Throughout 2018 and 2019 I had the role of Tech Teacher in Residence at St William’s school in Northern Brisbane. As the first role of its type at St William’s, I worked in a number of capacities including building capacity with and planning with class-room teachers from Prep-Year 6 to implement the Technologies curriculum, running a lunchtime Tech-Club and Makerspace and coaching a LEGO robotics team. I also advised on tech-toolkits for the school to purchase, worked with students to incorporate green screen special effects into the school musical, ran staff seminars and drove the implementation new flexible furniture and a MakerSpace in the school library.
Students getting creative with Bee Bot
Bee Bot Resources
St Williams Library Makerspace
The green screen in action at the St William’s school musical
“Whenever we have a lesson with you,
I ALWAYS learn something new.”
Within the classroom, I supported classroom teachers from Prep to Year 6 with the development and delivery of the Technologies Curriculum. This involved planning with year-level teaching teams at the beginning of each term and co-teaching/modelling the lessons within the unit. As we worked collaboratively, I observed teacher confidence in the implementation of new technologies within the classroom grow.
FIRST LEGO League team ‘Give me some Space” working on their award-winning entry.
In late 2018, I coached a team of Year 6 students to compete in FIRST LEGO League, an international robotics competition for middle-school students. Each year students work in teams to research and respond to robotic and real-world design challenges with the 2018 theme competition titled ‘Into Orbit’. Our team which we named ‘Give me some Space’ were thrilled to be awarded a Project Design Award for their creativity and use of the design thinking process based on the topic, “long-term space travel” where they presented a prototype for pet-pod aimed at supporting the mental health of the astronauts.
In addition to coaching FIRST LEGO League and in classroom support, I facilitated a lunchtime Tech-Club. Held in the library, the Tech Club provided the opportunity for students of all ages to experiment with digital technology outside of a classroom context and even participate in the Premiers Coding Challenge.
“Thank you for your passion, dedication and enthusiasm.”