Woodworking teaching gig redux

[John Moorhead]

Folks -

Well, I've been stamped, folded, pricked, tested, certified, administrated, negotiated, collated and investigated. I start teaching woodworking at 9AM on Monday, March 14, and I'll be teaching a total of 17 hours a week over 4 days. I only will have one group of students to start, a second will be added as the program gears up.

I go in Tuesday, Wendnesday and Thursday next week to inventory, organize and clean up the shop in preparation for class the following week.

I've even ordered myself a brand spankin' new shop apron from Duluth Trading Co - I already have a good supply of the requisite flannel shirts.

They've told me to run the shop like it's my own show, and not worry about picking up where the other classes left off - I'll be starting from scratch. I figure I should start out class with what people already know - get some familiarity with the group of ~15, then move on to safety and the very basics of measuring and marking. When I discussed the math involved with the making of say a circular table top, I was told to keep it VERY simple, that not all students would understand fractions well, or would know what "diameter" was. So, simple it is!

The shop has a belsaw molding cutter and a Shop-Bot - I've never used either one, but would really like to learn all I can about CNC. I'll have a HUGE (I hope!) project later this year that may warrant purchasing one for my own shop.

Woodworking .101 here I come!

John Moorhead

[Jerry S.]

Do you get a leather one???

[Teamcasa]

Good luck in this endeavor. Teaching was a very rewarding time for me.

Kids are way smarter than the administration gives them credit for. Properly challenge them and watch them rise to it.

Dave

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[San Diego Joe]

Hey good for you, congrats! Knock 'em dead.

[Charles Spitzer]

don't take that literally.

[Anonymous]

I agree. I taught adult education for 3 years to high-school dropouts. These people had been told all their lives just exactly how stupid they were.

You've never seen a trout rise to a fly the way these people rose to the challenges I set in front of them (480 class room hours).

Tell your students that you were told that they wouldn't understand the parts of a circle or what to do with them. Then promise that, if they follow your lead, they'll know more about circles, triangles and lines than the kids taking geometry class will. Then set out to make good on your threats. Get a current issue geometry book and, as you go, let the students know what page they are on when they calculate an area, find a center from a chord, use a protractor to construct an angle and make it fit its complement. Show them how to set up a compound angle and drill it to a predetermined depth. Show them the math and show them the results and make them do BOTH on their own.

Challenge them. Hard.

You didn't tell us their ages or grade level but I strongly urge you to push them beyond the limits you might think reasonable. Likely as not, they'll amaze you. Wake them up to the fact that you only record their grades ... the wood actually gives them -- the evidence of learning is accomplishment.

Somewhere mid-course you'll begin to see lights flickering and then getting solidly turned on and you'll stop being a teacher and become a tour guide.

That's the part I liked the best. Tour guide.

Best job I've ever had ... bar none.

Bill

[Gerald Ross]

Snip

What channel will it be on? :)

[John Moorhead]

Bill -

"Tour Guide" - I like that! This is a Regional Occupation Program, so I think that the students are jr and sr HS students. I am supposed to have another group of young adults down the road, but for now HS students.

Oh, and for the earlier poster, I got the olive drab apron from Duluth Trading. They've been sending me catalogs for YEARS, and the apron - aprons - I ordered TWO.... came today.

went through the ROP program here, I wasn't a "special needs" anything.... I just wanted to be a mechanic... and the instructor I had was a gem. I got more common sense information and smarts in that classroom than I did from

*ALL* my perfessers in college (no slight intended, it's just how it is).

I am really looking forward to getting going! Thanks for your remarks - mind if I pester you from time to time??

John Moorhead

PS: I expect the kids will have a real ball with my last name. I'm just glad my first name isn't Richard.

[loutent]

Hi john,

I feel your energy. You might remember my post from before. I was the one who taught middle school for 30 years (not shop).

I certainly wish you all the best.

Let's see (just getting you prepared!):

Mr. Moore "bore" Mr. Head "case" John, John Stick-Man Glue-Dude

You get it. Have a real thick skin and remember that they are just kids. We did the same way back.

Again, best of luck. Be real and you will be fine.

Lou

[John]

Well then dagnabbit, I'd see to it that those kids learn their geometry from their plane iron sharpening angles, their circle segment radii from making moldings or scyma curves, and find the center point of a piece of wood, and divide the edge of a board into thirds for mortise work, such that after a couple of semesters they'd be quoting Pythagoras to that administrator who may have lost sight of what's most important: to find, and then rescue the mind of, that one kid who might otherwise have dropped out.

If your class is the only "fun" genuinely educational experience that they ever have, you'll be working miracles.

And maybe they'll be more inclined to make fun of Pythagoras' name than your own. Or not! ;-)

Enjoy,

J.

John Moorhead wrote:

[Patriarch]

"John Moorhead" wrote in news:OsKVd.11047$ [e-mail]:

I never thought of either of my father's brothers as over educated, when it came to school education. But both of them were really talented finish carpenters, who knew how to use _every_ tool in the box, in ways I still haven't figured out.

One of the most productive series of learning events that I had as a youth was a tremendous amount of volunteer labor opportunity, working with my dad, and literally dozens of skilled tradespeople on church and community projects. The lessons taught, about what we were really capable of, were some of the most valuable of that time.

Certainly made some of the academic lessons seem more important.

Enjoy this, John. Teach them like you care who they can become.

Patriarch, wondering how kids with a limited understanding of math are going to take to a CNC machine. It should be a great incentive.

[Robert Bonomi]

All things are "relative" -- particularly with names.

The following are all absolutely true -- I know the parties personally.

A family, with the last name of "Butz", named their son Harold.

A family with the last name of "Tracey", named their son Richard. For some strange reason, he went by "Rick". He could have had things a lot worse, the local newspaper did *NOT* carry that comic strip.

Then there was the Dick family. The husband had a *terrible* (in _several_ meanings of the word!) sense of humor. He was seriously planning to name their second daughter "Tracy". It took a *deadly*serious* threat of divorce by his wife to talk him out of it.

Lastly, there is *my* great-grandmother. Maiden name Allah Micah (a good Biblical name). However, when she married a Mr. Roy Gater, she became Mrs. Allah Gater. One thing we know with absolute certainty -- she *really* loved that man -- she *HAD* to, to be willing to live with _that_ for the rest of her life. :)

[Morris Dovey]

It all sounds pretty exciting! My web site has some ShopBot info (with lotsa pictures) that you may find helpful; and if I can be of help to you, you're invited to e-mail me directly.

The ShopBot forum at

has pictures of a few student projects and discussion threads about 'Bots in educational settings. Please feel welcome to join the forum.

[Patriarch]

[e-mail] (Robert Bonomi) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

A family we know personally, with the last name of Healey, named their first son Austin.

Patriarch

[nospambob]

[Dave in Fairfax]

First one shoulda been Jensen.

Dave in Fairfax

[Patriarch]

Dave in Fairfax wrote in news:4228B897.DB353EF5 @fairfax.com:

Jensen Healey actually came later, and was really ugly, IMHO. (Speaking of the automobile.)

I really wanted a 3000 when I was a youth.

Patriarch

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 00:13:05 -0600, the inscrutable Patriarch spake:

I got to work on one a whole lot. Dad had the AH 100-4 and raced it in gymkhanas and autocrosses when I was a wee lad. I even learned how to tune spoke wheels before I was 10. A restored '54 is now worth over $150k.

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[Patriarch]

Larry Jaques wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I remember that those were really pretty, but the mechanicals were fairly rudimentary, particularly in today's terms. My un-restored '51 spine needs more modern engineering.

The search for a Healey was set aside, when in late '72 I met a dark-eyed brunette, who drove an old VW bug. She turned out to be a much better investment. ;-)

Patriarch

[Dave in Fairfax]

Ya know, I thought of that after I hit the send button, of course. My younger brother had a thing for British cars, I preferred modified and superstock. Oh well. He was the one trying to keep the E-type running. I rebuilt a Sunbeam (Alpine, not Tiger) and pinned the Jag speedo in it. All good clean fun half a centruy ago.

Dave in Fairfax