Hello from Canberra

[Lumnock]

Hey guys,

I'm studying Secondary Teaching (Design & Technology) at Uni with hopes to be a woodworking teaching. Currently studying Carpentry and in my 4th year of studying Teaching so shouldn't be long until I'm out in the workforce. I'll be looking for reviews of equipment, along with design plans that I can implement into my classes.

See you around.

[munruben]

Welcome to the forum

[Christos]

Welcome to the Forum.

[corbs]

Welcome to the forum... plenty of great info in here

[joe greiner]

Welcome aboard, Lumnock. And glad to know a prospective teacher is learning the material to be taught.

A neighbor told me his daughter is making an animated training video for forklift operators. I asked him if she's ever driven a forklift. When he replied in the negative, I thought 'Oh, s***!'

Cheers,
Joe

[Gundy]

Welcome aboard Lumnock. Great to hear that you are going to be a secondary D&T teacher. Can I ask which Uni you are studying at and what employment prospects look like for next year?
Hope you enjoy the forum.
Gundy

[Lumnock]

I'm studying at the University of Canberra for my Teaching Degree, but the Carpentry qualifications have to be done through CIT (Canberra based TAFE).

Sadly even though I am 4th year it looks like I will be back another year to catch up on 3 units I've failed over hte past few years, and because I decided I wanted to do the Carpentry component that has also cost me some time. In the long run it's only an extra year and I'll be glad for it. As fas as prospects go, there is a very large shortage of qualified D&T teachers across the country. A lot of art teachers get the job despite having no formal qualifications, so anyone with any certifiable experience is snapped up very quickly.

[Gundy]

Thanks for the extra info Lumnock. Good to hear that you are almost there and that the employment prospects are so good.

Disappointing that the D&T teacher programs have been wound back over the years so that students have to go outside of the uni for their skill development. I say that because it was how I was trained many years ago and a number of my colleagues never went beyond what they were taught in tafe (& dare I say most of us saw little relevance in the uni/college portion of our course because it was physically removed from the practical work which formed the foundation of our teaching and was often delivered by those who had little skill in or understanding of it). I later had close contact with integrated teacher education programs and believe them to be better, mainly because the practical aspects were more closely related to the theoretical underpinnings of teaching and supported by specialist D&T staff. Unfortunately, this approach was unable to withstand the long knives of finance cuts.Universities grew to like the idea of 200+ students in a mass lecture theatre for a short time period and a lot of independent study... which doesn't work well where machinery and skill is involved.

Sorry to go on a bit... You hang in to the end and make a positive difference to the lives of the many kids you will have the privilege of working with!

Good Luck :)
Gundy