I wrote a post about what in-person craft classes offer over self-guided online materials and books; now I have my thoughts about craft teaching on a more nuts-and-bolts level.
- Think it all through – Before ever teaching your first class, pay close attention to what you do when you craft. Pull out all the little steps that you’ve forgotten about because they’re so automatic.
- Get some perspective – What’s vital to doing the craft successfully? What’s just a matter of taste? What is in-between: not vital, but desirable to take your work to the next level? The students don’t necessarily have any way to distinguish those levels of importance, so do so for them.
- Be systematic, but flexible – Perspective is part of this, since you have to choose a way to teach things when there may be many ways to do them, but I am thinking of class organization. Write a lesson plan and cover things in a sensible order, but respond to your students’ needs and wants. I usually have the first session of my crochet class fully planned out, but about a class and a half worth of material prepared for the second session so I can adapt it to the students’ desired use for crochet.
- Mind your notes – Even in classes I’ve taught numerous times I refer to my notes regularly to make sure I’m not getting ahead of myself.
- Have samples – Finished and in-progress examples that can be touched and manipulated are one benefit of an in-person class.
- Remind them we’re not used to this sort of activity – In the US nowadays we don’t tend to grow up with handcraft, and the necessary motions and manipulations are very different from, say, typing. Remind them to go easy on themselves and allow time to get comfortable with it.
- Be hands-on – If you only give visual and verbal instruction, even if it includes feedback it’s missing a key element of in-person instruction. Try not to be grabby, but do move things into place for students who are not seeing it. I had an embroidery student once who was such a kinesthetic learner that placing the needle for her and having her complete the motion was the only way she could click with certain stitches.
- Keep it moving, but relaxed – The students are there to be directed, not to tell you when to move on. Definitely ask along the way whether they are comfortable with what you’ve covered, but don’t expect them to volunteer how they are getting along. Some will, of course, but not many. Push them a bit, but be sure it stays enjoyable. Almost everyone will be in a craft class because they want to learn or expand a hobby, and any few who have other purposes will push themselves as hard as necessary.
- Allow plenty of practice time – But don’t expect everyone to have it down pat before moving on. This is one significant example of the previous point. With any activity of substance there is a need for practice beyond what’s allowed in the limited time of a class.
- Let them struggle a bit – Sometimes the only way to learn is to just muck about with it. Try not to let a student do a stitch incorrectly several times, or do something to the sewing machine that is potentially damaging, but don’t leap in preemptively.
- Watch but don’t stare – This takes practice. You want to see whether they are struggling, and almost more so whether they don’t think they’re struggling but are making some error, but without looming over them and making them uncomfortable.
- Silence is not golden – If the room is too quiet, play some soft classical music. By soft, I mean almost subliminal; don’t have it loud enough to need to talk over it, just make sure there is some background noise. This serves two purposes: to help keep students from tensing up while they practice, and to ease the act of asking questions by eliminating the need to break silence by doing so.
What’s your best advice?
