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What will it do?

This site is a network of relationships and resources for people who use boat building to teach math and other skills. It is important to note that the content on the site is less about how to teach the process of boat building, and more about how to teach other skills through the process of boat building. The website consists of three, content rich components: 1) a Resource Archive, 2) Quarterly Articles, and 3) Program Blogs.

Resource Archive: The archive encompasses any and all information related to the craft of teaching through boat building, including lesson plans, teacher handouts, demonstrations, hands-on activities, teaching methodologies, shop set up ideas, shop signage, and more. In short, anything that a teacher or program leader might find useful in their program. Users will be able to search the Resource Archive by key words and subject matter, to find the content that is most relevant to them. Also, users will be able to post and share lessons they have created.

Quarterly Articles: The Articles highlight teaching lessons and are written by users. Each month, a new article will be posted that will discuss an issue in-depth and how it relates to the field, and then present / highlight related activities. The goal of the articles is to round out the thought processes behind the lessons and provide a platform for users to express their teaching philosophies and share ideas.

Program Blogs: "In the Shop" blogs are where educators post what they are doing as they are doing it, to inspire others and encourage collaboration. Again, it is less about what they did in the program to build the boat, and more about how they taught specific concepts through the process of boat building. The blogs are less formal than the articles and finished lesson plans, allowing an educator to freely reflect on what worked and what didn't and share that learning with others.

What need does it serve?

There is a lot of information available about how to build a boat, but very little information about how to teach how to build a boat. Individuals who work in this field have few, if any, resources to turn to when developing their programs. In addition, most program instructors have little interaction with others in the same field - besides the TWSBA conferences - making collaboration very difficult. Instructors are left with the challenge of creating resources for their program in a relative vacuum. There is a wealth of material that has been created by instructors for their own programs but there is currently no way for people to effectively share these resources, until now.

The website will allow people to share materials and best practices they have developed for their programs, as well as to search and view what others have created. The blogs will facilitate collaboration by allowing people to follow each other's current work and give them the ability to post comments and questions. This dialogue will inspire ideas, promote new ways of teaching and link potential collaborators. In addition, the Articles will serve to highlight resources available on the site.

Who is the intended audience?

Though the main audience will be professional teachers who teach through the medium of wooden boat building, the site will be valuable to anyone who plans to build a boat with others.