Remote Teaching

I have had a few remote virtual sessions now on Teams, some with the attendance of students… others non. Its quite frustrating but I understand the circumstances and its hard to get on the scheme of things working from home. I can imagine its difficult for a lot of students who have their own children, the same way a lot of teachers are now struggling to remote teach as they have little ones to look after. Its strange times but its good to be dealing with a problem that is facing everyone. I am trying my best to overcome certain barriers which mainly involves participation and engagement. I cant force anyone to log in and watch my videos or read my post, its just a sad but hey I will get over it. I want my learners to do well but like I said its hard times and I don’t know what they are going through at home.

The only good thing about this is I can deliver sessions from the comfort of my bed and wear jammies 3 days straight, and create Vblog videos which have guest speakers…. my cats. The only other uncertainty is when will things go back to normal. I don’t think I will see my students again for the rest of the academic year, which is a awful shame. I have absolutely loved teaching them. Even if they are a right pain ha. Hopefully in a couple of months things will be right and I will be able to eat out far too many times a month and maybe as a society we will all take better care of the planet. This seems to be one of the positives of the virus, the world is healing. I hope we can continue to realise this.

Final observation

I had my final observation today and i am honestly over the moon with it. Purely just filled with relief that I have conpleted all of my observations and I only have 1 more assignment really to go. Im also a little sad as well which seems silly, as much as I have been stressing over the past few months, I do think I thrive off it. Will be bored once it is all over. Anyways back to the observation. It was a good session, bit gutted about the turn out but hey ho. I gave the students a new brief – 8 words. Should be a nice one. I say that but it never is ha-ha. Once I delivered the presentation about 8 words and what it would be about I gave the students a introductory research task. This always goes down well as I can observe if they are actually documenting their research in session and able to get a better idea at what direction they might be going. At 11am, around 1 hour into my session we started to xreate our 3D books, which are going to be presented at the end of year show. I wanted the learners to realise that they can present work other than being in frames, it can be more out their and different. I want them to start thinking bigger, bolder, and better really. I was really happy with the engagement and motivation in class during this activity. Everyone got involved and it was a good laugh. I have quite a good relationshio with my leanrers and I do think it makes a difference to the motivation of the students. I was really impressed with one of my students who decided to follow my instructions but try and her own on the inside of the book. It worked really well and I was impressed with her using her initiative and creativity. We didnt get time to print the cover of the books out, however I am going to do this with them during next weeks session. Very happy overall. I moan a lot but to be honest I love teaching my students even when they are giving me giff, aint turning up and handing in unfinished work. 😭😂Its a learning for life process for all of us ha!

Primary Research- Leaving a mark

Had a lovely session this week. I once again went through research with my students (This is something that are still struggling to document properly) however thats a little harsh, some are doing it perfectly. I decided to have a full session mark making and recreating designs from my learners favourite artists. I tried to channel my inner pollock, which I think did work, a little. The students seemed to enjoy taking a step away from the computers. I think its good to sometimes take a step back and just experiment and play with different mediums and processes. I have told them this kind of stuff is amazing to have evidenced in their sketchbook as its classed as primary research. Overall it was a fab little session, everyone got involved and it was really pleasant. I just need now to make sure my learners are keeping up to date with all of their work that is expected to be competed in their own time. I think I am best making a weekly or even a monthly planner so they do not get overwhelmed with the pending assignments they have. I will get this ready for them next week.

Term 2- Penguin

Really happy with my learners at this point of the year. I was slightly concerned with the lack of research in their assignments but I changed around my SOW and lesson plans to try and tackle this head on when we came back after Christmas. I can definitely see an improvement. I have started using Teams more as well to put up all of my resources I have been using in my sessions whether that is question sheets or even more presentations. Only because I know some of my students have had issues with their attendance so I didn’t want them missing out of anything. I basically have told them they can use the presentations as research as long as I can see clear understanding through out their annotations.

Todays session I basically wanted to be more of a facilitator and I have stepped back so I can give out 1:1s to necessary students and look over everyones research for their current penguin assignment. I have really focussed and drilled into their heads the importance of documenting their research and even following the correct design process throughout their sketchbooks so I can see their development throughout the assignment.

I can see clear improvement which is great, next week they will be critiques the rest of their sketchbook work, I have told them it can be presented however they like to should be interesting to see what they all come up with. It was nice to see my learners just get on with things without me having more influence. I have obviously offered my guidance but a bit of independent learning will do wonders for my learners. One of my learners really cheered me up she hasn’t been in for a couple of weeks and I was slightly worried if she may have fallen behind but she has blown me away with the amount of work she has completed. Overall super happy with all their enthusiasm today.

Data Analyse

Look for similarities in my data. Start grouping issues and significant topics together. Significant in terms of my research question and what I hope to achieve.

Questionnaires, reflections, group discussions, lesson feedback. analysing and evaluating what I have got from feedback. Read it and pull out themes.

Appendix how did you work out the similarities and the commonalities. Talk about how you have picked out your theme. Basically take all the data and say this equals this.

My idea of Stages of Thematic Data Analysis

Read it through- transcribe/ getting rid of data that is not relevant.

Organise it.

find themes/commonalities (Coding, on a spreadsheet)

Hypothesis of the data- what I expect to find.

Stages of Thematic Data Analysis

Unitisation stage– look at the data holistically, try and find links between the different sources. Initial themes will be related to the aims and research questions. The units are likely to be words/ideas/events. Assemble the data into meaningful chunks.

Coding stage– coding themes and colour code them. Pull at really broad themes

dissection/analytical – Quality of support for certain themes- use multiple sources to prove or disprove what you’re saying. (could come from interviews, reflective journals, maybe data  from registers if a students does not turn up) cross checking with other sources of data. qualitative research all match up. Pattern across all the data to justify a point. discard anything that is not important. Focus in one two or 3 main themes- talk about each these in the assignment.

Synthesis stage 

explain meaning ( why something is happening)  develop new understanding and insights ( why has something changed). Relate what you have learnt to known theory. The focus is on building a new understanding from the data collected – whats the big picture . This allows the research to be placed within a context and related back to the original proposal. Check who is going to be reliable and honest

Narrative stage

Telling your research story. (I did this and I did this, found this out and this meant this.) It will aim to extract ideas, principles that may be applied to other similar contexts. (it would of worked with other students or levels) Underpin theory and relate to subject specialism. <<< Level 7 should be talking about this. 

Themes- Motivation, engagement, achievement.

 

Peer to Peer observations.

Details of who was in your group, steps one for 4 is really easy. As supported by- as researched by- as suggested by-

Reference list at the bottom of the page.

8/11/19- observation

I was observed on the 8th Nov by my tutor, I was quite happy with the turn out of the students, everyone was preset and arrived on time. I decided the majority of the lesson plan would be tailored around the peers critique session. I wanted to use peer to peer assessment. This benefited both me and the learners as they was able to use their communication and collaborative skills to talk about their design work. They then give back feedback sheets with heart and comments. This was so the students could talk about what looks good in their peers work and what they could develop further. It seemed to work really well, I was over joyed with the participation  and enthusiasm of everyone involved. The learners did not seem to mind that I was being observed either. I think if I was to do this session again I would have a timer for every person so I would time manage the activity a little bit better. Overall it was a really good session and I believe it was important to building my learners confidence, not only during the presentation but for my learners to be able to critically analyse their own and peers design work.

The only downfall was that I didn’t take photos of the crit as this would of been really handy to put on the Hugh Bairds instagram account. Its useful to keep photographic documentation for myself as a practitioner but also the students as they can then use this in their reflective journals. I was extremely happy with my feedback from my observation, it has made me reflect my own practice. It give me a huge confidence boost.

4:2:19 Observation 2

Today I delivered a session on Pathway Proposals and direction. I was being observed by my tutor which is always nerve racking. However I knew exactly what I was going to be delivering and the knowledge I needed to transfer to the learners. I first had a lot of prep for when I talked about the Pathway Proposal. I had 3 examples with other peoples proposals and a list of 7 questions to further help the learners. I used more direct questioning techniques to encourage group discussion which seemed successful and they was more engaged than normal. I then walked around and gave all learners 1:1’s so I could then give further assistance or guidance in the write up on the proposal.

This should be a simple task however the group is very mixed in performance and age. So I knew I had to make certain things more clear and have physical printed handouts.

I was very happy with how it went and everything seemed to be very calm and smooth. I had a few late bloomers but it was completed expected. The overall turn up rate was actually pretty good. I was only missing 1 student overall. Smashing.

I used a constructivist approach in my teaching strategies as I knew it was and needed to be more student led with more facilitating on my part. Overall very happy, however have not had my feedback yet.

22/01: Year 0 & 2

During todays session with my year 0 studentsI have carried on with the Penguin brief. I have had 1:1 with the two graphic students. The other students have chosen different speciality fields of work e.g fashion or makeup. Me and my mentor have facilitated with the other learners if they need need any assistance or guidance in their own projects.

My year 2 students started a new brief with my mentor last week so we sat down and talked about possible ideas and areas they can venture in to. We completed 1:1s which seemed to be very successful. Its in the early stages so at the minute so ideas are up in the air and nothing is down in writing. This will make it useful when it comes to my observation as I will be talking about research and actually how to make use of the research they have collected.

With my current position as a raising aspirations project I have been speaking and liaising with staff members that I wouldn’t normally speak too. Its been brilliant so far and definitely opening my eyes to the work that happens behind close doors for the business staff.

14/01: Year 2 and new role.

My session today was being observed by a fellow PGCE student, so I decided it would be best for my mentor to deliver the session while I helped by team teaching and carrying on 1:1s with my students.

I have also started a new position which is opening my eyes to the progression and doubts about university and the move on HE from FE. My aim to raise aspirations and build confidence in students/learners to encourage growth and let them access university. I think this is a brilliant opportunity for me as I am seeing different aspects of education and meeting so many new people.

03/12 Year 2

During todays session with my Yr 2 students; my mentor and I started team teaching to demonstrate and identify what the students sketchbooks and portfolios should look like at this level in their education. December is based around portfolio work and its important for the students to start to generate and organise their work and get it to the standards of a Yr 2 students. (Which applies to most of my learners as I don’t find they are really their yet. (Level wise or even creativity wise) I was fairly successful during todays session as I seemed to have a breakthrough with one learner who I have been struggling with; he opening up about his work and we had a discussion about his we ‘come in peace brief’

Behaviour was a issue today purely on attendance and lateness . Most of the students still do not apologies for being late. Me and my mentor discussed about this being a pro-monitor issue and it would have to be pulled up with the learners. Other than that I had a good little session with my learners.