Quote:
Originally Posted by cliffrod
Lots of us wanted to have an opportunity like that when we were young enough to not know what we couldn't/shouldn't/didn't know enough to do. The actual projects are great. Fwiw, I'm more impressed by how you're influencing them and would like to know where these young craftsmen (and craftswomen?) ultimately go with the knowledge & experience of what y'all are doing together using more than just two thumbs... Very, very cool.
Please keep us posted.
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thanks, I learned you can not teach and run a body shop at the same time. Teaching a skill to a student is more important than pleasing a customer. That's why I started doing projects like this. We still teach the collision repair skills needed to succeed in this field but I add projects like this to allow students to think out side the box. During our bus build we worked after school and on some weekends, students gained so much extra experience that they just can not do in our short 1.5 hour class time. Plus having the pride in building something that eventually ended up in a national magazine is huge.
Where do these students end up? Many end up at the local shops in our area. Some move on to other things and a few join the military. Some realize they may not like this field but will have at least gained some good hands on experience. Example, one of my seniors from last year is going into HVAC and another into precision machining. Some like this as a hobby and take the class out of curiosity. I have at least one student in all the major shops near me and have some with as many a as 3. I have one talented young lady that is in the process of replacing a long employed painter that is near retirement. I have two students working in a Mercedes certified repair shop. I am getting close to having my small area saturated with students and have started looking into placing them outside my area. We are starting a new co-op program with our local shops where seniors will rotate working in these shops. We are also going to be able to count my class for their co-op credit, meaning I can have my seniors more than one class period. Last year we started a new program for our seniors that allows me to teach just about anything I want associated with collision during their second semester. This is one reason we were able to finish the bus last year. This Caddy will be the project for this year.
We also have 3 electric race cars. Think of them as battery powered go carts. They are assembled, driven and maintained by students. We built them from kits and compete against other schools. Our town has even helped us sponsor a race where we shut down 2 blocks downtown and race around our court house. For the past 5 years we have raced at Barber's race course, an international road race facility, against teams from all over our state. One of the reasons I want to be able to teach basic metal shaping and fab is so we can build our own cars and not from the kits. Sorry for the long response