Hello folders… I’ve been thinking about teaching and diagrams… and what makes a great teacher etc. With zoom folding sessions, teachers i feel, have to be more precise in their words; I remember the classroom sessions where one could walk around the class and personally see what each person was folding etc. However the upside of the zoom sessions i find is that the fiddly bits, the small details, the tight folds etc can be more clearly seen cause we can request teacher to zoom in and see what’s what… way better than in real life situations.
In any case all this got me thinking about what makes for a great teacher and what makes for great diagrams. One short answer is clarity. But a long answer includes several points… - like what’s a good size sheet to first learn the model with… then what to up grade to - or what’s the size of the model vis-a-vis the sheet size - or what parts of the sheet are visible where… esp for say modular stars, where a particular corner of the harmony paper at the star tips would makes a nice effect - or if the model has color change elements then where to start from (white side up etc) and how to remember those details - if there are right-about-there (rat) folds, then how much of a fold affects what (maybe a bird beak gets longer or a deeper fold now allows easier detail fold later etc) - with respect to modulars (& other models too i guess) it’d be great to know if only one side of the paper is visible or not - showing all sides of a model is also helpful - again, specific to flat models/modulars, both/all sides are good to see - mentioning if the model has any challenges - maybe it needs a bit of glue to keep a flap staying down, or maybe a model doesn’t stay together until it is fully assembled or it only works well with certain kinds of papers or that there’s a particular stress point that easily tears (which with some tape early on could be avoided) etc - incorporating folding sequences that make it easier for ppl to fold - - mentioning to leave a hair with etc if there’s going to be many layers folded into the space… I know that’s a lot… but from my experience when such information (as needed) is included in the teaching process, it is great fun and a richer experience. And if this info was included in diagrams too, that’d be great too - some of it is included as common practice now, which is great to see. Any thoughts? Any more points that could be added? Happy folding Vishakha
