KĀHUI AKO, AUGUST 18, 2O23: LASER HOOK

 KĀHUI AKO, AUGUST 18, 2O23: UNSTICKING WITH A LASER HOOK

In my reflection in the last term I faced frustration with the intersection of unreliable attendance, assessment difficulties and children seeming unsure or unclear of independent projects.

This  last point  I think was integral to the "stuckness" and  speculated on how often these children have had  have the opportunity to design independent projects ? How do they spend their independent time? And, are they intimidated or naive of this opportunity which would usually be given to "extension" students?

I have observed most  can fill independent non-guided  time easily with banter, swagger and relentless and committed attempts to access banned-in-school websites. I knew this about their behaviour previous to selecting them, however was interested in how quickly they changed their behaviour into their out-of-school style, while in class. Having the class at 9AM on Monday definitely contributes to this!

My intervention- to give them all a standard task to get them using and watching the laser cutter, I think, has largely worked. Some negative attitudes definitely remain. However, the speed at which the first ruler was designed in (20 mins), converted to file (10 mins) and especially cut out (40 seconds) by a student who was working in the laser cutter room has definitely motivated the group. There was some disbelief that he had finished so fast and a an instant competition to be the next student using the machine.

Now they have seen  the ease and flexibility of this tool,  they started bringing independent and unsolicited ideas and questions to their designs such as "Can I copy and convert images online into a laser cut format?" and answering this themselves by trying. This was not their specific brief but is definitely the confidence and enthusiasm I am looking for.     

KĀHUI AKO, JULY 27, 2O23: TERM 2 REFLECTION

 

KĀHUI AKO, JULY 27, 2O23: TERM 2  REFLECTION

I have found the last term's teaching for this group difficult. This has been a result of external factors (personal and family sickness) , the internal class culture that has been affected by students' known attitude (unreliable attendance to school, for example) and how these factors intersect. 

A clear example is that I want to be able to provide these students routine and reliability, as I only see them once a week. I was interested assessing their  attendance that out of my 10 students there was a small core group who had come every week, a fluctuating group who were affected by their absences from school and a group who rarely attended due to absences and not wishing to attend. I had regular 60% attendance but very rarely the same students.

The main conclusions that are relevant to my inquiry were:

1. Assessment and regular data collection was difficult for the maths focus

2. My theory that individual, student led  projects would be motivating and helpful for focus and attendance was presumptive and possibly had the opposite effect.  

3. Are we "stuck" and how can I "un-stick"  the situation next term?

Looking Forward:

I have decided an intervention or new strategy is to give the students the same task (laser cutting a design of their choosing into a wooden ruler) to give them some certainty and scaffold use and enthusiasm for the machine. 

I had presumed the children would be really keen and motivated to use the machine, however have noticed most have been shy or unwilling to ask questions about how to use it. Perhaps I need to hook them into seeing the machine work before exploring independent projects.