I’ve been slowly working on a collection of technique and project lessons in preparation for teaching jewelry making at a local craft store. It’s been a little challenging.
First, I’ll be teaching jewelry making, something I’ve never formally taught before. In the past, someone has seen me working on something and asked me to show them how. Now, I have to develop a series of skill-building lessons interspersed with project classes that will inform and develop creativity without overburdening the student.
One of the reasons I’ve always enjoyed teaching in informal settings like this are situations like this, although I rarely have an opportunity to develop scaffolded programming. I think that’s what’s making this such an challenge for me. I have had to sit down, consider the skills I want to teach, and then figure out how best to group and order them into a meaningful and achievable learning set.
For now, I’m limiting each class to two or three techniques. This may change after I see how my students cope with the knowledge and the time available (I have to remember to leave time for their class projects to be completed in class).
For fun, I have included a homework section that basically consists of encouraging students to practice outside of class with the intent of bringing in what they made to show off at the next class.
It’s been nice to get back into writing lesson plans, even with the challenging unit-esque element. I never really appreciated how much I have missed teaching until recently.
This article on how certain states are toughening their graduation requirements just brought a really warm feeling to my heart, especially when I saw that my home state is in the list.
Some students may never attend another school after high school. Some may attend a univeristy or a trade school. Regardless of the path the student chooses, it is the responsibility of the schools to make sure they are ready to deal with that path at more than an elementary level.
Those who create and those who use those creations are finding it more and more difficult to work within the legalities of the current copyright laws. I remember learning about copyright laws in the museum law class I had to take in grad school. That was only a few years ago, and things have become even more strict.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Creative Commons, you should, especially if you create anything. Creative Commons allows you to share your work on your terms. I haven’t yet used this, but I thoroughly intend to have a CC license on much of my work by the end of the year.
This is a great post on the shortcomings of e-learning solutions with regards to sticking to one lesson design method.
One of the things I carried away from my museum education class is that all learning situations should be tailored to the learning objective. If you want to encourage people to expand their worldview and debate an issue, you use one type of lesson design. If you want to focus on an artifact, you use another type of lesson plan. Using the same lesson design to present all material not only defeats your purpose, but it becomes stale and can turn the learner off to your message.
