It’s been quite a week here on the range. My sawing post made Make Magazine’s Blog. Traffic soared. My father finally subscribed to my blog, which is intensely gratifying. He taught me most of what I’m passing along. At work, we had some great stuff happen. The kids worked very hard and made great stridesContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: The Garden & Experiments in Wood”
Category Archives: Classroom Project
This Week In the Shop: Internet as a “Presentation”
An Idea: have students present projects to the internet in a controlled, safe way with my school’s brand on it. I’m unsure the success or necessity of this particular brand of teacher-activism because it’s mainly driven by my need to go HOW COOL IS THAT! If I could spend half my day yelling “how coolContinue reading “This Week In the Shop: Internet as a “Presentation””
This Week in the Classroom: Quality from a Student
Finished only one true project this week in the shop. Instead of trying to complete projects with the students, I slowed down and tried to focus on the journey, and focus on quality. What does it look like in my shop, and do I facilitate it, or do my students discover it for themselves? WhatContinue reading “This Week in the Classroom: Quality from a Student”
This Week In the Classroom: New Tools and Old Tools In the Shop (It’s Not What You Think)
Just got the best new, free tool in the woodshop today. It looks like this: It’s a printed out (thank god the paper-waster nazi wasn’t around) version of the ENTIRE trilogy of Mission Furniture and How to Make It published by Project Gutenberg via Popular Mechanics from 1910. The students flip through it and findContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: New Tools and Old Tools In the Shop (It’s Not What You Think)”
This Week In the Classroom: Progress in 2011
What a student-driven, project-based learning can result in: The joints look remarkably tight in this photo, and the stain quite even, but don’t be fooled. This is about as rough as work gets. (Not including the Clock, which may be finished and rejected this week…) It was the first attempt at an entire project likeContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: Progress in 2011”
This Week In the Classroom: Curriculum Plan for Spring of 2011
Good week for struggles and not-quite-there-yets in the woodshop this week. Three projects left the floor complete. The first, chalkboard that has been wind-blown, vandalized and otherwise destroyed three times. We’ll see if it sticks this time. The other two projects I failed to take a picture of. On Mon or Tues, I’ll put upContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: Curriculum Plan for Spring of 2011”
This Week In the Classroom: What Am I Supposed to Make of This?
What exactly am I to make of this? It sits in the outdoor storage area at work. What should I turn it into? My co-workers grabbed it on a supply run I wasn’t invited on. Oh, and the bikes have been delivered, well some anyways, for the chop class. Eventually we will get them inContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: What Am I Supposed to Make of This?”
This Week in the Classroom: The Butterfly Bench & Butterfly Growers
I missed Monday and Tuesday this week – my wife was in the hospital with a parasite. Luckily, the parasite left on his own and we’ve named him Jack. Jack is our second son, born on Sun 13 at 5:30am. A whopping 8 lbs. A beautiful boy. But this blog is about woodshop & teaching. Continue reading “This Week in the Classroom: The Butterfly Bench & Butterfly Growers”
This Week In the Classroom: Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It
In the spirit of my saw guide, I had the opportunity this weekend to build a few jigs for future use. In about twenty min, here they are: From front to back: A bench hook, which I consider a necessity for students to learn to saw by themselves. A wooden speed square – just aContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”
This Week in the Classroom: Mobile Base (The Volleyball Court)
Two weeks ago, my colleague and I had an interesting revelation. While installing a basketball hoop, we had extra cement. I had a shovel-ready stimulus bill waiting for him. It looked something like this: Which looks exactly like it is (brilliant statement there). It’s a empty tire (the rims lost to another project) with aContinue reading “This Week in the Classroom: Mobile Base (The Volleyball Court)”
WSC Designs 