[Nfb-krafters-korner] thinking of teaching a class, what you need to know!

[Cathy]

Hello to all new potential teachers,

 

I remember when I made the decision to teach a class for the first time, I was initially unclear
about the proper procedure to follow to schedule my class. 

So with that in mind I thought I'd give anyone interested a heads-up on how to go about it.

 

ok, if you have a craft that has never been taught, you might want to post on the list as Cindy did
to see if others might be interested. But normally, say for a well-known craft class idea, the
first step is to contact Joyce privately. You would share your idea  for the project you were
considering teaching and  whether you were interested in teaching an email or phone class. If a
phone class, you would want to let Joyce know what day of the week and time you would be willing to
offer the class. Also it is helpful for her to know how many sessions you think you will need for
the class. If it is an email class, you will probably have to wait in line till an opening is
available, since there are only so many email classes that can be run simultaneously. So you send
that email off and Joyce  will email you back and you will both come to an agreement on the date
and time. 

 

 

Once the dates have been fixed, you will go to the web page where the classes are listed and fill
out the class proposal form that is to be found below the list of classes. It's good to look at
what information you will need to provide before-hand to make certain you have all your ducks in a
row. 

It's important to be aware that there are separate class proposal forms for phone and email
classes.

 

Once you have completed the form, you will receive an email confirming that your proposal was
received.

 

When Cindy our webmistress has posted your class, you will receive an email requesting that you go
to the website to confirm that all the information you submitted is correct. So you reply to that
and then wait.

 

 

About a week before a phone class Joyce will send you an important email. This email will contain
basic information about the class, dates and times, and will also contain a specific phone number
and access code which you will be using for the conference call during the class. Below this
information will be a list of all the students in your class, including names, emails and phone
numbers. The reason you will be given this information is that you will now need to contact each of
your students via email to send them a welcome message that will contain the basic information
about the class, time, date and phone number with access code. Be certain not to send the class
list to your students. This is private information for you only.

 

(note: I found it helpful to create a contact group in outlook to email my students, allowing me to
send one email instead of ten or twenty single emails. 

On rare occasions you may need to cancel a class. If this happens you can post a message to the
Krafters korner list, or send emails to your students, or even call them to let them know that
class has been canceled. Of course the sooner you can contact folks the better. 

So I believe that is all you will need to know. I will add here that I truly enjoy teaching classes
here. I was so nervous my first time. I was worried that I would be so scared that I could not
speak, worried that I would forget how to make the project, that I wouldn't be able to explain
properly how to perform the steps needed to create the project, and even that folks would not like
the completed project. I was an emotional mess!

But I had a helper to support me and everyone in the class was so friendly and eager to learn, that
I soon got over my nervousness. no, I didn't say everything perfectly, and did make a few mistakes,
and not everyone was able to complete the project. But when it was all said and done, I knew that I
had helped some folks to make something they had never made before, and that they truly appreciated
this. I felt so good inside and I decided to teach another class and then still another.   

 

I do hope to see some new teachers stepping up. it will be so much fun for me to learn from you. As
I like to say to the newbies on the list:

Jump right in, the water is warm.

Just as an aside, usually when an instructor teaches their first class, Joyce or another
experienced teacher will be there as a "helper" just to offer support and confidence. 

 

Cathy F