This month, we want to highlight one of El Rancho’s biggest differentiators: our electives! First up is wood shop! Most middle schools don’t offer woodshop but at El Rancho it’s a little different.
We know what you’re thinking. How could we let middle schoolers in a wood shop?! The answer to that is our wood shop teacher, Mr. Fessett. He is great at demonstrating proper safety procedures to his students, all while letting them express their creative side. This is a full year class for 8th graders and a quarter long exploratory class for 7th graders who take the exploratory wheel.
Before COVID-19, students would be allowed to enter wood shop only after learning relevant safety measures. During distance learning, woodshop was taught through Zoom and still is for 7th graders who remained 100% online. . Mr. Fessett provides his students with mock-up designs that can be made with cardboard and other household items.
Once a project has been completed, students keep the cardboard version to have a model to reference once in-person classes resume and real wood can be used. The in-home projects also keep our students engaged and foster a feeling or normalcy throughout our community.
We feel incredibly grateful to have such a dedicated set of staff here at EL Rancho. We will continue to highlight our elective teachers and their efforts to adapt every month. This adaptability is one of the benefits to being a charter school.
If you want more content about Mr. Fessett and wood shop, follow along on our social channels as we continue posting videos explaining all things wood shop.
If you and your student are interested in joining our Coyote family, click here to see how you can enroll or send us an email with additional questions.