Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
Bangalore, India
Saturday 12/21/2013
Today was my first official teaching day, two classes of three students each, one from 9-11 a.m., the next from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Then from 3-5:30 I worked with some of the teachers. They are really catching on and I am confident they'll be able to keep on teaching mosaics after I leave.
Of the six students, only one was old enough and strong enough to handle the tools. He was 13. The rest were aged 7 to 9. As soon as I realized how young the students were I changed my lesson plan, and the first thing I did was show them the tile nippers and then have each one try to break a piece of tile. They all could. but only the oldest could do it one-handed and with any control. The others strained two-handed to break their pieces. So, the teachers and I broke up tiles for them.
I also decided to make the mirrors an advanced project. For their first project I gave them a blank board and let them play with the tiles, to get them used to handling the broken pieces of tile and the adhesive. I felt like I was scrambling at first when I changed my strategy st the last minute, but I was delightedly surprised and impressed with how well even the youngest handled the small pieces of tile and adhesive.
Their designs were good, too. The littlest one, who looked to me like he was about 4 years old instead of 7, made a perfect red heart and an absolutely excellent dragonfly on his board. When I showed the kids how I make little round pieces and leaf shapes, they caught on fast and put in orders for light and dark green leaf shapes, and all colors of round shapes.
I am thinking that when these first projects are all done, we can make a mosaic mural of them to mount on one of the walls here.
Anyway, the kids had fun, the teachers were happy, and I am relieved it all went so well after all, even though I had to change my teaching plan on a dime. I wish now that I had smaller boards to work with for the first projects, but the 12x12s will do for now. I'll be here for eight more weeks, and I'll be seeing each class three times a week, so we'll get a lot done.
To get ready for today, I spent the previous two days making two mirror mosaics and another very simple basic piece to get used to the adhesive and experiment with the grout. Andy sifted and washed the sand, and it looks like our best grout formula is one part sand to one part grout. I want to try another sample using one part sand to two parts grout, because that one seemed to feel most like the texture I use at home.
Tonight I'm taking a break from mosaics and going to bed early. I am today with my sore throat, congested cough and achey feeling where Andy was a couple days ago, and I'm wiped out. I worry that I'm passing this on to everyone around here, but they don't seem to be the least bit concerned. Andy says today he's feeling like he's on the mend, and I sure hope so because I don't like thought of him making that long flight home in four more days with a bad head cold. As it is we're both drinking lots of tea, and trying to get more sleep.
There's lots more I could write, of course, but it will have to wait until the next post. Goodnight for now.
Bangalore, India
Saturday 12/21/2013
Today was my first official teaching day, two classes of three students each, one from 9-11 a.m., the next from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Then from 3-5:30 I worked with some of the teachers. They are really catching on and I am confident they'll be able to keep on teaching mosaics after I leave.
Of the six students, only one was old enough and strong enough to handle the tools. He was 13. The rest were aged 7 to 9. As soon as I realized how young the students were I changed my lesson plan, and the first thing I did was show them the tile nippers and then have each one try to break a piece of tile. They all could. but only the oldest could do it one-handed and with any control. The others strained two-handed to break their pieces. So, the teachers and I broke up tiles for them.
I also decided to make the mirrors an advanced project. For their first project I gave them a blank board and let them play with the tiles, to get them used to handling the broken pieces of tile and the adhesive. I felt like I was scrambling at first when I changed my strategy st the last minute, but I was delightedly surprised and impressed with how well even the youngest handled the small pieces of tile and adhesive.
Their designs were good, too. The littlest one, who looked to me like he was about 4 years old instead of 7, made a perfect red heart and an absolutely excellent dragonfly on his board. When I showed the kids how I make little round pieces and leaf shapes, they caught on fast and put in orders for light and dark green leaf shapes, and all colors of round shapes.
I am thinking that when these first projects are all done, we can make a mosaic mural of them to mount on one of the walls here.
Anyway, the kids had fun, the teachers were happy, and I am relieved it all went so well after all, even though I had to change my teaching plan on a dime. I wish now that I had smaller boards to work with for the first projects, but the 12x12s will do for now. I'll be here for eight more weeks, and I'll be seeing each class three times a week, so we'll get a lot done.
To get ready for today, I spent the previous two days making two mirror mosaics and another very simple basic piece to get used to the adhesive and experiment with the grout. Andy sifted and washed the sand, and it looks like our best grout formula is one part sand to one part grout. I want to try another sample using one part sand to two parts grout, because that one seemed to feel most like the texture I use at home.
Tonight I'm taking a break from mosaics and going to bed early. I am today with my sore throat, congested cough and achey feeling where Andy was a couple days ago, and I'm wiped out. I worry that I'm passing this on to everyone around here, but they don't seem to be the least bit concerned. Andy says today he's feeling like he's on the mend, and I sure hope so because I don't like thought of him making that long flight home in four more days with a bad head cold. As it is we're both drinking lots of tea, and trying to get more sleep.
There's lots more I could write, of course, but it will have to wait until the next post. Goodnight for now.
RSS Feed