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Shop Class/Industrial Technology

Shop Class/Industrial Technology

When students get to the 7th grade at Roosevelt Middle School, the option to take industrial technology/shop class become available to where you did woodwork, using machines, saws, tools and the like to build furniture for competition with other schools. We had an amazing program at Roosevelt because of the teachers, shop class was taught by Mr. Noble, while the technology part was taught by Mrs. Beck, two very good hearted individuals.

Anyways when I got to high school I originally didn't take the class with Mr. Noble, he taught at both the middle school and high school, until my friends convinced me to, and so I joined for another year. The class was held in a small shop class at Oakridge High with a table saw and radial arm saw, but nothing else. Once we got into full swing of building for competition we would spend little time there, and most of our time we would get rides to Roosevelt's shop class where every tool and machine needed was available.

At the beginning of the year within the first month you have to select a piece of furniture to build for the semester. When I asked my mother what she wanted me to build she said "I want a grandfather clock." My grandparents had an ornate classic one that my mother grew up with, so that was her motive. I told Mr. Noble my selection and he agreed to it and so we began.

A major issue with the kids at Roosevelt and Helter High was that they were not wealthy, and to build a project you have to pay for the wood. I honestly don't think my mother ever did, but she knew Mr. Noble because this was a time when she worked at Roosevelt as a substitute teacher alongside him. So regardless, Mr. Noble began giving me instructions on what wood, what length and width, make holes for biscuits to glue pieces together then clamped, and teaching me how to properly stain a completed project. We did everything step by step and worked all year to where I was in the shop class at Roosevelt working every Saturday from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The reason why is that, in comparison, I was building a grandfather clock alone, the other one being built had three people working on it, sometimes more.

As the year progressed I worked every day but Sunday on this project to prepare it for competition, to which I won best in that regional competition and then won state. I think Mr. Noble had something to do with that, he knew my mother had cancer and I worked completely alone on the project. I believe I should have gotten a patch for my letterman jacket I received once I got on Varsity in Tennis, but I never got them and even if I had I couldn't afford to even have them sewn in.

In the end however my mother never paid for the wood. Even if she had the money to pay for the wood, we were soon to be homeless so what could we do with another piece of furniture. Once completed, it ended up in the lobby area at Roosevelt with a plant sitting where the clockwork components were never paid for and installed by myself and Mr.Noble. It might still be there today, who knows?