Howdy,
It's been a wild ride since I started teaching. Recently the addition of my son has shifted the way I have been tackling life. Juggling time, other kiddos, work and my own sanity. Ultimately I have loved teaching... and I want to keep this positive. My time teaching has had its ups and downs. It is time to take what I have learned as an educator and use that in the way I see best fits our community.
My goal is to share the knowledge of my skills and spread the importance of conservation. I have a roughed out plan of how I plan to do that but it will come in some baby steps. For now I am nearing the end of my teaching for public schools which was not an easy decision to make but important so I can be more present for my family. It is not fair to my children to leave before they get up and come home on an empty tank of patience from dealing with the trauma of the students I was teaching. I am an empath, so leaving is super hard.
I was offered a great position working with a local company, Ro3, and their team working on high end renovations. This gives me great flexibility for my family and for the shop as I plan how the future looks. That future includes small classes of various tool safety, woodworking projects, 3D printing lessons and bringing lumber from Griffen Hollow Hardwoods to Columbus for retail sales. In this space I hope to offer a community of educators from woodturners to welding and more. I have teamed up with a friend to make this happen and we are excited to see this through for the community. We plan to host gallery shows, maker fairs and many more events. One big goal of mine is create "summer camps" for those less fortunate or those not serviced by traditional classes and camps.
This vision is in its infancy but I felt I need to speak it out there so the finish line is set.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the open house when that line is crossed.
Be well,
Alex "Oak" Traxler