Shed Project Teaches Port Lions Students Career Skills

Port Lions teacher Eli Derenoff instructs carpentry students Jeremy Kewan and Brandon Bartelson atop a 12 x 16 foot shed the class is building for a local resident. Port Lions students have built two sheds this school year. (Photo by Casey Kelly/KMXT).

Students in the carpentry class at Port Lions School have built two sheds this school year. As KMXT’s Casey Kelly reports, the students are gaining valuable career and life skills, and a couple of community members are getting brand new sheds out of the deal.

(Hammering sounds :02s …NS fades under vox.)

Port Lions teacher Eli Derenoff looks on as students from his carpentry class work on finishing a shed that they started building at the beginning of this semester in January. Derenoff says the class built another, smaller shed during the first semester of the school year, which led to the shed they’re building here today.

(Derenoff 1 :34s “…boys will build it. Hehe”)

The first shed will be used for storage, but the owner of the second shed wants to use it for a wood shop, hence the larger size. Derenoff says that meant a few different design features.

(Derenoff 2 :12s “…stiffeners and the lookouts.”)

Freshman Brandon Bartelson takes a break from hammering shingles onto the roof, to explain what the students have done so far and how the snow this winter affected their progress.

(Bartelson 1 :18s “…if all the snow didn’t come.”)

The students only work on the project during their 50-minute class period, so that’s also slowed them down. Junior Jeremy Kewan says he’s considering a career in carpentry or construction some day.

(Kewan 1 :16s “…the laborer no more. Hehe.”)

Derenoff says besides learning about carpentry, the project is teaching them other skills as well.

(Derenoff 3 :11s “…it into the mathematics.”)

And how do the students feel about learning math during carpentry class?

(Bartelson-Kewan :08s “…can do carpentry, so…”)

When they’re not building sheds, carpentry students in Port Lions build dressers and cabinets and do other woodworking projects. Now that the weather is cooperating, Derenoff says the second shed should be done on time, by the end of the semester.

I’m Casey Kelly.

(Hammering sounds :02s …nat sound fades.”)

###