Hi everyone,

Thank you for all of your links and videos.

First of all, I would like to thank Al Black very much for the link to the
video of Sarah Adams at the 50th BOS Anniversary Convention (I was there!
but I didn't attend Sarah's presentation, sadly). What she says is very
important, and too often overlooked. To teach in the best way possible, you
must go beyond simply knowing the model perfectly, and make a great effort
to empathise with those who, on the other hand, are not familiar with what
they are about to fold.

One of the reasons which prompted me to send my email is precisely this:
too often I encounter teachers at workshops who fail to understand that
what seems obvious to them is not so for many others. In this sense, for
example, a recurring response to those who ask for clarification on how to
fold that left leg is, "we'll fold the other leg too, and then you'll
understand". This is a bad answer and, in my opinion, shows a certain lack
of preparation and "insensitivity" on the part of the teacher, who, instead
of accepting the request for help, simply asks the participants to wait for
the same (complex) step on the other leg, effectively preventing those who
are stuck on the left leg from understanding how to fold the right leg and
then make up for lost time.

Another example of not teaching properly, which Sarah also mentions, is
avoiding wasting time on simple steps and instead devoting more time to
more complex ones. So many times I have participated in workshops where the
teacher simply kept the same pace step by step, almost regardless of the
complexity, without realising it (at best), effectively putting the class
in difficulty.

Often, I have participated in workshops where, when the model starts to
become complex, the teacher chooses (perhaps for their own convenience) not
to show each fold to everyone collectively, but to go from person to person
and show the fold to each individual. This is a mistake because typically,
in every workshop, there will be people who are able to make that fold on
their own; they just need to know/see what the fold is, and when going from
person to person and spending time even with those who could have folded it
themselves (but they couldn't because that fold wasn't shown) is a huge
waste of time, at the least.

I still need to look at the pages Hans linked to, I'll do it as soon as
possible.

Thanks,
Lorenzo






On Sat, 27 Sept 2025 at 12:02, Al Black <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi Lorenzo, all
>
> A good place to start might be with the recording of Sara Adams
> presentation at the 50th Anniversary British Origami Society Convention:
>
> It's at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jurFXVS6euo You’ll note her
> slide deck is there, along with 40+ comments where you can comment on.
>
> All the best,
>
> al
>
> On Sep 27, 2025, at 3:31 AM, Lorenzo via Origami <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> Is there an online resource that collects advice on how to best teach a
> model during a workshop?Perhaps a place that is ‘open’ to discussion and
> further contributions?
>
>
>

-- 

Lorenzo Lucioni
Duesseldorf - Germany
[email protected]

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