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Friday, March 14, 2014

Teaching Classes; Food for Thought! ~ Twyla


      Back in the day when I was offered the opportunity of teaching my original designs at a local bead shop, I jumped at the chance, and thought it would be great fun. And it was!! But as usual, with experience being the best teacher, I learned many things along the path of my journey that I hadn't stop to consider before jumping in with both feet. It's some of  those things that I wish to present here today for you to ponder if you are considering teaching your original designs; a little food for thought! :)
 

1- Are you a people person? Unless you totally love people and are very gregarious by nature, teaching may not be as enjoyable for you as you first imagine. One thing is for certain, you will encounter and have to deal with all types of personalities and in some cases, they will all be in one room together. :) If you are an introvert and somewhat shy, as am I, being faced with all these personalities can be daunting and intimidating to say the least.

2- Am I prepared to take charge? Literally and figuratively, its your class and you have to be prepared to not only lead and guide it, but keep order and chaos to a minimum. It was my experience that there are basically two types of beady people that take classes; the social beader, who sees the experience as a night or afternoon out of the house and a chance to chit chat with friends as well as do something fun, and the serious, very focused beader who is there to learn a new technique and has little inclination to deal with  the aforementioned type. Now imagine both in your class, with one being a bit disruptive (not intentionally of course) and the other being irritated because they can't focus on the class. How do you handle it? How do you keep things on track as well as give both types what they are seeking from the experience?





3- Why do I want to teach?  Ask yourself why you want to teach? Are you there only for the income? Do you want to share your knowledge and expertise with others? Do you just enjoy people and the camaraderie or is it a combination of reasons? More than likely you will have more than one reason for wanting to teach a class; Very few of us teach with only one single thing in mind, but whatever your reason or reasons are, make sure they are clear in your own mind, so that you don't lose focus on "why" you are there doing what you are doing.

4- Are you prepared for the stress and pressure of having to create a new and original design to teach and doing it with the pressure of a deadline? If you teach classes with any regularity in a local venue, you will have to deal with this.
For some people, creating a new design comes as naturally as breathing air does. I am not one of those people. If you are like me, you will literally put more gray hair on your head while trying to create a new design, especially if there's  a deadline in the mix. Sometimes those new designs come easily and other times, not so much! Having to create a new design every couple of weeks or even monthly can be incredibly stressful and full of pressure, so be sure to look within and ask yourself, " Am I being realistic when I tell myself that I can develop a new design and tutorial every couple of weeks or monthly?"




5- Am I being realistic about the costs involved? Below is a partial list of costs that you may encounter when teaching. I am sure that there are others that I didn't encounter and haven't thought of.

       A- Transportation Costs

       How many miles will I have to drive to reach the class location? How much will the gas and oil cost? How much wear and tear will there be on my tires and the car over time?
       B- Copying or printing tutorials or patterns for everyone taking the class.

Either having them done professionally or purchasing ink and paper for your home computer printer.



       C- Needles and thread for each person in the class.

Many teachers provide these two things for each person taking their class and most especially for the new beader. Those needles and fireline adds up before you know it.

       D- Personal time involved in creating, beading a project and writing a tutorial/pattern for that project.

Your time is worth something and you need to take that into consideration as part of your over all cost to teach a class.

       E- If you are teaching at a local shop will they be taking a percentage and how much of a percentage of the total cost of the class does that amount to?

Most shops provide you with a space to teach your class for a percentage of the money that you charge your students. That percentage can vary but most charge around 30-40%.

       F- Beads and supplies to create the original project.




Some teachers like to put together kits for their students to purchase or include as part of the cost of taking the class. You need to consider your access to those beads. If you are working directly with a bead store they may or may not have in stock the beads you require for your design. In that case, what's your plan B? If you have to order from another source,how long is it going to take before you receive your order and is it cost effective?


As you can see there is more to teaching than what appears on the surface; some negatives and some positives.  I hope my insights have provided you with a starting place of things to consider if teaching classes is your goal, and always remember; Bead True to Yourself!
      

18 comments:

  1. Great article Twyla, definitely the things to consider when setting out on a teaching path. I like your comment on the two different types of students also, I have encountered those in classes many a time.

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    1. Thank you, Patrick! I've had both types in a class as well ... Can certainly present a dilemma. :)

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  2. I gave up teaching at one store as even with 3 months lead time they never had the beads in stock for the projects. They asked me back when they changed their policy to just charging a classroom fee which meant I could sell my own kits.

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    1. It can also hamper the creative process if you have to base your designs around a store's stock. :)

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  3. Great article, I do some teaching too, have had all sorts of personalities in my classrom and have had to deal with them. I do have training on how to teach adults and such and have dealt with training others all of my life, so that has helped. I basically teach techniques, so materials are not often a big issue, I do provide my students with a list of what they need and a list of stores that carry the items, so that they do have some choices. I have learned though that you never stop learning and your methods for "transmitting knowledge" evolve and change constantly as you find new ways to do things through experience. I do like teaching beading, but it is very hard work too! Thanks for the article, great ideas and advice.

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    1. Thank you, Tanya! I agree with everything you said. Great tips! :)

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  4. Super article ...been there, done that :-)
    -Eva Maria

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  5. Very good article. It is like a mirror of my past. Scary thoughts having to deal with the different type of students lol

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    1. Thank you, Aurelio! I always found it challenging dealing with not only the different personality types, but just not really being on a personal level with each individual. What one may find humorous in a class, another may find offensive etc. lol

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  6. You've hit the nail on the head - I've taught at my local library and handling all the personalities is very trying. All my students had never beaded so designing an interesting, but simple design that they could complete in class, was a challenge. And I now appreciate how long it takes to put kits together. Needless to say I'm taking a break! Jeanette

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  7. Jeanette Thank you for your comments. You actually brought up another point I meant to mention in my post and spaced; it's often quite challenging to come up with a project that can be finished in a couple of hours, and unfortunately most people expect to go home with a completed project by the time class is over. :( not always possible.

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  8. I've only taught my mother up to now but I think I would be able to do teach occasionally but I don't think I would do well under the pressure of coming up with a new design with a deadline. I don't like deadlines.
    Speaking from a students' point of view, I've had 2 types of teachers. One who just showed me step by step and I copied them like a parrot which means I didn't really learn much and the other teacher who showed me the process/technique and where it would eventually lead me so that when I understood the basic concept, I could continue beading with easy because I could identify if I was making a mistake or not. (I hope you understand what I meant.)

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    1. Linda, thank you for your comments and thoughts. I totally understand what you mean. I took classes before I tried my hand at teaching. It's one thing to learn or copy a design, but if you don't understand the processes that got you there, you're in trouble. :)

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  9. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences Twyla! It really helps. I just signed up as a teacher and there are things you listed I hadn't considered, glad you wrote this one for sure!

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    1. You are very welcome,Jillie. Glad I could be of a little help. Btw, I just love your name!! :)

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  10. This is so useful! I've actually been both those kinds of student. Sometimes I've really wanted the company, a playgroup, a social event. Other times, I've wanted to really get focused and learn a technique. For the teacher, it's difficult to balance the two when they're in the same class. I also deal with students who want to finish a "product" at the end of the class, rather than learn the technique and get a good start and finish later.

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