Due to COVID-19, teacher candidates in the 2019/20 Bachelor of Education program have had to quickly adapt their teaching and learning styles through the use of online platforms. We are showcasing some of the wonderful examples of projects created by them as part of the community field experience.
Murray Dennis Secondary (Technology Education)
- What is the name of the community partner or group you are working with?
- Lambrick Park Secondary (my host school)
- What is your project’s subject area(s)?
- Metalworking 9-12
- Tell us about your project!
- I had thought about the content I was creating during the online portion of the practicum, and how it lacked any sort of face-face interaction between myself and the students. It’s one thing to be posting various technology/trades-related readings and videos for the students to view, but I thought the students could benefit from seeing someone they are familiar with showing them how to use various tools.
I’ve got a small shop in my garage at home, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to try and pick up where we left off before spring break. To do this, I am in the process of creating three safety/instructional videos on angle grinding, MIG welding, and metal finishing. The videos ended up being a little longer than I would have liked, and I’m sure the students might agree on this.
So far I’ve posted the angle grinding video to our google classroom, along with a small handout for the students to complete after they have watched the video. I have finished the MIG welding video and am posting this on Friday, along with another worksheet. The metal finishing video will be handed over to my sponsor teacher/school advisor (SA), along with another handout. He will be able to share these with the class when he wants to.
These videos are definitely just meant to be a guideline, and give students a starting point and some background knowledge for when they return to the shops. I think these videos, particularly the MIG welding, gave myself a chance to show the students some more in depth techniques that I normally wouldn’t be able to show all the students in the class.
- Did you face any particular challenges in the planning, making or delivery of this project?
- Definitely, I have never made a YouTube video with myself talking a lot, so it was slightly painful to go through and edit hundreds of clips of myself messing up! I got pretty tired of listening to my own voice… I am still working on my delivery of explaining things, and I found a little harder talking to the camera than doing small group demos in the shop during my practicum.
Planning was a little difficult, but I tried to structure the videos in this sort of way: safety, operation, tips/techniques, review of what I went over, cleanup, and a closing message. I did multiple takes of each section of the video, trying to narrow them down when editing to include the most clear one. I made a few mistakes on the terminology during the video, so I have started to write out some cue cards for myself to glance at before I film the last video. I am hoping that this will help my sentences include a few less “umms” and “hmms” in them!
- How was the project received? Did anything surprise you about the outcome?
- My faculty advisor (FA) and SA were happy with the outcome!
I have heard from three students so far. Here are their anonymous responses:
- I enjoyed the video. Lots of helpful information.
- I liked the video. Quality Content.
- I really like the video. I found it very helpful and was fun to watch. I felt like I was back in the shop.
I am really pleased to hear these responses! This quiz/review is due tomorrow so I hope to hear from more students. I will say I am a little surprised at the outcome. I was expecting the possibility of more criticism but this is great, really encouraging for making the last video.
- Can you tell us about a highlight of creating this remote lesson plan?
- For one, it forced me to clean my garage shop up and put a few projects on hold for a bit! It was nice to get back to the basics and setup a little filming studio in the garage. It also really forced me to think about what I was saying and help refine my lesson planning skills. I was also able to refine my video editing skills a bit, and learn about videography in a shop environment, trying to capture the most clear angle of what I was doing. It surely wasn’t perfect, but some clips I thought turned out well.
- What media did you use to create your project?
-
- Canon Rebel T2i
- Adobe Premiere Elements 10
- Google Forms
- Google Classrooms
- YouTube
- Where can we view your project?
- Angle Grinding: youtube.com/watch?v=7Gc8urdX70s&t=1121s
MIG Welding: youtube.com/watch?v=OyKp1gfVOSk&t=2042s