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October 30 – week 7

October 29th, 2007 by reimer

So I had just finished writing a pretty substantial reflection for my first day of my week long visit, and I don`t know if it is my shitty Telus connection or this blog site….but I lost it so here I am again starting over. Man that kind of stuff just drives me nucking futz (Tom Bone, 2007). well that`s it! I`m done with this for the evening and will continue tomorrow…I`m back because it just did it again, at least I have a draft to go back to this time, something about upgrading, cleaning or fixing the Edublog site? make up your mind and do your maintenance when I`m not on-line, Thanks.

I spent the day in the woodshop with four blocks of woodwork and four totally different dynamics. The first class was a grade 10 wood and they are about mid-way through a small side table. The process is good with many different machining and joinery concepts. The grade 10`s are quite easy to manage, direct and keep busy, this class was very enjoyable. The next class was a repeat of the first, grade 10 wood again and about the same progress on the projects. There is a lot of demo and show and tell as the majority of these kids have no prior experience with woodworking, but again my sponsor teacher has a set plan developed over the years and this works very well. the next block was grade 12 woodwork and the project is self selected, with prior approval, and the processes fro each are varied. This class was much more challenging as there is a great range of student motivation within the class. It is very hard to motivate some students to ’get to work’, while others are chomping at the bit to get going. This was very educational from my perspective as this will be the norm with all senior classes, i`m sure. The last block was grade 11 wood and slightly more structured than the grade 12`s but still a far cry from the grade 10`s. It`s funny, a good friend of mine, more of a mentor, once told me that teaching middle school tech classes was some of the best experiences he had. Judging from the difference in attitudes from the different age groups I saw today, perhaps this is what he was referring to. All in all, I`m liking it very much, there was talk today about me taking on a class and a class project in wood during my practicum time which suits me just fine. Mid-way through the week and I think I`ve made a good choice for the future. Listen to me, after a couple of days…..time will be the ultimate teller of stories. 

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October 24 – Week 6

October 23rd, 2007 by reimer

The crunch time for assignments due is just around the corner and my thinking about all of the work I have yet to finish, rather than the sitting down and doing it is trying my patenice! I know there is no one to blame and even more important- no one to help so…pitter, patter…..I did stop in on my sponsor teacher on Friday to go over any input he has on my week visit starting next week, his attitude is pretty much along mine as we are both open to whatever transpires. I will sit in and if I feel it is something I would like to get involved with, well, by all means, do it. I always appreciate people who have a no nonsense attitude towards, just things in general, if there is something applicable and relevant to learn or to be done, just do it. Too much time is spent feeling out a situation or conforming to someone`s ego as to not step their toes or put them out of place. I think I am probably one of the worst offenders of such behavior and although I see why I am doing this, it`s been far to long ingrained in my physiological being to stop. It`s not that I am by any means disrespecting anyone by thinking like this but more of a “I`m listening, I see what your saying, I`m totally willing to do it,  now put in some time and do something besides just talking to make me want to keep doing it”, This has always served me well in Industry and would say I have happily worked alongside and with some of the hardest, impersonable, and demanding individuals you have ever seen.  Of course I would not compare many of these individuals to students but I`m pretty sure they spent at least a little time in high school back in the day, so I would hope I can have the opportunity to develop a rapport and maybe even a little mutual respect with all of my future students.  I feel like I `m rambling on so I will get back to it. The presentations on Monday were very well done, kudos to Dr. Derksen and the rest of the organizers.  There are many more presenters this week and I will have to comment on the next one. 

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October 12 – Week 5

October 14th, 2007 by reimer

No school visits this week but time spent in the classroom at the University. There was a presentation on home schooling during the Wednesday session, very informative, regarding the personal experience of the presenting parent. I believe every parent has the right to teach and educate their own children as they see fit but , in my opinion,  the best interest of the child is sometimes overshadowed by personal biases or experiences of the parent towards a specific program or institution. As for my own children, I will have to weigh out the pros and cons as they apply to us as parents and the type of education I want to have them exposed to, but would truly hope I will be able to see enough of the positives within the public school system to send my own children there, if that is where I am to teach.

Blane Despres posted a comment in response to an ongoing conversation in the discussions page and his words have caused me to re-think about my views on the subject of home schooling. First off, I have no real experience with it and my children are not yet of school age so my take on the subject is strictly hypothetical. Second, I imagine there are many reasons and even many more experiences for home schooling, hence the growing number of students, which I don`t have any idea about so I do think my initial view on homeschooling is skewed toward my own personal lack of knowledge about it. In the future I will attempt to be more open minded and get the facts before passing judgement. 

The Technology Education program is establishing an electronic resource for us as future technology teachers and I think this would be very welcomed by all as a tool to connect, share and promote new ideas. The premise is to have a Internet location with multiple links to relevant web-sites. The problem from what I can see upon researching this is that their are very few usable, relevant sites for what we are trying to do. I think that if this is to be a practical, current and useful resource it will take a massive amount of time and even more effort to compile, evaluate, post and maintain such a site. By no means am I saying that this is not a great idea, just that it will take a tremendous amount of time and energy by talented professionals within the field of Technology Education and perhaps even web-design to bring this resource to the status of where it should be. I am very surprised there is not an easy, user-friendly site out there..of course there very well may be and we will not be privy to such insider information until we have paid our dues…but I doubt it. The BCTEA/view magazine is an amazing resource and from what I have seen, has a wealth of info for Technology Teachers in British Columbia. That’s the rub, British Columbia, because there is a host of info from Finland, Germany and South Africa….but…..well, we live here and the BC Gov`t writes the curriculum so it may or may not be relevant. I think I would rather be on the same page with local colleagues in this respect regardless. 

During the search for Tech teacher resources I have been rather disappointed with the amount of easy access, local and quality information and resources available through the Internet. I did put quite a bit of effort into locating anything, short of paying someone in South Dakota, of any real substance. Why is this? I contacted several Tech Ed teachers along with prior instructors from mt BCIT years and pretty much got the same response from all, the resources are all over the province, in every district and in every school….the resources are the teachers themselves.

With approx. 1000 Tech Teachers and an infinite number of students, lessons, projects and classes……that is a massive amount of resource to tap into.  I had heard the term ‘networking’ on pretty much my very first day at BCIT and passed it off as something I could do later but as time went on I did keep hearing about how we should be establishing contacts and ties through affiliations, organizations, local teachers, school visits and conferences. Of course I do now see the benefit of knowing established teachers and administrators within the Technology Education system and the support that comes with it. I quite sure that every other new teacher in any disciple has similar feelings of under-preparedness and aprehensions about teaching for the first time but I think with my practicum training at UBCO, my technical training from BCIT, my sponsor teacher for guidance and the ‘networking’ support of my peers and colleagues:

Things will work out just fine

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October 3 – Week 4

October 3rd, 2007 by reimer

Today`s visit was to an Elementary school and what an experience. I sat in on a grade 4 class of 26 students of which the was 1 student with cerebral-palsy, 2 with FASD, 3 with learning disabilities and 20 other kids with plenty of energy! There was a CEA in the class to help out and the help was well warranted. I was amazed at the control the teacher was able to maintain during the lesson and how the children responded to her. We had a lesson on spelling, arithmetic and reading comprehension and all children were quite engaged. The next period was to the library were the kids took out books of choice and had sustained reading for appox. half an hour. After snack the kids moved into the activity room and did aerobics with the teacher to for 45 minutes. This seemed like a very practical relevant activity and all seemed to enjoy it. One student was not in class and I was quite saddened to hear that he was in hospital due to burns he had received while he and several other grade school kids were attempting to repeat a stunt they had seen on U-tube, pretty scary stuff……….I will keep this one in mind. 

Friday`s class was spent at Mt. Boucherie with Dan Hurd and a few of the other shop teachers. This was a very informative and engaging experience as they did get into some of the real issues facing new and established teachers within the system. I personally enjoyed the stories and reflections from all as they have all been through and can relate to what we will be experiencing in a very short time. They were for most part positive, which was a bit of a refreshing change as the majority of talk from day one has been somewhat skewed towards the negatives of teaching with Gov`t policies, union issues, large classes, lack of funding……etc. I am very sure all of the negatives are out there along with the positives so……well its just like life in general, if your focused on the negative, ……your negative and vice-versa. In fact this has caused me to revaluate some of my personal thoughts towards this schooling experience. The schooling aspect is something I have to do to get to where I want and I am under no obligation to take any more or less than I see fit to help me personally grow as a teacher. Of course as spoken by virtually every teacher I have talked to, it will take me 3-5 years of experience to get to where I am comfortable anyways so……..I`ll try to take what seems applicable and work out the rest over time.  During the summer we took Peter Arthur`s technology course and I was introduced to some of the latest forms of electronic communication. I have jumped on board with the blogging aspect for a bit of an electronic record/diary for our son, Ethan. This type of blanket communication is absolutely wonderful and I do see many possibilities with this type of interactive medium for my future role as an educator. You are welcome and invited to check out the happenings over at ’Ethan`s page’.     http://reimerpage.blogspot.com/

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October 3 – Week 3

October 3rd, 2007 by reimer

September is now behind us and we are moving into the heart of the fall season. Time is moving quickly and practicum time is just around the corner. If I ask myself if I feel I am ready for the practical training portion of the program, I would have to say yes and it will be a very good feeling to finally be done all of this schooling. I don’t know for sure how I will feel once I am teaching or what the job prospects are for me but time will tell and I am very confident I will adapt. I was able to track down a couple of other collogues recently, both Tech Ed teachers and both working out in the Kootenays. I think it would be good to go home as all of the friends and family support, if we are to have another baby that would be surely welcomed. The presentation by Louie Guadet was quite interesting; he is the coordinator for project literacy here in Kelowna. He deals with literacy issues regarding Tradesmen and the general public here in the valley, might be a good one for your course if others do not ask him for next year. There are many applications for my education and experience but again I will have to see transpires come the next year. I had heard some talk that moving the Friday visits around to different schools might be beneficial for exposure? I don’t know what to say about this as I don’t know enough about the different schools, staff and programs to say if one is better than another, I am willing to bet it will be all about what I personally can get and take out of my practicum time regardless of where it is set up. The school visit tomorrow is at  Elementary and I am quite curious to see the difference in the classroom dynamics from the secondary schools and how the teachers deal with the kids. I know that my one son can be a lot of work to deal with but 15-20 will be something special to see, I guess I will have to comment on that one next time.

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September 24 – Week 2

October 3rd, 2007 by reimer

September 24, 2007

My first school visit was toon Wednesday September 19 along with seven others from my cohort. We arrived at 8:30 and were greeted by the Physical education teacher for orientation. There was a superintendents meeting that day so the principal and vice principles were away. We did a quick tour of the office and met the support staff there and any other teachers moving about the office. is grades 10-12 and has approx, 1800 students along with 100 staff so there was plenty of action. We began on the lower level classrooms and were able to visit virtually all and everyone was very accommodating in having us look in. I did run into , a TOC, who is the wife of my apprentice employer, which I have not seen for 12-15 years. She had great words of support and it was nice to see a familiar face. As we made our way into the shops I was pretty excited to see what was going on but there was no class in the woodshop but we gave ourselves quick tour. In the Auto shop the instructor was , who I had done my first year of   training with at  and had plenty of questions for him about his experiences since I had last seen him.  had tons of good things to say about him and many others I had lost contact with since 2001. It is a very good feeling to me to see people I know that have already gone through this process and had things work out fine. The next class was Mr. drafting /design and they were working on Mastercam CNC, which I am familiar with from my BCIT training. It was neat to see how the kids are so proficient with the technology in such a short time. The Metal shop is taught by  a first year teacher at so the stop was quick but it looked like she had everyone engaged and under control. The tour continued through the school with the Math/science, English and social studies wings. This was wonderful experience and I have every confidence I will enjoy my future teaching.

On Friday, September 21 I did my visit to and again had a very positive experience. I met up with  drafting and animation, at 8:45 and he took me around to meet some of the other instructors: – Metal Art, – Metal,   Auto, – Power Mechanics and- Tech TOC. I know from my BCIT training so again it is nice to see a familiar face in this school. I sat in with  in his animation block and was amazed at the work being done by his students. was very supportive and had plenty of good advice for me. Next I sat in on  and his grade 10 Power Mechanics class. This was very engaging as I was able circulate and get involved with the class. Third block was with  in Art Metal and everyone was in different stages on their ring design and again I was able to get involved with the class.

I was forced to leave after lunch as a good family friend had passed away and we did go back to the for a funeral but I very much am looking forward to my next visits to experience more. 

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September 12 – Week 1

October 3rd, 2007 by reimer

I am not sure if reflections are going to be an overall for the week but I will add to it if I feel something else arises which seems relevant. As for reflecting on the discussions today I would say some was applicable to me and my particular ‘values’ or ‘beliefs’ as I see them today and some were not. I am quite confident my views will change and grow as I do throughout life and the different paths I will take, such as a career change into education, but the foundations of them will remain the same. My philosophy on life is based on what I saw from parents, peers and society growing up and I cannot say if they are right or wrong or offensive or not as these are my beliefs and mine only. Other people, cultures, religions, etc. all have their set of rules or guidelines to follow or live up to and that is extremely admirable but that is what they believe and that is their particular choice to follow them and I will always respect that. As for how this ties into my future role as a teacher, I think it is important to keep in mind that there are many different views on any subject and it is not my role to say how anyone would or should stand on a topic but cleanly, without bias deliver the topic and all relevant information to allow for an unbiased opinion. Maybe this is one of the beauties of being an educator as no matter what the student may or may not be pre-disposed to think, he or she will always, simply get the facts from the teacher to draw upon their own personal beliefs and come to a conclusion that applies to them. School visits start today and I think the experience will be enlightening and exciting to have a chance to gain some more practical skills and ideas on teaching and dealing with the classroom. I have done several school visits previously at  and had a great experience with them. 

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