Things we did well and not so well :(

Posted in the high school perspective

Yesterday, artist Dave Conrey, sent out an email looking back on 2016 and planning for 2017. He broke it into 3 categories, which I liked as a way to review/ plan for myself, and also think it’s a great thing to do with our students.

Things that I did well in 2016

  • Focused on my teaching and created a lot of new lessons that I was really excited about
  • Have our house organized and feeling like a home
  • Set up a studio space for teaching and held some kids classes that I’d been wanting to do
  • Allowed myself to make things just because I wanted to
  • Stepped away from production mode when it came to creating my textiles, and really focused on creating interesting one-of-a-kind designs
  • Realized that I don’t enjoy doing craft/trade shows, and allowed myself not to do any.
  • Spent more time with family
  • Read books!!!

Things I didn’t do so well

  • Exercise…. didn’t do that at all
  • Focus, while I did a lot, most of the time I felt scattered and like I was wasting a lot of time
  • For most of the year, didn’t really produce content for this site
  • Didn’t take the weekends off from working
  • Let fear of not being good enough hold me back from moving forward with some project ideas

Things that I will do better this year

  • Focus… I’ve selected a theme to guide all of my work, and thus far it’s feeling great
  • Be consistent with sharing on this site and my textile site
  • Try more things that scare me or make me uncomfortable. ( Thus far I started the process of running for school board, and have a few other things in the works that I can’t go public with yet)
  • Exercise… this is so important, as it really helps keep my body from hurting when I do a ton of weaving. ( My man and are working out together each day… he’s basically a personal trainer, so I have no excuse)
  • Take some time off, like really totally off

I’d encourage you to do this for yourself, and ask your students to do it as well. I always learn a lot from seeing what my students think they’ve done well, and what kinds of goals they create for themselves.