This blog is defunct. It's content, along with that of my other blogs, is now hosted at thomas-sutton.id.au.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Cooking (and Blogging Software)
I made some baklava yesterday and, as I do occasionally, I took some photographs of the process and posted them on Flickr. I just noticed that Google have a photo web-site too, so I'm posting this as a demo.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
So my Apple iBook G4 is in the shop. Again. Getting repaired. Again. Having its logic board replaced. Again.
I love the system — OS X is, hands down, my favourite operating system — but I don't think I'll be getting another Mac. I need a computer that will work, not one that needs a major component replacing twice in two months. As soon as I can afford to replace it, I think I'll get a PC laptop to run a Linux or BSD and retire the Apple to desktop use or even as a household server.
I love the system — OS X is, hands down, my favourite operating system — but I don't think I'll be getting another Mac. I need a computer that will work, not one that needs a major component replacing twice in two months. As soon as I can afford to replace it, I think I'll get a PC laptop to run a Linux or BSD and retire the Apple to desktop use or even as a household server.
Monday, October 30, 2006
A well-rounded practical experience
I've just put in my preferences for my Professional Experience 3 placement next semester. In the interest of a well-rounded set of practical experiences, I've requested a placement in either of the senior secondary colleges in Launceston — Launceston College and Newstead College. I did put both down as my first and second preferences for prac. this semester, but didn't reckon with exams, or whatever else made them decline prac. students (or, maybe, just me). Once I have some senior secondary experience, I'm planning on doing my internship at one of the private schools, hopefully Scotch Oakburn College or the Launceston Church Grammar School.
If everything goes to plan, I'll have had six weeks in public secondary schools (7-10), four weeks in a public senior secondary school (11-12), and about seven weeks in a private secondary school. I'll have covered the full secondary age range (12 y.o. to 17 y.o.) from a range of socio-economic backgrounds in both the public and private systems.
If everything goes to plan, I'll have had six weeks in public secondary schools (7-10), four weeks in a public senior secondary school (11-12), and about seven weeks in a private secondary school. I'll have covered the full secondary age range (12 y.o. to 17 y.o.) from a range of socio-economic backgrounds in both the public and private systems.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
A Second First Lesson
Today I took my first CAD lesson as teacher. I'd intended for the students to use this first lesson to being the self-paced tutorials for SketchUp, the program we'll be using. Rather than start the tutorials, most of the class had them finished half way through the lesson.
As a stop gap, I drew some simple figures on the board (just a few basic roof, door and window shapes) for the ones who finished earlier than I was expecting to complete and asked the students that finished even those to model items from around the class room. The main thing that I got out of this lesson is the need to have extension work planned and ready to go — making up extension problems one at a time doesn't work nearly so well when it's the whole class.
Feed back from my colleague teachers includes the need for me work on getting and maintaining the students' attention (e.g. when giving instruction) as I have a tendancy to try to talk over the top of them which doesn't work very well as a) I'm not loud enough, and b) they listening. I also need to make sure that I keep them on task.
This post was written ex post facto.
As a stop gap, I drew some simple figures on the board (just a few basic roof, door and window shapes) for the ones who finished earlier than I was expecting to complete and asked the students that finished even those to model items from around the class room. The main thing that I got out of this lesson is the need to have extension work planned and ready to go — making up extension problems one at a time doesn't work nearly so well when it's the whole class.
Feed back from my colleague teachers includes the need for me work on getting and maintaining the students' attention (e.g. when giving instruction) as I have a tendancy to try to talk over the top of them which doesn't work very well as a) I'm not loud enough, and b) they listening. I also need to make sure that I keep them on task.
This post was written ex post facto.
Monday, October 02, 2006
The Teaching Begins
The second week of PE2 began with my colleague teacher off ill. This was a little inconvenient, but everything went well with the relief teacher. In the science lesson first up, the students had plenty of work to do on their inquiry projects which are due this Friday, but we could only use the computer lab for the first half of the period. This left some of them with little to do for half a lesson, but on the whole, they were on task and much more settled than they were during the lesson I taught last week.
During the two periods between recess and lunch, we had maths and both classes went quite well. Some of the students got their assignments on perimeter, area, volume and surface area handed in, whilst others will [hopefully] have them finished for my colleague teacher's return tomorrow. Many of the students that hadn't finished managed to get it polished off, and all of them worked relatively well, so it was good.
During the final period, I took my first IT class. As the grade tens were attending a whole grade event, I had the ninth grade students from mine and two other classes. As it was a one-off, I took them through a Google Earth my colleague teacher had ready. The students has to locate a number of features ranging from relatively easy (just type it in a Google Earth will find it for you) to more challenging (such as streets in towns Google Earth doesn't know about). All up I thought that it went pretty well, especially with the potential for disturbance posed by the mixture of three classes together.
After school ended there was a general staff meeting which, while interesting, I have no intention of writing about here.
During the two periods between recess and lunch, we had maths and both classes went quite well. Some of the students got their assignments on perimeter, area, volume and surface area handed in, whilst others will [hopefully] have them finished for my colleague teacher's return tomorrow. Many of the students that hadn't finished managed to get it polished off, and all of them worked relatively well, so it was good.
During the final period, I took my first IT class. As the grade tens were attending a whole grade event, I had the ninth grade students from mine and two other classes. As it was a one-off, I took them through a Google Earth my colleague teacher had ready. The students has to locate a number of features ranging from relatively easy (just type it in a Google Earth will find it for you) to more challenging (such as streets in towns Google Earth doesn't know about). All up I thought that it went pretty well, especially with the potential for disturbance posed by the mixture of three classes together.
After school ended there was a general staff meeting which, while interesting, I have no intention of writing about here.
Friday, September 29, 2006
A Week Accompli
The last day of my first week began with the IT class talking about web-page design and Dreamweaver. The discussion about "the aspects that make a web-page good or bad" did not, in my opinion, go as well as it might have — many questions went unanswered and when they were, the responses tended to be focus more on content than design. Whether this was a result of the natural reticence of adolescents to single themselves out by volunteering the answer to a question or a lack of sophistication in their current understanding of design, usability and æsthetic appeal, I'm not sure.
In the second lesson of the day, the science group continued thinking about gravity. In particular, they looked at the formula for the magnitude of the attraction between two masses and the role both the masses and the distance between them has in determining the force exerted. One thing that I'll need to bear in mind during future science teaching is the utility of diagrams as a pedagogical device. Getting a student to draw a diagram of a situation and the forces at play really helped explain buoyancy to them.
During the C.A.D. lesson, the group finished off their current project and many of them began looking at SketchUp in anticipation of next week. Judging by their performance today, the next two or three weeks (I'm not sure if this class will be affected by the impending time table change) will be interesting for them and me both. If all goes well, there will soon be a few more objects in the Google 3D Warehouse.
In the second lesson of the day, the science group continued thinking about gravity. In particular, they looked at the formula for the magnitude of the attraction between two masses and the role both the masses and the distance between them has in determining the force exerted. One thing that I'll need to bear in mind during future science teaching is the utility of diagrams as a pedagogical device. Getting a student to draw a diagram of a situation and the forces at play really helped explain buoyancy to them.
During the C.A.D. lesson, the group finished off their current project and many of them began looking at SketchUp in anticipation of next week. Judging by their performance today, the next two or three weeks (I'm not sure if this class will be affected by the impending time table change) will be interesting for them and me both. If all goes well, there will soon be a few more objects in the Google 3D Warehouse.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Planning and Professional Development
Today was the fourth day of PE2 and I spent it mainly on planning and professional development. Before school started I attended the staff meeting where a number of issues were discussed, particularly enforcing the school's policy on mobile telephones. If teachers see students using mobile phones during class, we are required to confiscate them and hand them in to school office to be collected by the child's parent or guardian. The principal emphasised the need for consistency in our implementation of this policy and this is something that I'll have to work on as I returned confiscated phones at the end of the lesson several times on Monday.
During the first two blocks, I got the opportunity to take part in a professional development session on anger management. The session was given by a community social worker based in a near by major town and focussed on a programme for boys with anger management problems and their families that the school will be joining next year. It was a great opportunity and I got a lot out of it, but I would have liked to hear more about specific strategies for helping students deal with their anger.
Between recess and lunch I was in the C.A.D. class I'll start teaching next week. I managed to learn a few more names and I think that by the end of tomorrow, I'll know most of the boys' (the whole class is boys) names.
After lunch I spent the last two periods of the day planning for the IT class I'll start teaching next week. I'm going to take them through a unit on computer hardware, common components of computer systems and the like. I'm pretty sure I know what I'll cover and how I'll present it, so it should work out pretty well. After I finished at the school, I went in to Ulverstone's CBD and took a few photographs of buildings that I'll take the C.A.D. class to see on their excursion.
I think that's about it. I'll have to remember to phone my university supervisor tomorrow.
During the first two blocks, I got the opportunity to take part in a professional development session on anger management. The session was given by a community social worker based in a near by major town and focussed on a programme for boys with anger management problems and their families that the school will be joining next year. It was a great opportunity and I got a lot out of it, but I would have liked to hear more about specific strategies for helping students deal with their anger.
Between recess and lunch I was in the C.A.D. class I'll start teaching next week. I managed to learn a few more names and I think that by the end of tomorrow, I'll know most of the boys' (the whole class is boys) names.
After lunch I spent the last two periods of the day planning for the IT class I'll start teaching next week. I'm going to take them through a unit on computer hardware, common components of computer systems and the like. I'm pretty sure I know what I'll cover and how I'll present it, so it should work out pretty well. After I finished at the school, I went in to Ulverstone's CBD and took a few photographs of buildings that I'll take the C.A.D. class to see on their excursion.
I think that's about it. I'll have to remember to phone my university supervisor tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
My First Lesson
I taught my first lesson of PE2 in a year ten science class today. Last term they began a physics unit on forces and today, to help review what they learnt last term and introduce some new material, I spent a lesson working with them on the subject of mass, weight, and gravity. I had them use spring balances and sets of weights to measure the force of Earth's gravity (~9.8 newtons). They then weighted themselves (and/or each other) and calculated the weight of their own mass on other planets.
I think that the lesson could have gone better, but my colleague teacher was fairly happy with it. I would have liked it if they had been more interested in what I thought would be an interesting topic and activity, but they did seem to get what I wanted to teach out of it. The main thing that came out of it for me is that I still need to work on ways to manage students, particularly my voice. I speak and shout (in the "speak loudly" sense, of course) in from my throat and mouth rather than my chest, so talking for longer periods tends to give me a sore throat, never mind having to control a distracted class.
On the planning front, we've decided that I'll need to get my unit on computer hardware for the IT class ready for us to review on Monday before I start teaching it next week. When I'm finished this post, I'm going to go and revise the plans for my Sketch Up unit to include some design theory content and a possible excursion and to fit in the shorter time span I'll have to teach it.
I might have the opportunity to take part in a professional development activity on anger management tomorrow morning depending on spaces, etc., which will be good (though I'm not sure when I was last 'angry').
I think that the lesson could have gone better, but my colleague teacher was fairly happy with it. I would have liked it if they had been more interested in what I thought would be an interesting topic and activity, but they did seem to get what I wanted to teach out of it. The main thing that came out of it for me is that I still need to work on ways to manage students, particularly my voice. I speak and shout (in the "speak loudly" sense, of course) in from my throat and mouth rather than my chest, so talking for longer periods tends to give me a sore throat, never mind having to control a distracted class.
On the planning front, we've decided that I'll need to get my unit on computer hardware for the IT class ready for us to review on Monday before I start teaching it next week. When I'm finished this post, I'm going to go and revise the plans for my Sketch Up unit to include some design theory content and a possible excursion and to fit in the shorter time span I'll have to teach it.
I might have the opportunity to take part in a professional development activity on anger management tomorrow morning depending on spaces, etc., which will be good (though I'm not sure when I was last 'angry').
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
The First Day of Classes
Today was the second day of PE2 and the first day of classes for term three. We've sorted out my time-table, office, computer and photocopier accounts, and keys and I have a list of things to plan and teach during the next four weeks.
I started the day with a double lesson Computer Graphics class. The students are going to spend this week finishing off an TurboCAD assignment from last term and starting next week I'll take them through my Designing with SketchUp unit. Part of the feedback I got from the lecturer is that the unit could do with some design theory, so I'm going to look at cutting down the work (one project instead of two) and adding in some discussion of design movements and the like. Hopefully it'll wind up being about three weeks.
After recess, I was with my primary colleague teacher in two maths classes. It was reasonably similar to my experiences during PE1 and left me even more convinced that my experience of mathematics as a high-school student was unusual.
After lunch I had a free block and began thinking about the lessons and units I'll be teaching in the coming weeks. Tomorrow I'll be taking one lesson of a grade ten science class looking at forces. I'm planning to get the students to use force meters to measure weight and then calculate the weight of various objects under various strengths of gravity.
Next week I'll be starting my unit on SketchUp as described above and a unit on computer hardware for a class of students in grades nine and ten. I expect them both to go fairly smoothly. In two and a half weeks the time table changes, due to interference caused by the student production, and I'll have a class of students in grades seven and eight for IT for the last week. As these students will have such a wide range of ability (while some can program, others haven't used computers much at all) I'll be covering Internet safety and basic computer skills with them.
After school ended I spoke with a teacher who had a few questions about getting audio materials from the Internet (streaming audio, podcasts, that sort of thing). In the course of the discussion, I mentioned the resources I have from the outreach programme at NICTA last year, so I might present those short lessons to a maths extended class.
That's about everything that's happened so far. I'm off to plan tomorrow's science lesson.
I started the day with a double lesson Computer Graphics class. The students are going to spend this week finishing off an TurboCAD assignment from last term and starting next week I'll take them through my Designing with SketchUp unit. Part of the feedback I got from the lecturer is that the unit could do with some design theory, so I'm going to look at cutting down the work (one project instead of two) and adding in some discussion of design movements and the like. Hopefully it'll wind up being about three weeks.
After recess, I was with my primary colleague teacher in two maths classes. It was reasonably similar to my experiences during PE1 and left me even more convinced that my experience of mathematics as a high-school student was unusual.
After lunch I had a free block and began thinking about the lessons and units I'll be teaching in the coming weeks. Tomorrow I'll be taking one lesson of a grade ten science class looking at forces. I'm planning to get the students to use force meters to measure weight and then calculate the weight of various objects under various strengths of gravity.
Next week I'll be starting my unit on SketchUp as described above and a unit on computer hardware for a class of students in grades nine and ten. I expect them both to go fairly smoothly. In two and a half weeks the time table changes, due to interference caused by the student production, and I'll have a class of students in grades seven and eight for IT for the last week. As these students will have such a wide range of ability (while some can program, others haven't used computers much at all) I'll be covering Internet safety and basic computer skills with them.
After school ended I spoke with a teacher who had a few questions about getting audio materials from the Internet (streaming audio, podcasts, that sort of thing). In the course of the discussion, I mentioned the resources I have from the outreach programme at NICTA last year, so I might present those short lessons to a maths extended class.
That's about everything that's happened so far. I'm off to plan tomorrow's science lesson.
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