On a sunny October afternoon, 32 Yelm High School (YHS) students gathered in a shed, donning protective eyewear, to observe Jeffrey Burgess as he demonstrated his knowledge of basic framing in a class that has been over a year in the making.
The construction class, YHS’ newest career and technical education (CTE) program, will teach students the basics of a number of trades and skills and give them an opportunity to earn certificates before heading into the workforce.
The construction program features instruction in framing, home electrical, plumbing, masonry, drywall, painting, roofing, sheet metal and more. The sixth-period class is taught by Burgess, a third-year YHS teacher who has also taught welding and applied physics.
The program is a pre-apprentice style class where students can earn a forklift certification, flagger certification and an OSHA 10-hour certificate, the first two of which they can receive when they are 18 years old.
Burgess said the program has been in the works for about a year and a half, a timeline that included numerous conversations with Yelm CTE staff, students and officials in other districts that offer similar programs. He added that while the program is in its infancy, the class is still at an optimal level to help students learn skills in their desired trade.
“The next lesson should build on what you learn in the current lesson. Right now, we’re doing basic framing, and it’s a little slower because it’s the first year and first time it’s been implemented here,” Burgess said. “We’re almost done on our first project on that, which was a shelf. We started with how to read a tape measure. We measured our shed, and they had to be within half an inch of what it actually was, and that turned into why measurements are important for blueprints and that turned into designing a shelf.”
The majority of the class went on a field trip on Oct. 3 to the Construction Try-A-Trade event hosted by Capital Region ESD 113 at Satsop Business Park in Elma. Students participated in hands-on activities featuring 18 construction trades.
Seniors Tamaas Wakefield and Aaron Bell enjoyed meeting with professionals working in the trades they are interested in and operating heavy construction equipment, which is one of the top careers on both of their lists.
“We actually got to put on hard hats and vests, and we got to try out a bunch of equipment. One of the ones that really intrigued me was one of the off-road dump trucks,” Bell said. “It was really cool to climb in there and feel the joysticks and act like you’re there on the construction site.”
Wakefield got a kick out of using the excavator and steamroller during the field trip. He has family members in trades, and he has considered becoming a heavy equipment operator, HVAC technician, plumber or electrician since he was in middle school.
“I knew I wanted to go into the workforce immediately because my uncle took me with him so we could do his job. I had just gotten out of middle school and now I’m breaking down chimneys and breaking drywall,” Wakefield said.
Burgess believes that students learn best by doing rather than being told what to do, so about 80% of the class involves hands-on learning and helping students solve problems.
“There’s only so much explanation that you can give. You can learn just as much from failure if not more than you can from success, and giving them that chance to attempt it is big, and they learn a lot from that,” Burgess said. “If they don’t get it the first time, that’s fine. I’m OK with that. I want them to think about not just that they didn’t get it but why it didn’t work the way they wanted it the first time and that carries it on from there.”
Burgess’ vision for the program is to give students the opportunity to enter the workforce, trade school or college after high school with a deep bag of skills already in hand. He emphasizes the importance of attendance and timeliness every day because he wants to train students to prioritize those things before they go out into the real world.
“The attitude has been really good and really high. They might not totally understand yet why this is so cool or important, but they’re right on the cusp of that understanding,” Burgess said of his students. “Their effort is high, and they want to do well at this. If that continues, that will result in what our goal was here.”
In the future, Burgess said the program may expand to offer different levels of construction courses, and there may be opportunities for community projects outside the classroom for construction students as well. But his vision will remain the same no matter how many types of projects he offers.
“I will always push for students to come out of this class with as many endorsements, certifications and skills that we can that will help them to get employed out of school,” Burgess said.
