Ready to Teach - Woodwork is a guide for anyone who wants to teach in a way that feels thoughtful, grounded, and true to who they are. It is written for teachers, facilitators, community leaders, shed organisers, and skilled makers who find themselves stepping into a teaching role, sometimes before they feel fully ready.
Drawing on more than three decades of experience teaching woodworking to beginners, Patt Gregory shares the practical structures that help a workshop run smoothly, alongside the quieter skills that shape how learning feels in the room. This includes how to prepare yourself to teach, how to introduce tools with clarity and calm, how to pace a session, and how to navigate interruptions, nerves, and emotional moments as they arise.
This book does not assume you need to be an expert or have all the answers. Instead, it offers frameworks, examples, and reflective questions to help you discover your own way of teaching, shaped by your values, your voice, and your context.
Ready to Teach - Woodwork is for those who care not just about what they teach, but about how it is received.
About the Author :
Patt Gregory has been teaching woodworking for more than thirty years, working primarily with women who are new to tools, making, and workshop culture.Her teaching brings together practical skill, emotional intelligence, and a deep respect for how people actually learn. Rather than relying on authority or fear, Patt is known for creating spaces that feel calm, welcoming, and quietly confidence-building.She is the founder of Woodwork for Women and Vice President of the Shedding Community Workshop. Alongside teaching, she mentors emerging teachers and writes about the often unseen work of guiding people through learning, uncertainty, and growth.Patt lives and works in Mullumbimby, northern NSW, Australia.
Review :
"Standing beside Patt feels like being taught by someone who sees the whole of you. Her teaching is warm and quietly transformative."
- Sophie Wilksch, Workshop Founder and Community Maker
