Tuesday, November 16, 2010

This ought to be interesting

Ok, so I need to put in a billion hours of volunteer time at TCA, C's school. So I think, "I know, I will offer a class to people who KNOW HOW to crochet and knit. That way, I can maybe teach them a new stitch, or help them if they run into a snag, but mostly, it will be a quiet class where the kids can work on a holiday project or a project to donate. I give my class write up to the lady in charge. I speak to the coordinator and explain that I really can only teach one on one. That I am not an accomplished knitter, but wouldn't mind if people knitted if they wanted to. I also gave a second idea for a class if crocheting and knitting didn't work. I told her we could do cross- stitch bookmarks in a different class. So.... I read the description of my class and it includes "crochet, knit and cross-stitch class". Oh no.

I get there on Monday and I ask my 13 class members who wants to knit, some hands go up. Who wants to crochet, some hands go up. Who wants to cross-stitch, no hands go up. I say "great, ok, let's get our materials passed out" One girl raises her hand, "Umm, could you explain the difference between them?" Several heads nod up and down.

As if I am reading a book, I "go back a few pages" and start from there. I explain to them the difference. We get a bit worked out, and I get some materials passed out. Of 13 girls, 3 know how to knit and one knows how the crochet. The rest...zilch, zip, nada. As I am handing out materials, I hear a girl ask my helper, who by the way can only cross-stitch, "what's a skein?"

I went home and said to myself..... Class and attitude readjustment time.

Today I did a 3 day our syllabus for myself, and in a 30 minute class had everyone paired up and grouped together. All the knitters had some yarn casted on their needles and all 5 of the crocheters has chains ready to start there scarves.

Way to regroup and get something done.

Next Monday may be a different story.

K~

2 comments:

bobbione8y said...

OH MY GOODNESS.

you sound like a better teacher than me ;)) although i admit i would probably rather teach knitting that i don't know how to do than gestalt theory, which is not super important to me, either. knitting at least has pretty colors :))

very proud of you.

K~ said...

Day 2 went better. I am just takin' it one class at a time. all I can say is 13 - 13 year olds! sheesh. Not a lot of patients in that room. K~