Outdoor & Environmental

Community Watch: Sustainable Living Fest of Houston, TX

This weekend I got the opportunity to enjoy a some beautiful weather & check out Houston’s Sustainable Living Fest held at Market Square Park. Houston might be the epicenter of the oil & gas industry, but it has a wonderful green and sustainable environmental underground. There’s a lot of cross-pollination too. For example, the GalvestonContinue reading “Community Watch: Sustainable Living Fest of Houston, TX”

This Week in the Classroom: Gottshall Block Project

I’ve heard before from others in the “making” or woodworking communities I’m a little behind the times. I make cigar box guitars when they were totally two years ago. Or I teach developmental woodworking in manner more suited to a different century. So of course, I discover a sweet little hand tool project about aContinue reading “This Week in the Classroom: Gottshall Block Project”

This Week in the Classroom: The Poor Man’s Tripod (For Taking Panoramic Outdoor Pictures)

My school is undergoing a little bit of construction…and by a little bit, I mean a cool of five mil of construction. We just needed a little documentation of the facts. I’m going to use this photography stand (and yes, I walked around with my shirt like that all day)… I put a 1/4 coarseContinue reading “This Week in the Classroom: The Poor Man’s Tripod (For Taking Panoramic Outdoor Pictures)”

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? Here’s my answer: wood & lino prints designed by the student, for the students work.Continue reading “This Week in the Classroom: Block Printing & Stamps”

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 finishContinue reading “This Week in the Classroom: Swingin’ Chalkboard Signs”

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 withContinue reading “This Week in the Classroom: The Conversation Bench”

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.

This Week in the Classroom: 2×4 Xylophone

I ended the year with an exploration of music. I used xylophones, pendulums and windchimes to explore frequency, wavelenght, pitch, volume, etc. I probably should have found a way to incorporate physical waves, but a trip to the beach was out of the question and I met disaster in my attempts at building a waveContinue reading “This Week in the Classroom: 2×4 Xylophone”

This Week In the Classroom: Pendulum Art (Swinging From the Rafters)

A quick video of our last major math project in my co-taught Math/Sci course. I will take no credit, Ms. J took the project out of my clumsy claws and completely rocked it! We nicknamed this the spirograph project and you can tell from the wikipedia link that we are WRONG! It should probably be describedContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: Pendulum Art (Swinging From the Rafters)”

My Type of Playground

Irresistible Ideas for play based learning » Blog Archive » the venny-kensington adventure playground. ::: the venny-kensington adventure playground “The Venny” is one of only 5 staffed Adventure Playgrounds of its kind in Australia. It’s a free community backyard designed for children aged five to 16 years old from the Kensington public housing estate andContinue reading “My Type of Playground”