Fall University 2020: My First (Real) University Class!
When I formally stepped up as Ponte Alto's Minister of Arts and Sciences, it was just about time to submit proposals for 2020's virtual Fall University. Because I was now the one encouraging everyone to submit classes, it felt only right that I do so myself.
Over the last year, I've had the real privilege of experimenting with a wide variety of styles of monochrome embroidery, including my English blackwork, Sof'ia's cup cover, and my recent explorations into Spain. Along the way, I've also accumulated research on the topic from Germany, Italy, Egypt, and more. I love English blackwork. I really do. But there is SO much more to monochrome embroidery than English blackwork, and I want to see more of it in the SCA. So I decided to be the change I wanted to see and planned a class.
I think this is one class I'd like to keep on rotation and keep refining. Ideally, I'd love to have physical samples of patterns to show my students and eventually expand the class to include more diversity but I think currently it has a lot of the relevant information in it. That will change as my understanding of the subject changes. I was able to include several of the countries that I had only marginally done research in, and several of my own patterns, which is nice.
For the subject matter, I still quite acutely find it Eurocentric. My personal explorations have been Eurocentric over the last few years, so the extra stuff I found also was. I've got some stuff in Egypt and Iraq, and one piece from Morocco that may not actually belong in the class, but outside of that and technically Russia, it's all European. I'd really love to expand the material to non-European countries more.
Understanding that this was a virtual class, and not in person like normal, I felt ok about how it went. I had approximately 52 students- which is WAY more than I anticipated. We ended up with me pulling out a lot of my pieces and showing them off, reinforcing my thought that I eventually need physical examples.
The major drawback was that I was horribly sick when I taught this class. I had contracted a GI tract infection about a week prior and was still slightly feverish and nauseous while teaching. I did not get nearly the prep work I wanted to done and I really felt unprepared. Sof'ia said it went swimmingly, and while I know she's a little biased in my favor, I really appreciated that. Next time, speaking notes, taking time to show off my samplers more, and fleshing out the material a bit will help me fill an hour up better.
From a technological standpoint, I really wish I could have seen my students' faces. I was just on my laptop because I didn't have the strength to get up and prep my desk, so I couldn't see faces as I was presenting. I think if I'd had both screens up, I would have had a better time of it.
I also did not have a TA. On one hand, it would have been nice to not have to monitor the chat while teaching. On the other, I build in a lot of stopping points in the slides for questions that I didn't really need so I had time to play with.
