The Slough of Despond

I am a little discouraged.

First, I have been sick for a week.

Second, it actually take me longer than the lab to plan the lab sometimes, and I have very limited time.

Third, I do not know how to teach "sewing" effectively or interestingly.

I can teach pattern making, even though I am still learning, because it is fresh in my mind-- I have learned it as an adult. I am really good, I have discovered, at teaching the "understanding the design" aspects because I learned them in college, and have spent time thinking about them since

The thing is, I have never learned to sew. I am almost completely self taught. Well, my mother taught me before I went to Kindergarten, but just the basics. The rest I learned from old sewing books and magazines and trial and error. I did not take costume construction in college. I have never worked in a shop where we all worked together-- we always took things home and brough them back.

So- I have no models on how to teach this, and I also have a fear that I am not teaching it the right way. Plus, sewing is very hard to talk about verbally and it is hard for people to see a demonstration.

Additionally, the students are easily frustrated. They want to have success at something right away. The only way to get good and fast at, say, operating the sewing machine is to operate it a lot. For hours and hours and hours until it is in your physical memory. I am no where near perfect, but they cannot expect to be as good as I am in a one hour lesson, when I have been using a sewing machine for 33 years.

The biggest problem with my teaching is that I learned so young that I have no memory of not knowing how to do really basic things. Like threading and knotting a needle, or making sure the threads are always behind the needle on the sewing machine, and many other things I can't even think of. I can't think of words to explain them. I just want to grab their hands and make them do it!

So... this is a little frustrating.