Week 7, Residency 2. 3 hours. Perpich Center for Arts Education, Golden Valley, MN.
Finally started at Perpich this week! Jeremy introduced me to his 12:45-2:05pm section, and they introduced themselves to me as well. The class period is 80 minutes, and today was worktime as they are in the middle of a project. I felt pretty awkward but did my best to visit different students and get to know them, and understand what they were making. They were working on small folded books as well as an edition of screen prints (Jeremy likes to have two projects running simultaneously so if they don’t feel like working on one thing one day, they can work on the other. Helps when the class is every day). Then after the first class period was over, we repeated it all with the second section of the class. It’s really great being there for the two different sections. Jeremy does a great job of treating both groups with equal care and attention, and it’s helping me pay more attention to individuals somehow.
I struggled a ton with my own insecurities and fears after this first day though. I felt like I didn’t know when to talk to the students, or when to let them be. Some of them asked for help and I didn’t always know how to–screenprinting isn’t my strongest area when it comes to technical steps; though I learned a lot just from one day of observing. I had to draw on my resident assistant training and realize it’s ok to delegate—in this case, wait for Jeremy to come back and help us figure it out.