Melanie Tlaseca Verde — A Place in Time: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Week 1

Melanie Tlaseca Verde            

It’s all in the details. And, details are important when your work day runs from 5 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening. From smiling at grumpy strangers rushing into the 7 train, making sure I wash my tupperware and prepare my lunch immediately upon arriving home at 6:30pm, to alphabetizing the t-shirts my campers must wear right before going home, focusing on these details make a daunting day run smoothly.

As an assistant facilitator to two awesome Cooper Hewitt educators and a (YAP ‘18!!!) teacher’s assistant, I found myself struggling to find my place amongst the first-day bustle of Design Camp. Nervous children, ages 5-11, were in our care from 9am to 3:30pm, and the overall goal of the first week of camp was to engage campers in hands-on design activities focused on creating inclusive tableware.

Some of my assignments included passing out materials needed to execute these activities, such as workbooks, t-shirts, pencils and markers, and managing the free-choice activity station. Some roles are unofficial, which I’d like to call: Conflict-Resolution 101. My campers’ honesty, although sometimes brutal (one thought I was 92 years old!), often got lost in translation, which resulted in a lack of efficient communication between some campers. Whether it came to sharing a specific drawing material, or including one another in games, I learned that teaching requires patience and logical explanations. It was easier for a camper to share a marker once I explained that it was the only one of its kind in the room, and just as easy for a different camper to be more inclusive once I explained to them that the rules of a game could be rearranged to include everyone. Practicing patience (getting enough sleep greatly helps) and articulating an idea step-by step came to be formative skills for my knowledge of the education discipline.

Such a diligent and continuous practice of patience and effective communication skills reminded me of the group work I did during Washington Week. Part of our Week made it practically mandatory to effectively exchange information between my fellow YAPpers and I, and it wasn’t always easy, so I was able to sympathize with the younger campers in this respect.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons I learned this week is the amazingness of planning ahead. I witnessed its importance when I was not frantically plowing through a mountain of t-shirts to hand to the campers, because I had planned ahead and organized them alphabetically. I witnessed its beauty when two of the Cooper Hewitt educators rearranged the seating dynamic of the room in a way that compatible campers were seated next to each other in order to minimize isolation and conflict. The next day, the campers were much more energetic and conflicts, although inevitable, had been minimized, thanks to the planning ahead of the educators. Design Camp could not run smoothly without the organization and attention to detail given by the educators and coordinators, which I came to learn are the backbone of the Institution’s Education Department. The first week is one for the books, and I am excited to tackle another week of patience, organization, and fun!
Me, reading the book: Rosie Revere, the Engineer, to the children

An overview of the last day of Week 1 of Design Camp. Exhibition time! 

In the Jewish Museum, the children created 3-D art for the visually impaired. 

A snapshot of the classroom!

Campers and their workbooks!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 4: History Colorado Center

The last week of my internship was also one of the bests (and I apologize for the lack of pictures again, I'm honestly really bad at remembering to take them). As the last four weeks came to a close, I spent my time putting the finishing touches to any work I was doing. Whether that was meeting about the after school program or getting a few more sketch ideas in for the illustration book, I didn't want to leave anything undone or untouched by the time I was finished.  But, I didn't just work. That isn't to say that I sat around and didn't do anything, either. The last four week, however, was spent hanging out with my supervisor and a few others. On Wednesday, they took me out to lunch at an amazing phở spot on Capitol Hill. The lunch was spent having great conversations and some realizations too. Although I learned a lot  about people in Colorado and the roads that they mapped out, I also learned how it felt to be valued and appreciated for my ideas and c...
Read more

SAMA - the last week

July 29 - August 5th On Tuesday, I was also able to take a mental break from computers and art and had a refreshing storytime at the San Antonio Public Library - Las Palmas branch. Even though our participation level was low (two kids and a grandmother), I still had an incredibly fun time with them. After Criztian and I read the story and did the drumming activity, the kids wanted to show us the songs and dances they learned from the librarian, including If you’re happy and you know it, Frogs on a Log, and Shake the Sillies Out. Seeing how well the children interacted with music and dancing was such a great experience, which fit perfectly with the theme of Tito Puente and his music during storytime. Seeing how well they interacted with the music and the stimulation to their young brains was so inspiring.  On Monday the 5th, the other intern and I paired up for the gardens presentation. In case you aren’t up to date here’s a recap of last week: I had an idea to expand the...
Read more

Giovanna Ferreira - WEEK 3 at S.C.C.

Image
Third week of interning at Smithsonian Institution Building has been an adventure. Since we had meetings every single day at every single hour plus doing translations and working on the website for about two weeks, my supervisor decided to give me a little break and sent me to different Smithsonian museums (and the zoo). National Museum of African American History and Culture Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Smithsonian National Museum of American History One of my favorites was the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport, VA. The location is, in my opinion, the coolest, because while you are going around exhibitions you can also observe real planes flying over the museum.  Lockheed SR-71A “Blackbird” was by far my favorite of the whole center. It was a spy plane operated by the United States Air Force and it set a speed record by flying from L...
Read more