Start of a new school year
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Well, we’re off and running. I’m not entering the 4th week of instruction for the year and I finally feel like I’ve got my feet under me. I made a pretty radical switch in terms of curriculum and so far it seems to be paying off. Here’s how I started the year.
The first 10 days are always a little hectic as students are able to change their schedules. I’ve found in year’s past that it’s best to not do real heavy lifting during this time in terms of safety training and tool use as I don’t want students to miss these lessons. However, I want them to dig into the material and start doing some real work.
I inherited a class set of drafting supplies from the previous teacher who taught an architectural design class. When I was learning about drafting, I really enjoyed drafting by hand and so I decided to lean into that this year. It gets kids thinking a technical capacity and using tools that require attention to detail, spatial reasoning and fine motor skills…all while being very safe.
Here was my progression
We started with t-squares and 30-60-90 triangles. Students created a “get to know you” plan that required a title block and an isometric cube. Something like this:
Next I had students create their name in a perspective. They each had to determine how to best do this as all letters aren’t as easily created.
After some basic linework and familiarity with the tools I modified my “cardboard shop box” project to be a drafting design that they create. We added dimensions (still nothing at scale) and started to talk about fabrication steps. Student built this box using cardboard, utility knives and glue. It’s great first project because it has them using a real tool, with real potential for injury, but also has some simple mitigations (I have a class set of cut resistant gloves).
Another advantage of this project is that it let s me see pretty quickly who can follow directions and who really struggles with fine motor skills. In the end this box will serve as storage for their work/designs, but is also low stakes in terms of materials as I literally pulled the materials from the recycling dumpster at school.
At this point the class roster has stabilized and we’re ready to dive into some more serious tools and work. I’ve gone back and forth on how to best go through safety training. Which tools do you prioritize and what requirements do you have before students can use them. This year I decided to go with the “heavy hitters” in the shop. That is, the tools that can do the most. As such, we are starting with the following:
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Thickness planer
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Miter saw
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Table saw
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Router table
These 4 tools can be used to create basically everything we’ll do all year. They aren’t the easiest to use, or the least “scary”, but I want students to become comfortable with these tools. Understand the variety of uses they provide and get lots of “reps” with them and the progression of building that they supply. For each tool we went through the following:
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I developed a “How do I cut this?” packet that we worked through. I discussed each tool, talking about an overview of the tool as well as safety concerns.
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Students then watched some safety videos provided by a veteran woodshop instructor
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Students then had to complete and online quiz with a passing score
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Finally, students went through a live demonstration 1-1 with me at the machine. At that point they are “safety certified” and able to use the machine with supervision.
While going through the safety certification process, students were also working on their first woodshop project. They’re responsible for a hand drawn design, material planning/cut list and fabrication steps. To complete this project they’ll need to use the planer, miter saw, table saw, a 3D printed cross cut jig for a hand saw, router table and a miter jig for the handsaw. It takes them about 3 weeks to complete.
This project is also designed to just require 1 board per student. My goal is to make this class easily scalable for future years. As such, knowing how much lumber is needed is critical. Board feet calculations are fine, but not super useful my ordering process. I need to be able to order a piece of lumber, hand it to a kid and know that it’s what they need to create their project. As such, we’re going to rely heavily on dimension and easily accessible lumber such as 1x6 - 60”’ fence boards, 1x8x60” fence boards and 2x4x8 pine. We’ll get through a whole semester of projects just using these common materials.
The project is called “Pixel Art Project” and here’s a video walkthrough