students’ learning I used a series of recordings where
I tracked the progress of how my student's verbal literacy was changing or not.
I tracked the progress of how my student's verbal literacy was changing or not.
The main patterns of student learning I identified in the profiling phase were them not
wanting to try the work in case they failed. Students who had done DVC the previous
year could cope better but those who hadn't have a lot of confidence issues.
wanting to try the work in case they failed. Students who had done DVC the previous
year could cope better but those who hadn't have a lot of confidence issues.
My profiling of my own teaching showed that I had strengths in making examples,
demonstrating the skills and breaking down what they have to do into manageable pieces.
But that my students would likely make more progress if I developed in how how to use
literacy skills in a way that gave the students confidence to talk about their work.
demonstrating the skills and breaking down what they have to do into manageable pieces.
But that my students would likely make more progress if I developed in how how to use
literacy skills in a way that gave the students confidence to talk about their work.
The changes I made in my teaching were using lots of group activities that were not related
to DVC at all. They were about loosening up and being comfortable with each other. We did
voice exercises and speaking practice.
to DVC at all. They were about loosening up and being comfortable with each other. We did
voice exercises and speaking practice.
The literature/expertise that helped me decide what changes to make was talking to
teachers in the English department who get their students to talk and do speeches as part
of their course. I also spoke to the music department about voice and projection strategies.
Readings I have done include, Mindset by Carol Dweck, The Growth Mindset Playbook by
Annie Brock and Heather Hundley and Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by
Zaretta Hammond amongst others.
teachers in the English department who get their students to talk and do speeches as part
of their course. I also spoke to the music department about voice and projection strategies.
Readings I have done include, Mindset by Carol Dweck, The Growth Mindset Playbook by
Annie Brock and Heather Hundley and Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by
Zaretta Hammond amongst others.
The easiest and hardest things for me to change were: doing silly group activities that were
not related to DVC was easy for me as we do a lot of talking about non subject related topics
as we are doing our project work normally so this was just an extension of this. Changing how
I do things is easy for me as I am always looking at how to improve and change things up.
I am not so stuck in my ways yet to not appreciate change. Helping the students verbal
literacy was a difficult point for me and I picked the brains of the English teachers A LOT.
Working on the students confidence was hard. I found it so frustrating that I could not get
them into a better head space about their work and effort.
Some changes I made along the way were changing between doing individual talking about
their work to a camera, talking to the group and talking to their client in one to one, group
situations and whole group presentations. I did not start out with a focus on confidence and
mindset but it came out as part of the problem so evolved naturally.
not related to DVC was easy for me as we do a lot of talking about non subject related topics
as we are doing our project work normally so this was just an extension of this. Changing how
I do things is easy for me as I am always looking at how to improve and change things up.
I am not so stuck in my ways yet to not appreciate change. Helping the students verbal
literacy was a difficult point for me and I picked the brains of the English teachers A LOT.
Working on the students confidence was hard. I found it so frustrating that I could not get
them into a better head space about their work and effort.
Some changes I made along the way were changing between doing individual talking about
their work to a camera, talking to the group and talking to their client in one to one, group
situations and whole group presentations. I did not start out with a focus on confidence and
mindset but it came out as part of the problem so evolved naturally.
Overall I would rate the changes in student learning as slow and in some cases non at all.
The evidence for my rating is that some of the students did not take what we were trying to
do seriously and were also affected by poor attendance. This then affected what strategies
they were involved in over the year as they missed the morning sessions. We practiced our
presentations and made notes and they were still forgetting structure and content and depth
when their client was in front of them. The presentations were still quite shallow.
On the other hand, one of the students wrote the longest final evaluation of his design work
that I have seen.
The evidence for my rating is that some of the students did not take what we were trying to
do seriously and were also affected by poor attendance. This then affected what strategies
they were involved in over the year as they missed the morning sessions. We practiced our
presentations and made notes and they were still forgetting structure and content and depth
when their client was in front of them. The presentations were still quite shallow.
On the other hand, one of the students wrote the longest final evaluation of his design work
that I have seen.
The most important learning I made about working on confidence, mindset and verbal literacy
was that there is no set timeline for improvement. It is an ongoing thing that needs a more
extended time and patience.
The most important learning I made about inquiry was the students progress in what I am
looking into does not work to my time scale. I need to continue this for a much longer period
so I can see if what I was trying will do any good over a longer period of time so the students
have a chance to get used to it.
Some learnings that would be relevant to other teachers are don't be afraid for an inquiry to take
an unexpected turn into a direction that you know nothing about and have to up-skill and research.
was that there is no set timeline for improvement. It is an ongoing thing that needs a more
extended time and patience.
The most important learning I made about inquiry was the students progress in what I am
looking into does not work to my time scale. I need to continue this for a much longer period
so I can see if what I was trying will do any good over a longer period of time so the students
have a chance to get used to it.
Some learnings that would be relevant to other teachers are don't be afraid for an inquiry to take
an unexpected turn into a direction that you know nothing about and have to up-skill and research.
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Jumpstart is underway - Playing with gears
We have started our new Jumpstart timetable this week for 4 weeks. The Year 10 students have done their options for NCEA Level 1 next year and have started those classes already for the last part of this year.
I have been working on my new class site for next year and the Jumpstart project was the first one to be sorted out so I could get the planning moderated before I started teaching the project.
This also included making a Hapara Workspace so I can keep better track of the work the students have to complete.
So far, I have seen the students for a single period and a double period. The project was introduced and they seem quite excited at the idea of making a pull along toy on the laser cutter. We have looked at the theme of Steampunk and they have made a mood board about it. I think they like the theme. Steampunk is new to them so it is hard to tell.
Today we had a play with the gear set that was made on the 3D printer. I want them to try and use a bit of extra movement in their toy designs, either gears turning as the toy is pulled along, or something moving up and down on a cam, or offset wheels to create a bobbing motion.
To be honest, we were having so much fun today that I'm not sure if the main points of the lesson intentions were learned! I think I will do a Kahoot and find out.
I have been working on my new class site for next year and the Jumpstart project was the first one to be sorted out so I could get the planning moderated before I started teaching the project.
This also included making a Hapara Workspace so I can keep better track of the work the students have to complete.
So far, I have seen the students for a single period and a double period. The project was introduced and they seem quite excited at the idea of making a pull along toy on the laser cutter. We have looked at the theme of Steampunk and they have made a mood board about it. I think they like the theme. Steampunk is new to them so it is hard to tell.
Today we had a play with the gear set that was made on the 3D printer. I want them to try and use a bit of extra movement in their toy designs, either gears turning as the toy is pulled along, or something moving up and down on a cam, or offset wheels to create a bobbing motion.
We started with simple gear trains, moved onto compound gear trains and looked at how the speed and direction of movement changes.
I was videoing their creations as they made and putting them in a shared folder so they can put them into their projects.
Then the challenge was to get the movement to go from one side to the other of two boards together. The boys them made it go round the corner.
To be honest, we were having so much fun today that I'm not sure if the main points of the lesson intentions were learned! I think I will do a Kahoot and find out.
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Product Design using SOLO Taxonomy
I am busy putting together all my planning for next year so that I can get it all moderated and ready to go in the new year. I am currently working on the product design project for Year 12. They need to look at existing products and analyse them so I have structured this around the SOLO Taxonomy levels. This task then starts with some simple labelling and identifying and slowly builds the complexity of the questions to add more depth as they go.
I am hoping that if this is a smooth process for the students, then we can do something similar in structure along with all the literacy structure for the analysis of their own design ideas. This is the part that they always find difficult and I am constantly working on trying to improve.
I am hoping that if this is a smooth process for the students, then we can do something similar in structure along with all the literacy structure for the analysis of their own design ideas. This is the part that they always find difficult and I am constantly working on trying to improve.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Pretty Workspaces
I have been practicing using Hapara Workspaces with my intermediate students. I wrote a blog post about it here.
This week, I have been sat with Lenva getting a bit of PD as I hadn't done anything with the work that the students had submitted till I saw her. I was nervous of doing something daft and loosing the work. Lenva took me through the marking, the spreadsheet that is generated with all the marks on it and how you can send the work back in two ways - one to keep working on it and resubmit and one as the final return. I had been worried that I would loose the connection to the work once I sent it back as this was the main reason I was FINALLY getting my head round workspaces in the first place. Lenva put my mind at rest over that.
While I was with her, she showed me how you can search for other people's public workspaces. Very handy! She then showed me one that she had found that had been made very visually attractive by the use of headers and colour.
This reminded me of a PD Lenva did with us a while back and she gave us a presentation that she had put together of all the card colours put onto proportionally correct pages that can be downloaded as images and used as headers for your workspace cards.
Here is the blank presentation with the colours -
Here is my copy which is quite messy as it has the slides on it that I have copied and used to create header images for my workspace cards.
So far I have been making the first workspace I will be needing with my seniors pretty. This is the jumpstart one which I will need in a couple of weeks time.
Here is the link to the workspace.
I think it makes it much more visually appealing and not just plain boxes with writing in them.
Thanks Lenva.
Here are the other workspaces I am fiddling with at the moment (as of writing, unfinished, just saying)
Level 1 Chair Design
Level 2 Lighting Design
This week, I have been sat with Lenva getting a bit of PD as I hadn't done anything with the work that the students had submitted till I saw her. I was nervous of doing something daft and loosing the work. Lenva took me through the marking, the spreadsheet that is generated with all the marks on it and how you can send the work back in two ways - one to keep working on it and resubmit and one as the final return. I had been worried that I would loose the connection to the work once I sent it back as this was the main reason I was FINALLY getting my head round workspaces in the first place. Lenva put my mind at rest over that.
While I was with her, she showed me how you can search for other people's public workspaces. Very handy! She then showed me one that she had found that had been made very visually attractive by the use of headers and colour.
This reminded me of a PD Lenva did with us a while back and she gave us a presentation that she had put together of all the card colours put onto proportionally correct pages that can be downloaded as images and used as headers for your workspace cards.
Here is the blank presentation with the colours -
Monday, October 21, 2019
More Maths in Graphics
A while ago all the CoL teachers were asked to reflect on where Maths happened in their classrooms.
My blog post on this is here.
Over the last week, my intermediate classes have been looking at networks. Making 3D shapes out of flat sheets. Link to information on my new class site.
They were given some nice easy grid paper and we made a start making cubes, cuboids and pyramids.
My blog post on this is here.
Over the last week, my intermediate classes have been looking at networks. Making 3D shapes out of flat sheets. Link to information on my new class site.
They were given some nice easy grid paper and we made a start making cubes, cuboids and pyramids.
We used grid paper so they could concentrate on the shape and form we were making rather than doing too many skills at once. I have tried doing this activity with plain paper, rulers and pencil before and it was a total disaster as the measuring and drawing of the squares was too hard. With a grid paper, they can count the squares on the grid and use the lines there.
We had a conversation about where the spots on a dice are placed and they found out that the opposite sides of a dice add up to 7.
As they were doing this on Wednesday, their class teacher happened to be in the room and mentioned that they were doing probability in maths in class. PERFECT!
When they completed their dice we had a quick session throwing them and making a note of what number we got.
We then talked about why their results were not an equal 1 in 6 for each of the numbers. They came up with - 30 throws was not enough. The dice is not very heavy or accurate so it wasn't throwing or rolling like a dice normally does.
Not too bad for a graphics lesson! Maths in action!
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Using the Priority Workspace collections in Google Drive
The Priority collection on Google Drive is really useful. Here is a quick how to....
Thursday, October 3, 2019
One day in the holidays..
It is Thursday of the first week of the holidays. Last week the students asked me if I was coming in to do classes in the holidays. To be honest, I laughed in their faces. 90% of them are not the most focussed bunnies during the normal lesson time and I live much further away from school than I used to, so the answer was quite a firm no.
I had a slight change of heart though, as I was planning on coming in to school on both Thursdays to do the Community coding course that has been running for the last 12 weeks. I told the students I would do classes on both Thursdays if they wanted. I'm too soft.
2 things came up as topics of conversation today. NZQA and penis drawings.
NZQA came up as a topic of conversation while I was helping the students put their work onto their portfolio websites.
I have been getting my students to put their project portfolios together using Google Sites for quite a while now. I have put a sheet on the front of their sketchbooks with a link to the student's site, so the drawings were still in the sketchbooks which are sent away in November and all they had to do was type in the link to the student websites to see all their notes and research.
Last year was the first year that I had made a bitly.com account so I could personalise the shortened url links to the websites.
This is when I realised that there was a problem. With an account on bit.ly, you can see how many clicks you get on the URLs that you make.
As you can see from this screenshot, there were no clicks on the links to last year's project portfolios.
This makes me REALLY MAD...... NZQA are all for "going digital" for the exams but can't get markers to click on links that are sent to them as evidence of project work?
Surely they have a computer in front of them to input marks as they are doing them so why can't they type in a VERY SIMPLE url to look at student's online work?
I went and had a chat with our SLT member who is the principals nominee. We decided that we would do a two pronged attack this year. The site and I am currently busy printing out the research that the students have done online to stick into their sketch books. I thought I was over doing this nonsense!
Here are the girls who were in today cutting out stuff to put in their sketch books that is quite happily sitting on a Google Site that no one at NZQA will see. Ridiculous.
What with this and the moderation debacle over the last couple of years, NZQA is becoming a swear word in my head.
The second topic of conversation came up as the students asked me if the examiners looked at all the blank pages in the sketchbooks. I confirmed this as they regularly come back with the "nzqa assessed" stamp on all the blank pages too. This is to make sure that they don't miss any work hiding in the middle of the book.
I have this conversation with the class at the start of the year when I give the sketch books out. I ask THE BOYS not to draw anything (like penises) on any of the blank pages, as it will give the examiner a bit of a shock! I say the boys, as I have taught in two countries now and it is always the boys who feel the uncontrollable urge to draw penises everywhere they go! I tell them I have scrap paper at the front of the room of they are feeling the need to draw them. It gives them a laugh at the start of the course.
The girls offered to go through the books to check them (to save me doing it this year). So armed with a roll of white sticky labels, they checked through all the pages in all the sketch books.
They only found a couple which is not too bad. They have been covered over with white labels.
Teenage Boys!!
I had a slight change of heart though, as I was planning on coming in to school on both Thursdays to do the Community coding course that has been running for the last 12 weeks. I told the students I would do classes on both Thursdays if they wanted. I'm too soft.
2 things came up as topics of conversation today. NZQA and penis drawings.
NZQA came up as a topic of conversation while I was helping the students put their work onto their portfolio websites.
I have been getting my students to put their project portfolios together using Google Sites for quite a while now. I have put a sheet on the front of their sketchbooks with a link to the student's site, so the drawings were still in the sketchbooks which are sent away in November and all they had to do was type in the link to the student websites to see all their notes and research.
Last year was the first year that I had made a bitly.com account so I could personalise the shortened url links to the websites.
This is when I realised that there was a problem. With an account on bit.ly, you can see how many clicks you get on the URLs that you make.
As you can see from this screenshot, there were no clicks on the links to last year's project portfolios.
This makes me REALLY MAD...... NZQA are all for "going digital" for the exams but can't get markers to click on links that are sent to them as evidence of project work?
Surely they have a computer in front of them to input marks as they are doing them so why can't they type in a VERY SIMPLE url to look at student's online work?
I went and had a chat with our SLT member who is the principals nominee. We decided that we would do a two pronged attack this year. The site and I am currently busy printing out the research that the students have done online to stick into their sketch books. I thought I was over doing this nonsense!
Here are the girls who were in today cutting out stuff to put in their sketch books that is quite happily sitting on a Google Site that no one at NZQA will see. Ridiculous.
What with this and the moderation debacle over the last couple of years, NZQA is becoming a swear word in my head.
The second topic of conversation came up as the students asked me if the examiners looked at all the blank pages in the sketchbooks. I confirmed this as they regularly come back with the "nzqa assessed" stamp on all the blank pages too. This is to make sure that they don't miss any work hiding in the middle of the book.
I have this conversation with the class at the start of the year when I give the sketch books out. I ask THE BOYS not to draw anything (like penises) on any of the blank pages, as it will give the examiner a bit of a shock! I say the boys, as I have taught in two countries now and it is always the boys who feel the uncontrollable urge to draw penises everywhere they go! I tell them I have scrap paper at the front of the room of they are feeling the need to draw them. It gives them a laugh at the start of the course.
The girls offered to go through the books to check them (to save me doing it this year). So armed with a roll of white sticky labels, they checked through all the pages in all the sketch books.
They only found a couple which is not too bad. They have been covered over with white labels.
Teenage Boys!!
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