UniversityofEast London

SchoolofEducation

Secondary Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in Design and Technology.

Preparing yourself for the Programme

Dear Trainee Teacher,

You may at this stage be wondering in what ways you can prepare yourself before your programme starts. Once your ITT course has started, the weeks seem to fly past and suddenly you are teaching your first lessons and your first assignment is due, and you still have not got round to reading that essential book you bought in the first week! Here then is some advice and some further information:

As I explained at interview, the course will cover all aspects of Design and Technology, soit’s important that youconsider these.

InitialReadingLists:

I suggest you look for the series of books edited by Gwyneth Owen-Jackson (Routledge) that will be on the D&T reading list. The key one to buy at the moment is “Learning to Teach Design and Technology in the Secondary School – a practical guide”

For general reading have a look at 'Successful Teaching 14-19Theory, Practice and Reflection' byWarren Kidd and Gerry Czerniawski(ISBN 978-1-84860-713-2).It is very readable and has lots of great tips.

Subject Knowledge updating:

In order to qualify as a Secondary D&T teacher you have to prove that you have secure knowledge in your degree subject area (Design and Technology curriculum area) and secure knowledge to KS3 level ina second subject area. You will have to teach these areas independently during the year. It is very rare to find D&T trainees who come onto theprogramme offering expertise and experience in several areas. On a one-year programme, most of which is spent in secondary schools, it is your responsibility to address any gaps in your own subject knowledge. There are 2 websites that offer excellent support and we suggest you start to work through them.

For Food -try the recipes or watch the videos in the “Cook Club” and “Food Life Skills”. This is a good link to watch.... is also a “Food Competences” list on this site which is interesting. It tells you what pupils in school should be able to do – it may be worth checking you can do these things first!

For good clips on Textiles /Resistant Materials and Graphics products just Google You tube the subject and add KS3 or KS4.

TDA funded D&T Short Subject Knowledge Enhancement Course

There is a flexible start date for this as more people come on programme – it is funded so costs you nothing and will develop your subject knowledge and confidence in how you may teacher aspects of the subject.

Itisa condition of entry to our D&T programme that you attend (It is also an excellent way to meet your fellow colleagues in a more relaxed situation.)

Start collecting useful visual resources:

I suggest that you begin to collate evidence of your subject development in a file (or box!) and take photographs of work you have carried out.

Also you need to be aware that your own personal skills may need updating, especially for when you need to model or demonstrate in front of classes of pupils. So why not practice what you preach? You may be able to gain experience in this area by offering to run fun activities during the summer for your own children or friends’ children!

You could download images from the internet or cut out newspaper photos or articles that may be relevant to the world of Design and Technology. You could record videos from the BBC and satellite channels, especially informative documentaries or demonstration / process programmes.

As a condition of acceptance on the course you need to pass your skills tests in Literacy and Numeracy.As a general rule I will asking you to take and pass those two tests within 4 weeks of the conditional offer if you have not already passed them. Please contact me if this is going to be a problem.

I will send you all a personalised pre course training plan, based on the information I already have, but I would also like you to produce a visual aid to be bought along on Tuesday 17th September.

Activity-Select an area of your specialist subject that you feel is not one of your strengths. Take an aspect, activity or skill from this area. It might be:

Graphics and Systems and Control; perspective drawing, control flow of current; how an LED works,

Textiles; how to do a running stitch, thread a sewing machine

Resistant materials; a frame joint, a lighting project.

Food; Staple foods from around the World, Nutrition.

Using whatever resources are at your disposal research the problem, considering how you might teach this in a secondary school.

Make a visual aid, 2D or 3D that helps to explain the problem you have chosen.

Presentation

In a sketch book record your work, thoughts, ideas and research as notes and annotated drawings.

The visual aid could be a model that could be shown to a class of pupils or about A2, if 2D, so that it could be clearly seen if pinned on a wall.

Good Luck!

Kate