Preparation: How to Get Ready & Other Materials
Lesson 16 from: How to Teach a Craft ClassAshley Nickels
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Preparation: How to Get Ready & Other Materials
Lesson 16 from: How to Teach a Craft ClassAshley Nickels
Lesson Info
16. Preparation: How to Get Ready & Other Materials
Lessons
Day 1
1Class Introduction
15:45 2The Benefits of Teaching a Craft Class
12:46 3Determine Your Expertise
11:45 4Different Types of Teaching Venues
13:37 5Factors to Consider Based on the Teaching Venues
04:19 6The Importance of Lesson Planning
05:02 7The Different Types of Classes
11:16Determining the Class Objective
16:52 9Create a Technique-Based Lesson Plan
18:04 10Create a Project-Based Lesson Plan
30:04 11How to Approach a Venue to Teach a Class
16:18 12Factors to Consider When Negotiating with Venues
09:27 13Skype Call with Christine Haynes
41:03 14Workshopping Students Lesson Plans
13:13 15Preparations: Supply List & Kits
13:48 16Preparation: How to Get Ready & Other Materials
14:20 17Preparation: Practicing Beforehand
10:26Day 2
18The Day of the Class: Before the Students Arrive
07:36 19The Class Begins: Start with the Student's Stories
12:53 20The Importance of a Strong Class
22:31 21Timing & Pacing for a Strong Class
22:10 22Different Student Profiles
17:57 23Pitch Panel: Lisa Shaffer, Marie Muscardini, & Elizabeth Madariaga
1:13:32 24Obstacles That Come Up During a Class
10:12 25Always Use Positive Encouragement
07:50 26Great Answers to Hard Questions from Students
17:24 27Wrapping Up the Class
02:28 28What to Do After the Class
12:55 29Go Forth & Teach!
09:04Lesson Info
Preparation: How to Get Ready & Other Materials
Other materials to bring so we're talking about, like, what to provide, like what you need to tell your students to bring and what you're going to give to your students so that they can perform the activity, but what other materials? And I I think that this stuff is pretty important just because I, you know, it's, like you're like a mobile unit, like when I was a schoolteacher, I had everything in my classroom, right? So it never moved from my classroom, but when, when I'm teaching sewing, I'm going to so many different spaces generally that I always want to remember to bring certain things. So I brought, um, my little kid here, this just an example of something like, of what you can, how you can do this and mine has a bunch of stuff in it that all show, but the first thing is, I like to bring tape paper and markers, okay? Because sometimes I can't rely that the classroom has any sort of a corkboard situation, and I like to, like, have things up for people to see, so I bring tape, so I...
'm doing a sample block, and I just tape it on the wall, okay, so I would bring some tape, have some tape hey, um, paper now paper is sort of I said I liked I like to bring a day later in a later when I say like to bring chart paper like big chart paper to write the lesson objective on which I really I really encourage you guys to have it up somewhere in some form right remember what we're doing today but you could also just do that at home you could write it out and roll it up and then stick it up you don't necessarily need to bring an entire thing of chart paper if your classroom has a white board then you're even better off and you could just write it up there introduce li you could write your name okay maybe not is necessary people will probably learn your name but it's always nice name tax if you are in a situation where like I have six students today and they'll have name tags on and it really helped me learn your name's faster like I could have learned your names in ten minutes but by that you know you're teaching her a little bit kind of a little bit of there's a like a flustered sense and so it's really helpful that you guys have your name tags on just for quick reference so I would consider doing especially if you have like more than I would say more than six students name tags kid's name tags okay I highly recommend the name tag um a timekeeping device we're going to talk in a in a later segment all about timing and pacing and how are you going to keep track of time if you don't have a time keeping device, let me ask you now you can have your cell phone um I don't know like it's really helpful to just have something on your wrist? I'm lucky here I have a huge clock on the wall okay? And my my classroom at a huge clock on my wall and I always was looking at the clock okay? Because it's always something that you're so have something where you can easily reference if your phone is over on your desk or over on the table and you have to go over to check the time it's not as if it's not as efficient as knowing what time it is when you need it in the moment ok, how much time do we have ok highly recommend bringing a timekeeping device? We were talking about this with christine music some form you know they make those really great bluetooth speakers now they're like this big if you have one great if you don't don't necessarily need to invest in one or maybe you want to it's up to you some way that maybe you can place a music might really help set the tone you know and that's and of course entirely up to you decorations this is all very specific to you. If that's something that is going to help you set the mood in your classrooms and bring some decorations a little garland or, you know, a flag or a banner something maybe that makes the space a little bit more uniquely yours. Why not? And then, like I said about the big poster paper, I'm not sure that's you know something you have to think about every time, but why not? Ok. And then I guess I brought my tool box up a little early stuff in here. I want to show at a later time, but I brought, like post it's. Why might I use posted? This was like trick I used to do with when I used to teach young, like, middle school aged kids. But she she yeah, you could write things down or, like, depending on how long you have your students are working, you write down a little note and you stick it on there they're, you know, right in front of them, it could be like a little word of encouragement. It could be, um, it's also a nice way of calling out something that, um I guess it work, it works more with like behavioral issues, right, like I saw you pass that note or something you know and so it's a way of calling calling it out without calling it attention to it which could mean a very effective classroom management tool. So I always carry posters with me not like I need to do that with, you know, ladies who are quilting um and then markers like I said and then the other stuff in there I'll get to a little bit later so any questions about materials is there anything else that you guys I think that should be included on this list that maybe I left out other things that you want to bring I think that the time keeping device and the name tags in the music depending, you know, music depending, but the name tags on the timekeeping device I would not overlook so shasta well, I did go to a class set, but at the very last class the teacher brought tea just as like a closing yeah like thing? Yeah. That's a really? Because it's not a place that all he does that's everything that's a really good. I was talking to another fellow teacher the other day about that very thing and it was snacks to snack or not to smack in your class right and so that's going to be up to you as well because sewing machines we have a kind of a no snacking no no open liquid kind of general rule but for other kind of craft like white maybe that's not restrictions so maybe you do have snacks and drinks um and then think about who's going to provide that so are you going toe you know is it realistic to provide um you know, candy bars for all of your students for every class like is at a cost that you want to encourage yourself but you know, maybe it's important to set like a tone or it's halloween candidate if it's halloween classic bringing halloween candy I mean maybe it's kind of on brand so you could think of it that way really? There was funny comments online yeah, well, this isn't too funny but sherry critic had following up on the candy she said I love it when teachers bring pieces of candy tokyo but someone else before and it was earlier in the class so I don't have it in my chat right now but she had said don't don't have wine at the classical last time she said that it became a party on and they didn't get anything something to consider yeah that so if you're charging for a class, you have to have a license to serve alcohol I think if you just having your girlfriends over and you're teaching them something, you compose it up but if you're if you're if somebody's paying to come to your event you have to have a liquor like have released just for that event or b y o b ah what's right and be like yeah that's thank you for pointing that cut that out there yeah and that's that works okay all right, so we'll keep that in mind yeah don't bring your own tell them to bring their own handle what? Spending on like they have facilities to your living with something and yeah thirty wayto washing your hands or hand sanitizer or something yeah, yeah I mean that's something if you're if you're doing something that's pretty like you know, if you're getting down and dirty like ceramics or painting or something like that, you want to make sure that the facility has, um thanks and things obviously I mean that's something to keep in mind, right? And white in forgery sometimes you can't you just kind of get yeah, I know that was like that in your hand that's really in jewelry to can get kind of dirty is that your hand? I was at this event once and I wasn't as prepared as I could have been for this in the event coordinators kind of decided what on my blood project they wanted me to teach the head of supplies everything when I got there it was a very tiny jewelry project that wire bird nous and there was seventy people in the room so it's a very tiny project and I was I don't know what to do, but I had my ipad and I luckily had it on my block so I could blow up the detail and show it from a distance. So the ipad worked really good for reference saying things that not everybody can see you can blow it up or reference what you're talking about I think that's a really good thing to bring yeah technology yeah like for example, I know a lot of quilters who use projectors and cameras for their demos, right? So instead of having everybody crowd around your sewing machine, they actually have one of those live feed cameras and it's projected okay, so that, you know, allows it's so great for demonstrations, right cause because it's true, if you have more than like eight people around a sewing machine, not everybody is going to be able to see which is something to keep in, which is a similar situation, right? So having a way to show or have photographs, this was a photograph on the ipad that I could show and that's a great way of, like, last minute figuring that out really good, yeah, and then in the future you could have photos printed that they can pass around or you could have that actually, you know but that's a really good way of sort of figuring it out in the moment, which is what we have to do is teachers all the time so that's great um other other things that come to mind that you would want to make sure to bring make sure you have water for yourself I'm assuming that your venue will provide that or that it'll be nearby but just stay hydrated everybody anything else before we move on you guys are doing so great so impressed to sell or not to sell so this is like, you know, we're talking about how teaching can be a great opportunity to sell your goods in class and this is something that you'll want to discuss with your with the venue first ok? Because for example, if you're selling something that's related to your class like a certain pair of scissors or something that you, um you know that you because you can do that at certain venues but at certain venues they won't build discourage you from doing that ok, especially if you're teaching in a shop that sells that item they don't you know you don't want to be selling that yourself it kind of under, you know, it's a little underhanded so you want to make sure you're selling anything that's not your own books um and then even you're your own books if that shop sells your books don't sell them yourself you want to encourage your students tio buy them from the shop that you're teaching us okay but if you're in a venue that's not a shop absolutely sell your stuff okay especially like a setting conferences and things like that and then if you are also you can also sell supplies for your class like if somebody if you know that your experience is that people forget to bring a certain you know certain needles for sewing for example have a bunch of those needles on hand and just you know, pilfered it sell them ok? So it's something that I don't wantto be too like broad about and say like yes definitely sell you want to make sure you have it worked out with the venue because you want to make sure that that relationship stays strong and you don't you don't wantto you know make them unhappy behi taking business away from them um does anybody have any questions about that or about anything that we've just covered and I always I'm asking for questions I have a way to take payments if you're going to sell absolutely no I just got I had used paypal so I just got the papal here haven't used to get uh yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm teaching a class and then I have a table of things they can purchase yeah because you know everybody always spends more for using a card always so, I would just stick with that. I could not agree more. Um, yeah, if you say you take card, then it's, just like agree it's, a green light for spending shasta it's not appropriate for you to sell in that situation, or whatever. In your introduction, you can still always talk about yourself. Since you're talking about yourself, you can just make sure everybody has your like website or whatever business cards, so that if there's, they heard about something in a classic exactly, and then that that's, why that it's important? To begin strong with that information, then also end strong with that information and make sure that everybody knows how they can reach you and where they can buy your stuff, which will talk about later as well.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Claude Aimée Villeneuve
This was a very good class, well prepared and packed with such useful information! I've been teaching various arts and craft classes for over 10 years now and did it sort of instinctively. Ashley gave me the tools I needed to refine my classes and prepare really good classes outlines and how to find venues to teach and pitch my classes. That was awesome and I plan to watch it again and again because there is so much in it! This was a first class presentation! Thank you Ashley! Claude Aimée Villeneuve, Visual artist and teacher
a Creativelive Student
I'm not even half way thru the online videos and want to recommend this class to anyone who just needs that extra boost to start their own classes! I like the fact that Ashley suggests that we think from a student perspective to help us to better plan. This class covers many things I have heard before BUT in greater detail. When I hear the 'WHY' of doing things, I'm more likely to follow thru. These videos explain many 'WHYs' (There are many informative sites/classes for this topic but not many people give you 'this is WHY' it should be done this way) Ashley gives the "WHY' and the 'HOW to'. If you want to teach and are mostly ready to teach, take this class and all the gaps will be filled in and you will be ready to go forth and teach your craft!
Barbara Schiffman
Great class -- watched live (most of it) and purchased for ongoing review. I've taught many things, including some crafts (decorating gourds, collage, making your own tarot-collages) but I gained new insights, ideas and confidence from Ashley's advice, the students questions and input, and the panel! I recommend this for anyone who wants to teach a class -- craft oriented, personal development, or anything else!