Sunday 2 June 2019

Knitting classes

are a regular feature of a group to which I belong.
I have never been a student in one but only because they have yet to offer something I need to learn - and that I cannot teach myself.
I didn't go to the crochet classes. I have much to learn about crochet but I am a left pawed cat and I wasn't willing to risk the potential wrath of the teacher. It is easier to read a book or two or three and investigate Ms Crochet Google.
But I taught another class yesterday. It was loosely based on what I taught to another group in the summer. The summer group could work at a more leisurely pace. This group had around an hour and a bit to do something so I changed things around. I didn't teach some things that really needed to be taught. I made explanations where I would have preferred the students come to the ideas gradually. I knitted samples that the other class didn't need. 
I also made more notes - and put them in folders. And, because of the nature of the class, I supplied the yarn. The group doesn't charge for workshops so I did that free of charge.
The students who came were great. They wanted to try - even when they said things like, "I'm not very good at choosing colours". 
I should have enjoyed the experience but I didn't. There were several things that bothered me. 
Students have to sign up for classes beforehand. Several people who signed up didn't bother to come even though they were present at the meeting. Another person who had not signed up did come. Fortunately there were enough materials to go around because of those who did not turn up.
I had just started teaching when another member of the group came in and started to talk to a member of the group. She was trying to organise something else. It was an interruption that none of us wanted. There wasn't enough time as it was and her interruption just made it worse.
I am wondering if students had to pay for classes whether people who signed up would come as they said they would. I think they would. 
I also wonder if people would simply wander in to a classroom in a school and start talking to someone. I don't think they would. At very least they would say, "Excuse me" to the teacher. 
These may seem like little things but they matter. 
At least the students who did come thanked me.

1 comment:

Holly said...

rudeness is rudeness. Sometimes you are just too polite a Cat to call someone on their behavior. And no, it would not have happened if people had to pay. OTOH, it is likely that some of those same persons would have tried to cancel and asked for money back