My day at the quilt-a-thon

I thought of a few other tidbits for anyone still interested in this
thread. Two things that my assistant/students mentioned liking best:
the magnet pin cushion and the flannel design board. Is that a
preschooler trait or what? I didn't bring the flannel board; the
organizer had them pinned to the walls. As the strips were coming
together into pannels, I stuck them to the flannel board so we could see
how they looked. They didn't comment so much on the developing quilt;
they were fascinated with the magic of the fabric adhering to the wall.
And they adored the magnet pin cushion. I'll admit that I think it is
a clever idea, but I had no idea that that's what they'd be most
impressed by.


I've figured out another element to the dynamic with the students.
First, I'm very confident in my ability to make a simple baby quilt
according to instructions. This one was 9-patches alternating with 6"
plain blocks with 6" strips for borders and 9-patches in the corners of
the borders. Nothing tricky. No blocks set on point, no fancy
measurement for the borders, no triangles or biases or anything else
that might need explanation for beginners, just a little strip piecing
for the 9-patches and basic chain piecing for everything else. Because
I was so confident in my quilting abilities, I could afford to be easy
going about the mistakes. In fact, being so easy going probably had an
element of showing off to it. Saying that I could fix anything was a
form of bragging.


But here's what I've figured out: I'm so linear that I do best when I
have a single goal. Two goals throws me a little. If I'd gone there
knowing that my one goal was to give a student an introduction to
quilting, I could do that. Since I went knowing that my one goal was to
make that Linus project quilt, I can be proud of myself for being
elastic enough to change direction a little when I took on the
assistants, but that meant that I was a good teacher but not the very
best I could be.


Here's the example that should make you all laugh. I was showing my
student the rotary cutter. She'd never seen scissors like that before.
I gave a little lecture on treating the blade with respect as you
would one in the kitchen, that you need not be afraid of using it but do
be aware that it can cause some damage. I demonstrated putting the
blade back in the safety sheaf after each cut. (Honestly, I'm not that
good about it at home where no one else ever enters my sewing room and I
have no children, but in a public place, I thought it a good idea to be
extra careful.) I carefully showed my student how I line up the fabric
on the line of the ruler, how I anchor the ruler with my pinkie on the
mat and my other fingers on the ruler. I showed her how the blade goes
right up against the edge of the ruler. I showed her one clean sweep of
cutter to make a smooth cut. I mentioned prefering my table at home
that's a little lower (I'm short) which makes it easier for me to put my
weight on the ruler. She tried it. First she was confused by the lines
on the mat so I had to tell her to ignore them, that we were using the
lines on the ruler. She still had trouble seeing the right line. Then
she put her hands exactly where I had, and the ruler moved all over the
place making an uneven cut. It turns out that I had neglected to SAY
that the ruler wasn't supposed to move. She wasn't pressing on it!


There was one moment when I got a little full of myself. I'd counted
how many 9-patches we'd need according to the picture and had given a
student the task of counting how many 9-patches we actually had done
already. At this point, the neat stacks of strips had already been
shuffled, and some of the 9-patches had already been sewn incorrectly.
We had the seam rippers out, and I was trying to get re-organized. My
student then wondered if I'd counted correctly, wondered if I'd noticed
the 4 9-patches in the corners of the borders. At that point I started
to grin. Anyone who knows me would know that that's simply not a
mistake I'd make. I can make a thousand other mistakes having to do
with not reading pictures correctly, but I'm very good with simple
arithmatic, and the idea of this disorganized (to me-- as I said
earlier, I'm sure she's great with little kids) somewhat flighty
assistant suggesting that I might have gotten it wrong struck me a
little on the silly side. When I pointed out why I was grinning, she
took offense, not too terribly, but I could hear it in her voice.


Ah, live and learn. With my other friends, we can tease each other that
much all the time and not worry about offending, but I would never tease
that way with a 4 year old, and thinking back, I can see that I have to
be as careful with her feelings as I would with any 4 year old.


--Lia

Lia, you did really good work that day. And I don't mean the Linus
quilts. Those women went home feeling happy and useful and that's
really something. I wouldn't have had your patience.

Maureen

Julia Altshuler wrote:

I met a woman at the opening reception of a quilt show last week and
liked her. A friend who also knows her knew that she was organizing a
quilt-a-thon through her congregation and invited me to come. I jumped
at the chance. A quilt-a-thon is an organized event in which volunteers
show up with their sewing machines, get a packet of fabric and
instructions, and spend the day making a quilt for Linus Project. For
me, that's heaven, and spending time with someone I recently met and
liked was the bonus.


When I got there, the organizer was standing but just bearly. She left
soon after to spend the day in bed with the flu. She was there long
enough to realize that I could be trusted with instructions, didn't need
supervision and was up to the task. She had other volunteers who were
less certain of their abilities. Another volunteer had
started on the kit and had to leave so I took over. The fabric had been
cut; nearly all the 9-patches had been made, and the ones that hadn't
had strips ready for easy assembly. They just had to be pinned and sewn.


I also got 2 inexperienced volunteers. They'd come sincerely wanting to
help but didn't know the first thing about sewing. I realized that I
could help best by giving them something to do and a little instruction.
I took them on gladly.


This is where I realize how differently people's minds can work. I'm
terribly linear. I do well with a brief introduction to the scope of
the whole project followed by clear step-by-step instructions. That's
how I teach. My volunteers thanked me and told me that I was a good
teacher, and if being patient and never getting irritated is the mark of
a good teacher, then they're right. But if producing a student who has
learned something and can carry out a task on her own is it, I did a
terrible job. I can't see that they learned a thing or did any useful
work at all.


I needed help ironing. They'd both come saying that they could iron. I
showed them a sample of a perfectly ironed 9-patch, pointed out the way
the seams went to one side, got back a 9-patch but didn't check it. My
bad. Later I realized that some of the blocks measured 6" instead of
6.5" and had started figuring out what to do. I was thinking of
trimming everything. Then I looked again at the blocks. Sure the seams
were ironed flat, but they were also ironed with such a pronounced pleat
that they were all small. I reironed.


Another example: I carefully demonstrated how to pin 2 strips for
sewing. I demonstrated and explained how the seams but up against each
other, how those butted seams take 2 pins, how there are pins at the
edges, how a little excess can be fudged with a tug. I thought I was
thorough and gave both visual and verbal instruction. The next thing I
know, my assistant is getting more and more creative. She's putting
pins everywhere. Sometimes the heads are on one direction, sometimes
the other. I corrected her once, then realized it was faster to take
out the pins and redo them.


Then I realize that the 9-patches that were supposed to have 5 blue
squares and 4 green ones were coming out with 5 green and 4 blue. The
neat stacks of strips had gotten mixed up, and the sample 9-patch that I
put out for their comparison had gotten lost. I cheerfully got a seam
ripper and showed them how to check to make sure there was a blue square
in the middle. I did the ripping. I remember how when I was a beginner
having to rip out your own work was the worst. It's like having your
nose rubbed in the mistake. They thanked me for my consideration and
being so patient.


While we were chatting, it all came clear. This woman is a pre-school
teacher. I'll bet her students love her. I could never relate to
children that small on an ongoing basis. I'm the sort who can be
trusted with kids because I have no temper, pay attention and am safety
conscious, but I'm terrible at really communicating with them or
teaching them or getting anything accomplished while they're around. It
dawns on me that she's a pre-schooler at heart. She looks at a demo or
a sample, nods with interest, but doesn't understand what I'm doing or
why despite my explaining in what I thought were clear terms. She's
kind and means to be helpful but is so disorganized that neat stacks end
up all over the place. This is an adult 4 year old.


The other volunteer assistant was much better but still much the same. I
offered her a try at the sewing machine since I'd been doing all the
sewing while they did the pinning. She enthusiastically said yes and
seemed surprised that I was willing to give up control of my beloved
machine. I showed her what I was doing with my left hand, my right hand
and pointed out explicitly how to use the machine foot to guide a
quarter inch. She sat down, took a moment to get used to the peddle
(which I expected) and sewed a seam with her hands in all the wrong
places. She looked delighted, and I encouraged her. I showed her again
where I put my hands and fingers, and she got that-- sort of. It was
only after she'd sewn the 3rd crooked absurd seam that I looked more
closely at the first and realized that any resemblance to a quarter inch
wasn't there. I got the seam ripper and pointed it out. It turns out
that she was using some other mark on the sewing machine as a guide
having completely missed the important stuff about the size of the foot.


The next time I give sewing lessons to complete beginners, I'll know
better where the common pitfalls are and look there.


By the end of the day, I was pleased with myself. With the organizer
not there, I'd managed to show a good time to 2 volunteers who weren't
sure of themselves and give them something to do to feel useful and gave
a little introduction to quilting. I should stress that they were
pleased with me and thanked me and told me I was a good teacher. It was
later that I started to doubt.


I wish I didn't do this to myself, but I do. I finished up the quilt
top today and got started basting it. The whole time I was working, I
kept thinking of one disasterous experience I had 25 years ago with a
job at a restaurant. I lasted 3 weeks. I wanted dreadfully to do well
there and learn everything about cooking. I kept screwing up. I was
sure the instruction was terrible. I kept seeing demos and paying
attention to instruction the best I could, but apparently I never got
anything right. Like my assistants yesterday, I must not have been
looking in the right places or paying attention to the right things
because I could never get so much as a knife cut correct. If I did do
something right, I got told I didn't do it fast enough. They were
impatient, sarcastic, mean. For 25 years I've told myself that the
owners of that restaurant were complete jerks, and I still think they
were for the way I kept getting yelled and criticized, but most of all
I've been angry at the way they never explained anything or taught
anything well. My experience yesterday made me wonder if I were part of
the problem. They were explaining to the best of their ability, but I
couldn't see what was important or learn from demonstration and their
instruction. I'm sure I'm 20 times better as a teacher than they were,
but as a student, I was probably as good as my students yesterday--
totally incompetent and useless.


Oh well, has 25 years gone by that quickly? I'm sure they don't
remember me while I remember them. Thanks for letting me write this out
and start letting go of it.


--Lia

'The squaw on the hippopotamus is worth the sum of the squaws on the other
two hides'. I LOVE THIS! The picture in my head is a hoot! Hmm, might
need to be a quilt block. Got any others? grin

I worked one winter in a production greenhouse. Boss got mad 'cos I wasn't
filling up pots with potting soil quickly enough. He could do it in one
scoop, I had to do two scoops. Same deal - his hand was about 2"
longer/wider than mine. Got an "Oh." out of him on that... grin

Cappy


I worked one summer as a waitress. Silver service stuff. I was slow.
I watched and I tried, but dropped things... I eventually worked out
that it was physically impossible for me to carry three plates spread
out with things on them in one hand as my hands were too small! The M.
D' stopped nagging me after I held my small paw up against his and it
covered less than half his 5 fingered dinner plate sized paw!

Promise yourself that you will never ever repeat any of this where it could
get back to the ladies you were teaching. I can only put myself in their
place and imagine the shock and hurt they might feel, knowing they were
being compared to children, easily awed by the fun tools we use.
Diana

--
Weird people need beads, too
"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
...
I thought of a few other tidbits for anyone still interested in this
thread. Two things that my assistant/students mentioned liking best:
the magnet pin cushion and the flannel design board. Is that a
preschooler trait or what? I didn't bring the flannel board; the
organizer had them pinned to the walls. As the strips were coming
together into pannels, I stuck them to the flannel board so we could see
how they looked. They didn't comment so much on the developing quilt;
they were fascinated with the magic of the fabric adhering to the wall.
And they adored the magnet pin cushion. I'll admit that I think it is
a clever idea, but I had no idea that that's what they'd be most
impressed by.


I've figured out another element to the dynamic with the students.
First, I'm very confident in my ability to make a simple baby quilt
according to instructions. This one was 9-patches alternating with 6"
plain blocks with 6" strips for borders and 9-patches in the corners of
the borders. Nothing tricky. No blocks set on point, no fancy
measurement for the borders, no triangles or biases or anything else
that might need explanation for beginners, just a little strip piecing
for the 9-patches and basic chain piecing for everything else. Because
I was so confident in my quilting abilities, I could afford to be easy
going about the mistakes. In fact, being so easy going probably had an
element of showing off to it. Saying that I could fix anything was a
form of bragging.


But here's what I've figured out: I'm so linear that I do best when I
have a single goal. Two goals throws me a little. If I'd gone there
knowing that my one goal was to give a student an introduction to
quilting, I could do that. Since I went knowing that my one goal was to
make that Linus project quilt, I can be proud of myself for being
elastic enough to change direction a little when I took on the
assistants, but that meant that I was a good teacher but not the very
best I could be.


Here's the example that should make you all laugh. I was showing my
student the rotary cutter. She'd never seen scissors like that before.
I gave a little lecture on treating the blade with respect as you
would one in the kitchen, that you need not be afraid of using it but do
be aware that it can cause some damage. I demonstrated putting the
blade back in the safety sheaf after each cut. (Honestly, I'm not that
good about it at home where no one else ever enters my sewing room and I
have no children, but in a public place, I thought it a good idea to be
extra careful.) I carefully showed my student how I line up the fabric
on the line of the ruler, how I anchor the ruler with my pinkie on the
mat and my other fingers on the ruler. I showed her how the blade goes
right up against the edge of the ruler. I showed her one clean sweep of
cutter to make a smooth cut. I mentioned prefering my table at home
that's a little lower (I'm short) which makes it easier for me to put my
weight on the ruler. She tried it. First she was confused by the lines
on the mat so I had to tell her to ignore them, that we were using the
lines on the ruler. She still had trouble seeing the right line. Then
she put her hands exactly where I had, and the ruler moved all over the
place making an uneven cut. It turns out that I had neglected to SAY
that the ruler wasn't supposed to move. She wasn't pressing on it!


There was one moment when I got a little full of myself. I'd counted
how many 9-patches we'd need according to the picture and had given a
student the task of counting how many 9-patches we actually had done
already. At this point, the neat stacks of strips had already been
shuffled, and some of the 9-patches had already been sewn incorrectly.
We had the seam rippers out, and I was trying to get re-organized. My
student then wondered if I'd counted correctly, wondered if I'd noticed
the 4 9-patches in the corners of the borders. At that point I started
to grin. Anyone who knows me would know that that's simply not a
mistake I'd make. I can make a thousand other mistakes having to do
with not reading pictures correctly, but I'm very good with simple
arithmatic, and the idea of this disorganized (to me-- as I said
earlier, I'm sure she's great with little kids) somewhat flighty
assistant suggesting that I might have gotten it wrong struck me a
little on the silly side. When I pointed out why I was grinning, she
took offense, not too terribly, but I could hear it in her voice.


Ah, live and learn. With my other friends, we can tease each other that
much all the time and not worry about offending, but I would never tease
that way with a 4 year old, and thinking back, I can see that I have to
be as careful with her feelings as I would with any 4 year old.


--Lia

Wow, sounds like a really rough day. I wonder how those other ladies would feel if
they knew what you thought and have shared with us, though. I taught my first
beginning quilt class in November. There were a couple ladies there who didn't know
how to sew well, and there were some challenges, but it was important that they knew
I respected them, no matter what their level of ability. Sure, I got frustrated, but
I soon realized that it was mainly because I was being impatient. If people are
going to learn, we have to realize that not everyone is at the same level of
ability/accomplishment. But each person deserves kindness and respect, both face to
face and when talking about them to others. Just some thoughts....
--
Jalynne - Keeper of the Quilt for ME club list
Queen Gypsy (snail mail available upon request)
see what i've been up to at www.100megsfree4.com/jalynne

"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
...
I met a woman at the opening reception of a quilt show last week and
liked her. A friend who also knows her knew that she was organizing a
quilt-a-thon through her congregation and invited me to come. I jumped
at the chance. A quilt-a-thon is an organized event in which volunteers
show up with their sewing machines, get a packet of fabric and
instructions, and spend the day making a quilt for Linus Project. For
me, that's heaven, and spending time with someone I recently met and liked was the
bonus.


When I got there, the organizer was standing but just bearly. She left
soon after to spend the day in bed with the flu. She was there long
enough to realize that I could be trusted with instructions, didn't need
supervision and was up to the task. She had other volunteers who were
less certain of their abilities. Another volunteer had
started on the kit and had to leave so I took over. The fabric had been
cut; nearly all the 9-patches had been made, and the ones that hadn't
had strips ready for easy assembly. They just had to be pinned and sewn.


I also got 2 inexperienced volunteers. They'd come sincerely wanting to
help but didn't know the first thing about sewing. I realized that I
could help best by giving them something to do and a little instruction. I took
them on gladly.


This is where I realize how differently people's minds can work. I'm
terribly linear. I do well with a brief introduction to the scope of
the whole project followed by clear step-by-step instructions. That's
how I teach. My volunteers thanked me and told me that I was a good
teacher, and if being patient and never getting irritated is the mark of
a good teacher, then they're right. But if producing a student who has
learned something and can carry out a task on her own is it, I did a
terrible job. I can't see that they learned a thing or did any useful
work at all.


I needed help ironing. They'd both come saying that they could iron. I showed
them a sample of a perfectly ironed 9-patch, pointed out the way the seams went to
one side, got back a 9-patch but didn't check it. My bad. Later I realized that
some of the blocks measured 6" instead of 6.5" and had started figuring out what to
do. I was thinking of trimming everything. Then I looked again at the blocks.
Sure the seams were ironed flat, but they were also ironed with such a pronounced
pleat that they were all small. I reironed.


Another example: I carefully demonstrated how to pin 2 strips for sewing. I
demonstrated and explained how the seams but up against each other, how those
butted seams take 2 pins, how there are pins at the edges, how a little excess can
be fudged with a tug. I thought I was thorough and gave both visual and verbal
instruction. The next thing I know, my assistant is getting more and more
creative. She's putting pins everywhere. Sometimes the heads are on one
direction, sometimes the other. I corrected her once, then realized it was faster
to take out the pins and redo them.


Then I realize that the 9-patches that were supposed to have 5 blue squares and 4
green ones were coming out with 5 green and 4 blue. The neat stacks of strips had
gotten mixed up, and the sample 9-patch that I put out for their comparison had
gotten lost. I cheerfully got a seam ripper and showed them how to check to make
sure there was a blue square in the middle. I did the ripping. I remember how
when I was a beginner having to rip out your own work was the worst. It's like
having your nose rubbed in the mistake. They thanked me for my consideration and
being so patient.


While we were chatting, it all came clear. This woman is a pre-school teacher.
I'll bet her students love her. I could never relate to children that small on an
ongoing basis. I'm the sort who can be trusted with kids because I have no temper,
pay attention and am safety conscious, but I'm terrible at really communicating
with them or teaching them or getting anything accomplished while they're around.
It dawns on me that she's a pre-schooler at heart. She looks at a demo or a
sample, nods with interest, but doesn't understand what I'm doing or why despite my
explaining in what I thought were clear terms. She's kind and means to be helpful
but is so disorganized that neat stacks end up all over the place. This is an
adult 4 year old.


The other volunteer assistant was much better but still much the same. I offered
her a try at the sewing machine since I'd been doing all the sewing while they did
the pinning. She enthusiastically said yes and seemed surprised that I was willing
to give up control of my beloved machine. I showed her what I was doing with my
left hand, my right hand and pointed out explicitly how to use the machine foot to
guide a quarter inch. She sat down, took a moment to get used to the peddle (which
I expected) and sewed a seam with her hands in all the wrong places. She looked
delighted, and I encouraged her. I showed her again where I put my hands and
fingers, and she got that-- sort of. It was only after she'd sewn the 3rd crooked
absurd seam that I looked more closely at the first and realized that any
resemblance to a quarter inch wasn't there. I got the seam ripper and pointed it
out. It turns out that she was using some other mark on the sewing machine as a
guide having completely missed the important stuff about the size of the foot.


The next time I give sewing lessons to complete beginners, I'll know better where
the common pitfalls are and look there.


By the end of the day, I was pleased with myself. With the organizer not there,
I'd managed to show a good time to 2 volunteers who weren't sure of themselves and
give them something to do to feel useful and gave a little introduction to
quilting. I should stress that they were pleased with me and thanked me and told
me I was a good teacher. It was later that I started to doubt.


I wish I didn't do this to myself, but I do. I finished up the quilt top today and
got started basting it. The whole time I was working, I kept thinking of one
disasterous experience I had 25 years ago with a job at a restaurant. I lasted 3
weeks. I wanted dreadfully to do well there and learn everything about cooking. I
kept screwing up. I was sure the instruction was terrible. I kept seeing demos
and paying attention to instruction the best I could, but apparently I never got
anything right. Like my assistants yesterday, I must not have been looking in the
right places or paying attention to the right things because I could never get so
much as a knife cut correct. If I did do something right, I got told I didn't do
it fast enough. They were impatient, sarcastic, mean. For 25 years I've told
myself that the owners of that restaurant were complete jerks, and I still think
they were for the way I kept getting yelled and criticized, but most of all I've
been angry at the way they never explained anything or taught anything well. My
experience yesterday made me wonder if I were part of the problem. They were
explaining to the best of their ability, but I couldn't see what was important or
learn from demonstration and their instruction. I'm sure I'm 20 times better as a
teacher than they were, but as a student, I was probably as good as my students
yesterday--
totally incompetent and useless.


Oh well, has 25 years gone by that quickly? I'm sure they don't remember me while
I remember them. Thanks for letting me write this out and start letting go of it.


--Lia

You've managed to hurt the feelings of other people, too. People like me who
empathize with those volunteers. Who have trouble with 9-patches. Who love
felt walls and magnetic pin holders. People who may learn differently, or
who love people who learn differently.

--
Wendy
http://griffinsflight.com/Quilting/quilt1.htm
De-Fang email address to reply
Put on your Big Girl panties and just deal with it. -- unknown


"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
...
snipped arrogant and hubristic drivel

Diana Curtis wrote:

Promise yourself that you will never ever repeat any of this where it could
get back to the ladies you were teaching. I can only put myself in their
place and imagine the shock and hurt they might feel, knowing they were
being compared to children, easily awed by the fun tools we use.
Diana

I often tell my students that with any new gadget or technique I'm like
a kid learning all over again: madly enthusiastic, make terrible and
obvious mistakes, and get in a muddle (you should have seen me laminate
fabric to the iron with bondaweb!). I tell them the real trick is to
keep cheerful and positive about even the mistakes, and then those
mistakes will teach me something... Even if it IS only to listen to
teacher!

I also tell them I am like a bloke with the latest new gadget ridden
car: motor-mouthed enthusiasm, boring the knickers of strangers in the
street! If I go too fast or over their heads, they need to grab me by
the seat of the pants and yank me back to earth! If I go too fast for
them, that is MY fault. And if they are like kids, that's good too:
lots of enthusiasm and a willingness to experiment and try things
without feeling self-conscious or stupid if it doesn't work.

*I* am awed by the way the stuff sticks to those design walls: I also
think it's magic, and rave about it to the students, like a big kid! I
want one like nobody's business: gotta figure out a way to do a folding
one that can be stored under the bed!


--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Cappy wrote:

'The squaw on the hippopotamus is worth the sum of the squaws on the other
two hides'. I LOVE THIS! The picture in my head is a hoot! Hmm, might
need to be a quilt block. Got any others? grin

I'll see what I can remember... Dad was full of fun sayings. He did a
degree in History and trained to teach, but spent most of his working
life as a navigator with the RAF. When he spent a while as an
instructor on Phantoms, he said having taught was good as he could find
different ways to get the guys to learn what he was showing them. When
he was being instructed in the techniques of dead reckoning, his
instructor told him once that everything he did was correct, except that
he'd misplaced a decimal point and his answer was out by 100 square
miles... This is why they call it dead reckoning: if you get it wrong,
you're dead! he was told.

I worked one winter in a production greenhouse. Boss got mad 'cos I wasn't
filling up pots with potting soil quickly enough. He could do it in one
scoop, I had to do two scoops. Same deal - his hand was about 2"
longer/wider than mine. Got an "Oh." out of him on that... grin

It causes a giggle when you only take an S in rubber gloves...

--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Diana Curtis wrote:
Promise yourself that you will never ever repeat any of this where it could
get back to the ladies you were teaching. I can only put myself in their
place and imagine the shock and hurt they might feel, knowing they were
being compared to children, easily awed by the fun tools we use.
Diana

--


Sorry. It is a done deal. Even as they were exclaiming over the
magnetic pin cushion, I smiled and said lightly how pleased I was with
it too and picked it up and showed them how the pins stick and said how
convenient it was when pins dropped since you could wave it over the
floor and how children love it. I would never say something behind
someone's back that I couldn't say in front of them (and generally
already have). Same deal with the flannel board. As we were chatting,
we talked a little about kids and stuff they like and how we all like to
draw with crayons. I said how much I love low-tech solutions to
problems, and one student mentioned a little about playing with her kids
in her classes. Then the conversation turned to getting paid for
consultation work.


It wasn't a rough day. It was an energizing one. I had a blast, and
judging by the way they thanked me for the lesson and inquired about
future lessons, they had a good time too. (I'm not interested in
teaching for a living, but it is nice to know someone thinks I'm that
good a teacher.)


It looks like I've hurt some feelings of people on this list. I suggest
those people put me in their killfile so their feelings don't get hurt
again. That's what I do whenever someone's posts bother me. (I do that
after rereading the entire thread to see if I've misunderstood something
or taken it out of context.)


--Lia

The thing is that you already did say things behind these ladies back, or
do they read this newsgroup too? Do they know you compared them with 4 year
olds, fascinated with shiny objects? What I have done is empathized with how
'they' might feel, knowing you think of them that way. You laughed at one of
them, and you saw she was hurt.. like a child might be.
You didn't hurt my feelings. I wont killfile you because your posts usually
have good information in them, and usually I respect the things you say.
Diana

--
Weird people need beads, too
"Julia Altshuler" wrote in message
...
Diana Curtis wrote:
Promise yourself that you will never ever repeat any of this where it
could
get back to the ladies you were teaching. I can only put myself in their
place and imagine the shock and hurt they might feel, knowing they were
being compared to children, easily awed by the fun tools we use.
Diana

--


Sorry. It is a done deal. Even as they were exclaiming over the
magnetic pin cushion, I smiled and said lightly how pleased I was with
it too and picked it up and showed them how the pins stick and said how
convenient it was when pins dropped since you could wave it over the
floor and how children love it. I would never say something behind
someone's back that I couldn't say in front of them (and generally
already have). Same deal with the flannel board. As we were chatting,
we talked a little about kids and stuff they like and how we all like to
draw with crayons. I said how much I love low-tech solutions to
problems, and one student mentioned a little about playing with her kids
in her classes. Then the conversation turned to getting paid for
consultation work.


It wasn't a rough day. It was an energizing one. I had a blast, and
judging by the way they thanked me for the lesson and inquired about
future lessons, they had a good time too. (I'm not interested in
teaching for a living, but it is nice to know someone thinks I'm that
good a teacher.)


It looks like I've hurt some feelings of people on this list. I suggest
those people put me in their killfile so their feelings don't get hurt
again. That's what I do whenever someone's posts bother me. (I do that
after rereading the entire thread to see if I've misunderstood something
or taken it out of context.)


--Lia