My Home Ec Journey with Textiles

I've been teaching for 25+ years. While most of this time has been in special education, I have taught in TAFE and mainstream primary. My greatest passion is seeing others learn new things and teaching has been a great platform.

It sounds rather a cliché to say "everyone can learn" - the mantra of teaching pedagogy, but it is the core belief that has powered me on in teaching for so long. My best days are those when my students have that "Ah ha!" moment and you know you have unlocked another door to learning. This is particularly relevant in special education when learning can be hard.

Going with the "everyone can learn" mantra is the equally clichéd phrase, "learning is a life long process". I believe that immensely too as everyday in the past 25+ years, while having some common characteristics within the day, has had infinitely more new learning moments for me. Every student is different and learning styles involve this dynamic patchwork of patterns and combinations of learning that require me to revisit and relearn new ways of doing familiar concepts for each new student.

I've always been a interested in the creative arts, though not feeling particularly creative. I loved the opportunities at school and university to explore different techniques. As a mother, I bought my first sewing machine and made what I thought were clever clothes for my children. I sewed, dug veggie gardens and used what produce I could in my homemade cooking so my family would grow up "strong & healthy". In essence I had believed strongly in the value of being a home economist and this soon flowed into my teaching. I have been fortunate to have many opportunities as a teacher and teaching health/nutrition and basic hospitality skills has been my more recent adventure in education.

As such I  am heading in this direction. As part of this journey I attended a textile workshop as one unit toward Home Economics Teaching. It was an intensive... and intense it was. This blog is part of my journey, in particular my textile journey and continuation of learning as a life long process.