Treasure hunt

Finally, we have Alison in some pictures.  For the most recent class, I had an extra person present - a sort of back-up tutor.  Her name was Katharina, and mostly, I had her taking pictures.

Later that day, when I was looking through them, I commented that this was the first time Alison had ever featured in the pictures, because usually she's the photographer.  Katharina said she felt that since Alison was also a part of the classes, then she should really be represented.  So now, for the first time in this blog, you can see her.  She's the blonde girl in this first three pictures. 

This group of of girls definitely seemed to have a busy weekend planned.  They were running about 45 minutes late, because they'd been participating in a treasure hunt and had lost track of time.  I asked Alison if she had any schedules to keep to, or any reasons to hurry off and told her that even if she had to leave early, I would still pay her - I'd simply get Katharina to step in on her behalf.  It didn't seem like the most professional thing to do, but under the circumstances, I thought the girls wouldn't mind.  The alternative, after all, would have been sticking to the original schedule and just giving them 15 minutes worth of the class.

Thankfully, that wasn't necessary, though.  None of us had any pressing need to take off and all of us were happy to give the girls the full hour, despite their late arrival.  And so, ultimately, everything went fairly smoothly.

I really like The Fiddler's Elbow as a venue.  With mirrors lining the walls, and huge windows dominating the room to let in plenty of natural light.  With warm colours everywhere, with plenty of floor space and lots of ways to create a decent focal point.  Tables, chairs, couches, armchairs, the whole lot.  I can't use this venue for all of my classes, but definitely the larger ones really work well here.

Last time we were at this venue, Alison and I made good use of a really cool armchair that was available.  We thought of using it again, but this time there were some really cool beanbags as well, so we used those instead.  Next time, there'll probably be something else that's really cool, just lying around.  It's always fun to improvise.

While the girls were settling down, I looked at a couple of their treasure hunt forms, to see what that event had been like.  Much more complex than I anticipated.  From what they had said, I had assumed it to be a scavenger hunt, but this involved finding statues, writing dates down, adding up the numbers and using the results to find the next step on the hunt.  I think they were divided up into groups of four or something like that, because one group was very amused that another group had spent an hour in a coffee shop in the midst of that competition.

I couldn't help wondering whether that hour could still have been spent productively - using mobile 'phones to find the answers to various clues, rather than finding the relevant statues.  But apparently that would have been cheating.

I'm thinking of adding a fresh twist to the "best picture" part of the class.  Right at the end, it becomes a little tricky to find one picture among all the others, so I've been picking out my favourites as we go along and setting them aside - then choosing from those.  The new twist would involve making that element a bit more "official".  Pick one picture each time, show it to everyone, set it aside and keep a sort of "scorecard".  The girl who wins each round will get two points and the girl who wins the final competition will get five points.  Perhaps I'll arbitrarily award other points to the other girls as we go along - for original comments or... just... whatever.  Or arbitrarily detract points for similar reasons.

One girl produced a picture that I really liked.  I held this one up, and showed it to everyone, then went to put it onto the pile with the other potential winners, then suddenly noticed that the artist hadn't been particularly generous with one particular component.  I held it up again, pointed out the offending element and told everybody that was the reason that picture was being disqualified.  Then I picked up another picture where the proportions were more flattering and told everyone that this new picture would take its place.

Finally, we got to the group picture part of the class.  Sadly, at this point, it never occurred to me that we could have invited Alison to be part of the group shot and have Katharina take the pictures.  Though I'm not sure if she'd have gone for it, to be honest.

We used the beanbags again - to create a couple of "tiers" this time.  I sat on one of them with two of the girls, while the rest stood behind us.  One of the girls sitting next to me got a bit "wavey" with her hands, which created an interesting moment.

At least she provided me with a bit of "modesty cover" for this final picture, though.