1/14/08

One of the tougher aspects of teaching in a shop environment is classroom management. There will always be times when you, as a teacher, will need to concentrate on a specific tool or student at the expense of "watching" the entire class. Depending on the project there are times when I need to concentrate on a student using the table saw to make specific cut (splitter and guard removed). It is times like these that you hope your other students have pay attentioned to your teachings. But there will also always be a few immature students that will break the rules at the slightest chance. Hopefully an entire class of these students is few and far between. What I try to do at times like these is to limit tool use or require that the entire class complete this "dangerous" step before anyone can continue and progress at their own rate. This is usually the unpopular choice but sometimes necessary. Make sure that you have another activity planned to keep the students who have completed or are waiting to complete the "dangerous" activity: book work, worksheet, layout, etc. It is times like these that I wish I had another set of eyes. I am currently trying to get approval to have video cameras installed in my shop. I think that the video would be a good learning tool as well as a deterent for the immature students. You could start each class period off with a quick scan of the previous day's video pointing out the safe and unsafe behaviors.

1/20/08

I am currently planning projects for my advanced woodworking classes. Depending on enrollment I will sometimes have separate classes: Woodworking 2, and Woodworkng 3,4. This year I have only a Woodworking 2, 3, 4 class which makes it more difficult on me to differentiate instruction so that each level learns something new. It also makes it difficult to manage the class because while I am teaching one level the other levels need to be on task and using the machine safely. I typically start off the semester with a project for all levels that reviews the safe use of tools and stock preparation. After this project it is time to assign projects. In woodworking 2 I still assign projects for the entire class; they are more in-depth and teach more joinery: dovetails, mortise & tenon, finger-joints, miters, etc. In woodworking 3 the students are responsible for learning about different style design: craftsman, mission, etc. and then create a project that fits into the category. They need to learn how to draft and create shop drawings: I try to teach them some 3D solid modeling but it depends on class size and the type of students I have. In woodworking 4 the students need to identify a client, design the solution to meet the client's need, estimate, and then build it.

4/12/08

I haven't been keeping up with posting regularly to this site. School has been hectic and and I several side jobs going on. At school we have received our class sizes for next year and it looks like 2 of my Woodworking classes will have over 30 students in them. It is a difficult to teach that many students when you only have 2 jointers and 1 surface planer. It is sad that administration tries to cram that many students in a class. It is the students that suffer because in order to keep all the students safe they will not learn as much. It is a catch 22 because admin pushes safety yet doesn't think twice about putting 30 students in a shop class. It is difficult for 1 teacher to keep an eye on every student in a large class. What ends up happening is that most of the class will do "safe" book work while a small group is supervised on the machines. It is usually in the beginning of a project (stock preparation) that there is a bottleneck. If you throw a couple of trouble making students into the mix and it gets worse and the students learn even less. I know severa states have actual laws on the books for class size but my county does not.

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