The next thing that I learned was just how amazing of a resource the internet can be. I learned everything I needed to learn about building a board via the internet, either the forum board at Silverfish long boarding, or by watching a youtube video. The next lesson I learned was to understand that not all the suggestions on the internet are going to be helpful to you. Most of the time I found videos that did looked impressive but they were really lacking a critical detail that was a make or break point. EX. I saw one video that did a marvelous job of showing how to apply fiberglass to the bottom of the board, however they failed to mention that you cannot fiberglass over the top of spray paint... so I did not fiber glass my board. Instead I fell back onto polyurethane to seal it from the elements. | So, here I am with a completely new skill set (and a new skate board). I have to be honest when I began this project I was very skeptical that I would gain anything from this project. I am glad to admit that I was completely wrong. I think that what this project really taught me was that I am actually far more talented in woodworking than I ever thought possible. I have never really enjoyed wood working and initially I pictured the necessity of wood working as something I would just have to get past, however I discovered that creating the board press was like solving a puzzle. I messed up on that board press more times than I care to admit however each time I failed I did learn a little bit more about the process of hand crafting something. I learned a lot about what does not work... but that made finding the solution all that much better when it finally worked. In conclusion I thought that this assignment gave me great insight into my own perseverance. I failed more times than I succeeded however I never gave up, each time I failed I had to become creative and figure out a way to make it work. When thinking of a way to bring this into a school setting I was trying to think of a way to incorporate this into PE. I realized that as part of PE I teach a yoga class, yoga relies on learning about yourself, as part of my yoga class I would use a similar project and have students reflect upon what it is that they have learned about them self. For example this project has done a great job about teaching me previously unknown talent in woodworking and my refusal to accept anything other than my absolute best craftsmanship. I think that as long as I realize my own tenacity to not allow failure I can apply that to anything I do. |
When I look at my experience I learned that with each failure I had I had to rethink my process and create a new way of moving forward, this applies to teaching as well. I create a lesson apply it to my class, however it rarely goes perfectly the first time, so I reflect on how it went and make changes so that I can better myself and produce the best possible result in my teaching.