CASCADE — Agriculture and industrial arts teachers from across Montana spent part of their summer learning how to make knives — sharpening their professional skills in the process.
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The two-day class, held at Cascade High School, was organized through the Montana Office of Public Instruction as a summer learning opportunity for educators.
"We have teachers from Eureka to Red Lodge, from Augusta, East Helena and Great Falls all coming into one area and learning some new skills," Eric Tilleman said.
Tilleman is the OPI Agriculture and Natural Resources Education Specialist and a former ag teacher at Cascade. He said the knife-making class helps instructors keep their teaching licenses current.
"Every one of these teachers will receive 16 renewal units," Tilleman said.
Teachers need 60 renewal units every five-year cycle.
"I'm trying to bring teachers from around the state together, give these teachers hands-on opportunity to then be able to teach the next generation," Tilleman said.
George Franko, another former vocational ag teacher at Cascade, led the two-day class.
"They're making training point, drop point and straight blade knife. Mostly hunting knives today," Franko said.
Justin Heupel traveled to the class from Kalispell, where he teaches at the H.E. Robinson Ag Center. He began his career at Cascade as a student teacher 30 years ago under Duane Gebhardt. Heupel called the class a good opportunity for professional development and renewing personal acquaintances. While knife making may not be part of his curriculum, he said some of the principles apply to his work as a welding instructor.
"Just those temperatures, for example, learning how to add or take away carbon from steel was one of the things that we learned. And I feel like those are good tidbits of information for kids to understand as we talk about the different classes of steel and carbon content," Heupel said.
For Franko, who makes knives as a hobby, what the teachers learn goes beyond the grinders and drill presses.
"It's not necessarily the skill of making those. It's the skill of training in steel, of grinding steel and laying it out," Franko said.
Heupel said the hands-on experience carries real value back in the classroom.
"Any time you can have actual experience, it just brings more credibility to what you're teaching and being able to relate to kids," Heupel said.
