Rebecca Smye-Rumsby
Design . Technology . Project Teacher
e-Portfolio
Teaching as Inquiry 2015
My Teaching as Inquiry is a response to our faculty goal which is to increase submissions at a senior level.
Despite not taking senior classes, I believe that establishing and reinforcing good time-management habits at a junior level could help towards this goal in the long run.
My valued outcome is to have more students submit or complete work on time without compromising the quality of that work.
From experience and observations I theorise that by:
-Increasing engagement
-Improving understanding
-Supporting self-management
students could see an improvement in terms of time-management in class.
Increasing engagement
Strategies | Resources
I believe that the delivery of a brief, project or activity can have a huge impact on the students' engagement. As a technology teacher, I know that power of design. I have used this to generate interest and excitement. My main platform for delivery is Prezi.
With the courses I have developed, I have tried to include activities that appeal to range of learning personalities. I have also used a different forms of media to deliver information, such as videos, and aimed to always support theory with practical.
Increasing Understanding
Strategies |Resources
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I try to provide information in a range of formats and styles to be as inclusive as possible. As well as verbally explaining and demonstrating, I have produced illustrated instruction manuals to support complex procedures.
I also conduct conferences with individuals, which gives the students an opportunity to ask questions. It also allows me to identify any areas that were unclear or required further explanation.
As we are now in our second rotation of students, we are also able to show student exemplars.
Supporting self-management
Strategies |Resources
For each class I have developed checklists to help students manage projects. At year 9 this is primarily constructed by me. In my year 10 classes I provide the framework, but the management of the project is more individual.
​Particularly within practical classes, I have delegated different roles to the students. They are required to consider the safety of their group and work together in experiments. When it comes to written work, I've noticed that they support eachother, and therefore work at a similar pace. I believe that this peer encouragement has built momentum in this area.
Within my teaching I encourage student voice and believe that a good lesson is a construction from both the teacher and the students. I encourage the students to analyse how they work and consider the things that motivate or distract. After some student feedback, I realised that the music in class was helpful for some and counterproductive for others. I proposed dividing the lesson up into modes: cafe, library, gallery. The students thought about how they would act in each mode. This allows for different learning environments to suit more students.