Pre-planning
Liam working on his laptop stand
Steve and Colin Lawrence teach the Years 11-13 Product Technology classes, and have planned the progression students should follow after their Technology experience in Years 9-10. To support this they developed a scaffold of practical skills and knowledge they want the students to acquire, matching these domain skills and knowledge with technological practice.
Each year they run a Year 11-13 parent information evening to explain the course requirements and make direct connection between school and home. Parents have commented that the teachers have inspired their boys, which Steve says is what it's all about at the start of the year – setting them up with that enthusiasm.
Steve finds that working with a combined class can be taxing and that he generally tries to teach at a Year 13 level which tends to pull the Year 12 students up, rather than going the other way.
Colin and he decided to start the year in the ICT suite rather than the workshop, as part of a new strategy to get smarter with the collection of evidence. They hoped that if the class spent the first third of the year in the suite they could start their practice with better access to information, and better systems for documenting evidence of this practice, which can be used for NCEA assessment.
