I have a perfect record in the woodshop. No fatalities. I have had two injuries though this year (I average about one a quarter or semester). Both happened due to good sawing habits gone bad. This picture shows my basic hand-saw set up when I cut a board to size. I’m right-handed and for south-pawed students,Continue reading “How To: Teach Sawing to a Young Student”
Category Archives: Woodworking
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: 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”
Community Watch: Pine Wood Derby Clinics
Saw this during half-time in last week’s Jets-Colts game over at http://www.coptool.com. It seems Lowe’s and Dremel will be sponsoring clinics on how to make Pinewood Derby cars. I may have to take a spin by and see if I can snag a few kits. Might have a week-long science lab project there. I shouldContinue reading “Community Watch: Pine Wood Derby Clinics”
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: To Sand or Not to Sand…
Returned to school last week with so much to do and catch up on (I did make it to Boston and missed a long day full of meetings and schedule-making). I had several gorgeous “woodworking-as-the-way” moments, only one of which I’ll share. One of my neurologically different students asked to meet the teacher he wasContinue reading “This Week In the Classroom: To Sand or Not to Sand…”
This Week in the Shop: The Other Xmas Gifts
I never did get my wife an engagement ring when I should have six years ago now. I finally picked up a diamond for her. In order to make it a surprise and get an excuse for “what did you do all day on your week off”, I spent half a week building her aContinue reading “This Week in the Shop: The Other Xmas Gifts”
This Week in the Shop: Playhouse and How To Play in It
I just finished my son(s, I’m expecting another next month) Christmas gift: an outdoor playhouse. I used a router on table to create a half inch wide dado for the cedar edging. A cedar post with a deck cap from Lowes provides the stability. This project had some interesting design challenges. First, I couldn’t buildContinue reading “This Week in the Shop: Playhouse and How To Play in It”
WSC Designs 