Would you trust your 13-year-old to operate a power tool? There’s no worries at James Hart School in Homewood in teacher Tom Jaminski’s Industrial Arts class.
Jaminski was recently awarded the Middle School Teacher of the Year Award from the Technology Education Association of Illinois. He will be honored during a ceremony Oct. 18 at Illinois State University. The award recognizes Jaminski as an outstanding teacher who keeps current on developments and trends in technology education and brings those into his classroom.
of the Year Award Oct. 18 from the Technology Education Association. He’s taught shop classes for 10 years.
(Marilyn Thomas photos/H-F Chronicle)
The award also acknowledges Jaminski’s rapport with his students. He sees every sixth, seventh and eighth grade student for the six-week shop class. The first week Jaminski goes through safety lessons before the 18 to 24 students work on projects. “I want them to have safe work practices. That’s the biggest thing you can do is work safe,” he said.
Hand tool projects are for sixth grade where students cut, shape and drill plastic to make a phone holder, a picture frame, a heart. In seventh grade, the plastic is thicker and students use more bends and curves shaping a hoodie hook, pie server, ice scraper. In eighth grade, it’s woodworking with 95% power tools making a key holder. “They get a piece of wood and cut it, rout it and sand it,” Jaminski said.
“This class is different because they’re not seated. I talk for 5 minutes and I say ‘Let’s get to work’ and they move around,” he said. Music is in the background, and Jaminski moves between worktables checking on how students are doing and offering insights. He finds students often work collaboratively to solve problems.
hoodie hook at seventh
grade projects.
a cell phone holder, a diamond,
a heart and a circle, are introductory
projects for sixth graders.
supplies home so students could build
a birdhouse or a tower made
of wood pieces.
Jaminski said the kids that don’t fit in traditional classes are hands-on learners who fit into his class. It’s a space where they feel good about themselves. Shop is one class they don’t want to miss.
Eighth grader Caleb Donahue did the plastics project and is gearing up for the lessons with power tools. Jon Kefte, a seventh grader, said he liked that the class “lets you work with your hands. And you get to stand.” Both students said their teacher “is cool.”
Working through the pandemic was tough. Jaminski made YouTube videos explaining how to use and operate the power tools. He remembers counting toothpicks for student supply packets for the “build a tower” project. They also got materials for a birdhouse (minus the hammer) and ready-mix concrete they could put their handprint in.
Jaminski has been a teacher for more than 30 years in Homewood and Flossmoor. He has taught primarily social studies with smatterings of physical education and English/Language Arts and a year as Hart interim principal.
He’d been asked a few times to move to industrial arts but had turned down the position. Superintendent Scott McAlister, who at the time was principal at Hart, convinced Jaminski to make the switch about 10 years ago.
“I’m glad I’m here. I can’t believe I dragged my feet,” he said. “I didn’t want to go in there and have some kid get hurt, but if you know what you’re doing and you teach safety, the kids know they want to be safe. They have a healthy fear of power tools and I’ve got a great record in here.”
Jaminski took industrial arts classes during summer breaks from his college career at Eastern Illinois University. He remembers always working with someone in the trades “and I kind of saw myself going that route, but there was the push that everyone’s got to go to college. I would have never thought that I’d end up being a shop teacher.”
Over the years, Jaminski has had a number of students who tell them how much his class meant to them. “I like that a lot,” he said.