Question 2 Exam 2

Question 2

An inspiring lesson is one that has come from a bright spark of inspiration from the teacher. A teacher’s inspiration comes from knowing their subject area and having a passion for it and teaching. (Hattie) To be an expert teacher all these things must come together, with a passion for teaching but only a little knowledge you can possibly create an alright lesson but a teacher with no passion is not a teacher at all.

I structure my lessons from the starting point of being an ‘expert’ (an always learning more expert), in my area with a passion for my art and teaching. (Hattie) I am always trying to source inspiration for new ideas for interesting projects, keeping my knowledge of fashion and textiles up to date.

Relevance is a major starting point for motivation. Sewing is in some ways a dying art form but by keeping it relevant and inspiring through the projects I choose and the fabric’s maybe I can inspire a new generation of cutting edge designers. For year 8 I selected a range of fashionable fabric from which they can chose for their boxer shorts or short shorts and for their next project they design a soft toy bling keyring. The inspiration for this was the influence of the Japanese youth culture and it’s growing influence on Australian youth culture.

I find Glasser’s five Drivers integral to the way I structure my lessons. Leader teacher is the only way to handle teaching, if I start to become a boss teacher I feel I have lost the class.
I try to make sure everyone in my class is accepted and feels they belong through being very conscious of acknowledging every student and where they are up to and what they need to get done. In a lesson that can be so fragment due to the fact that students are up to different parts of the task I find this very important otherwise the students get lost or go under the raider and don’t engage in the lesson. It is also very important to give constant feedback. (Hattie)

I find the power and freedom of choice is very motivational, within every task I try to have areas of choice, choice of fabric, design elements or whole design. (Glasser)

Fun is ultimately the best motivator.
I had an outcome that had to covered in year 8 textiles “Identify the role of designers and their contributions to improvement of life” (Mandatory technology year 7-8 Syllabuses). My first plan was to get the students to research the history of the elements of textiles that have improved our lives safety pins, buttons, zipper e.t.c I went on to the internet to do the research myself and found it took me less than five minutes to copy and paste the information into a document. I wasn’t inspired so I changed my whole lesson plan. I took my research and turned it into a quiz. In my Quiz Show I was the presenter and the students where placed in groups of three or more, I tried to eliminate friendship groups by choosing the groups.
My quiz included multiple choice, who am I questions, role play, charades and the highly amusing test of trying to find the object in the sand (inspired by Reality TV shows definitely a Gen Y thing) Points where given but in the end everyone received a prize. This was the lead in lesson to a group discussion of the ‘role of designers and their contributions to improvement of life’

Piaget said “Children construct their knowledge” (from a sheet that Allan Coman present to us).
I endeavour to teach students the starting point from which to launch their knowledge of sewing and constructing garments by setting a series of tasks that build up their knowledge.

Social interaction (Vygotsky) is another strong motivator by using peer to peer coaching and group work students can encourage and motivate each other to deepen their learning.

In this High School I am very lucky to that the School culture of the Wearable Arts helps to encourage and motivate students to learn about sewing. WAVE promotes the making of costumes and fantastical garments giving the students impetus to learn constructions of garments so that they are able to enter into the competition.