Hi all
We have a workshop coming up at our farm this may and I would appreciate if some of you with experience could share your curriculum(how do you spell that?)

We are so far planning to include:
felling and sawing one tree into timbers
hatchet work
design intro
sharpening
layout
cutting joinery
assembly of frames
we are also working in 6 or 7 rounds of archery
with a prize for top score

I'm also wondering about insurance and younger participants and other issues outside of curicculumn(arhg, that word has me beat!)
thanks,
-Mark in Ontario.

Try a search, even if the spelling is wrong the almighty and all knowing digital deity "Google" says:
Did you mean: curriculum

Good thread Mark. I will be following this with some interest as I have been trying to talk people in my corner of the world into hosting classes in layout and joinery.

Funny I know a Mark Davison, but he's into stocks and bond not staves and beams... Must be the missing d has warped him.

I believe I still have a Lemon wood stave my grandfather imported from Cuba shortly before Kennedy shut down access.

Jim Rogers teaches basic square rule workshops from time to time perhaps he'll have some ideas to contribute.

I think I've taught around 10 workshops now, most of them weekend courses, here is a link to the workshop site, if you're interested.....
http://www.wpltree.ca/workshopindex.htm

Hi mark:

Just a thought from my past experiences,

I have always taught under the "umbrella" of a large institution which carried the insurance\liability coverage. In my opinion I think that (insurance) needs to be covered carefully in this world today, just in case -god forbid- something might happen when everyone is having a great time.

After all when you look at what you intend on doing and the tools your students are working with, things could get out of hand quickly.

I found that most of the participants had a good previous knowledge of woodworking to some extent, but I think that you will agree that pretty well everyone is there to learn something new, and that is where the fun can begin,

I always included as many of the aspects of traditional work, ie: using the traditional tools and methods, and these are all a new ball game to most people, and are dangerous in some respects.

I always worried about what if an accident should happen, and I covered safety carefully, and made sure that security, and first aid people were aware that they could be called up quickly, and that the workshop would be in progress on a certain day.

I may stand to be corrected but I think that you will be working with more modern tools, chain saws, portable saw mill, electric tools, even so there is danger lurking all over the place make no mistake.

It sounds like you have conducted courses before and things have gone well, I hope that continues for you, I also know that from my own past experiences as a course instructor the comraderie of the group at the end is worth all the sweat and toil, especially if you can gather around with the group and enjoy what you have created from scratch.

NH

the classes are focused on using hand tools.... power tools are too loud to teach with, and not neccessary for passing on the stuff I teach.
I have insurance for my private classes from the same folks who insure my business, not too expensive.

Hey, I also know a guy in Ontario named Mark Davidson....But he's a Wii-tard now.

That sounds great Mark;

Keeping the traditional skills alive is important.

NH

I meant to include some of the points of my curriculum as I put together one of my traditional courses. All the courses are different, and the instructors play a big part in how it is presented, this is how I presented one of mine:

--I spent alittle time at the start reviewing what I wanted to accomplish, and reviewed the length of time that we had to do it in, so the students were aware of the length of the introduction, as well as a question and answer period at the end and the time alloted for that to take place.I spent alittle time with a few slides to stress what type of finish and the general appearance of the finished product
--Safety was covered
--To stess what I wanted to achieve totally, that aspect was reviewed
--The class as a whole broadaxed sufficient timbers to construct 3 bents for a building 10 feet by 10 feet in size, as well as the plates and braces, all material would be a hewn surface.
--The students then used the timbers they had just broadaxed as their raw material to work with
--Instruction was supplied frequently with the students gathered around, at this time questions could be asked
--the framework was assembled near the end and then we sat down as a group and talked about what had happened-- and what they had liked or disliked about the work or presentation
--students were asked to fill out a comment sheet for evaluation purpose.
--opportunities for group pictures as wind up.
I hope this helps

NH

NH, thanks for taking time to write out some of your teaching.
I have two types of classes. One I call a joinery class. In the joinery class students work on an individual take home project, for example the basic level I teach is a square rule bracket in 6x6 with a 3x6 brace. In two days the student works through layout, cutting and fitting the bracket, then they take it home to serve as a reference piece. This course features individual instruction on a rotating basis.
The other class I teach sounds similar to what NH is doing. All the students work together on a frame or part of a frame and people are allowed to focus on what interests them most. The instruction in the framing classes is less formal and more "question and answer" oriented. I also spend more time cutting and demonstrating in the framing classes.
I love to teach and hope to carry on learning how to pass on the timberframing I know.