Teaching With A Passion: What I Learned From Shadowing a Woodshop Teacher

Recently, I visited my brother’s woodshop class at the middle school. His teacher is the same man who was student teaching when I took woodshop 7 years ago. In those 7 years, this teacher has improved his teaching to a great extent, now extremely confident in his work. When he was student teaching my class, he was about as old as I currently am. Putting myself in his shoes, I can see where his nervousness came from. I sat in on classes for two days, and observed how he teaches and helps students with their projects.

Being able to work with him and the students was an incredible experience. The way he connected with the students reflected the way my shop teacher did, and he carried on many of the same traditions. His style of connecting with students is far beyond that of any teacher I have ever had. He talked with his students, asked one of them per day for a ‘positive’ in their lives that day, and did “Friday Stories” with them. These Friday Stories are inspirational stories meant to strike a spark in the students and inspire them to do great things in their lives and work hard.

Some may say that all of these extra parts of his classes are a waste of time, however I see them as a great way to connect with students on a level much deeper than I have ever seen from any teacher. The Friday Story of the week I visited was taken out of Craig Conrad’s Unstoppable. Not only was the story inspirational, but it came from a man who was a shop teacher for 23 years, and did the same Friday Stories with his students(Conrad is now a motivational speaker).

The classes I attended were woodshop and a drafting class. I saw him talk with the students on their level, with a silly style that the students could relate with. That being said, he did not allow foolishness and interruptions in his class. He talked to his students in a way that they understood, and explained to them how their interruptions took away from the demonstration time, and ultimately their time to work.

Now you may say: “Nick, how does this relate to anything?”. This anecdote depicts the way all leaders should act. On the level of their subordinates. Leaders need to lead by example, yet still reprimanding and guiding gently along the way. The story also shows how teachers should connect with their students. Personally, as a middle and high school student, I would have been much more receptive to teachers who did the same as this shop teacher rather than standing at the front of the room and lecturing or throwing packets of work in front of us. In a world where education is beginning to take a down-turn and teachers often couldn’t care less about their relationship with students, it is refreshing to see a teacher who actually cares about his students and ensures that they receive not only specific education, but a wider knowledge of how the world works and how to be happy and successful in life.

Two more things I learned: I should have gone to school to become a (woodshop) teacher, and I am actually able to draw decently with a small amount of proper instruction. I drew a two point perspective picture of a street in a town, and it looks wonderful.

Being able to attend these classes, help the students with their work, and to be available to answer any questions they had was incredibly fulfilling. I can hardly find words to express how great it was to be able to answer their questions and give them tips and tricks for using the machines and hand tools to make their projects look even more fantastic. Having students look up to me, and value my presence and time was amazing. It was something I never thought I would get out of attending a middle school woodshop class. The experience was invaluable, and I will definitely take the teacher up on his offer to come sit in on his classes in the future. He loved seeing my development since I was his student, and having the ability to bounce ideas off of me. I will be returning as a guest when I’m in town on Fridays thanks to my lack of Friday classes. I am incredibly grateful for the chance to visit the class and learn so much from my former student teacher as a now full-time teacher.