Learning to teach technology

Technology is an area of the curriculum I am developing my knowledge of.

 As I was writing a learning narrative about a baking experience I needed to look up the technology curriculum to set goals for an student. I found this site with examples: Teaching Snapshots Technology  This seems like a good resource to explore further when I plan my next creativity & design workshop.

I was feeling a bit stuck as my last few design workshops have not gone to plan. What I expected from the ākonga was different than they either wanted to do or were capable of. I summarised real student issues for ākonga to work with but they still struggled with the concept of design thinking. I need to revise my approach again. I decided to observe another kaiako to see how they introduced a topic and scaffolded ākonga. I asked if I could observe another teacher's problem solving workshop last Thursday and I wrote some notes. 

My main reflection about this was I need to start simple and specific. Most students who come to my workshops are either expecting a free play exploration of hands-on materials or to be given a step by step guide. I am going to implement strategies to support this range of student learning styles and learning preferences. I am currently using a google classroom called Creative Kids where I put lesson pans, resources and links to expected activities. 

I believe the majority of ākonga who are struggling to be engaged in this workshop series are uncomfortable its open-endedness and loose structure. There's too much choice for them and their confidence is not high enough for them to be playful with materials or perhaps they don't see the point.