Welcome to Maplewoodshop

The carpenters union has long been a pivotal force in the construction industry, advocating for skilled labor, fair wages and comprehensive training. Recently, its efforts have focused on innovative partnerships with various community groups, aiming to enhance workforce development and create promising career pathways for young individuals. These collaborations, supported by grants and community initiatives

Written by ROI-NJ Staff

Est. reading time: 5 min.

NEW YORK -- A program that used to be a staple in schools across the country is making a comeback. CBS2's John Elliott took a trip to to PS 130 in Queens to check out the return of woodshop, talking to students and teachers. "We need, as humans, opportunities to work with our hands together, And this engages students, all students, and especially the hard to reach students, in ways that working on tablets or worksheets never achieves," said Michael Schloff of Maplewoodshop.

In recent years, school districts have made a stronger push to gauge student interest in trade careers, extolling the virtues of the region’s technical schools and the wide-open job market for skilled laborers. In Pennsylvania, one cyber charter school is looking to add some of those elements to its curriculum. Harrisburg-based Reach Cyber Charter School, which serves students across the state, has partnered with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America and New Jersey-based Maplewoodshop to create a carpentry career-track program that will be available to students beginning in January.

We’re seeing the pendulum swinging back to reintroducing career and technical exploration (CTE) in middle schools. While students are suffering from learning loss due to COVID, their parents see record level student debt, a growing shortage of skilled workers, and a 20% graduation rate when comparing all 9th graders to those who graduate from a 4-year college.

During the final weeks of 2022, THE Journal asked scores of ed tech leaders about their wishes and worries for 2023. Cybersecurity and teacher resources were the most common topics addressed in the responses — many of which include specific ideas for new policies and practices for K–12 education in the United States. Following are the two questions we posed and the responses.

District partners with Maplewoodshop and Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Funds to introduce students to woodworking and to offer apprenticeship opportunities

(East Orange, N.J.) September 27, 2022 – Carteret Public Schools in New Jersey understands the importance of introducing students to career opportunities. In order to provide different types of learning, the district partnered with Maplewoodshop, a leader in teaching woodworking to students, and the Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Funds, to introduce carpentry to students at Carteret High School. 

This week, Ryan sits with JD Smith, the Director of Career Readiness at the Reach Cyber Charter School in Pennsylvania. On this episode, JD talks about the work that he does at Reach Cyber Charter School and the school’s career education curriculum. JD also talks about the importance of community partnerships in developing career education programs and shares advice for other online schools who want to provide career education options for their students. Tune in!

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to cast uncertainty on education, and the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year is no different. But with some valuable lessons learned under their belts, educators are feeling better prepared for the back-to-school season–one that could be the most normal since the pandemic.

Here are some back-to-school tips, advice, and valuable insights from educators, stakeholders, and industry experts.

BEAVERTON, Ore., July 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As educators face a new generation of technology needs for teaching and learning STEM, science, and coding, companies are rising to the challenge by deeply understanding educators’ evolving needs. The 2022 Best of STEM Award provides EdTech companies with a fresh twist—an awards program judged by STEM educators for STEM educators: “The Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards.”

As many college-age students will explain, when they reach their later years of high school, teachers, advisors, and counselors begin introducing them to possible career paths. This type of preparation serves as an introduction to the typical four-year college experience, which seems to be the mainstream expectation for planning after high school.

Listen to Introducing Opportunity with CTE in Middle School by the NCLA podcast

The Applied Engineering, Safety & Technology department at Millersville is collaborating with Maplewoodshop over the next five years to help Millersville students incorporate woodworking into their future grade school classrooms.

He’s not turning the lights back on in shop classes; he’s bringing woodworking directly into classrooms and providing teachers with everything they need to align woodworking with existing curriculum.

He’s not turning the lights back on in shop classes; he’s bringing woodworking directly into classrooms and providing teachers with everything they need to align woodworking with existing curriculum.

Last summer, children at JCC Camp Deeny Riback (CDR) got to try their hand at woodworking, thanks to … Maplewoodshop. It was a big hit, according to CDR’s executive director Dana Gottfried, who said it was like “nothing they’ve ever done before.”

A few weeks ago Mike came into the podcast studio where he and I discussed his program, and more importantly, how you can help get a woodworking into your favorite little one’s school or camp program. We were going to include an excerpt in episode 169, but in the end, we decided that The Maplewoodshop deserved your full undivided attention.

See if Mike is the liar or the expert on 

PANTS ON FIRE...also known as HAMMER TIME when our contestant tries to HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD and find our LIAR. Instead of BORING you with details, tune in this week for our #WOODWORKING episode! #POF

On this episode, I talk with Mike from Maplewoodshop. I recently took a course with Mike to learn how to use hand tools in woodworking and more about this great venture to bring woodworking back to the forefront of lifelong learning. This was a great conversation with Mike and he shared some awesome resources to check out!

The Next 1000 2021

“Mr. Schloff outlined the benefits of the program and posed a question to the board as to whether they remember a woodworking project they made while in school, versus if they remember a paper they had written that same year. There were multiple calls of yes and smiles when asked to recall a woodworking project, but not so many to the papers. ”

— The Coast Star