Pre-planning
Designing the cover decorations
Alexia's goal for the term 2 Technology class was to create a unit that had the students truly involved and excited in what they were doing. "It's very difficult to get the students to engage with something they don't put any value on, so I surveyed them, asking questions like 'Why do you choose to do Hard Materials?' and 'What would you like to make in Hard Materials class?'. There was an overwhelming response from the students that they wanted to make skateboards, so then I really started looking into it."
Alexia was excited by the idea of making skateboards, but this was an area she knew very little about so she had to quickly do a great deal of research before the term began.
"I had to learn a lot to begin with as I had no idea how a skateboard was made. I did a lot of internet searching, watched production videos, talked to people in the skateboard world in the Wellington area, and rang the manufacturer from Nelson Creek Skateboards in Greymouth to learn as much as I could about the process before leaping into it."
Then Alexia made contact with the local Cheapskates' co-owner Dave Green, and found she had struck gold. "Alexia emailed our shop and wanted to know if there was any possibility of us putting some input into her project," says Dave, "and then it came through to me and I thought 'well I'm in Paraparaumu and I'm making skateboards and there's probably no one that knows more about it than me. Kapiti College is also my old school so I thought I'd do it myself rather than send someone.'"
Student attaching wheels to a skateboard
After talking with Alexia, Dave decided to take on the role of mentor for the unit. With over 30 years' experience in all aspects of skateboarding – from competing in the early days of the sport through to becoming a joint owner of New Zealand's most recognised skateboarding brand – Dave would be an invaluable source of knowledge for both Alexia and her students.
Preparation was crucial to delivering the unit. "Being the first time for this unit, during its delivery we had to think on our feet and a lot of our decisions were done on the spot. But I also did a heck of a lot of planning beforehand."
In her planning, Alexia focussed on developing particular key competencies (relating to others, participating and thinking) and values (excellence, innovation, enquiry, curiosity and respect for themselves and others) and on encouraging experimentation, student initiative and self learning. Key to achieving this was to create a balance of individual and group learning. Alexia decided to split the class into groups of four to five students and appoint a team leader, choosing people who she thought "could deal with the combination of personalities" and who would then allocate jobs to the others within the group. "Ensuring the leaders set each student with jobs would give each a sense of importance and a feeling of responsiblity for themselves and also to the group. I also asked that the students fed back to their teammates, explaining what they'd been working on."
