Full speed ahead People!

Holy cow - I sure feel like someone has been chasing me through a rat-race this weekend. Never mind about the inauguration - which was just wonderful... but phew! I can't believe I made it to today at 10pm...

Full Speed ahead! So last Wednesday evening I receive an email that asks me to teach a second section of a class for the spring... starting the following Tuesday at 3:30pm. Have I ever taught this class? No. Do I have a million other things planned for the holiday weekend? Yes. Do I refrain from screaming - YESYESYESI'LLTEACHTHECLASSNOPROBLEM! yes, but barely. So yeah - scratch all plans for finishing mail art exchange and general gooffing off; time to come up with an entire semester of stuff for a class I've never taught, in four days. No problem. (snort).
Actually - while yes, it was very short notice, and no, the syllabus is not completely complete - I am really excited to teach this class! The Printed Word. But the existing course description is a history of the book. The course is required for graphic design majors, and so I have a bit of a captive audience. And, did I mention, I am really excited to teach this class!

Fast forward to tonight - 9:30 - post first day of class.  oi. I'm pooped. Wow I'm tired. But class was great. Usually I have them bind their own course book together, but with four days to plan for a class? There was no way I was going to finish that. So I pulled together some essentials, syllabus, three sets of instructions, two articles, bibliography, and a cool structure. Done. The minute I showed them the fold out timeline and world map - they were hooked.

Teaching art to art majors is almost like cheating. It's just too easy! You can throw anything at them and they love it. Make a book with a pocket and a fold out map? oooooooooh! they are in heaven. Here, have some polymer clay and make your own cuneiform writing of your name! Fabulous. 

 

Make an easy mock up of a scroll and palm leaf binding - life just doesn't get any better. We even had a very interesting discussion about the evolution of writing. It's great to see the wheels turning as they wrap their minds around the new information - or a different way something is presented. It's great. Next week we are doing Japanese stab bindings and accordions. I'm really looking forward to it. I also found some great resources in our library. Especially The Oxford Companion to the Book (2006).  I really want this 2volume set. Wow it's amazing. But as it is over $300 - that's not going to happen. Not to mention that it would also double as a door stop, so this is the first time I think I can honestly say - I wish I could get it as an ebook. sigh. That will be a while.