So I am teaching a class now for 7 students aged 8-14 at Hudson Valley Pottery I am loving it.

The kids want to learn and they listen to me. How unusual. I am so used to convincing students that what they are learning is valuable to them and that they are even "having fun". Here, it is just a gift.

We first started off with making animals and objects, getting to no each other kind of stuff. It helps to get to know who students are a bit before you teach them (at least for me). I also have to get to know their skill set. One kid made a 3 headed dog, another girl made a sarcophagus with an image of a lady on it. Good warm-up. We are now working a lot on the wheel (simply because they love it so much) which is so much clean-up, but it is so worth it to them. They are super psyched to get there each morning to be mesmorized by a spinning disc with mud on it. I think i changes them chemically!


We made pinch-pot lidded vessels as well (which are finished) and we are going to start coil press mold vessels Monday. Yippee! they better work fast or we wont get them done though. Class ends ends this Friday and I will be sad actually! The kids give me a real reason to get up in the morning.