Monday, 9 March 2015

Monday 9th March 2015

I had no work untl this evening today, so I was able to sit down for the most part of today and get lots of work done in preparation for my individual tutorial later today.

This morning, I got loads of work done, sorting out my lesson plans so far, and beginning to organise everything in my folders, like I said yesterday. In relation to this idea, I have ordered some subject dividers and will be looking to properly sit and organise everything with labels. I carried on creating some of my lesson plans and began to develop a lesson plans based on using melted plastics in order to help to explain reversible and irreversible changes, a relation to science.

This afternoon, I had booked an individual tutorial with one of my tutors, with the and to have a catch up of where I am at the moment and what I need to still be doing for the rest of the project. I made my way into university, which was a bit of a nightmare, the trains were delayed by over an hour!!! I emailed my tutor and he replied with this email, which I am certain I have not seen before...

Hi Nathan 
this is an interesting one - We have discussed your proposal and are really pleased that you are thinking about your education creatively and also proposing a body of work and a learning agreement relevant to your interests and future. 
but
1 - the proposal needs greater clarification. How do the lesson plans connect so that there is a theme or themes throughout the plans. They need to all be accompanied by practical, quality, pieces of work. He needs to still demonstrate research and development of these. Can he provide/ research examples of what they could be as most lesson plans are only A4 sheets of paper.
2 - We are a little concerned that you are trying to do a project which isn't about textiles but about primary education, worthy but not totally relevant within the course. 
3 - The focus will be about 'how to do' within an educational context but textiles has to be at the core. Consider how you will make these 'lesson plans', actual examples of textile activity you have engaged in will need to be included. Think about 'step by step' instruction manuals, how information is communicated both on the page and verbally within a classroom. 
4 - We don't think, looking at your work history that you can develop 50 lesson plans as your final degree project in the time given and maybe 50 aren't needed anyway - the work should be more about quality than quantity. 
5 - think about the learning outcomes and how you will address them as I know you are concerned about the final grades.
 
Maybe a way forward would be to develop your textiles project and then the plans/manual around your body of work and influences

Your proposal to work with the school is a good one and this email is not a negative response to your proposal but as you are looking to work in a way that is not exactly straightforward we all need to be clear how it fits both with you, the course team and the course itself.


Sitting on the train and not able to really do much, I totally panicked!! This email basically suggested that I was focusing on the wrong thing in my whole project, that I now need to take a step backwards and begin again, which I do not want to be doing at this stage of the project.

However, when I got to university, my tutor was actually quite happy with my work. Based on my work that I used for my exhibition, the tutors thought that I was not completing work that was at all relevant to textiles, but after seeing my plans, my plans since the ones I had shown, based more around teaching textiles and a stronger linked between teaching through textiles, he was a lot happier with what I was doing. I think that, with my work I am doing what they want, I just need to make sure that I get everything out of my head onto paper, making my plans clearer for the tutors to read, because once I had explained my intentions, my tutor was happy with my work.

I also showed him my own work in my sketchbook, which was before mentioned in the email above, which I was a little concerned about, because I had not really done much at all. He said that if I make my lesson plans clearer and keep up the work, that I do not need the sketchbook work, which I am quite happy about, because it was becoming a bit of a chore.

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