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Archive for January 22nd, 2007

A Good Two Classes

Monday, January 22nd, 2007

Monday/today was the first day of my term, teaching computer classes to adults (mostly retirees) at Haslett Community Education. I had a wonderful time. I always do.

Teaching is SUCH a high. No chemicals required, beyond the adrenaline my own body creates as I explain things. There is such magic in showing people things they can use, that they did not know yet.

Even in the first class, the basic class where I expect folks to maybe never have touched a computer before… they left thanking me for the class. I can not tell you what that feels like.

I can never teach them all I know, even all they would like to know. I *can* take away the fear and replace it with curiosity and permission to explore. I let them know that if the machine freezes up, it is almost certainly not anything they did. I give them permission to turn off the machine if it freezes (they are very afraid to do that, even when there is no other choice).

And the second class, some of those folks have been with me a year or more now. It’s a wonderful group, they are a little bit of a social club. And I repeat the same things every term that must be repeated for the new people. And they all agree they learn every time (I try to present the same subjects from different angles but it’s repeat and it’s good).

I did get tired about a half an hour before I could go home. It was fine. My voice is doing much better than expected, and though I did have some coughing fits in the car on the way home I think it was from breathing cold air rather than the four hours of talking.

This is what I was born to do. I explain well. I sometimes say I’m a “professional explainer.” This is about computers, about teaching knitting, teaching polymer clay, even writing knitting patterns. It’s just my thing.

Mom and Dad both taught, both my Mom’s parents taught, my aunt (Mom’s sister) also taught. It’s in my cells, and I would not have it any other way.

Some Fun Non-Knitting Blogs

Monday, January 22nd, 2007

Timbo (of Timboland and the Swampy Award Alda won) and I have written back and forth a little this week. He was sort of wishing someone else would have awards like he did so he could check out new blogs.

I am not inclined to do awards, I’m not a thorough enough surfer to be fair, but I did send him a list of some non-knitting sites which have made me smile at least once or twice. I figure maybe you folks would enjoy a list, as well. For the most part, they are listed in the order in which I found them.

Of course, Alda’s Iceland Weather Report is first on the list. I read every post, though I don’t get over there every day. I don’t get anywhere every day!

http://icelandweatherreport.com

Patrice Douge, a photojournalist in Florida:

http://www.patricedouge.com/

The cooking adventures of Chef Paz, complete with New York Monday photos:

http://thecookingadventuresofchefpaz.blogspot.com/

Aaron in Africa: my time in Togo (peace corps volunteer):

http://aaroninafrica.blogspot.com/

Bookseller Chick (used to work a bookstore and it just closed):

http://booksellerchick.blogspot.com/

Des chapeaux, just photos of vintage hats, they are unbelievable, extreme, artful, extreme again (this one posts rather infrequently:

http://chapeauxbibitop.blogspot.com/index.html

Ukulele and All that Jazz (Howlin Hobbit, a ukulele/jazz/smoky bar musician in Seattle):

http://www.howlinhobbit.com/sblog/

Plastic Girl (artist in Australia who works in plastics):

http://lianakabel.blogspot.com/

Leigh Witchel (Ballet Dancer/Choreographer, Knit Designer, Cat Lover, Travel Fanatic, expert on saving travel bucks and using frequent flyer miles/points (whatever they call them):

http://www.leighwitchel.com/blog/

Something in Season: cook-local recipes from gluten-free chef, and wonderful stories at times of family:

http://somethinginseason.blogspot.com/index.html

One Small Corner of the World (photography and accompanying poetry):

http://onesmallcorneroftheworld.blogspot.com/index.html

Gluten-Free Girl (from the same author as the above photo/poetry blog… not just recipes and cooking but storytelling including a love story, just a wonderful read):

http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

Not a blog, but LibriVox is recording many thousands of books in the public domain, into audiobooks. They take volunteers to read/record the books, or you can just go and get something and listen. (Thanks to Brenda Dayne of the Cast-On Podcast for this one.):

http://librivox.org/

Well, that should keep you entertained for a little while!!!