Cross Curricular
Subject Pedagogical Knowledge, Reflection 1
On arrival at my placement, I thought I had embarked upon my very own baptism of fire: a school that didn’t have any facilities for textiles, the one area within which I feel most experienced, confident and comfortable. So, armed with a smile and a willingness to learn a lot in a very short amount of time, I decided to focus on the positive, face the fear of humiliation and throw myself into the ring and take the animal by the horns. This animal happens to be all elements of 2 and 3d design on the computers.
During the CAD/CAM lessons at university I had really struggled, firstly with getting my head around using the computers so prolifically, as they were pretty much alien to me as a dressmaker and then secondly, learning a whole new world of designing on 2d Design and Solidworks. However, I was surprised at when push came to shove and I was in a KS3 classroom, with children needing assistance, sparks of useful (well, sometimes, useful) information would come to the fore and help out. I realised that sitting one-to-one with a pupil we could, through communication, analysis, trial and error and stamina work through the process to get to our goal. I would have been happier in these initial cases to have provided a perfectly succinct solution to the pupils’ problems, but I believe it was actually enormously beneficial to be so lacking in subject knowledge, as I built relationships with many of the pupils and became more aware of their learning styles, needs and also shared their sense of achievement.
I would say that I felt more confident working with small groups or in the one-to-one scenario, rather than when I was in front of the whole class, being observed. For example,I was given ten minutes to introduce the idea of making stands for mdf mirrors that they were in the process of finishing. They had to design their stand in 2d design, which I had spent two nights trying to work out and still needed the
On arrival at my placement, I thought I had embarked upon my very own baptism of fire: a school that didn’t have any facilities for textiles, the one area within which I feel most experienced, confident and comfortable. So, armed with a smile and a willingness to learn a lot in a very short amount of time, I decided to focus on the positive, face the fear of humiliation and throw myself into the ring and take the animal by the horns. This animal happens to be all elements of 2 and 3d design on the computers.
During the CAD/CAM lessons at university I had really struggled, firstly with getting my head around using the computers so prolifically, as they were pretty much alien to me as a dressmaker and then secondly, learning a whole new world of designing on 2d Design and Solidworks. However, I was surprised at when push came to shove and I was in a KS3 classroom, with children needing assistance, sparks of useful (well, sometimes, useful) information would come to the fore and help out. I realised that sitting one-to-one with a pupil we could, through communication, analysis, trial and error and stamina work through the process to get to our goal. I would have been happier in these initial cases to have provided a perfectly succinct solution to the pupils’ problems, but I believe it was actually enormously beneficial to be so lacking in subject knowledge, as I built relationships with many of the pupils and became more aware of their learning styles, needs and also shared their sense of achievement.
I would say that I felt more confident working with small groups or in the one-to-one scenario, rather than when I was in front of the whole class, being observed. For example,I was given ten minutes to introduce the idea of making stands for mdf mirrors that they were in the process of finishing. They had to design their stand in 2d design, which I had spent two nights trying to work out and still needed the