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Different Student Profiles

So this is one of my favorite things to talk about, so I'm hoping I won't like ramble on and on but feel free to interrupt me I'm going to tell you about some different options of who to teach right? And then a little bit later we're going to talk about within these categories different personality types but for now we're going to talk about the general groups of people which are as you could imagine, so we want to know you know where students are coming from to anticipate there needs you will be mori relaxed and everyone's experience is optimized okay, so our three groups that were in taba our kids obviously teens and tweens and obviously adults ok, now I don't want to like break the internet by saying that a teen in between is in the same category because there are some subtle differences, right? As as we know who have worked with member who have them as kids, ok, but I'm putting them in the general category together for our purposes today, okay? So kids, what do we love about kids? ...

And this is what one of the reasons why they're super fun to teach so I know edna you teach kids does anybody else here teaches or has taught kids yet yet maybe I challenge you guys all to try it s o we know about kids that they are and one of the reasons that they're great to teach is they're full of energy they're full of enthusiasm and they're full of curiosity full of all of that okay, they have a shorter attention span a shorter attention span meaning that you want to probably have shorter class times I mean not probably definitely or if you have a longer ish class shorter projects or projects that have clear structure or like are separated very clearly and clear instructions if there if they are more more complex okay this is a wonderful age for creative freedom they have like zero inhibitions about trying tons of different techniques painting building sketching okay it's a wonderful age for that so your projects khun b super dynamic and your results will be so cool classroom management can be tricky right? Because boundaries I mean if you have kids you know this but even if you don't have kids you might also know this boundaries and especially in an art classroom or create a crafty class okay, you have to set really really clear boundaries okay? And then for you I firmly believe that the opportunities to learn and to get more out of your craft are massive because of their sort of their outlook and their insight into things it's so much different than ours okay and it will remind you of what you were like right when you were a kid and it's so refreshing as an artist it's so refreshing and I'm gonna I'm gonna highlight somebody right now she's met my one of my friends her name is annabelle and she teaches almost entirely kids and so I want to just I want to highlight her because I think that if you are sort of terrified of this idea of teaching kids the way she does, it is actually super she I mean, she loves it obviously she wouldn't do it, but I think that the way she has hurt her business set up is I think anybody could would love it okay, her name is annabelle wrigley some of you might know her actually or know of her she runs a studio called little pin cushion studio in warrenton, virginia, which is in the washington d c area okay, so if you're in the washington d c area and you have kids, I would definitely try to send them to annabelle because she's lovely in her studio is amazing, okay? And you can follow her on social media and that's her website, but I wanted to show a little bit of what her classroom looks like, ok? And she of course has her own studio, but she started teaching in her home, so she started teaching kids in her home and then she built she built her business and she now has a studio and it is so cute and she is so on brand is well like her branding is so it's it's like you know we should she's an example of how to brand your business right because it's all it's all there and then she has classes I think she starts as young as age six okay and she just it's in her kids obviously love it and then she recently got herself a trailer and so she I think she can fit five she has five sewing machines in there and so she takes it for birthday parties and so she you know you can you can go on our web site and and rent and she'll come she'll drive to you and she I think she could take like five or six at a time so it's just a really cool example of how you can teach kids craft and make it your own and it's not as daunting as it might seem okay so check her out she's she's the sweetest as well ok teens and tweens this is kind of like my wheelhouse so what is the difference between a teen in between anyways nobody wanted to do due on a hazard a guess anybody I think tweens are less sure of themselves team so like of it's actually an age category do you know what the difference is lily yet tweens like eleven twelve yeah before they actually it comes from like in between the word in between yeah yeah well that to got to so between that would be what I used to teach a middle school right? So we've got like eleven twelve that age category they're not quite teenagers there somewhere in the middle between a kid in the teen um when their teams obviously thirteen and up so what what do we know about them they love to be challenged and challenge okay, this is like when you know when they're challenging things life for the first time which can be really, really exciting for us and it could also be kind of stressful for us um they're more and more independent than kids so in a craft classroom you and you're not going to have to worry as much about you know, misuse of materials like they can actually sit down and work independently without any problem I mean within reason especially like a eleven year old might depending on their maturity level they might actually not be able to work it as independently but it depends there generally motivated to be there right especially if it's an extra curricular or you know something lesser like being forced to be there by their parents which I can't imagine why a punishment would be you know, go toe painting class but you know, you never know they're generally motivated um it's a wonderful age to get them hooked on something okay, like there's, there's there was can't remember what it was that I read that said that the middle school years actually are the years that make the biggest impression on a human right in terms of the development and developing it love and interest and things. Okay, so this is a really, really wonderful age to get them hooked on your craft and it's an excellent opportunity for trend trendy projects, right? Love like I taught a class that involved infinity scarves, two eleven year old girls and they were this is a couple of years ago they loved um, right, everybody was wearing those infinity scarves so trendy project I don't know what's trendy right now, necessarily, like weaving, and I don't I'm kind of out of the loop, but think of what's trendy and the kids will be really into it, especially the teams and classroom management can very, um, definitely can vary founders air needed, or with older teens, behavior needs to be modeled by you. And so what I mean by that is if you're wanting them tio like, if they're let's say they're in small table groups and their there supposed to be working, and they could be chatting, but you want them to be working, you might actually need to go over and sit down and kind of model that right and show you sit with them and you kind of talk to them and whatever but you you're working and this making sure you're modeling that we could be talking or within reason but let's make sure we're on pace on dh model that behavior ok and don't be afraid to get sassy with them either they're used to it ok don't be like condescending with you know you couldn't like develop a report with them in a way to get them to do what you want ok, any questions so far when you go to the next group in the weekend I'll take some more questions at the end adults what do we know about adults? They're motivated to be there right? They're paying their personally paying to take this class versus their parent paying them, paying you to have them in your class okay which is a huge huge huge huge factor and being enjoyable to teach adults right there they want to be there they want to learn from you you get a much broader age range to okay, so I mean within reason, right? But you you know, anywhere between what is an adult eighteen teo you know retiree, you know you get the huge age range which is so cool, so cool is one of my favorite parts about adult classrooms because you're in my year peer group it's easier to create an environment of equality or collaboration versus being the authority figure, right? It's also easier you're an adult there and they're adults. And then I wanted to make sure it's clear that classroom management obviously can be a little bit more difficult, awkward for the teacher to deal with, you know, misbehavior due to students being your own age are older or slightly around your age or something, right? It's a little more awkward toe, you know, call out something when when the person is around your age, ok, so that could be that could be difficult, and then this is something that we really and you probably already have experienced that people have very different experiences, especially with art, and so they're coming into your class with whatever experience they had when they were younger and in our classroom, or with with the skills of art or even just like in general general confidence level, whatever they went through that day or, you know, you just never you just never know same goes with kids, but with adults, obviously we have more years on the planet, so we have more opportunities, more experiences to shape how we are entering into your classroom so you you want to take that into mine on day, we're going to talk about that a little bit later, so I want to make sure I save a little bit of time now for some questions about these different age groups and I would love to hear if anybody has experiences with these three groups or preferences to teach or they want to try to convince everybody to teach one versus the other do you guys have any? And he thinks susan well, my first class I had one one tween and she was great. I mean, she brought her book with her that she was currently reading, which I was interested in reading and I was asking her events like a book I would want to read um and she came with her mother so that your mother daughter team tonight do like the idea of doing a mother, daughter fever, mother, son, mother, child I guess because I think it's a little bonding time and they get to make something together and they were the mother and the daughter were talking together and pairing, picking out colors, and I really enjoyed that interaction, but probably because I have a daughter myself and we have a close relationship, so I enjoy yeah, and you know, that is something that you could encourage you could actually do that could be a class because I feel the same way obviously, I've talked about my mom already, and I know your daughter so it's like you could you know, like, this is family friendly bringer bring your so multi ages I and I totally agree the parent child dynamic in the classroom could be really cool awesome anybody else have an experience or want to share? Holly I think a lot of told me because it was knitting and it was near a hospital and there were psychologists up there so uh it was really hard not to get it into like therapy is currently don't go there because they came with like, a lot of them come because there there they have, like, hang up like they're so afraid, like because maybe they couldn't do it when they were kids so it's bringing up all these weird things or, you know, their mom couldn't teach it because that was a parent telling you what to do, where it was so funny now a stranger for some reason now they can learn from a stranger so I find that so hee I know and you can think of yourself in a way in those situations kind like an art therapist without without sort of yeah, because he's just kind of like how I know I know it's pretty amazing that kind of things we carry around with us as they come in, like loaded with something that has nothing teo and arms for some reason art brings out kind of like our inner child or something you know, like so it kind of breaks open some of those you know, things that we have inside so yeah that's that's gonna happen? Definitely I think with kids it's also good to use humor like with all the other ages and um you also find that some kids are have limiting beliefs about their abilities so just to make it ok to make mistakes because sometimes the blank page is really, really scary that's a really that's a really good point yeah, not all kids have that sort of like, endless well of creativity and enthusiasm right? Some some people, some kids are already kind of in that frames that frame frame of mind where they're blocking, you know they're already being like, well, I can't do that and you want to make sure they know that they can and that it's ok to fail it's a great point um I'll take kathy and then we'll go to our online oh minds a little longer help maybe not too long, but it's kind of combining this with the last thing we just learned andi think more because of my price point I get a demographic maybe between forty and seventy that age and they are very social, so I've sort of gone with the flow and I consider my workshops to be more social crafting so I do a lot of try to get most of the demo in at the beginning so they can be self paced in really social with each other but um and I think it just depends on the craft you know some things need to be very like with with your sewing there's a lot more precision involved with a lot of what I do is there's a lot more free flow and self expression so it allows for that yeah definitely and you don't want to encourage the community right? You want to make sure everybody feels comfortable and it's all it's it's all about making your students experience optimize with the knowledge that you might you know your expectation of your like when I started teaching this class school I taught up it was when the kids were way more chatty than in my previous environment and it was it was hard for me at first I was like why but then I realized that they were getting their work done and so it wasn't like it was her and I had to fight that urge to be like authoritarian like stop talking because they were getting their work done it just was an adjustment for me as a teacher to kind of be hearing voices more so I think that you guys are going to find that too with crafting classes I'm gonna go overto lily do we have anything from online you do and I love this comment because of a mother and child care, I think, is a really big issue these days for working women and sandra gilbert clark's. That a huge reason I started teaching children was that I could bring my own children. It's a great point. Yeah, awesome. You can still work, even though you have your head exactly that's. Great, especially if your kids are getting to the age where they also want toe try aircraft. Um, it's. Really cool to include them and on your in your classes, right? And you could even have them be a helper or something. Um, that's, really good. I like that.