I have been silent for a bit, I haven’t been attending my classes either as I unfortunately lost my unborn baby at 22 weeks because he only had three chambers to his heart instead of the usual four. I distanced myself from my students and emailed all of them. They were fantastic and sent me words of support and kindness – it made me realise that underneath everything they do appreciate all the efforts you put in for them.
Anyway, to get back into teaching after withdrawing myself from the world, I did a one week course on Pattern Cutting. Teaching on the short courses is very different to the degree courses. The students tend to be more attentive, in careers they maybe are not so happy with and genuinely happy to come into uni every day. This was a great class to take on as my first one back. It is much easier to teach as the classes are smaller compared to the degree course, you are teaching them all the same thing rather than dealing with individual projects and I have ensured they have learnt and understood the basic steps before they embark on their own designs.
On the degree course, as I teach the second years, I am not sure who has grasped all the concepts, who has been to all the classes and who is falling behind. There is also very few classes where I can teach them skills that they need to make their final designs – this is because of KIS (I think this is the right acronym) hours that we are are forced to stick to which causes our students and our technicians problems down the line.
If I could almost do a ‘short course’ with the degree students I think everyone would be happier – it is something I want to discuss with our new course leader when they start.