It has been quite awhile since I have written any of my adventures down.

Here is the reason.

Since February 1st I have been consumed by my long practicum and have been teaching  at a secondary school in North Vancouver. I have been enjoying all the wonderful, stressful, exhausting and inspiring times provided by my students on the ten week practicum. I began at 8:00 am teaching grade 8s and immediately abandoned my previous conceptions of teaching (turns out jumping jacks make students even more rambunctious!).

My first lesson was one step away from disaster. I could feel my control of the classroom slipping away with every minute.

By the end of that first day I was almost ready to quit. The evening found me bundled on the couch in tears. I was pretty certain I was never going to get the hang of teaching and should drop out and save myself both time and money. Luckily I have a husband fresh from practicum who told me that everyone’s first day was difficult. So I decided to stick it out.

The second week passed by relatively smoothly and I began to see the light. Every day I became more and more comfortable in the classroom as I began to enjoy myself.  By the end of the ten weeks I was having a blast.

I taught students from grades 8 through 12 in woodwork, metalwork and electronics. I got to introduce new projects and take grade 8 students through the new experience of working with their hands. It was amazing!

As I got to know my students I felt certain this was the job for me. They were what made the whole experience worthwhile and fulfilling.

Grade 8 Electronics Winky Blink projects

Metal work 9/10 lathe hammer project

I visited my practicum school last week and there was a TOC in for one of my SA’s. I got to spend the day with her and see what the TOC job entails. We worked together in the classes as she was not a Technology Education teacher so we could not turn on the power in the shops.  I got to test out several of my classroom management skills, getting rambunctious grade 8’s to do exercises, to read and answer questions from  advanced electronic textbooks and to do their homework that was planned for the day! I got to re-think some of the things I have planned and now I am certain I will be doing jumping jacks with my students every day.

I will be spending the next month back at UBC learning all I need to know to become a teacher. One of my classes is on assessment and as I assume it is meant to do it got me thinking about how I will be assessing my students over the 10 weeks that I will be teaching them.  I am mainly fascinated by the idea of assessment AS learning.  Assessment AS learning is basically allowing the student to use assessment to further their learning and to help them identify their strengths and weaknesses.  The concept of this I feel will work very well in tech ed and I am eager to test out different ways to incorporate it.

A grade 8 class in electronics completed their first bread boarding lab on Tuesday. As this was their fist experience with the bread board there were quite a few questions. I am moving around the classroom in a circle helping out when suddenly behind me I hear very loud yelling and screaming… my instinct is that someone is being murdered however when I look over two of the boys are not killing each other but jumping in the air, yelling wildly “WE ARE GENIUSES!!!! I LOVE THIS!!”.

They had successfully light the LED.

To quote my electronics teacher “If you can blink an LED you can rule the world”.

I have a feeling these boys will be ruling the world.

Below are some examples of the students bread boarding experiments after they completed the first lab.

We got the 3D printer up and running today! A dead driver card slowed us down but we figured it out!

Aluminum casting today in metal work! The 9-10 students are making screw drivers. The students file down the tip and then place the end in a reusable mold. Once the aluminum is molten the students help pour the aluminum into the mold. Then the students shape the handle on the metal lathe.

Pig filled with extra aluminum

Kiln

Screw driver handle fresh out of the mold

The BCTEA (Technology Education Association) conference is turning into a family reunion. Three sisters, two brothers and the father of them all…

Grade 9/10’s are making clocks…

My fifth day as a student teacher… I am in a grade 8 metal work class… It was the first time I was in this class and one of the students asked me if I was just helping out for the day. I told him that I am a shop teacher on a two week observation. He looks at me with skepticism and asks “So you are a metal work teacher?” I answer that, yes, I am a qualified metal work teacher. Still unsure, he begins to point at tools around the room asking what they are. “What’s this?” he asks, pointing at a file and I respond calmly that it is in fact, a file. After several minutes of similar questioning he looks at me again, approvingly with skepticism gone,”I’m impressed!”

I passed the test.

After a delightful tour of the school I end up in the electronics class. I look around at the familiar tools and think “Yeah… I can do this! This is awesome – right up my alley!”

The next minute a student is showing me his winky-blink breadboard and saying “The light is turning on but not blinking, what’s wrong?”

My mind freezes. I know nothing.

I compare the work to the schematic, everything is in place, there is nothing wrong.

The sweat starts pouring. Panic races through my mind, “Oh no oh no oh no oh no what the heck is wrong with this!!??”

Then through the fog of my mind I get a desperate idea to buy some time by sending the student away with a simple task, changing the capacitor.

Student comes back and BOOM that was the problem!

Nailed it.