"Is this what you wanted?"

As i embarked on a applying a version of Self-directed learning in my classroom. One major issue surfaced, time and time again.

  "is this what you wanted? is this good enough?"

I learned very quickly that my explanations of expectations were lacking and that this was a school dynamic most were not used to.  I really had to step up the level of communication and checking in with my students.  Frustration levels can spike and spread like wildfire among the students if the right amount of feedback and encouragement isn't given.  Unless the students really take hold of the idea of figuring out a problem on their own, instead of the learned helplessness reflex, frustration will exist.

It was very interesting to experience and reflect on what I had read vs. what I assumed about self directed learning.  The feedback was very time consuming.  The preparation was very time consuming, but in the end it was a very successful technique.

A split group format

One of my fellow PIDPers made a digital project illustrating the values of group based learning.

I had a large challenge in deciding how I was going to organize the format of my 4th level course.  They biggest challenge i had was the allocation of materials and shop equipment.  As a class of 16 a lot of the 4th year projects require having enough equipment to teach and get everyone involve in the same subject at the same time.  Due to budget and space constraints in our shop it isnt possible to teach 16 students one subject.  the default method had been to "talk about the projects and make the curriculum purely theoretical.  I felt as though this was a gigantic waste of an opportunity to introduce and explore some of the most detailed and technical aspects of our trade.

So the big question and something I say to my students..."OK you have identified a problem, is this a complaint or do you have a solution"

Here is what I did

I split the class of 16 into 3 groups, 5, 5, and 6.  For each week they were assigned one of three topics.  air compressors, pneumatic circuits and maintenance systems.

I prepared a schedule with detailed times and activities for the groups to work through from Monday to Wednesday. I took the time on Monday to explain the schedule and what was expected.

The result was amazing.  the students really surprised me in how they rose to the challenges I put in from of them.  truly, i did not make things easy.  What I noticed was the more difficult the challenge the more engaged the group was.  

This group arrangement allowed me to give each student an opportunity to work disassembling and re-assembling two major classifications of compressors, working through and buiding 10 separate pneumatic circuits on our trainer boards, and finally, the most valuable activity was to get our students to work with our vibration analysis equipment.  Many millwrights will work their entire career and not fully understand or touch a predictive maintenance device. My students worked with a 30,000$ instrument on a 65000$ IRD dynamic balancer.  Here is a short clip of the engagement experienced by the students.

Over all this has been a huge amount of work but the benefits of seeing students excited and happy in the shop is worth every ounce of effort.  This is definitely a strategy I would like to make work on a regular basis.  I still have alot of work to do to make it better, but its a step in the right direction. So I leave you with what my students have been up to. Enjoy

PREZI vs TEXTBOOKS vs MIND MAPS

A fellow instructor and I have worked tirelessly to develop a wide range of prezis to make the classroom discussions and presentations more engaging.  here is an example of one I made for a trade discovery class. The program is designed to introduce high school students interested in trades to jobs they may not understand.

Mr millwright face book page

When the students ask what is with the goat I tell them millwrights are baaaaaaad-ass.

I though it was funny.  usually I am the only one laughing too.


One of the major problems I had with the main textbook we use in our department is that it is linear.  By that I mean the pages are arranged in a row and sometimes in an effort to get through it students lose track of what they are learning about.  The text books are as deliberate as they can be about delivering the information but they are still just one page after the next to the students. Most of the feedback I have received when I ask about they are structured is that the chapters are organized by subject.  What a shame.  What I have tried to do is delineate the book into more of a  ind map so students can relate the current content to the subject-sub subject and topic.

here is an example of how the millwright manual is written

Bearings
-friction bearings
     -liners
     -housing
     -joints
     -lubrication
     -etc
-anti friction bearing
    -laods
    -types
    -housings
    -thrust
    -etc


the point I am tyring to make is in the linear way in which the text is presented

What I have tried to do with my prezi is create a structure so that students can be reminded of the way in which the text book is arranged.

mind mapping


This is the idea I have been going for. A fellow PIDPer framed it nicely.


this is what I have been working on to join the two ideas.  I hope it works out.


Bearings Prezi


Let me know what you think.  To me having a delineated structure to a presentation is a huge benefit of prezi over power point.

comment in the section below.  what do you think?

kahoot! and flipquiz

Another instructor from work told me about this program. It has come up recently in my PIDP course and i gave it a hard look.  I think that this game would be an awesome way to get students involved in review and wrapping up a subject

I use another website called Flip quiz.  It is anopther fun way to play games in the class, an dthe students love it

The downside is the time that it takes to make the boards. I will see iff I can maybe make the students create them.  I heard once, dont ever do anything for the students that they cant do for themselves:)

Introverts in the Classroom

One of the big parts of my discussion forum and course I am taking is about introversion vs extroversion and how to deal with these types of personalities.

It has been very topical.for me since I have started my latest class.  I naively set out to push my class towards studying in a group for 6 hours a week to review for their test.

Wow was there ever a pushback!  I took some students aside who i could see were immediately uncomfortable with the idea and the common theme they gave me was that they didnt like working in groups.  One student was adamant that he didnt want to study gave me 30 minutes worth of reasons why he didnt want to do it.  And he made some good points.

The lesson I learned from this was that I need to learn to grow my activities and lesson plans with introverts in mind.

Since I have in class activities and lessons for review as an option, group out of class study groups as an option, and if you want to study alone you can do that too.

Coffee is on!

In my constant effort to make my classroom is comfortable and as happy a place as possible I decided to start a coffee pool. The idea is that I bought the coffee on myself and that all the students would bring in a can of coffee sugar and some coffee whitener to get us through the seven weeks that the course is put on. When I suggested the coffee whitener some of the students immediately looked off put by the idea and suggested proper cream. I inform them we don't have a refrigerator to put the cream into and I don't have one and I don't have the money to buy one. One of the students immediately piped up and said that he had one in his garage that he wasn't using and he was more than happy to bring it in and give it to the class. So now we have fresh coffee in the morning made and ready to go. This is a really simple and easy way to make the class a place that people are happy to come in and participate in on a daily basis and not feel like it's a place that they have to go but a place that they want to go.

Let the Games Begin!

I've been constantly looking for good new ways to create study aids and have time for review before testing.  I have read reviewing material before test can greatly improve retention for students.

I instruct a class of 16 students 6 hours a day for 7 week classes and here is what I have found so far.

6 HOURS IS TOO MUCH SCHOOL.lots of breaks and activities only goes to far. I have made time during the day for study groups or study strategies.  A chance for students to get up and leave and do their own thing.  Monitoring the productivity of this is my next step.

REVIEW GAMES ARE FUN FOR ADULTS.  Each week I divide the class into 4 groups of 4 and I have them make at least 5 flash cards each from the weeks material. I take the cards on thursday and make Flip quiz boards and actual board games to play for review on Friday.  Its a good way to have fun and pit the students against each other in competition.  Adults take their school too serously sometimes and games are a good way to lighten things up.

FLASH CARDS RULE!!!!  I have a ton of flash cards that my classes have made.  My current class is awesome and they all took a stack of cards to type into Quizlet.  Now all millwright students can have access to review flash cards on their smart phone or computer anywhere.  Look up Millwrights BCIT on quizlet to see what we have done.

More come on revamping my classroom setting.  (I bought a coffee urn :)

Off and running

Day one of my first level 4 class was today... I'm regally excited about the group and although there were a lot of hiccups., I think things got off to a good start. Today was a lot of dealing with anxiety about writing the intro provincial exam in 7 weeks... I got everyone signed into a class Google plus page and had them research tonight to find an article that they liked about study strategies that they think will work for them. They will be posting the findings on Google plus tonight... Tomorrow we will be reviewing everyone's articles and hammering out a study schedule and strategy for how to get through the next 7 weeks the best way.

We will be incorporating many strategies such as study groups, flash cards tests and mind mapping. Regardless I am pushing for this project to be student lead.. The motivation is there due to the magnitude of the test... I am going to lay low and make sure it happens smoothly.

Motivation

What about our motivation as instructors?? Why is all the focus on our students. What about us... Sure we feel motivated now, but what keeps us accountable. What will be our source of motivation moving forward?

One of the most troubling stories I have heard, is of an instructor who once taught at my college... He went to another college and just lost all motivation... I had one of his students after him and the stories that I heard were scary at best. What kinds of things are we as instructors putting in place to measure out own motivation. Our own active learning?

It's nice to think that if I lose my passion I will move on, but life changes... Who will hold us accountable? I can't even floss on a regular basis...how do I know if I lose my motivation?  If it happens, what will I do because of it?

Post your comments... Students and pidp'ers alike... I want to know what you think.

What Are You Worth Your Weight In? (roles)

Have you ever heard the saying around the plant " A good ______ is worth their weight in gold"?

Why is that?  What is it about these trades people that makes them so valuable? And what are other people worth their weight in?
Well, I've worked with plenty of "professionals" and I can tell you I would weigh all of them with different substances.  Many with precious metals, enriched uranium, and perhaps the more colorful ones, saffron.

Everyone has their own skills and talents and thrive in certain situations. That is because of many different reasons.  Within a team environment everyone can bring something to the table, Youth and a strong back or organisation.  A keen eye on safety, or maybe job planning is your forte.  Every good team needs the veteran presence, and knowledge to steer the group away from previous mistakes.  All these skills and abilities are valuable, some more than others in certain situations.  So ya......All of these people are great, we need more of them.

These people are NOT who this post is about.........

This post is about the people worth their weight in other things, and what I am trying to do about it. Things like sand.  Steel too maybe, but not the type of steel used to make a building or something useful (I'm thinking more like the springs in an old mattress found in the back alley or the antique watering can full of rusted holes grandma used until she got tired of getting her shoes wet and turned it into a planter for her hydrangeas).  In certain circumstances they can be used for something useful, but often the effort to get any benefit isn't worth the trouble.

Our country developed the red seal trade certification to ensure the people being trained in the various trades were meeting a certain standard.  To make them more transferable between employers and to just plain make our economy better.  Check this site for more info on the red seal program.

You don't need a red seal to be a millwright, unlike power engineers or pressure welders, which fall under legislated certification.  Companies choose to employ certain red seal trades.  If we are letting the standards slip and just handing out the trade tickets to anyone who shows up, it hurts the value of each and every trades person that holds that trade ticket.

In my opinion the province of BC has done some great things to address the training and advancement of training.  Initiatives such as the Provincial Instructor Program, to give us instructors a better understanding of the ways in which we train.  My role as an adult educator is to help everyone who comes through my doors to become the best trades person they can be.  To have a solid understanding and pride in everything that they do, not to rely on fancy equipment and lasers but to rely and grow their individual skills and knowledge.  I would like all of my students to become lifelong learners, leaning into the more difficult challenges with the ability to think through situations and to find out the answers. It is paramount that we maintain the core skills of tradespeople moving forward into this technological age where things can be easy.  It is my role not to weed out the rusted watering cans, but instead to plug the holes and develop them into the best damn watering can they can be.  The knowledge they sprinkle can then help the future grow their roots and help our industry become solidly planted in the richness of skills and abilities we once had.  Being a trades person is an honorable difficult profession to be proud of.  Just keep in mind as we move forward in the digital age to let technology add value to what we do as tradespeople, and not to let our value be measured by the technology we use.

I don't believe in magic (trends)

What the hell are we doing?

Seriously....Do you know what you are doing?

The industrial workforce is changing just as fast as those horny soldiers were making babies in the late forties.  The silver tsunami is crashing and industry is picking up the pieces.  How?  Shortcuts.

There was a golden age of trades when manufacturing was at its peak.  There was a diverse workforce from a variety of challenging industries and from it grew an incredible advantage to our economy....  Mad skills. 

Fast forward to the 90s..........

When I was in high school the local pulp mill had almost 200 tradespeople. Guess how many apprentices?    2.   There was no need to pass on the knowledge gained from years of building and maintaining world class equipment. Industry had a highly skilled workforce, with a ton of union seniority. No one was going anywhere. Suddenly the housing market grew exponentially and people set sail into the sunset sooner than expected, and industry was caught with its.............well...Industry was not prepared.  Everyone assumed that they could find the people they needed.  Train the apprentices they wanted and life would go on.    Hit the easy button.  

The result of this complacency towards skill training was an aged workforce with bad knees, blown discs, and more light work accommodations than the Hilton's.  Surprise, surprise, not all old dogs like to teach tricks and what we lost in terms of knowledge was invaluable. 

Now that we all have the story.  How did industry adapt?  

TECHNOLOGY.  Lots of amazing technology.  We have lasers, optical tools, sensors, and all types of amazing new tools and computer maintenance management systems.  Its all great stuff.  However I fear what we have done is hand a bunch of calculators to grade students without first teaching how to multiply or divide.  If you cant explain the principles that the tool works on then it is just MAGIC. Not having a full grasp of what the tool is doing for us is a slippery slope to climb when the latest and greatest buzz word in maintenance is reliability.  Without understanding, mistakes will be made, details will be missed, and our economy will suffer. Industrial trades will go the way of the automotive "part changer" if we are not diligent in learning our trades and challenging the way things are maintained.  In conferencing with a fellow Provincial Instructor in training, who refers to himself as an old dog, he relayed to me his observations in the oil patch.  Andrew saw a large portion of the millwright workforce unable to use dials to align equipment, or use proper rigging practices.  The abilities which add our value to industry.  See his Reflections here 

Millwright Classroom

So next time you align something bring the laser, but take a second and do some long division first.   

I don't believe in magic.

Pride and precision

Why the name?

The Stubborn Nut

Why the name?

Believe it or not my name is actually Blair Patterson.  I am a Millwright turned College Instructor.  Throughout my life, education was always a source of frustration for me.  Whether the topic, delivery, or motivation, Going to school always seemed to be a drag.  After spending 5 years of high school staring out the window, with little aim or future goals, I did what i was supposed to.  I enrolled in university.  Then two weeks before my first class, I found the maturity to realize I was far too immature to attend a Post secondary school.  Instead I took a Millwright/Machinist foundation program.  A millwright Apprenticeship was what came up for me first so I joined the Millwrights union in BC and got to work.  I was a disaster when I started but gained confidence as I went, eventually earning a red seal in my trade.  

From there I traveled, worked in Pulp and Paper, research and development and the mining industry.  I now find myself in the position of teacher. A title I once loathed. Hoping that perhaps with the hard work ethic I have gained, that I can do better than those who came before me.....So Why the name? 

Many ex girlfriends would describe me as stubborn, Which I believe in my trade is a strength.  When faced with challenging situations having the stubbornness to not give up.  Every Millwright has been there.  The job is going south, and what you started out tapping with a soft face hammer now has a 50 ton hydraulic ram attached to it, there are 2 torches heating it up, and your're now spitting on it (not to see hot it is, but in resentment and disgust).  It takes a certain competitive mindset To be a Millwright.  I certainly didn't have it when I started.  

Many Ex girlfriends would also describe me as nuts.......

So there you have it.