EXAMPLES
Iain tries to place all m students work in a context that is outside as well as inside the school gates. Iain endeavors to make lessons real.
Alien Vs Predator
Contextualisation to engage with autistic student.
One of Iain's students was a relatively high order autistic adolescent boy.
His particular fixation was the Alien V Predator movies. These proved fertile ground for discussion of environmental issues (introduction of species in Australia), as a conduit for expressing ideas (what would Predator think?) and math (how many Alien/Predators does it take...). These exercises are also relevant to higher order thinkers and can act as a bridge towards inclusion.
Business Studies
Look for the good.
Students have consistently recommended someone like Jesus/Mohamed/Moses/Buddha as a person who could make communism work when they were comparing the free market of "The Kingdom of Mocha" Vs "Animal Farm's" centrally planned economies. It's not so much the systems that need changing, it's how do we deal with the greed of mankind? Out of the mouths of babes, you heard it here first !
Computer Studies
But Sir, isn't that cheating?.
This was the delightful remark of a year 12 VET student when shown how to use the sum function and the graphing tool in MS Excel. The techniques then spread virally round the class, making everyone "full-bottle" in seconds flat and on to the next assessment.
This said, it is critical to teaching the use of application programs that the students understand the underlying math, so they can quickly estimate if the software has produced the right answer.
"I set myself on fire twice, brilliant!"
OH&S a year 12 students perspective.
When Zach came back from his industrial training, some of the rather dry and dusty elements on the curriculum had taken on a whole new dimension and he wanted to let everybody know what he had learned. And believe me I let him tell everyone. If we needed a OH&S focus at any time thereafter, Zach was your man. Turning learners into trainers is a great way to go.
