Hi from Hong Kong
My name is Ben Cooperman and I am currently working at an international school in Hong Kong as a Technology Integration specialist. I teach a few Design & Tech classes as well. It’s a pretty fun job, since I get all over the school and have a chance to work with most of the teachers at some point. I also get to run my own classes and the program is genuinely inquiry-based where I have a lot of flexibility with what I can teach. As a result, I usually try to put together units about stuff that I am interested in learning myself (pretty selfish, but it keeps things interesting!) This year, I am getting into 3D modeling in anticipation of picking up a 3D printer and I have a unit coming up where we will program microcontroller boards. I haven’t got much experience doing it yet, but I figure that the best way to learn it is to teach it.
I am married with two little boys. The elder one is 3 and he just started at my school this year in pre-K. The younger one will be two in a couple of weeks.
I grew up in Ontario, did my undergrad in Guelph and did my teacher training in the UK. This is my 7th MET course.
Posted in: Week 01: Introductions
jkotler 2:44 am on September 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Ben,
Sounds like a great job! How long have you been working there? I’m also curious if you have taught anywhere else and if so, how it compares?
Julie
teacherben 3:45 am on September 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Julie,
This is my second year in Hong Kong. I spent 6 years at a school in Beijing before this and 5 in Taiwan before that. I did a semester at a school in India before that, but negotiated my way out of what was a pretty bad contract and situation there. I taught in Toronto for a couple of years after I finished my teacher training.
i have specifically targeted IB schools because, for the most part, I like the structure of their curriculum. It’s one of the better examples of Constructivist pedagogy in practice on a large scale–particularly the approach they take to teaching Technology. i spent most of my career with little ones though. I just made the jump to secondary a few years ago for a change.
Beijing was a good place to live a very comfortable life and save a bunch of money. Hong Kong allows for a better lifestyle (except that you live in a shoebox-sized apartment) but it’s tougher to save.
I have a knack for selecting the sorts of schools where you get to go out on a limb a bit, which is certainly more fun, but it also usually means that they are still working out the kinks and don’t really have their curriculum in order. I always seem to find myself writing curriculum from scratch. Good PD I suppose, but I think I might go for a big school that is better established for my next post. (In fact, I would love to return to Canada at this point, but the job market isn’t looking good from what I hear. Perhaps this course will inspire me to try a different path!)
kstackhouse 8:16 am on September 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Welcome Ben. It sounds as though your background and approach to teaching will be well suited for this course. Have a great term!
Ken
Jonathan 9:26 pm on September 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Ben —
I vividly recall a conversation with several architects and engineering friends speaking about the upcoming promise of 3D printers. Is your school planning to purchase one? Are you seeing them in more schools?
— Jonathan
teacherben 7:34 pm on October 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
My school is dragging its feet over the 3D printer. I put one in the budget for 1200 bucks but they turned it down and asked me to wait a year. I decided to start teaching towards that anyways, so I have students doing a unit where they produce the model and i will get someone else to print it for us. In the meantime, I am also doing a unit where they design and create a model in SketchUp and using a plugin I found, will be able to ‘unfold’ their 3D models flat so they can be printed on paper, cut out and refolded up into 3D paper models. I’m just starting to flesh out the unit, but you are welcome to see it here:
http://wiki.teacherben.net/3d-paper-model-toddler-toy
And I met a guy here in HK that, after trying to build a 3D printer from a kit and getting very frustrated, decided to invent his own, better one. He started his own company and has shared every step of the way on his blog, including the 3D designs. I guess the product will be open source in the end, but I’m not sure. In any case, he figures it should retail for only 350 USD! I will grab one of these as soon as I can.
Here’s the step-by-step of his process:
http://www.makible.com/products/makibox-a6-1
and here’s the main site for the product:
http://makibox.com/
jameschen 7:55 pm on September 7, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Ben, it’s great to see you again! I would love to learn more about your experience teaching with 3D printers and microcontroller boards. Looking forward to the things we’ll be learning together this term!