About

Graphics4teachers (g4t) has been developed to support teacher delivery and student engagement. The lessons focus on skills-based drawings to help students understand how to construct challenging shapes, making them more competent designers and more able to explain their ideas.

Once you are up and running with g4t you will find each student can take more control of their own learning and has less down time.

Here are a few recommendations for making the most of the resources on the g4t website.

The presentations can be used to teach larger groups of students. Use a wireless mouse to control the presentation. This gives the teacher freedom to move around the room and monitor student progress, which will also has a positive effect on focus and behaviour. Using the scroll button on the mouse allows the teacher to easily move backwards and forwards through the animations. For example if a student asks “what was that last measurement” simply scroll back. This will also help students take more responsibility. This works well initially but soon students can set their own pace using the video lessons.

Students engage well to the video lessons. The video lessons really open up teaching and learning opportunities.

1. The whole class can complete the same lesson, using the video and working at their own pace. This frees up the teacher to monitor progress or grade students work.

2. If the teacher is absent, the class can be set a video lesson to complete. This means that the lesson can still be productive. This is good for the absent teacher and the relieving teacher.

3. Numerous different lessons can be running simultaneously. Every few weeks it works well to have a catch up lesson or two for the students to complete work they may have missed.

4. Video lessons can be set as homework. Previously skills-based lessons were very teacher-centred. With instruments at home students can complete complex drawings.

5. The teacher can direct individual students to specific lessons. For example if one student designs a table with an elliptical top they can learn how to formally draw an ellipse from the video lesson.

There is a URL address for each video lesson. These can be used as links in a class portal like Google Classroom. There is also a QR code for each lesson which can be printed out and displayed in class. This enables students to complete one drawing and independently move onto the next. All they need to do is download a QR reader onto their device. Lastly, you can simply email the URL address to specific students or the whole class for that matter. This can be a good option for setting homework.

When students are engaging with the video lessons it is advisable that they bring in headphones. The use of headphones to hear the narration also helps with focus and behaviour.

Lessons often involve a geometric shapes. SketchUp files are provided of these shapes. The teacher can introduce the shape using the SketchUp file to help students better understand the drawing task ahead.

Some lessons also include a supplementary relevant pdf. For example the tangents exercise drawing a motorcycle helmet includes a pdf design sheet with three pre-drawn helmets that the students can explore design options.

Each lesson also includes a streamlined marking grid (six printed on one A4 sheet) using both a New Zealand format and a generic format.

The g4t resource is continually added to. Feedback and suggestions for future drawings are very welcome.