Now my students spread worldwide
Photo by Author
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the whole world. According to WHO, over 6.5 million people died. Everybody’s lives have been disrupted. The news in every media is full of tragedy.
Here I dare focus on the silver lining. How many can I find in my life?
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It was such an honor that I got to teach Ikebana at Fran’s Chocolates, one of the best chocolatiers in the US (I believe so, so does Barack Obama!).
Fran’s Chocolates just opened a café in their main building, which used to be a famous brewery in Georgetown neighborhood in Seattle. Fran’s chocolates turned its vast space with the high ceiling int to a beautiful, cozy space where people can hang out over their chocolates and drinks.
The café has a huge table that can easily seat twelve people. And that table became where my Ikebana students use to make flower arrangement during my class twice a month.
My students get to learn Ikebana while enjoying their favorite drinks (my favorite is Fran’s Matcha Latte!). At the end of the class, the students get to take home a small box of Fran’s Chocolates together with the flowers they used for the class. Flowers and chocolates… What a heavenly combination!
My Ikebana classes become quite popular. They often filled up way in advance.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit
As with all the retailers in town, Fran’s coffee shop had to shut down. How long will be the lockdown? When can we resume our class?
The first couple of months of lock down, I made myself busy cleaning up every single corner in the house. But there was so much you could clean. Our house is not a mansion.
The spring flowers were blossoming in the neighborhood. Just because we can’t get together physically, that doesn’t make a good excuse for not enjoying Ikebana. Now everybody is rushing to online meetings to get connected. Why not teaching Ikebana online?
In May 2020, I invited a small group of my longtime Ikebana students to be my Gunnie pigs. I asked them to download Microsoft Teams onto their desktop and wait for an meeting invite from me.
I scrambled to get whatever necessary. My old iPhone became the second webcam. I researched which wireless microphone is suitable for me. Oh, my room is kind of dark. I should get some lighting gears!
Setting my online Ikebana class Photo by author
The day of the trial class came. All the 12 people who agreed to participate could join. Can they see me? My desk? Can they hear my voice? So far so good.
At Fran’s I used to purchase all the flowers, three kinds of flowers for twelve students, so that my students didn’t have to bring anything. For the online class, they had to prepare everything themselves. Flowers and branches, a container, scissors, etc. Everyone put good thoughts into which materials to use. I was impressed to see the wide variety.
I gave everybody 30 minutes to create their own arrangement. I muted myself, but watched carefully how each student was enjoying (or struggling).
The time was up. At first I asked the students to show their work with their camera. But the resolution of the image was poor. What should we do? I asked them to take a photo of their work and send it to me via email or text.
I copied the photos on to my computer and shared them one by one on my screen. I would give some suggestion to each work. The students would see together everybody else’s work and hear my suggestion. After I go through all the work, the students would go back changing their arrangement based on my suggestion.
The students would send me another photo of their work.
Now I can show two photos side by side, “before” and “after” of the same arrangement. Well, that would have been impossible to do if I were teaching in person!
Fast forward, more than two years later, my online class is going strong. Several of my local students are still continuing to take my lessons. Some of them are so close to obtaining teacher’s certificate. Congratulations!
My student base has expanded. Now many are taking my classes from out of state. States like I have never visited before (Oklahoma, Main, Wisconsin, Arizona). I even have students in Europe! (Germany and Czech Republic)
Who’d have thought I could teach ikebana online? And teach worldwide?
That’s all thanks to the pandemic.
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What’s your silver lining?