Hi, my name is Liam. I am a junior at Homewood in the Bridges program. I go to the HVAC academy at the ARL and wanted to share what a day in my morning was like over there. Every day, I start the school day by eating breakfast in my homeroom class and at 7:51 I walk across the parking lot with my friend Ben, who is also in the HVAC class and my homeroom. 

Once I get over there, I get ready for the day by either getting on PPE (Boots, Gloves, and Safety Glasses), doing the warm up on the board, or catching up on assignments that were homework. Once the entire class arrives around 8:15, we start our activity for the day. On Thursday 12/14, the class was split in half. The half I was in half worked on compound miter saws (see picture to the left), and the other half of the class went over to the construction class to learn a different type of saw. The instruction started with the HVAC teacher, Mr. Artley, explaining the different parts of the saw, what it can do, and how to use it. About 1⁄3 of the way through class, he turned on the saw and showed us the different cuts we could do. After he showed us how to do the cuts, he let all 10 of us rotate through doing each of the three cuts we would be doing. 

The class is currently in the power tools unit so we are spending a lot of time doing hands-on practice with tools. Earlier in the year we spent much less time in the shop and learned about how air conditioning works. We also reviewed hand tools before doing power tools. There are a few units left for the year, and the class will vote on what they want next. Some of these units include Safety, Construction Drawings, and Jobsite Skills. I would recommend the class to anyone who wants a bit more hands-on instruction and is interested in trades jobs.