Felt Making with Year 10

To help me get a feel for what teaching is really like, today Kathy allowed me to prepare and run my own felt making lesson/workshop with the year 10 students. To prepare for this I practiced making felt to recap my knowledge and have samples ready to show the students.

My plan for the lesson was to start by explaining the objectives of the lesson, showing samples of felt and handing out a step by step worksheet for students to fill in as I start the demonstration. Half way through the demonstration (at the point of layering wool) I then asked them to collect their equipment and start up to the same point, to which I then continued the demonstration to the end. To finish the lesson, after collectively cleaning the area, I gathered all students round a table showing books and research I had done of a few designers and artists that make felt in different forms in order to show the students how imaginative you can be with felt if you spent more time on it.

I feel this workshop went very well and it was nice to interact more with the students. Although I feel I lacked in confidence and authority when teaching the students which could be gained the more lessons I teach. Despite that, when Kathy spoke to the students later in the week about the workshop, they gave good feedback and even asked when I might run a workshop again.