Background
Mt Roskill Grammar
Mount Roskill Grammar School is a decile four co-educational, state school in Auckland with a roll of over 2,300 students of wide ethnic mix.
The teaching of technology at the school is done within three separate departments: Technology, which incorporates Multimaterials, Electronics and Graphics; Food Technology; and Computing.
Electronics teaching staff
Head of Technology Michele Heywood teaches Electronics and Multimaterials technology.
Michele's interest in electronics began with a factory holiday job while doing a BA in English and History at Auckland University. On graduation, she immediately started on an NZCE, while continuing work at the factory, eventually gaining technician status. After four years as a sales rep for an electrical components company, in 1999 she went to Auckland Teachers College. "I applied to do Science, thinking that I'd get into Electronics through Physics. Then I discovered Technology – which I didn't know existed – so that became my major."
"At that time a lot of schools taught Electronics as a subset of Science, but at Mt Roskill Grammar, where I did my teaching practice, Electronics was part of the Technology programme. It also started at an earlier level than most other schools and was much more hands-on and interesting."
Michele started teaching at Mt Roskill Grammar in 2000 as Head of Electronics. While on maternity leave in 2002 the Head of Technology position came up, for which she applied and got. "We had just started Level 1 that year – and it was quite a big transition from the Design Technology to NCEA. But I could see that the Technology Achievement Standards would fit in well with the Electronics students as it gives them a bit more structure, which they quite like.
Head of Electronics teacher Bill Collis joined the Department's teaching staff in 2001 straight from training college, after an extensive and varied career in the field of avionics technology.
Bill Collis started work as an avionics technician in the Royal NZ Air Force, qualifying with an NZCE in telecommunications in electronics. After eight years in the job, and then short-term mission work in South America, he moved to England where for two years he ran the test department for an aerospace manufacturer for both military and commercial aircraft. Returning to New Zealand, Bill worked as a supervisor for Motorola in Auckland, then in sales looking after the dealers for two-way radio products throughout the country, which he subsequently did freelance.
In 2000 he went to teacher training college in Auckland. "I could have gone into a tertiary environment but at that stage my own children were coming up to high school age. I'd been closely involved with Boards of Trustees for about nine years and I liked the school environment. And I like young people."
Like Michele, Bill's first contact with Mt Roskill Grammar was as a student on section. He stayed on for his first year of teaching – Year 9 Technology and Graphics and Years 11 and 12 electronics. In 2003 Bill took over from Michele as Head of Electronics, and also had six months as Head of Technology in 2005 while Michele was away for a second lot of maternity leave.
Bill has been highly active in his short time in teaching, quickly rising to the demands of and seeing the opportunities within the Technology curriculum and the NCEA assessment environment. During 2003-2006 he has restructured the teaching programme and approach to learning in Electronics at the school, and has produced a highly detailed and comprehensive set of workbooks for each of the Year 10, 11 and 12 programmes. This work forms the basis of this case study.
In 2007 Bill was seconded as the Senior Subject Advisor in Technology for the Auckland Northland region for 2007. Michele took over the bulk of his senior teaching duties for that year.
Electronics teacher Jasveer Singh graduated from the University of the South Pacific with a technology degree and taught physics, maths and technical drawing at his former secondary school and subsequently took a Secondary Teacher Training Certificate course. After transferring to teach in Suva, he worked in the national examination office, setting papers and marking at senior secondary level. In 2001, Jasveer moved to New Zealand and got a job teaching Electronics at Mt Roskill Grammar.
"The first year, 2002, was a bit difficult for me – a new country, a new environment and the students were very different. I've learned a lot from Bill and Michele. In my second year they offered me a senior (Year 11) Electronics class. NCEA was something really new – in Fiji teaching is mostly exam based. But I've done Year 11 since 2003 and only now can I say I'm really confident about it, and I'm getting good results too. Now that I'm involved with Beacon Practice I'm learning a lot more about the curriculum and the assessment side of it. So although I was basically forced into teaching because there was no other work, I've been doing it for eight years now and I'm really enjoying it."
