Below you will find examples of work that my students made. Through a yearlong internship with Oyler School in Cincinnati OH, I was able to design and teach my own after school class. I chose to focus on textiles and soft sculpture at an elementary level. I wanted to figure out how to turn complex techniques, like weaving and sewing, into activities that were fun and easy for young kids. I designed this class based on what I think I would have enjoyed at that age. I remember always feeling disappointed with art classes because they were often solely focused on making the classes fun for kids, which sounds great, but I never left with anything that I felt proud of. For this class, I did a lot of prep work (like pattern making, or precutting yarn) to make sure the kids only had to do the fun parts. It was a lot of work, but seeing the looks on those kids faces when they were given all of their work back at the end of the year made it so worth it. Many of them didn’t care about art, and didn’t even want to be in the class. I accomplished what I had set out to do, every kid finished the class feeling proud, and even surprised at what they were capable of doing.