Politics in Education

The Republican Party of Texas states in its official 2012 political platform:

We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based  Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

There’s got to be a better way for conservatives to word their educational goals.  I’ve looked at the rest of the platform and I don’t think this is quite what they mean…but what if it is?

via Teach students higher order or critical thinking skills? Not if the Texas Republicans have their way. | Dangerously Irrelevant.

This Week in the Classroom: Block Printing & Stamps

As my students have become more competent with tools in the past few years (and cripes, does it feel weird to say years…) I’ve gotten the chance to think:  what would be really cool to do next?  What would be just flat out awesome?

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Here’s my answer:  wood & lino prints designed by the student, for the students work.  My summer crew churned out about 30 different wood projects and many pieces deserved something special.  In the third week, I took the plunge and bought $80 worth of tools.  We spent the next few weeks cutting as many designs as we could and experimenting with the results.

Search block printing at www.instructables.com for how-to guides.

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this week.

This Week in the Shop: Plywood Storage & Lights & New Workbench

Since I moved into my new digs in April, my shop has undergone a number of changes.  I blogged about the move-in and of course I went and changed it immediately.

First, a couple bright spots.  Not long after I unloaded everything I realized two very important things about home ownership.  One, you can put holes in whichever wall you want, where ever you want, when you want.  Two, it’s expensive.  But not these lights.  Remember to buy the bulbs and make sure you wire’m up according to  fire code.  I’m a midnight rider now.

My new bench looks a bit beaten in today, but it works great for three months of use.  I made some terrible looking mortise-and-tenon joints at each leg, but 3/4″ pegs have kept it tight and square.  The top is very light – only one sheet of 3/4″ oak ply – so I used 1″ pine strips as reinforcement.  My cheap vise completes the look.  I never really meant to build this bench.  I mean to build a Roubo handtool bench before next summer.  I mean to build my wife a  Craftsmen-style bench.  I mean to do a lot of things.  Which means I’ll have this bench for the next ten years…

Last, but most importantly, new storage for lumber.  I don’t make a lot of things (at least compared to retired guys and professionals) and what I do make tends to be salvaged lumber.  I needed a small place to store lumber for two or three months worth of projects at a time.  Something mobile, something easily organized, something limited.  I’ve always admired the one at work, so I built my own.  You can find plans for a similar cart here.

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this weekend.

This Week in the Classroom: Swingin’ Chalkboard Signs

Here’s a few shots of a project build I did a few months ago.  The challenge was to build a recycling container from completely recycled materials.  I picked up some nice crepe myrtle branches and immediately saw a V shaped stand with a small basket to collect recyclable goods.

To bad we never did finish it.  We got all the way to the crossbeam.  Spring break came with all the lassitude of a wilted Texas flower in August.  We never stood a chance.

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Eventually, I snookered a student into repainting an old cabinet door into a chalkboard sign.  Then I parked that sucker in front of the toolshed.  I used crepe myrtle cut-offs, a some 2x12s, some brown paint, plywood and a few pulled screws.

Make it safe & keep the rubberside down this weekend.

This Week in the Classroom: The Conversation Bench

Students with autism, people with neurological disorders and people with two eyes and ears and a brain often need a place to talk.  For my students with autism, the act of conversation can be harrowing, heartwrenching and terrifying.  On a good day.  My students often must master sitting in one place, labeling the world with words and comprehending the speech of others.  Once this is done, maybe they can open themselves to the vulnerability, the hurt, the anguish and the ecstasy of  a conversation.  I’m known as a loquaciousness guy, but make no bones about it.  A true conversation with those I love – my wife, my sons, my brothers, my father or oh, god, my mother – fills me with terror.  I must face the person in the mirror, flaws and all.  And my partner will witness it.  I go through my life in a series of small talks, in terror of the moment it all falls down and I must converse with the ones I love.  I can only imagine the world my students bravely navigate in everyday.

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And I, the onery cuss I am, conceived and helped build them a bench to have those conversations.  This is the conversation bench.  I can’t take credit for the design.  These types of benches were popular in Victorian times.  A particular student of mine — the student with a wrench in his pocket, a messy shock of brown hair, a mass of freckles, snotty nose and the gleaming eye of one who knows so much but needs just as much — helped in every step of the process.  He picked out the busted up chairs, broke them apart, screwed the mess together and sanded like a demon.  I finished it myself because I used oil-based finishes.  The student decided to hold a contest – he made clay coins and hid them around the schoolhouse.  When found, they have been turned in for the reward.

The reward is a conversation – a real, honest-to-self, conversation.  On politics, baseball, Airsoft guns, video games, NASCAR or whatever.  Just a conversation.  A reward, a terrifying reward, for a job well done.

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.  Have a nice conversation this week.

This Week in the Classroom: Boomerangs and Chalkboard Slates

Two projects really took off this summer – chalkboard slates and boomerangs.  The boomerangs, of course, took off a little bit more.

Back in the fall I built a bike barn.  It’s more of a third-world shanty, but it housed the bikes and kept them sort of organized.  Either way, I picked up a large number of cedar shingles as a roofing material.  Time got away from me – I never roofed the barn.  Instead, I used the shingles to create these cool little chalkboard slates.  I used an exterior paint as primer, then covered them in green chalkboard paint.  A couple of decorative touches later…

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My second big project has been an exploration of flight using boomerangs.  The summer program is themed around continents.  I got stuck with Australia.  Hence, boomerangs.  Here’s a flight test of our third or fourth iteration of salvaged plywood boomerangs.  Pick up the pattern here.

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this weekend.

Book Review: One Block of Wood by Nina Tolstrup

This spring, a sweet little book fell into my hands.  Nina Tolstrup, an UK designer (she owns studiomama, a design firm).  Her projects include lamps, scooters, wall planters, book ends and card holders – all out of One Block of Wood.

Ms. Tolstrup’s eye for function and style dovetails nicely with her habits of simplicity.  While not every project is truly made from one piece of wood, each project involves a minimum of cuts and a maximum of flexibility.  As a woodworker, I appreciate her style – as a teacher,  I appreciate her clear directions, beautiful visuals and simple construction.  I’ve used the little handbook a lot this summer – and students have been bringing home all sorts of handmade, kidmade, pridefound stuff.  If you are looking for a crafts-centered introduction to the world of woodworking, take a little spin through Ms. Tolstrup’s plain-spoken world.

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Make it safe & keep the rubber side down this weekend.

This Week in the Classroom: Up-Cycled Shutter Coffee Table

A few shots of the shutter table project.  My students & I created these (there were four completed tables) tables using up-cycled window shutters & salvaged fence posts.  Finished with spar urethane.  Pocket hole joinery throughout.

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TeachPaperless: The Problem with TED Ed

Let’s consider the things that TED Ed asks the learner to do: watch a video, take a multiple-choice quiz, write brief constructed responses, and read through a bibliography. If I took the name TED out of this scenario, I would suggest that many educators would say that this format is exactly the type of traditional assessment that project-based, inquiry-driven, personalized learning is at odds with.

It is perfectly fine to watch a video. It is perfectly fine to view a lecture. It is perfectly fine to quiz yourself on what you remember from the video or the lecture. It is perfectly fine to write a brief response about a big question. But let’s not call that a lesson. That’s just a starting point.

Lessons come from doing.

via TeachPaperless: The Problem with TED Ed.

My summer homework this year contains a unit involving Kahn Academy.  I’ve listened to the critiques of both my colleagues and Dan Meyer on internet tools and I think the answer is pretty simple.

As a teacher I collect as many tools as I can to put in my toolbox.  Some tools are used 80% of the time.  Some tools are used 20% of the time.

But the most important tool is the tool I need right now.  In this instance, it’s a old-school-pedagogy with a Web 2.0 twist.  I don’t think all of my children will succeed or use it to its highest potential.  Its just a great way of encouraging my kids to explore math in a “non-traditional” way.  Even though it’s traditional.

Make it safe & keep the rubber side down.