New Year, New Ventures . . . well, sort of – Beginning Sewing Class, here we come!

Happy New Year! With the start of a new year comes the start of new experiences, my first taking the form of three ½” thick, 100+ page copies of my completed Beginning Sewing Class curriculum. What type of new experience does this infer, exactly? Training, teacher training – and I am the one training the teachers. ‘What? Sarah, I didn’t know you were a teacher!’ – I’m sure you’re all thinking. Yeah, neither did I. Then again I didn’t know I was a curriculum writer either. But seeing as I did write all of the lessons it makes sense that I would be the most qualified member of FOM to train our future teachers how to teach the class.

In a previous post I mentioned that Sarah would be trained as our teacher for the Beginning Sewing Class. Since that post we have added on a second teacher to be trained, a woman named Margaret, and I am very excited about the idea of her teaching the course! She is so open to learning new skills and making sure that the work she does is correct (even if it means taking something apart to do it again the right way) I know she will be a great leader to teach this course. I’ve only met with her twice (as of today) and I am already very fond of her.

Today was the first day of our 6-week, bi-weekly teacher trainings and I am absolutely THRILLED about how well it went! Not only did we fly through the first five lessons AND first project, but Sarah and Margaret have already given me a ton of useful feedback that will help me to finalize the course so it is 100% ready to be taught to groups by the time I leave in late February.

To be quite honest I was a bit nervous/anxious about teaching the first few lessons. This was mostly due to the fact that they are focused on getting to know a treadle sewing machine and maintenance which, seeing as I’ve only tried to use a treadle sewing machine once in my life (just a few months ago) and very unsuccessfully, I can easily say practical application in these areas is not my strong suite. Despite the uncertainty of my abilities to adequately teach these lessons everything went smoothly. Margaret and Sarah helped me with everything I wasn’t sure of and we all learned new things in the process. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome!

Tomorrow it’s back to the office early for another full day of training. This time however, instead of me teaching the whole lesson we are all going to take turns teaching, each presenting a different section, as a way to gradually get Sarah and Margaret used to teaching the lessons on their own. By the end of the training the lessons should be a piece of cake for these women, each being able to teach any and all lessons on their own with perfection and ease.

So what’s next once the Beginning Sewing Class preparations wrap up and the class is ready for its public debut? Writing intermediate and advanced sewing classes, of course! I volunteered to work with Fount writing these courses after I return to the US. It’s my goal that these classes will provide students with the knowledge and skills needed to become not just competent tailors, but the best at what they do. I hope that after all is said and done completing the vocational sewing sequence offered will allow each student to imagine, design, and construct original pieces that will showcase their skills, attract a large customer base, and of course, help them improve the lives of themselves and their families financially, physically, and emotionally.