two hundred fold

When it comes to paper-folding, my two favorite things are sharing what I make and teaching other people. So, when the director for The University of Akron’s Women in Engineering program asked if I would be the ‘keynote’ speaker for the Kids’s Career Day and teach some origami, I was on-board.

Then I found out that it was on a Saturday at 7:45 am. Hmmmm…okay, doable.

And then I found out it was 200 girls, age 1st-6th grade. And I had 45 minutes. And they would be coming in randomly after breakfast. And it was going be in the student union theater with no desks.

I’ve taught lots of people – one at a time. And I’ve taught a group once of about 15 kids at one time.

But this. This was a whole new level.

I was given plenty of time to plan this and it all culminated this morning.

The theater seating doesn’t have fold-out desks, so I had cardboard boxes cut down to make temporary folding desks. 200 worth. I also had several reams of paper – collated into sets for the projects. I had signs made up and giveaways of origami in bulk.

The biggest challenge was how to teach 200 kids at once. With one or two people, it’s easy to help if something goes wrong. But in a theater full of people, there’s no way to correct if things go awry.

So, I had talked to one of my colleagues about rigging up a video camera to project my hands and the paper onto the big screen. He came through and we were larger than life 15 minutes before the first kid came in.

The coordinator for the event introduced me and then I was on.

We started with the butterfly, then did a boat, and then a duck.

It was a different experience than when I’d taught before. I had to go slower, repeat the steps, and keep everyone engaged.

And, it worked.

The video camera worked perfectly. The kids stayed on track. And everyone, including me, had fun. I got compliments and thanks from the parents that were there and I think the kids were impressed with the tiny cranes and boxes I gave away.

When it was done, I packed up my gear and headed home – exhausted, but happy with the results and my new personal record.