There is nothing quite so challenging and rewarding as teaching teenagers. I think we can all recognize that it takes a special someone to teach junior high, the age when sweet young children grow into independent adolescents. That special someone isn't me. I took a social work position at a junior high directly after college and lasted one year. The same position opened up at the high school that next year and I jumped at the opportunity to work with older teens. A much better fit for me. I am not working professional outside the home right now but currently at church I teach the youth Sunday school class for kids 12-18. A fun and sometimes frustrating experience. Recently we had a lesson about the importance of learning in God's plan for us on earth. One of the main reasons our Heavenly Father sent us to earth is to give us experiences that would help us learn and become more like Him. God will help us learn what we need to know and expects us to use our knowledge to bless others. That knowledge will be of gospel principles but also of secular things. God wants us to be life long learners of politics, community issues, talents, professional development, science, history, etc. All of that knowledge can be used to bless ourselves and others. Setting aside the commandment to educate our minds, there are so many other benefits to being a life long learner.
- Keeps your mind sharp
- Increases self-confidence
- Saves money as you learn to “do it yourself” (i.e. my husband and all the knowledge he has gained from working on our cars!)
- Gives you a feeling of accomplishment
- Helps you meet people who share your interests and get involved in a community
- Offers an opportunity to learn a new skill or trade and increase your income
- Teaches you humility (while skiing with my oldest child yesterday she told me, "it must take a lot of humility for all these adults taking ski lessons from other adults")
And lots more. I tried to convince my students that learning was fun. I am not sure how well I did though. It is hard to imagine learning being fun when most of the time you don't have a lot of say in what you are learning. I remember being excited when I finished school and finally had time to read a book that I chose! (Just finished Freckles yesterday by the way. LOVED IT!) I encouraged them to think of something they wanted to learn, make time to do it, and report back to us in class. My thing was Photoshop. I wanted to learn how to set up my pattern PDF in Photoshop to have more control over the design. And I did! It turns out it wasn't as difficult to figure out Photoshop as I thought and the final edit on my Running Headband pattern is with my technical editor.
I love having time and resources to learn things that interest me. The
public library and internet are amazing resources. Currently I am
reading every book my library has on spinning fiber and watching videos
online. But learning can also be frustrating. It is the whole learning curve thing. Sometimes it sucks. I am still struggling to get my spinning to be even. I don't seem to be
getting better at that now. I made some progress from my first spun
skeins but the last few look the same. I am frustrated with thick and
thin. My slow progress is irritating me. I'm not giving up, just venting my frustration.
This is the corriedale fiber my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas. I
have spun all the green up. But wasn't sure if I wanted to ply it with
the white or the blue so I spun a little of both and did
a sample plying. This is the first time that I didn't just split
the same fiber in half and ply it together. I like the multi-colored
skeins and I am hoping this way will give me enough yardage to knit
something amazing. I liked the blue and green better than the white and green so I am spinning up the blue fiber. It is so pretty with the little specks of other colors. Even if my yarn isn't turning out as great as I would like, it is still fun and relaxing to spin on my drop spindle.
Joining with Ginny, Tami, and Nicole.
Labels: spinning, Work-in-Progress
