A plan coming together!
For the past two years, I’ve been coordinating the core tool classes at the local woodworking guild. In that time, we’ve certified somewhere close to 650 people to use our shop.
Depending on a lot of factors, we’ve found that some of those students really aren’t ready to use the core tools independently after the class. While there’s a lot that goes into that, I think the core issue is whether they have the confidence to come back to the shop SOON after completing the class so they can solidify what they’ve learned with a real project.
I have been working on a proposal to add a third session to the class where we give each student plans and wood for a simple project that they will then complete essentially independently in our shop. As much as possible, I want that third session to resemble one of our open sessions where members use our shop to work on projects of their own except with the benefit of knowing that everyone in the shop understands you’re at the beginning of your guild membership and is there for support.
I definitely did not expect it to take nearly a year to get alignment from all the necessary parties and work out all the details, but we’re finally trying this starting in August. We’re treating the first couple months as an experiment; we know we’ll learn a lot as we adjust to this new schedule.
Today, some of the instructors and regular class assistants got together to assemble the first batch of project kits. The number of times someone said, “This is really happening!” was pretty funny. I definitely said it myself more than once.
I took some photos to mark the occasion. (Some of the simple projects students will be making included.)
