Work Habits of Two Craftsmen

James Porcaro, Japan and Rob Porcaro, US

James Porcaro is a professor of English as a foreign language at Toyama University of International Studies in Japan. He also teaches a course in African Studies and high school classes, and is an adviser to Japanese teachers of English at the university’s attached high school. E-mail: porcaro@tuins.ac.jp

Rob Porcaro has been working wood for over 30 years. He strives to craft woodwork with a keenly interesting effect that is satisfying in a quiet way.

Introduction

My brother, Rob, is a master woodworker, a designer-craftsman of furniture and accessories. He writes about his craft in his blog www.rpwoodwork.com/blog/. Topics include techniques, tools and shop, resources, and ideas. Though I, James, am not a woodworker or handicraftsman of any kind, I regularly read the blog particularly to try to get into the mindset of the master craftsman in order to find some insights that might apply to my own craft as a teacher of English as a foreign language. As I was reading the blog of September 6, 2009, titled “8 Helpful Shop Work Habits”, I was struck immediately by a remarkable convergence of my brother’s shop work habits and my own classroom teaching habits. The text of that blog is given below, paragraph by paragraph followed by my reflections relating the master woodcraftsman’s work habits to my own instructional experience and practice. Perhaps others engaged in one or both crafts might draw further insights from these reflections.

Rob’s blog: This is the time of year when NFL rosters get pared down to the final 53 players. It is often reported how veteran players attribute much of their success to the unspectacular but important training, preparation, and performance principles that promote survival in the extremely competitive league. These are not matters of specific football technique, but rather are work habits that allow their physical abilities and football skills to flourish.

James’ reflection: Veteran teachers as well have learned that the foundation for success in the classroom is thorough lesson preparation and careful attention to lesson presentation. As with all great athletes and performers, from football players to figure skaters, from opera singers to stand-up comics, and so with teachers, the disciplined mastery of the fundamentals of the craft not only ensures precision in execution but also sets free body, mind, and spirit in unison for majestic, artful interpretation in performance.

Rob’s blog: Sure, I have relentlessly gleaned woodworking understanding and technique from countless sources over several decades. I love learning. Yet there are mundane shop work habits, borrowed or discovered, that I have come to value as equally important. Readers, let me share with you just some of the things about which I’ve had to “get my mind right.”

James’ reflection: In teaching also, beyond the acquisition of instructional methods and materials, and techniques for management of the classroom, there are personal work habits that are every bit as important for achieving successful outcomes. These include philosophical underpinnings for one’s work along with practical procedures to get the job done well.

Rob’s blog: 1. Know, don’t hope, what a process will yield. When bringing steel to wood while building a project, it should be clear to you what the result will be. Your hand may wander, your line may be a bit off, but there must be reliable intent and integrity in the process before you start. This allows the craftsperson to work with confidence and relaxation. For example, if you find yourself thinking, “Maybe if I feed the router this way, it might cut OK,” it’s time to step back and rethink.

James’ reflection: Teachers must have crystal clear and concrete objectives for their lessons. They need to formulate specifically the expected outcome of the lesson. The integrity of the instructional process, indeed, requires a determined intent. That mission allows the teacher, as the craftsperson, to work in the classroom with confidence, ease, and passion. This, in turn, inspires students to trust the teacher and to follow him/her in the performance of their lesson tasks. At the same time, such a response from the class supports the teacher who then feels greater freedom and assurance in conducting the lesson in the most effective ways.

Rob’s blog: 2. Be neither blind to innovation nor saddled with doubt. Trial runs and testing are useful, especially for unfamiliar processes, but give yourself credit for what you already know. While there are almost always several ways to get a result, if you have learned a good, efficient method, go with it and get the job done.

James’ reflection: It seems that all good teachers, in fact, are eclectic in their instructional approach. Ultimately teachers must rely on what works for them and with their particular students in their particular circumstances. They must hold to that knowledge gleaned from experience while examining new methods, selecting from them elements for classroom trial, and incorporating in their repertoire those that enhance the effectiveness of their teaching. At the same time, teachers need to continually engage in reflective practice and have the courage to recognize as well what is not working in their instructional approach and undertake systematic change within a community of practice that includes fellow teachers and mentors.

Rob’s blog: 3. When constructing multiple parts, it is often helpful to carry the process to completion on one part to see how early steps influence later results. This gives you a chance to modify steps to improve the final product. It often helps, therefore, to make an extra part.

James’ reflection: For the past six years at my university I have taught classes in the four-year integrated “English Communication Course”. I teach the same students over that period of time a variety of courses that include Oral Communication, Reading, Writing, Literary Translation, African Area Studies, and Senior Seminar in which they write their graduation research papers. From the first week of the students’ first year I know exactly where I am taking the students over the entire program and within each course. The multiplicity of language learning parts are carefully constructed with the completion goals always in mind. It is a process, indeed, and from the early steps, each one is monitored as a foundation for the ones that follow with greater complexity.

Rob’s blog: 4. Before leaving the shop for the day, note where you left off, perhaps write it down, so when you return you can resume work without hesitation. For example, “drawers fit, no more trimming.”

James’ reflection: As a simple matter of practical efficiency, teachers, too, should record where their lessons leave off in order to pick up the instruction the following day or week. Moreover, as a very useful means of reflective practice, teachers can keep a journal in which they record regularly a review of lessons taught, their teaching experiences, and their thoughts and feelings about their work.

Rob’s blog: 5. Put away tools when a job is done. Keep your bench and mind clear.

James’ reflection: It may be our genetic disposition or the influence of our early environment, but both my brother and I clean up after our work sessions. My lesson papers and materials, and class records, are put in order in my office after every lesson with the same care that he clears his workbench and replaces his tools in the shop. Somehow that keeps my mind clear, too.

Rob’s blog: 6. A process in one wood may not work well in a different species or even a different board of the same species. Remember, wood is a biological product, it varies. Making a mortise and tenon in bubinga feels different from making the same joint in pine.

James’ reflection: Although sometimes it may seem to teachers that some students really are “a different species” than others, certainly it is true that in some ways every class is different from another, as individually and collectively students are unique. Instruction that works with one particular class may not work as well with another class. I have developed many variations of particular lessons in my repertoire to suit the different circumstances I have experienced in different classes. Whenever I deliver a lesson to a class for the first time, as I learn about those students, I learn further how to adapt the instruction to their specifications.

Rob’s blog: 7. Attempt to cut to the line while knowing what happens if you are off on one side or the other. Leaving large margins of safety because you’ll “make it exact later” is a way to never get good at woodworking. Go for it. If you make a mistake, relax.

James’ reflection: I take this to mean in my lessons to expect from students what I know they are capable of doing and to use all of my skills to have them reach that end and to do so willingly. I am exacting and demanding in my classes, and I am rewarded for that. However much learner autonomy is a goal, my students’ learning is always my responsibility and I am always accountable for it. I do not “leave wide margins” for my students to wallow in. They will never get good at their work without focus.

Rob’s blog: 8. Creating useful and beautiful things from wood is one of the fine things in life. Be grateful, be humble, give thanks.

James’ reflection: Rob makes beautiful objects from wood which, indeed, as he says, enrich our lives by having them around us to discover and savor. Taylor Mali, in his well-known poem on “What Teachers Make”

www.taylormali.com/index.cfm?webid=13 offers, in part, the following:

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could…
I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read…
I make them understand that if you have the brains,
then follow your heart …
I make a difference!

For a teacher, I think it does not get any better than when a class has performed at its highest level and at the end of the lesson the students realize and appreciate what they have just done and that they own it. Yet, teaching is loaded with frustrations, disappointments, and failings. Some teachers become disillusioned, disappointed, and demoralized all too soon. So, I believe there must be something more to it. A teacher must have “fire in the belly” and simply love to be in a classroom, love the process of teaching itself, and be in it for himself as much as for his students. I think Rob in his woodshop and I in my classroom work in the same place.

Rob’s blog: Happy woodworking!

James’ reflection: Happy teaching!

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.