keith e west's Page

Profile Information

School / Work Affiliation: Stafford middel school

About Me: hi
i started my teaching career in 1976 in australia as a recruit teaching metalcraft at morwell high school in victoria australia for the next 18 years i tought in aussie and the us going back and forth for short stints in both countries trying to complete my masters in in colorado before the five year limit ny puts on the provisional cert. got my perm cert. with a masters in sci and technology education from csu in ft.collins married an aussie then began teaching at ticonderoga high school ny went back down under for nine yrs in gippsland schools finishing my aussie career and marraige at forster high school retired for a year surfed wind surfed and built two beach houses on sandy point in victoria.can back to the us met my wife established state side teaching reputation and got my current jobwhich i have had for thirteen yrs. probably as a result of the aussie system were you could change schools easily without going through the interview process or loosing seniority i developed programs and moved on every three yrs thus keeping up with teaching trends remaining fresh and vital i currently feel the need the reinvent my teaching however technology teachers (industrial arts ) have very little respect even though most of us have been teaching design based education incorperating all the core areas in our studies exploring problemsolving and teamwork long before it became trendy. literacy has been my personal weekness therefore anythin that involves writing i shi away from. that said i believe that what i teach and how i teach has broad implications. my classroom uses peer teaching stratigies in a design breif senerio to teach drafting cad and prototype building to enhance the core learning unfortunatly whenever i try to suggest to the posibility that there are alternate ways of teaching students with learning difficulties using solid modeling and other methods to visual learners what is said falls on def ears that end my rant i need to try something new