Stage 1 colleague support and communicaiton

When working with my colleague, John MacDonald, there is a important foundation of mutual respect and openness in our conversations. In order to collaborate, it has been beneficial for us to be flexible with our personal teaching styles and expectations. When describing Stage 1, I considered John's teaching experience and perspective when describing it to him.

Specific standards for vocational programs are in flux. Over the past few years vocational schools have been working on cross-walking what they do with academic standards from the MLR, but more recently they are focusing on national and technical certification standards as guidelines for their programs. We looked at the MLRs for the 9-12th grade Science and Technology B2:Technological Design process standards and compared them to Massachusetts' Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Frameworks. The big ideas are essentially the same as the MLRs but the Massachusetts' Frameworks are clearer and more comprehensive with regard to engineering and technology standards.

John recommended we consider having students start with some seed money or materials and upon a the presentation of their conceptual design they could be granted additional resources for building the prototype.