I was recently asked to present to some of the Tech teachers in my district what i have learned about the ADST and how to explain and ground the new system that has been viewed as too vague. This post is an outline of my presentation.
The presentation is regarding the new ADST Course outlines,
my vision is that all teachers in my district use the same course outline to unify what we teacher and how we deliver our education, obviously we will make modifications for different school based on student learning abilities, socioeconomic conditions, and teacher preference. but the solidarity of presentation will show that there are fewer discrepancy than educators who do not come together.
Main points,
- Not meant to be a strict rule book, but rather a set of guiding principles to help US as well as our students.
- Curriculum implementation will occur and can not be avoided.
- last curriculum was not perfect, either is this one
- We need to be prepared, to be experts in our fields so that we can navigate this new system with confidence and solidarity.
- The benefits to us are that
- we already do the majority of this new curriculum
- we are experts to other areas of education as hey try to adopt our model of hands on learning.
- How to navigate the shift from Production to design
Whats the Big Idea?
Well, there are 3 of them they are the guiding principles of our courses.
- Thinking with Technology
- Teaching students to think critically, To think about the Why, as well as the how
- Making connections between similar programs as well as what is happening around the world.
- Teaching progression of thought, "if this than that"
- Communication
- Student ideas, success, challenges
- can be verbal, written, a set of plans or a drawing
- Connecting with culture
- What is the history,
- Where is the community
- what is our future
- How do we find a place in our community
- How do we function as an individual? as a Team?
The context
the process in which we follow to achieve our results is something we already do, this diagram shows the design process
All things we already do when we start the project process,
- Define our intentions
- create a few design ideas,
- develop a prototype or a working drawing
- Test our design, if need be Redefine our intentions and continue the process
- Make our product
- and share our success
- Less set plans, and more personal design,
- Less focus on final product, more focus on the processes along the way
- Less attention to mistakes, more attention to successes
The new curriculum also has a component regarding Social and Emotional Learning or SEL for short,
this section is more challenging for me because as professionals, we often check our emotions at the door, dont bring your home stress with you to work, and dont take a bad day home with you either.
but in the most basic sense, we want to give students
- The opportunity to get it right through formative assessment,
- provide meaningful feedback so that students have a deeper understanding of material but also develop better relationships and communication skills allow them to advocate for themselves , provide them with the opportunity to justify there mark
- Allow them to self assess and peer assess there projects.
- Place less emphasis on the summitive assessment
Real world connections,
- STEM - The philosophy of STEM is to Pool kids from Science, Technology, Engineering and Math together. In a bigger picture and long term sustainable society. We currently need Students interested in science and Math to shift towards Engineering and Technology because of the labor shortage of skilled trades, in the future, we may need less focus on Trades, but those students may be able to shift towards sciences and maths once they realize how similar the principles between them are.
- Think of a construction crew where each member has a specific function, saw operator, air nailer, Stairs builder, Truss layout ect... what would that crew do if the saw operator called in sick? someone would have to fill the void and if they are all skilled in all areas to a general degree, the can continue short handed.
- This is not a new concept but rather an obvious one applied to a new pod of people.
- Maker Space - at one time i feared that it would be the end of my career, why would you higher a qualified teacher when you can higher a hobbyist for penny's on the dollar. well that has not come to pass yet, but as more maker spaces are popping up in our schools, enrollment in traditional shop classes is also increasing because students are getting a small glimpse via the maker space and then want more.
- the role of a maker space is to enhance Tech ed not replace it.
- Industrial education- These are our roots, or rich history it is not to be ignored, but but applied to the realities of today.
- example, electronics, Vacume tubes, -nailing breadboards, - chip programing
- English has not changed, 3 types of conflict are still
- Man v Man,
- Man v Nature,
- Man v Unknown
for a copy of the course outlines as well as the full presentation, please go to www.theprojectinventory.com
