Thread: Inspiration

Originally Posted by _fly_

What about anybody who doesn't come up with what they want to make, design and then make. You will assign them a project.

Those people make you a packet of toothpicks. They can sit there sawing toothpicks and then sanding them until they get a pack of 100 and maybe a box to put them in if they finish in time.

They will very quickly find something they want to make instead.

What are you like on making skateboards.

Peter

Punishing lack of inspiration will never create inspiration. Only passion can do that.

Originally Posted by rustynail

Punishing lack of inspiration will never create inspiration. Only passion can do that.

Thats it though, you only get a passion for something by doing it and then finding you love it. You don't start with a passion for anything.

You didn't for you misses and you didn't for you job. Had to get to know it first didn't you?
What job did you want to do when you finished school and what do you do now? I know lots of people that did uni degreee's and then found out once working they didn't like the job and swapped to something completely different. IT professionals that became security guards. Accountants that became air hostess's.

I like to ask people what they would be doing if they were not doing their current job. I've only met ONE person out of hundreds that was doing what they wanted. Others wanted to make boats, make jewellrey etc.

Mind you I did ask one big manager at microsoft. He said he wanted to be a farmer. I asked him why he was doing this job then. Saw him 3 months later and he had purchased a farm in the rockies and had quit his job.

Maybe you have a passion for sewing, you have no idea until you try it and see.
Peter

Hi Peter

I believe the key to developing or discovering a passion for anything is first to have fun doing that thing

Pete, your dead right, you dont start with a passion, you develop it. But inspiration comes from passion. Life is full of passing interests. Particularly for the young as they are exposed to new things for the first time on an almost daily basis. Sometimes this can become experience overload and they glaze over.
To answer your questions, I thought I would like to marry my wife the first time I met her. And I always wanted to work in wood from when I was a little kid. My Father wanted me to become a detective, like him, but I wanted a bit of creativity. As for the passion? Well that came later. Inspiration was later still.
Personaly, I would never stay in a job I didnt like. Life is way too short to be spent wishing things were different.

First I was also wondering if it would help to show them starting with a log how it can get transformed into a board ... with involvement if possible.
_ _ _

As a math graduate but not a qualified teacher, I was a temporary math teacher for a trade college here for about a year.

They were doing some basic statistics, and I decided I wanted them to generate their own data. A book I liked suggested the exercise of taking before and after heart-rates and doing a 1-minute step-up/step-down exercise. So I took them (about 16 guys) out to some steps and explained the exercise ... and they all refused flat out.
I'd only been there about a week or so, so after a little discussion we went back into the class and continued.

But ... a couple months later ... I did the same thing but with them doing push-ups for 60 seconds one by one at the front of class ... with all the others yelling and/or abusing ... they all involved and had a lot of fun ... and I believe some of the other teachers had come down to look in, thinking there was a riot going on.

No doubt one of the better classes we had together ... they were still back to being a pain in the arts the next day 'though

So maybe they might enjoy being timed to rip or crosscut 'x' distance through some pallet wood or whatever?
It could also involve some demo of making a dull saw sharp, if you thought it would interest them??
_ _ _

Finally - Phil Spencer wrote that he had made his own tools as a kid, and then a chest to keep them in ... could they do something like that scaled down?
Like make a folding handle for a pull-saw/pruning blade?

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f11/i-...logged-153025/

Using your Tool Chest as a Sawbench | Lost Art Press

Good luck! I found it very draining and I only did it for a little while
All the best,
Paul McGee

How bout,

A reward system designed just for those kids who arn't sell motivated, to motivate them to listen.

Write out and stick on the front door to remind them everytime they come in, that your video taping every class. And that at the end of the semester you will review it all and give a point to every genuine constructive attempt at listening, learning etc. ie. anything that shows you've learn't something new.

The student that gets the most points wins a 'interaction' prize. (Its a prize system that ensures all kids think they have a chance to win. Not just the naturals. The kids who know they are average at woodwork will still think they have a chance instead of normally shrugging their shoulders at it, and switching off like they normally do)

Also have a prize for the wiz kids to compete over(just to keep them happy).
But not as good as the interaction prize.

So just have to come up with a prize. For the wiz kids maybe make it an expensive tool like a lee nelson plane or something like that.

For the interaction prize I wouldn't make it a woodworking tool. I'd look at whats consistant about kids(boys anyway) at that age.

Their Horny as hell !

Since you probably can't get say, the new hot drama teacher to give them a lap dance, I suggest you make the prize a fast computer with unlimited high speed internet access for 'schoolwork'.

Make life easy for you. (sounds stupid but I wouldn't be surprised you'd get good results with something like this)

but I'm not a teacher. Goodluck.

I taught wood work for some time. I was in the fortunate position of being able to completely control the program. So the first thing I did was to toss out the program. I had some ideas for the students but in the end the made whatever they liked at the speed that they liked and to the standard that suited them. Now funnily enough that is just what 99% of us grown ups to on the weekend when we get out into the shed to play.

How did I assess the stuff? I didn't. I have never understood why teachers have to assess everything. Fair dinkum if you put teachers in charge of eating and sex they would soon make that unpopular too. The only assessment I had was to ask the chaps what they thought of the job they had done, what they liked about it and what they thought they might do better next time.

Then I got rid of radiated pine. Horrible stuff. Mostly I used either hoop or camphor laurel.

Anyway in the end the kids regularly cleaned up all the prizes in the wood sections of the local shows. Sometimes they would make rubbish and sometimes they would make beautiful objects. But the workshop was a safe haven, pressure free for us all. One boy said it was like working in the shed with his dad. And one of my fondest memories from nearly 30 years of teaching was when a young girl about 13 looked up at me and said "You know, I like planning timber." I know exactly what she meant because so do I.

Spot on chook. Assesment would have to be the most subjective, non descriptive, uncertain, complicated, indetermanent method of coming up with anything. Even the tax dept use it, so it must be useless. One of my Son's year 10 teachers, informed us that his assesment of our young bloke was that academia was never going to be his strong point and, at best, he would be lucky to complete a trade. I passed this info on to "Dumbo," much to the teachers horror. "Dumbo" continued on to year 12, at another school, got his HSC, did dual trade electrician/Insrumentation, topping the state, advanced deploma electrical engineering and currently an engineering degree at uni. Thank goodness for that teachers amazing assesment.

......and when your being awarded something for being the best teacher at some prim and proper cerimony and the bloke says into the microphone ....

' Your students have produced the best pencil cases Australia has I've ever seen....congratulations for teacher of the year........whats your secret ? '

you can say....................P O R N !

Patience
Organisation
Research
Notation.

I have followed this thread with great interest.....I recently had the opportunity to ask a 16 year old student what inspired her to learn a subject, her answer.
"If the teacher is enthusiastic and passionate about the subject kids will sit up and listen".....cheers Kerry