Andrew LeRoy

My classes consist of teaching students Product Design and the Fundamentals of Engineering Technology and most of the students come from a wide and varied background. I never liked taking tests myself so I try to assess my students by giving them design projects that show me the level of understanding and application of the material that they have acquired from the classroom. It also gives then the opportunity to add creativity to what they are doing by personalizing the product they design. So far this has worked well for me. I try to change the projects every so often… >>>

Since I am fairly new to the teaching profession I can always utilize new information to improve what students are "receiving" from my teaching methods. I have used the minute paper idea in class and it seemed to work well. My students never feel shy about telling me when they are bored. lol. I struggle with limitations of the facilities because much of industry cant be experienced in the environment of a school setting. It would be great to be able to give my students exposure to more machinery and manufacturing practices. I do use dvds and videos to show… >>>

I am relatively new to the teaching profession and wish that I would have had more of this information when I began. Although most of my time was spent just developing curriculum early on this would have saved me some reworking of my methodologies toward welcoming students. My experiences in industry gave me credibility with my students and they were eager to absorb what I had to give them. Fortunately they were all good about my circumstances and maintained some flexibility. Much of this seems like common sense but it is nice to have it down in a structured format… >>>

I have just begun implementing a simple version of critical thinking into my curriculum. I use the critiques of assigned design projects to try and get students, (and myself), to approach a viewpoint by looking through a different window of analysis. The window may be one of economics, or it may be the window of manufacturing processes or politics etc. It may also be the window of the end user. Most of what I use is based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom and his colleagues (1956) produced one of the most often cited documents in establishing educational outcomes: The Taxonomy of… >>>