Official Luthiers Forum!

For those of you that teach guitar building in the community college/high school environment, do you all have a syllabus you'd be willing to share of how you divide your time among a 15 week semester? I just moved to a new military base where I may teach a beginner building class at the wood hobby shop. I'm sure I could put a build schedule together, but I figure why reinvent the wheel? Also, I'm a bad judge on how long it might take a beginner to complete certain steps compared to how long it takes me after I've done it 50+ times already.

Any other advice as far as class organization, which jigs to build/buy to save time, what costs do students normally incur above and beyond materials in a CC course, class size? Any other info would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

John

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I teach a 6 day class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking (http://www.marcadams.com). I have 10 students and 1 assistant in a pretty well equipped shop. I supply the forms, workboards, shooting boards, sanding blocks, etc. The materials - sides are bent, necks are carved, etc. As you can imagine, in a 6 day class, the parts have to be pretty much made ahead. They spend 55 - 70 hours, (Yes some late nights) depending on their skill level, but they all go away with a guitar that is strung. Finishing is on their own.

The students bring most of their own hand tools (chisels, scrapers,etc) and I require all to have their own dremel with Stew Mac router base.

PM me your e-mail address and I will send you my itinerary

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John Ressler

John,

As you know I teach several college courses on guitar building and finishing. This semester I am teaching two steel string classes and one classical class as well as a French polish class. I have 3 teaching assistants to help. We take 16 weeks (one semester) to complete the guitar working two days a week for a total of 8 hours per week. Students can also work in the shop during open shop time. I provide all tools (both hand and power tools), forms, etc. The students purchase LMI unservived kits. Nothing is pre-done. We do it all.
I use my DVD's for "textbooks" and also have a set of handouts with a timeline if you are interested.

I might add - it can become very costly to set up to teach others. Depending on the number of students, you don't have time for all the others to watch each other do a particular step. 10 students = 10 forms, multiple sanding dishes, many clamps (I made over 400 clamps for my classes) etc.
The advice to start small is a good one. When I do classes at my home shop, I limit the number to 2 students.

Another challenge is really understanding the goals of each student. For some, they only want to build a guitar - once - and never intend on doing it again. They just want the experience of having done that. Others really want to learn every detail. With a larger class, it can be difficult to juggle those extremes and satisfy everyone.

The thrilled looks and smiles and comments like "I didn't think I could do it -but look!" make it all worthwhile though - very rewarding

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John Ressler

There is some good advice here.

As a recovering teacher, (clean for 15 years!) I can second the opinion about determining goals. Many want a "take & make" class. Others want "process and skills".

You really do need to sit down and make up a "unit plan". Even if you can be supplied someone else's curriculum, it helps you think through your own process.

Start by describing in clear terms your objectives. Think this one through as everything else that you do is built upon it. Word it something like this: "The learner will be able to_______upon completion of this course." There can be many kinds of objectives withing the course, usually co-existing.

Work out a time line. How much time is available? what are your resources? what are the entry level skills of your students?

How will you evaluate the course results? Evaluation can take many forms, what will your be? All that you have to remember is that evaluation follows directly from the objectives. If there is no match between objectives and evaluation, then something is lacking.

Now you can start to fill in the blanks, class by class. Use the same "unit plan" process and write up "lesson plans". Prepare them for each work session and for each specific skill to be taught. These can be quite simple, but should be present.

Even if your teaching style is relaxed and easy going, you need to be prepared with your planning. Your students won't see all this background work, they will, however, see the absence of it.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Great points from everyone!
Good luck John.

Thanks for the advice fellas, it is greatly appreciated. The small class-size is a good point, especially considering if we have to share jigs. I've taught for 20+ years and am just wrapping up a Ph.D. so I feel very confident explaining and teaching technical material, but I'm a terrible judge on how long it will take new students to complete a task. The offers for itineraries are greatly appreciated. Please feel free to send them to the e-mail in my profile. I suspect the sign-up list could get quite large for a class like this at a military base where the wood hobby shop is loaded with great equipment and free to use. Maybe I could require everybody to buy Robbie's DVD and go through it as a prereq before registering--Robbie, do you have plenty of dvd's on hand? Does anybody else require any prereqs? All students will already have taken a shop orientation and safety class as a requirement to work in the wood hobby shop. Any other requirements?

Thanks fellas!

John

I have plenty of DVD's on hand. You can get them HERE or through LMI. They are now also available on Amazon. I know that John Ressler requires his students to purchase the DVD's before class and study them.
I also make sure my students review their copies before coming to the first day of class. It really does make a huge difference.