[Sca-cooks] Teaching in the SCA

[Cassandra Baldassano]

I'll put in my two pence on the topic.

I've taught a number of classes over the past few years, most of them
cooking related (some were embroidery related). There are a couple of
challenges I see to teaching classes. The first one is finding a subject
that people are interested in. It can be very demoralizing to plan for a
class and have no one show up. The second challenge is finding the right
format for a class. For someone who is not a trained educator, this can be
quite difficult. I was very lucky last year too take a class on "How to
teach in the SCA." I learned some very valuable tips, and the instructor
(Mistress Alicia from AEthelmearc) had a wonderful planning worksheet that
she gave me in electronic form so I could reuse it.

The next challenge I see is what is the audience you are targeting, at what
level do you want to teach this information. One of my more popular classes
is "Medieval Beverages for a Hot Day." This class is geared as an
introductory class on non-alcoholic beverages. I taught this out West a
couple of times, and was quite surprised by the number of students I had
show up. So the first Pennsic I taught this class, I thought. There might be
a lot of people, I'll plan for 20.  When I got to the pavilion to set up for
the class 10 minutes before its schedule start time, the pavilion was
packed. I felt so bad that over half the people would not be able to walk
away with the handout. But the material was not very extensive, and it was
more about being able to sample, which people seemed to enjoy. So last year
when I prepared, I brought 60 handouts and gave away around 45. I also had
business cards printed with my contact information, just in case I ran out
of handouts.

A  non-cooking class that I have been developing for over the past year is
"Decorative Embroidery for Garb." I choose this as a class topic because
there were a number of Embroidery Basics classes and a number of advanced
Embroidery classes. Yet there didn't seem to be much in the way of "Now I
know how to do these embroidery stitches, what do I do with them?" type of
class. So I spent quite a bit of time finding extant examples of secular
garments between the 6th and 16th centuries and most of this class is a
slide show discussing the extant pieces. From the discussion it ends with
drawing some conclusions and tricks & tips of planning a project.

I also enjoy doing hands-on types of classes, one of which is a sauces
class. I'm in the process of expanding my notes on it, and hopefully will
have enough to make a decent publication. I plan on teaching this class and
the Beverages class at Pennsic. I'm also thinking of doing the Embroidery
class again at Pennsic since I did get a good amount of students in it last
year.

Another thought on teaching in the SCA... if the handouts are big, consider
burning them to CD ROM. It can be expensive to print color copies, but CD
ROMs are pretty cheap nowadays. For example, the Embroidery class had over
40 color images in it, I had printed out a handful of color copies... and
those were quickly taken. But I had 30 burned CDs with the notes on it.

Alright... I guess that is more like 200 pence worth,

Euriol

Euriol of Lothian, OP
Minister of Arts & Sciences, Barony of Endless Hills
Clerk, Order of the Pelican, Kingdom of Æthelmearc

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was
service. I acted and behold, service was joy."
-Robindranath Tagore, Poet/Playwright/Essayist 1913 Nobel Prize for
Literature
-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Johnna Holloway
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:26 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Teaching in the SCA

Since the list is quiet, does anyone have thoughts on teaching and classes
in the SCA?

Johnnae



Johnna mentioned on April 21:
> I thought people on the list might like to know that
> the Theme for the next TI Quest is on teaching.
>
> Tempted to Teach.
> What does it take to entice you to teach?
> What equipment do you need? Handicapped Access?
> Facilities? Etc.
>
> May 7, 2008 is the deadline.
>
> Suggestions can be sent to tieditor at sca.org
>
> Johnnae
>
>   

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