Your probably right Blane, as my education in education here at UBC is strictly a start, the door is open a crack, and it will be up to me to see if I can or even want to open that door up any further. I hope that I will and also hope that the result is something I can like and live with as the more I look into my future teaching career, well the posibilities are literally all over the map. We would like to head back home into the Kootenays sometime soon but there are many reasons, personal and finacial, to stay put for next year or two…..again, time will tell but it will be one more experience to ‘reflect’ on down the road, I imagine you will still be reading my weekly posts??? 

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. 

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

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/

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.