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Preamble

I have only been facilitating education as a teacher for the last decade or so, but for the first time since the start of my career, I find myself locked out of the school. Although a necessity in this unsure time, I find myself longing for access to the educational technologies I have incorporated into teaching to help me write this blog. Furthermore and more importantly, this situation begs the question “how am I going to teach shop class without any technology upon return to school after spring break?”

 

Post Spring Break

It should be noted that everything I am currently pondering is purely speculative. In this dynamic situation I have absolutely no idea what will come to be in two weeks when I return to school. However, upon examining the data for the current pandemic, the problem appears to continually be getting worse. Live updates are available at Worldometer, and show that the virus is spreading at an alarming rate. 

As such, I can only anticipate that the expectation will be to provide students with work to do at home. As many of our learners do not have access to technology, including but not limited to: computers, an internet connection, tablets, shop equipment, or even reliable phone service, it will not be reasonable to create coursework on a digital platform. Indeed, many of our current learners only have access to computer technology and the internet while at school. As I peruse through the current BC Digital Literacy Framework, I realize that for the remainder of the COVID pandemic, this document will be meaningless in my future teaching practice.

Moving Forward

If my once engaging, hands on, inquiry based, shop courses are to be turned into work to be done at home perhaps I can take a flipped classroom approach to it. By this I mean, students can still choose an inquiry based learning aspect of shop work. After choosing their path they can then examine the base knowledge and understanding portions of that subject area. Upon completing this research, once we are able to congregate back in school, the students can then use this knowledge to construct their project with my guidance. This plan essentially moves the base skills that need to be taught for a given project into work done at home so students can concentrate on the higher order skills once back at school. 

For example, If a students wants to build a shed they need to do the following:

  • Research the BC building code 
  • Research basic building planning and blue print drawing
  • Draw up project plans complete with measurements
  • Ensure the plans include: a foundation plan, a side view, a top view, and a front view.
  • Research roof styles and design a roof system.

Once back at school the students now have a great deal of knowledge that would have been determined during class time. This knowledge can be immediately applied to building their designed project. Further information on this flipped classroom concept can be found here. Note: for students that do not have access to any method of research, I have all of the documentation for virtually any project, on hand. Provided I am able to communicate with each student, it should be possible to provide them with the information necessary to plan any given project.

 

In Conclusion

Overall, as we move forward, I will hopefully determine a cohesive plan to best facilitate learning for each of our students. I am still unsure about what the future may bring, but am hopeful that, even if we are locked out for an extended period of time, I am still able to connect and provide something meaningful to our learners.