Month: April 2019

I tried out Iestyn’s advice with the speed dating exercise. I gave the students 5mins to write down their concepts and then they all stood up facing each other in pairs and spoke about their concepts for 2.5mins each. I timed them and then told them to spend 5mins thinking of how to reduce this down to 1minute and did this one more time after reducing it down to one short sentence in 15 seconds.

Unfortunately I only had 7 students in each group which didn’t make it as vibrant and exciting as I hoped. The first group seemed to have a lot to talk about and found it hard to whittle down their answers but did embrace the task. The second group had very little to say and couldn’t even fill the 2.5minute timed slot.

On reflection, I think I should have maybe done this at a later stage in the project, when they had more research done. I also didn’t have time to take their sentences further as I had other things planned but I should have got them to write the sentence down and start a mind map but instead of a word mind map an image mind map to get their designs going. The students didn’t enjoy facing each other and rotating round so maybe I could have written their names on paper 3 times and then they pulled out three names from each hat and moved round themselves without me trying to move them physically as they didn’t quite understand where I wanted them being moved to.

Although there were some hiccups, I loved getting the students up off their seats and doing something physical to wake them up and get them engaged. I will definitely be trying this again.

I have been silent for a bit, I haven’t been attending my classes either as I unfortunately lost my unborn baby at 22 weeks because he only had three chambers to his heart instead of the usual four. I distanced myself from my students and emailed all of them. They were fantastic and sent me words of support and kindness – it made me realise that underneath everything they do appreciate all the efforts you put in for them.

Anyway, to get back into teaching after withdrawing myself from the world, I did a one week course on Pattern Cutting. Teaching on the short courses is very different to the degree courses. The students tend to be more attentive, in careers they maybe are not so happy with and genuinely happy to come into uni every day. This was a great class to take on as my first one back. It is much easier to teach  as the classes are smaller compared to the degree course, you are teaching them all the same thing rather than dealing with individual projects and I have ensured they have learnt and understood the basic steps before they embark on their own designs.

On the degree course, as I teach the second years, I am not sure who has grasped all the concepts, who has been to all the classes and who is falling behind. There is also very few classes where I can teach them skills that they need to make their final designs – this is because of KIS (I think this is the right acronym) hours that we are are forced to stick to which causes our students and our technicians problems down the line.

If I could almost do a ‘short course’ with the degree students I think everyone would be happier – it is something I want to discuss with our new course leader when they start.