Friday, April 28, 2006

Teaching without a net

I had 18 in my class yesterday, and
two were teachers, one worked at the Wustum Museum and 15 were high school aged students who
1. never made a quilt
2. never used a rotary cutter
3. rarely if ever held an iron
4. had to visit my website and write an essay about why they wanted to be in my class!

These were the winners of the contest.

They took to the project like bees to nectar.



The difference between high schoolers and adult workshop attendees....
Where do I begin?
They talk all through the day, the energy level is amazing, the confidence is astounding, and they never ask,
Is this right?
They are always right!


Carol made a very unusual log cabin, which I was informed was a hexagon.
OK.

Decorative elements were finally 'allowed'

with some very tasty results.



I had a wonderful time and was wrung out at the end of the day. Several students said they were going to continue to play around with this stuff, and made sure they took home the leftover wonder-under.
I crawled back to the hotel and met Dave there. There was wine, the whirlpool in the room and no pictures. Sigh.

11 comments:

  1. how beautiful! amazing, creative results! I'm jealously of all the kids in your claas, wy I'm not there, wy I'm old and live on a another Continent? This is unfairly , but what is already fair in the life?
    :-)

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  2. Ohmigosh, their work is truly AMAZING!!! You really know how to inspire. Do you have a book out???

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  3. Anonymous9:21 AM

    Wow! These look incredible! Sounds like it was a wonderful class.

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  4. Fantastic! I love working with students. So much fun! Yes, Ms. Mel, please post some excerpts from the essays!!

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  5. These are seriously talented kids!! Were the students all female? I love this work.

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  6. What awesome work. I think your assessment of the difference in classes was very profound.

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  7. Anonymous1:03 PM

    How wonderful to inspire young people to create work like this. I need to re-evaluate an offer to teach a class locally. I should just jump in with both feet and not worry about it but I do. Your results with this class give me courage except I would be teaching adults and they would be paying actual money. Maybe I'm not worthy, Dee

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  8. Beautiful work! On the other hand, given your beautifully dyed fabrics they have a head start. I am totally impressed.
    Joyce

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  9. of course, with you as a teacher and guide their work has to be great! The work of all of your classes lately has been wonderful! Love the way your own work is headed and glad to know you are now doing what you feel you want to do...so much more rewarding!

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  10. Looks like these students are on their way to a fun future working with fabric. You are a wonderful teacher and a great inspiration to us all.

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  11. I really enjoyed seeing the pics and reading about this highschool workshop. What incredible work they did. Not knowing about quilting probably helped a lot. they were not restricted by shoulds and should nots yet. just wonderful!

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com