ThomasM

ThomasM

__**Assignment #2, reflections**__ One of the subjects I teach is a CAD/CAM course. When I initially set out to write my curriculum, I quickly realized that there was not a lot of training material geared towards high school students. Most of (actually all) the instructors I met who had experience with the subject matter said it was impossible to teach to teenagers. I ended up finding some really good material and put my whole course on line at the school. The course is probably about 80% on the computer and the rest on the machine itself (CNC machines are pretty expensive, so most schools can only afford one). I incorporated a lot of short instructional videos (5 to 10 minutes), machine simulators so they can simulate what they are programming, and every assignment is now submitted via an online drop box. Once the simulation looks good, we can pretty much run their computer programs on the machine error free. There are huge advantages to this rapidly changing technology.
 * Students can work a their own pace
 * You can visually see mistakes that are made when you simulate it, so the chance of costly errors are minimal
 * They all have to bring headphones and they can rock out while doing their online stuff, and the headphones are great for the videos
 * They can check to see what assignments they have to do VIA the online pick up box if I am stuck with someone else and they want to move ahead
 * I would like to incorporate some online quizzes so they can have instant feedback to how their G&M programming skills are going, but I have to keep telling myself "baby steps",as their is only so much time in the day.

For the adult education class I was teaching the last couple of years, the other instructor and myself set up a wiki, and then he took it a step forward and actually checked out the same LEARN system that RRCC is using. it ended up being way toooo much work (once again, there is only so much time in a day), so we settled on using google docs for a lot of quizzes and tests. The students loved it, as the feedback was instant. We even set up a QR code for it, and half the students would do the online stuff from their phones.

First, I must say that that with the exception of the rockin soundtrack, the video was horrible, and didn't really offer an explanation, so off to google! From what I can tell, it seems that teachers basically make a series of video lessons or prescribe a set of video lessons to them and the students tackle these lessons at home on their own time. Classroom time can thus be spent on fine tuning knowledge to the students. __Pros:__ __Cons:__ __My experience with it__
 * __Assignment #4:The Flipped Classroom __**
 * Class time can now be spent on refining the applications of whatever lessons they are doing
 * Research has indicated that this method is leading to reduced drop out rates (?)
 * Seems to cater to a bourgeois sensibility, in which everyone has a computer, much less the internet. In my last adult ed class in the inner city, out of 11 students only 1 had a computer. They all had cell phones, though.
 * Takes a lot of preparation on the teachers’ part, as video lessons have to be easy to understand.
 * It is very hard to get most high school students to do homework period

I didn’t actually know that this was a theory. For my CNC class, all of our lessons are done on Mastercam. I ordered a series of books for our students, and each one comes with a home learning version of Mastercam and a series of short instructional videos on EVERYTHING in the book. Each lesson is broken down into 3 parts: A series of videos that show you how to make the 1st part, and then 2 parts that the students have to draw and program and submit to me for marks. The plan was for them to watch the initial videos by themselves at home and then we could spent class time fine tuning the other 2 parts and getting straight to making other projects. I broke everything up for them, told them which video covered what, what pages it matched in our book, etc...via our on line drop box. After about 4 weeks no one was doing anything at home, and all our class time is now basically spent with the students watching the videos by themselves and doing the projects in the class. I have never seen so many students lost as to what they are supposed to be doing. Maybe 1/3 of the class caught on, and the other 2/3 just want to ride out the rest of the school year and get their grade 12. I think this will work great with my next group of students next year, because I have imparted on them what I expect from day one and have had them for 3 classes this year, and the current group do not know me from Adam.

I can see role play having a pivotal role (no pun intended) in my class, but just not to the extreme mentioned in the article. The main focuses of my classes are to get people to run machinery, which in itself is more of a personal event. You don’t get good at running equipment pretending to run it; it seems to be more of a hands on application that is learned through trial and error. The only way I could see it being introduced would be through some sort of mock job interviews. We could incorporate some of the key tips mentioned in the article:
 * __ Assignment #7 Roleplay __**


 * Breakdown the role play simulation into specific tasks with due dates **
 * **Have a set date and timeframe for the mock interview **
 * Address the natural anxieties of students being taught in a radically different way from what they have in the past **
 * There are a lot of anxieties associated with job interviews, especially panel interviews. The key thing would be to take the students out of their comfort zones and have them struggle during the role play, as this is their chance to work out those feelings of anxiety. Have different instructors sit on the panel, have them ask them real life questions about goals, accomplishments, etc...

Students love popcorn! It's good to hear that her students sounded excited to try the flipped classroom approach, and I liked her contingency plan in case some students did not have the technology required.
 * __Assignment #8__**
 * __Elaine-Transmissions__**

Nice to put a voice to the name. I am at home clapping also. I didn't know that healthcare was a high school subject.
 * __Michele D__**

__**Marnie**__ I like the Role Play. Quite the discussion after. I actually noticed that I was clapping at home when everyone else was

Finally, another Prezi user. I love these things. I guess with advertising you would have to take advantage of Google and all the other online stuff available nowadays. I have never heard of most of the stuff she is talking about. I would shift the whole class to a paperless environment if you could use all those tools available.
 * __Melodie__**

__**Michael**__ I was hoping that I would be the only one who used a Prezi. His class sounds perfect for not just the flipped classroom, but the role play also. I used to love the choose your own adventure books!

A class full of female students with a variety of work ethics-the same as my class (except male)!
 * __Roxanne__**

__**Donna**__ Webquest on a prezi, the double whammy!

I like how he could incorporate role play into his lesson. I like the Hannibal Smith reference.
 * __Barry__**

__**Thursday May 9**__ Seems like a fun way to incorporate role playing to jazz up some lessons.
 * __Gil__**

__**Stefan**__ Now I can stop my car from wandering all over the road.

__**Bryan**__ I once saw a guy fall about 20 feet off a ladder at work and seriously injure himself. The presentation led to some good discussion

He has a nice cadence to his voice. This is a good presentation.A presentation on scaffolding using a scaffolding method would have been awesome!
 * __David__**

The first person to use the KWL.
 * __Debbie__**

This is me-Need some standard for my learning outcomes
 * __Tom__**

Next Week
 * __Wade__**

You can download a program that will let you download all the youtube videos and presentations that you want, but I am unfamiliar with Poplets
 * __Brenda L__**

Sliderocket! Something new to see. I have a different sliderocket than the one being presented. I like having cover letters presented to the class.
 * __Wade (May 16)__**

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Assignment #5 media type="custom" key="23056978"

__**Assignment # 5 (5 hour projects) Peer Critique**__

__**Elaine**__ That looks like a nice keepsake! I am wondering what the YF stands for? York Factory, I should have clued in on that when she said that's where they ended up.

__**Michele D**__ Congrats on the upcoming wedding! I like her new classroom. Her project sounds like a lot of work. I have never heard of a black cherry wine, it sounds interesting. It wouldn't let me play the video, it said it was private, I'll have to come back after she makes it public.

__**Marnie**__ I don't see how anyone can have the dexterity to do this. it looks way to hard.

__**Melodie R**__ I love Prezi's! I love the iceberg template. I can't believe that all those great URLs are for sale.I went to the Scary Mommy website as soon as it was brought it up and had a good laugh reading some of the stuff.

__**Tom M**__ Go Riders go!

__**Michael**__ Banana apricot beer sounds neat! I am thinking that all of these projects sound like a lot more than 5 hours

__**Donna**__ All that work and the floors didn't get done!

__**Barry (not here)**__

__**May 23/13 2nd round of presentations**__ __**Gil**__ Couldn't you just draw these up and surface machine them?

__**Stefan**__ Those butt weld clamps look awesome. I had to google htem and they have all sorts of crazy clamps for antibody work.

__**Bryan**__ Good old contact cleaner as a degreaser. Works great. I love the patina the gun blue gives metal.

I just bought a new camera for $100 that blows away the one I bought last year for $600. You have to have a lot of time and patience.
 * __David__**

Surgery always sounds scary, especially eye surgery. Just do what I did and by a bigger TV, books with larger print, etc...
 * __Debbie__**

That's a lot of info for 5 hours! That must be super loud in the house.
 * __Wade__**

That car looks like it is pretty small, so I can imagine that the donut is almost the size of a donut.
 * __Roxanne__**

I didn't know black henna was illegal in Canada. I googled black henna disasters and some gruesome stuff showed up.
 * __Brenda L__**

Bi amping is the way to go,Tried bi wiring and stuck with the bi amping. Do not know if it sounds better, just louder, but only if your amp supports it. I thought you needed 7.1 min or 9.1 to use it properly.
 * __Barry__**

I would like to develop a Webquest to help my students get prepared for entry into the job market. This would be intended for senior years high school students or applicable adult learners. The purpose would be to help them prepare a cover letter, write a resume, answer some common questions asked during job interviews, and to be able to get some background info on the company they are applying for. [] [] [] -and of course some of their own websites, especially one that has information on how to create resumes.
 * __Assignment #10: Webquest __**
 * __Websights__**

I would like for them to create either a PowerPoint, or preferably a Prezi (most of the high school kids know how to make these now, thanks to some fantastic instructors at the high school level) describing their cover letter and problems they ran into creating it, the resume writing process and once more the problems they ran into writing it, answers to at least 5 questions commonly asked during a job interview, and finally some background info on the companies and positions they are looking at applying for, including compensation, job prospects, opportunity for growth, relevant education, etc... All relevant websites and references will need to be cited. The purpose of the presentation at the end is not just to make sure that they have done the assignment, but to also help them with their presentation skills, as they will be presenting this in front of the class.