before and after sweat tears and laughter

Stardate 1 October
Inspection day
For the lesson we have been asked to try something new with the learners. I thought about it then decided to attempt a glass painting demonstration. This is actual stained glass not something not we have done before. I bought a kiln over summer with the intention of beginning to learn this craft and have been attempting test pieces with varying levels of success. If it can go wrong it has gone wrong but I think this is all part of the learning process. I eventually was able to find a book teaching these skills but there is really no substitute for experience and my experiences of this are minimal. As a craft it seems to have more in common with pottery painting. The demonstration I plan to do blue peter style, as a series of steps as to paint 1 piece from start to finish would be impractical due to the drying times required. I will talk about the stages and the reasons for the steps required, paint a little to demonstrate, I think on the demonstration parts I have already prepared, then if time permits fire one, although I doubt ill have time to take it from the kiln. I’m curious to see how it goes myself. I have the same session to do again in the evening so ill be pleased to hear any suggestions the inspector has.
Well I was successful after a fashion; there are changes to be made to my paperwork some obvious well cock-up’s relating to scheme of works compared to lesson plans but other things need making more relevant and well apparently self explanatory, I’ll have a look at it as I do this project which is curriculum design and will aid both things. The demonstration went ok but I need to ask more questions to check learning and understanding its strange it’s easier in the evening class as there are more new learners there the difference is, some of the learners in the morning session have been on the course longer than myself And well look at me weird when I do the teacher Dan bit. In the evening class they roll over and let me scratch their ears, but I resolve to do the whole addressing the group and being in charge, one of the suggestions of saying the time when the demo will start worked well and in the evening class I checked learner knowledge before I started. Next week ill make this more cogninent, seems unfocused and sprawling.