How do you get your Prac Request?

[nickyw]

Hi

Just out of interest how does everyone receive their prac requests?

Here the labbie before me created a program in Access to handle all scientific requests.

The program is a database of all existing experiments done at the school. All the teachers have to do is look up the particular experiment and enter their name, date they want experiment, classroom and which period, and also how many groups they want.

These pracs have already got the risk assessment level on them. The teachers then e-mail the request to me with hopefully 24hrs notice.

It would of been a hell of a lot of work to do to set it up but it saves everyone so much time now as all the information is right there at a click of a button. Also my office is down stairs and the staff room is upstairs and right up the other end of the building so it saves a lot of walking as well.

What does everyone else do?

Cheers Nicky Yay its Friday

[Voice]

Dear Nicky and others,

I get my prac. requests the old fashion way. Staff leave a request (from a text book or resource book) in my pigeon hole or a teacher rings me. I have had staff in the past who wished to order via email, but to be honest, I prefer the old fashion way.
Why?
Because we discuss the prac., maybe change one aspect of it and we also talk about ourselves, family and the school. I do like having that personal touch with staff. I am very much a part of my Science/maths faculty and looked on as its greatest resource. My opinions are valued and hopefully, my work is as well.
Having all the pracs. on a data base is a fantastic achievement and I am sure it is more needed in a large school. My school is not large and as such, maybe I have more time.

Maree

[smiley]

Maree,

I'm with you. I inherited an atmosphere of "them v. me" from my predecessor, where the HOD had resorted to putting every comment/request in a notebook, which went into the lab tech's pigeonhole. I absolutely refused to communicate in any other way except verbal face-to-face human interaction. I use recesss and lunch times to catch up with teachers, discuss pracs, and especially to follow up where pracs are going to be done by everybody (eg all of Yr8), to co-ordinate prac times for everybody. The teachers still put their requests in writing, on an order form that has a risk assessment form on the back of it, and I still get 2 days notice (mostly), but pre-emptive discussion has almost eliminated the kind of last minute requests that can make a lab tech cry - like "I need 2L of PVA solution for next lesson"! It also leave me free to meet last minute requests.

Cheers, Kristin

[Ocean Breeze]

Most definately for me face to face interaction re requests is preferred. Better still if accoumpanied by a piece of paper/request -order form, or photocopy of the prac, that I can pop in the day diary.

This way, we can discuss special needs & outcomes, group numbers, exclusions, timeframes, safety and time modifications etc.
Also it seems that every time we do a prac, there are slight improvements that we nut out or change from the time before.
The way I see it, experiments need to be applied to every class.

I once had a situation (long time ago), where we were doing a big prac test. Through a series of communication errors, I was working from a runsheet that had been changed by each of 3 teachers, and they hadnt thought to inform me. On the day it was mayhem for me.... and I vowed that no more faceless bits of paper... no more presuming what each of the science faculty aims to do. I will discuss, veto, inform.
Having said all that... I have a copy of all the experiments that every class does, for the whole year. So I dont have to wait for instruction for the teachers. I prepare a few expts ahead for each of the classes. Then we discuss when the expts due. That way, I can avoid having any last minute rush, and even leaves room for flexibility should the teacher want to "insert" an expt at the last minute

[bullster]

I get the teachers to fill in a paper copy and often it is just a shorthand reminder of a prac done in previous years. I usually have to talk to the teachers about how they want to do it, and each teacher likes to do things a little differently. At this point in the discussion I usually negotiate the most practical way for me to carry out the preparation of the experiment. I once developed my Prac Request Form into a Word document Form so that the teachers could fill this out and email it to me, but I didn't implement it because I thought I would become isolated in terms of communication, and I would lose some ability to offer suggestions that might be in my favour. This seems to be what the other forum respondents have also been saying.
However I really like the idea of the database and can see that if the experiments are run pretty much the same each time this would work well.
I particularly like the idea of the risk assessments being available in the database which would save a lot of repetition compared to paper based written risk assessments. Being a bit of a database-nerd myself, I would prefer to organise risk assessments this way, but have thought that it is yet another piece of software that the teachers don't want to have to master. Instead, our risk assessments are based on a Word Form Template, printed out and signed by the teachers.

all the best,
Peter

[Ian]

That Computer program sounds marketable! You will have to give me some more details on how it works. My staff are still very reluctant to do RA's and seem to want me to do them for them, (which I think defeats the purpose a little, as I am not the one that needs to know the risks!)

We have a "Day Book". One of my holiday jobs each holidays is to make up a new day book for the next term. I can mark in Pub Hols ,carnivals, etc.

The "Day book" has the advantage that the teachers can see what the other teachers have done for the same topic, so often an entry from Teacher A will read "Same as Teacher B, see period X." That can save me a bit of work!

Our whole staff shares one big staffroom EXCEPT for Science and Technology. Science have our own staffroom, which I share with the teachers. The Technology Assistant shares the technology staffroom with the Tecky teachers. That means that we all see each other all the time, and are one "Big Happy Family". I even get to suggest pracs to the younger teachers, and have even done class dems, etc. (Bit of a buzz!)

The teachers are supposed to give me 24 hours notice, but sometimes it is like "Oh, Ian, can I have 'such and such' for my Year 8 class", "Yeah, sure. Do you need it this period or next period?", "This period would be great".(!!!)

regards
Ian

[KimFenley]

Hi

Like some of the others I insist on a form being filled at least 24hrs before hand, or it don't get done. The Teacher then have to do it themselves. I also provide an online request form recently which is getting great use as it can be emailed to me.

Generally the Teachers all talk it through with me as there could be conflicting multiple requests, or something special which is required. Sometimes (many times) I can suggest another solution or idea when things arn't available. I usually get the Teachers to get odd items like onions, celery, candles etc.

The bigest thing I've found is the new Teacher only out 1-5 years. They have no idea what to do or how to do it so I'm for ever explaing the how, where and why stuff. So face-to-face happens a lot, as over 50% are in the catagory.

I Will not do the Risk Assestments as its not me doing the pracs, and getting them to do it is a major issue. I have suggested that they do it ones an store online and only change if there is a deviation to the original. I have developed an online form for them to use, which is a cick and flick as much as possible as they wont do lots of writing.

Kim

[Voice]

Just a note on Risk Assessment sheets.
I understand that teaching staff should complete these. I know I had an extended discussion with staff about this issue many long years ago. "You are the ones doing the prac. with students, you need to know about the chemical. I already know about the chemical." It fell on deaf ears.
One benefit coming from me doing the Risk Assessment sheets is that I file them according to Year level and the particular prac. Each year level has its own display book with each prac. just taking up one sleeve in that book. Then, as each prac. is done, out comes the R/A sheets. As these last for 5 years I make sure that there are plenty of places for signatures from teaching staff acknowledging reading and receipt of same.
Each chemical requires its own R/A sheet so some sleeves may have10 - 20 sheets in them for one prac. I then keep these for up to 5 years.
Although I could use (copy) the same R/A sheets for a Year 9 prac. as for a Year 7 prac. I don't. I get out all my MSDS sheets again to do each prac. individually. As all my R/A sheets are on my computer anyway, this is not too time consuming. This is a self check for me and a further way of making sure that all my MSDS sheets are less than 5 years old.
Anecdote: Many long years ago, I returned from the staff room to see the Year 12 Chemistry class proceeding with the prac. The R/A sheets were still on the trolley without any signatures. Tersely I went up to the teacher, sitting at the front bench, and stated, "If I can spend two hours writing these out, the least you can do is spend 10 minutes reading them!" I was not impressed and never received an apology. I don't suppose the students got one either!
Best wishes to all and I hope you are all appreciated.

Maree

[smiley]

I'd love to see an example of some of the on-line RA forms. Maybe I could get something like that going here. QLD is about to introduce some major curriculum changes, so I'm in wait and see mode when it comes to filing regular pracs. I just don't know how big or little the changes will be (or how close to an election they will occur!).

K