building a garden

Yesterday my high school students and I worked on the school garden, adding a top rail to stabilize the fence so the gate we made in wood shop last year can be mounted. It was a lovely day, and all my students were glad to spend a bit of time outside.

While some students did carpentry work under my direction, others did a general clean up, removing plant growth remaining from last year, and piles of leaves that had accumulated during the fall.

I had a dream last night that I was attending an educational conference, and having gone through one convoluted and contrived lesson after another, I suggested that it would be far easier and effective to make education real, and to let children participate in real life. I doubt that my ideas were well received.

But we all learn in the same manner. We get engaged in what appeals to us and with some support may be led deep. Froebel called it self-activity. And there is no more effective means of learning or of being taught.

In addition to the school garden, I worked on boxes, and visited the new wood shop under construction at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts.

In box making, I am gluing veneer to Baltic birch panels using a vacuum lamination technique. Thee panels will be inset to form the tops of lovely boxes.

I'll remind you of my box making blog and box making website.  The website has been modified to be a wordpress site, available now on iPhones and tablets, and easy enough to edit that I can do it myself. At these locations, you can ask box making questions, and get answers.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.