Friday - Welding - Week 1

When Amanda asked me to pinch hit this afternoon for the first day of the second round of after school welding,  I said YES. 

Welding Workshops, aka Mistake Making Workshops, are a special kind of workshop. We get to spend a lot of time together practicing both one specific skill and one focusing on one of our TS goals--make mistakes and learn from them.

The workshop started just like any other, by going over the goals we strive for and establishing group agreements. Welding has a few policies specific to this workshop, things like a wearing safety glasses at all times, and a special ready call. After going over welding safety, we got right into small groups to put electrode to metal. When it comes down to it, this workshop is about practice, PRACTICE, P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E.

Alex perfecting his 'Ready to Weld' stance.

Sadie lays down her first bead! She noticed that at first the tip of the welding gun was too far away. This caused the electrode to get to long and break off!

Lee getting started welding on his practice plate. I love the range of ages in welding workshops too. Something this hard is a great equalizer; both the 8 year olds and the 14 year olds will have great advice to give each other.

We also decided to add some intentionality to the reflection on mistakes this time around. We gave each welder a little notebook to record mistakes as them make them. Then, at the end of the workshop, we share and set goals for the next session. 

Jackson's goal for next week is to make one, longer, continuous weld, instead of many shorter welds. 

Rajan records reflections from his first afternoon welding.

See y'all next week!