Last weekend I spend the weekend in Canberra with a lovely group of women, teaching a Portuguese Whitework class for the ACT embroiderers’ guild. They were a delightful group of women, and highly accomplished stitchers. They made excellent progress with their hand towels, and worked to a very high standard. Thank you to everyone who made me feel so very welcome!
I tried a new method of starting the class. Previously I have had difficulty getting everyone started in a timely manner for the Portuguese whitework technique, because it is extremely precise, and attention is required.
It is my practice to show the stitchers and techniques to the students in groups of two or three. It means that they get to see everything very close up, and really get my attention to make sure it is in the right place, and that they’re doing the right thing. However, this means that I can’t be everywhere at once, and some people have had to wait a bit for my attention. It has been a problem, and it needed to be solved.
So this time I prepared a page of notes with large pictures, to help them get started. Everyone had a copy of this, and were able to refer to it. It showed and stated very clearly where they needed to start and how they needed to start. Of course, I still moved around the class providing assistance, but it meant that I didn’t have to be everywhere at once. It meant that everyone could get going much faster, and I was pleased that it worked very well. I’m always trying to improve my teaching, to give students a better experience in my classes.
This week I have been madly working on class submissions for no less than three large needlework events! They were all due imminently, until yesterday afternoon when all teachers were given a week’s extension on submissions for one of the events. What a relief! The pressure was off immediately!
Today I’ll be photographing needlework for my submissions to one of the events, then just getting on with more stitching. While it has been extremely busy, with much to be done, I can’t complain about the amount of enjoyable stitching I’ve been doing!
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Have you tried using a camera and a projector? I have seen something like this done at my local university. The lecturer demonstrated a technique and I could see everything really well on a huge screen above her head. The prerequisites were a computer, a projector, a camera, and a screen. She was able to do a small step and then get us to do the same. Then the next step. And so forth. It was not recorded or saved, so there were no copyright issues. Later she moved around the room and assisted each student according to their individual needs. You could hire the equipment the first time and purchases later if it suits your style.
Hi Louise, I haven’t done that, no. Most of my teaching is away from home, which means transporting everything with me. If I was teaching in the same place all the time (like at a university), then this might be worth considering. It certainly is a very interesting idea! However, the idea of adding to my luggage doesn’t thrill me… 😉