Before You Teach (Art or Anything Else)

This gallery contains 4 photos.

You’ve been accepted to teach at an art retreat–Congratulations!  Your ideas are fresh, you can’t wait to demo this new technique, so you are all set, right? Not so fast. Even if you have done demos and taught small groups, … Continue reading →

Six Tips: How To Handle the Problem Student (Part 2)

Yesterday, we covered the Whiner, the Know-it-All, and the Downer. Today we round it out with four more (I added an extra) disruptive characters in your class. We are talking about people who can hijack your class, sink all hopes of learning, and destroy any collegiality that you are working so hard to promote.

Troublemakers, a record by Tony Roots

A note on pronouns: I have used “he” and “she” randomly, by flipping a coin. Disruptive people come in both genders.

1. The Gotcha. This student will ask you impossible to answer questions, ask if you’ve read “definitive” but obscure books on your topic . When you say no, he acts shocked, says that it’s a must-read for anyone in the field. Watch for a tone of kindness just short of condescending.

The solution: Be honest, admit what you don’t know or didn’t read. Don’t bluff–it’s a recipe for disaster. Ask what three things he learned from the book that the class could use immediately. That turns his expertise into your good fortune and keeps a positive vibe. If you don’t know the answer to his questions, let him answer. If he knows, you have more knowledge. If he doesn’t, steer the class back to the topic.  Write down the book title and use break times to search it and vet for mention. If he becomes obnoxious, ask him to hold his questions for break. Without an audience, he’s lost his reason for speaking and most likely, won’t show up.

2. The Passive-Aggressive. A tough customer. Seemingly nice mentions or innocent questions to your face are used as snarky remarks to table mates, just out of earshot. The passive-aggressive student’s friendly exterior hides a seething interior. She may be kind in class and rip you on Facebook or Twitter. Passive-aggressives are wicked gossips, and in today’s culture, gossip is often encouraged.  First: you are not the cause of her anger. Do not try to fix her. Do not give her any extra attention, make her a part of class by giving her assignments with limited authority–the scribe in her group, for example. The class as a whole is your biggest help to keep her online. Keep a cool, professional and slightly distant attitude. Answer questions with facts, not opinions. Be polite, but do not engage. It’s hard, as she appears charming. Promptly cut off gossip or criticism. If you are asking for feedback from some students, skip her. She may well rip into you (or worse, a student) and when asked for a reason, she will back off, cry, or invent an excuse so pitiful that the damaged student is left confused and angry. Another control is to give clear, simple and very definite rules for activities and enforce them equally and cheerfully. One more thing: you cannot control the passive-aggressive outside your class. Do not try to please her or make her a star, she will still say nasty things about you. It’s her nature.

3. The Sulker. A cross between the Downer and the Whiner, the sulker needs a lot of attention and will act damaged or ill to get it. In the worst scenario, the Sulker creates an “emergency” to get attention. This is a tricky situation because you don’t want to ignore health emergencies, but you also want to do what you are paid to do–teach. The Sulker triggers the “fixers” in the class–helpful people who want to console, support, heal, encourage and be around people in distress. You can lose half the class to one person who puts her head on her desk, suddenly leaps up and runs out of class, or wears three sweaters and rocks herself in a stuffy classroom.

Solution: Before class, scan for people who appear to be sick and not engaged. Quietly ask them if they should be in class today. Universally, the sulker will insist on staying. “I have to be here,” is usually followed by, “I have no choice.” Everyone has a choice, and the sulker’s is to stay with no regard for the rest of the class. This is the time for you to say, “If you feel sick, you need to be at home, not in class. You can’t learn when you are ill.” Mention your refund/replace policy and give them a way to come back or switch classes.  As a last resort, ask for their supervisor’s phone number, and offer to call and explain. This solves many Sulker problems immediately.

When class starts, establish a policy for leaving the classroom. “All of you are adults, if you feel ill, need medication, or need to take a phone call,  please leave class. You don’t need my permission to take care of your personal needs.” If the Sulker doesn’t leave and no one cares, you don’t have to do more. If the Sulker  acts to attract attention, you can disperse the fixers by saying, “X is an adult, and is making her own choices for her needs. Let’s trust her to know what’s best for her.” You may want to call the supervisor and express your concern.

Extra: The Fixer. Fixers are people who are compelled to take control of other people’s problems and fix them. Related to Know-It-Alls, Fixers vary widely from the people who respond to a simple “It’s hot today” with a wide variety of natural cures for fevers, to people who insert themselves into every conversation with their own experiences and solutions. There are proliferating because they have less control at work. Many are also honestly concerned helpers.

Solution: I often start with an exercise showing the difference between fixing and witnessing, to show how effective good listening is. This works in classes on many topics. If a person starts fixing, I ask, “What kind of attention is necessary here, listening or fixing?” Many times, it’s a revelation for people to see what they are doing. Sometimes it’s a relief for them to let go of this task.

--Quinn McDonald is an instructor, writer, and workshop leader with 15 years experience.  She knows whereof she speaks.

Six Tips: How To Handle the Problem Student (Part 1)

Ideally, every adult student would be eager to learn, quick to help and clean up their own space. Ideally. In reality, whether you are a business trainer, teach art workshops, or lead retreats, you will face disruptive participants. When you are an instructor or workshop leader, much of your success (and income) depend on how you handle problems when they come up. I’ve asked some instructors to tell me what works for them, and here’s what I learned.

There are many reasons participants are unhappy and act out. They are out of their comfort zone, they were sent to the class as punishment, they feel vulnerable, they generally control their environment with their own rules and are now in your space.

Book cover from fantasticfiction.co.uk

Of course the very first thing to try is kindness and distraction. If that works, it’s great. I’m not talking about those students. I’m talking about students who hijack your class; not responding to them could disrupt the entire flow of the day and create problems from the participants who want to learn.

1. The Whiner. This is a person who is too hot, too cold, has dry skin, needs lip gloss, needs music, hates music, has a reaction to fluorescent lights, thinks the 10-year old rug may still be off-gassing and asks if the paint might have lead in it. She can’t be helped. She triggers all the “fixers” in class who cluster around her, offering help and bringing the class to a complete stop.

Solution: After the fixers are rebuffed, they will feel angry themselves. This is a very delicate situation. At the next complaint, ask the class, “Is anyone else [cold, hot, etc.?] Almost certainly, they will shake their heads, “No.” Look the whiner straight in the eyes and say, “As long as no one else is uncomfortable, I think we’ll move on. If you are too cold, you can step outside to warm up.” Don’t forget the second half, you are giving her a choice, and if she doesn’t take it, you have offered help and she refused.

2. The Know-it-All. This person may know a lot, but it’s no fun unless you know that he knows it all. Every example you give is topped by his example. Every statement of yours is not as valid as his experience. In the beginning, he sounds helpful, but the constant interruption drives the class crazy and puts you behind your schedule.

Solution: If you are lucky, someone in the class might say, “I paid to have the instructor run this class,” in which case you can say, “Thanks for the compliment, Mary. Bill, I value your experience, maybe we can have a time later today when we all share information, but I’d like to stay on schedule till lunch.” I’ve also had good results with letting the know it all tell me when it’s time for breaks or lunch. It keeps them watching the clock and distracted.

3. The Low-Self-Esteem Downer. Everything she tries doesn’t work. She puts herself down in ways so powerful that others feel a need to encourage her, which feeds her need to be negative. If you try to draw her into participating, she prefaces every sentence with “This is probably wrong,” or “I hate myself for choosing this solution.” Like a dreadful emotional flu, others will start to mimic her.

Solution: End the spreading cycle quickly with a cheerful, “This is just practice. This classroom is where we can make mistakes and be wrong and learn from it. So I’d like you to eliminate all negative phrases and excuses so everyone is on the same level. No putting yourself down, just a focus on what you are doing right.” You will then have to enforce the “no negative” rule with a comment on how prevalent negative emotions can be and how easily they spread. That gives the other participants permission to point out negativity, including their own. Make light of it, but keep the rule in place.

Tomorrow: The Gotcha, The Passive-Aggressive, The Sulker. And an extra–The Fixer.

–Quinn McDonald is an instructor in business communications and a workshop leader for raw-art journaling. She is also a life and creativity coach.

Four Tips for Teaching an Art Class

You’ve been accepted to teach at an art retreat–Congratulations!  Your ideas are fresh, you can’t wait to demo this new technique, so you are all set, right? Not so fast. Even if you have done demos and taught small groups, an art retreat is a different thing entirely. Here are some tips to make the experience good for you and for your class.

Flipchart --do you need one? This one comes from http://tinyurl.com/34ocucl

Plan Before You Apply to a Retreat
An idea and a way to teach it are the most important part of applying to a show. Right after that comes the business side of teaching–how much money do you need to charge to make a profit? If you think you don’t need to make a profit, you are just doing this because you love it, then please feel a kinship with the many artists who make a living teaching. When you don’t care what you charge, you automatically drop all art teachers’ incomes, and relegate artists to the bottom of the income heap. Some questions to consider when pricing:

What do participants need to complete your course?

How much will you provide? (for free)

What do you expect them to bring?

Do you need to provide a kit?

How much does each kit cost you? (This is hard to figure, but important)

How long does it take to assemble the kits (time is money in all of America, including your studio)

How long did it take you to design the class?

How many times can you teach this class (the more you can teach, the bigger the base to spread the cost)

What does the class cost you? That money is gone. How much profit do you need?

The best way to control how much you earn is setting a minimum number of people in the class.

Set a maximum number, too. There is a number over which you are not teaching, you are amusing a crowd. Don’t cross that line.

Read and Ask Before You Accept the Contract
Don’t get so excited that you sign the contract without reading it. You’ll need to know

How many hours are you expected to teach? What time of day (if you are a morning person, those midnight classes aren’t for you.)

How much will the promoter mark up the price of your class?

What percentage of the total cost is yours? (This is very important. If the promoter doubles the price you want, you are receiving 50% of the price of the class, and the class may now be overpriced for the audience. This does not mean you have to accept the fuzzy end of the lollipop.)

How soon after you teach do you get paid?

What are your administrative duties? Do you have to clean the classroom? Pass out and collect evaluations? Appear at a “Meet the Artist”?

What is the role of evaluations? (Will you not be asked back if you get one bad eval? Two?)

What are the rules about eating and drinking in your class? Phone use? Disruptive behavior? (Most promoters cater to clients, not instructors, so know what your rules are and how you will be supported in them).

Recognize that you will have administrative work, set up and clean up. It adds time to your work hours. Make sure you get paid for this time.

Find out Before you Teach

Know the location–the food service, the bathrooms, where to purchase water, what the classroom contains.

Know how long it takes for you to get there, including rush hours.

Know how long it takes you to set up.

Know what you need to demo–whether you have 4 people or 2o in the class. Having a small class makes standing around your desk easy. A big class needs something else–a white board, a projector, an easel. You will have to bring these.

Run through the class in your studio, making a list of everything you need.

Keep your eye on the time. Don’t plan a class that is too long or too short. People pay for a class of a certain length. It should be that long.

Figure in time for questions, chatting and administrative time–evals, sign-in sheets, gathering email addresses from participants, room check.

Control time use in your class. Selling your book, your work, your classes takes away from learning time. Participants resent it.

Be mindful that your main purpose is to teach and give participants an experience  that equals the hefty sum they paid to come.

Manage Your Time While You Are Teaching

• Are the participants equally skilled? If not, how you will you handle the difference? (Plan for exercises during which you can help the slower participants.)
• If there is a sign-in sheet, wait to pass it around until everyone is there, otherwise you’ll be passing it around forever.
• Start the class with housekeeping–your rules for phones, leaving the class, bathroom breaks, food and drink, asking questions.
• Let the participants introduce themselves in some way. If the class is large, find out who came the farthest, their favorite class so far to avoid spending a lot of time on introductions. You can also ask them to tell them their name and why they are taking this class. Manage the answers to keep them short.
• Introduce yourself and why you are teaching the course. Make your reason something that fills a need, not a list of accomplishments.
• If you are allowing students to use your equipment, explain what they are expected to do with it and how to care for it.
• Explain what is in the kit in front of them and how they will use it.
• Give them the big picture of what you will teach and then start your class.

Act After Your Class

Return administrative papers

Write a thank-you email to the promoter and anyone whose email address you gathered in class. Be positive.

Spend some time evaluating your class and take notes on how to improve it or change it.

Keep class notes, materials list, and lessons learned for the next planning session.

Update your mailing list with new names.

Journaling Courses: Perfectionist, Wabi-Sabi

The course is just about two weeks away and there will be no walk-in registration. (Because I have to confirm number of people 1 week in advance).

Both courses are being held in Alexandria, VA, in a hotel function room in the Landmark area.

Time to sign up now for Journaling for Perfectionist (no pressure to change, just a chance to explore where perfectionism is taking you) and Wabi-Sabi–a Japanese esthetic that can simplify your life.

You get a great chance to experience journal writing and creativity coaching.

JULY 8, 2007 (Sunday) 2 pm to 5 pm
Journaling For Perfectionists
Why do perfectionists start a hundred journals, but never fill a single one? Negative self-talk, guilt, and procrastination are three of the most popular reasons. If you want to keep a journal but haven’t been successful, you’ll enjoy this course. Get the benefits of creativity coaching while you start that journal you’ll finally fill up! $65. Details and registration at: QuinnCreative.com or 703-307-2106

JULY 15, 2007 (Sunday) 2 pm to 5pm
Wabi-Sabi Journaling
Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese esthetic that honors the old, the worn, and the incomplete. Move that concept from art into your life. Simplify your mental environment and your journal-writing. Release control and stress to discover a life filled with meaning. Combine the benefits of creativity coaching with journal writing. $65. Details and registration at QuinnCreative.com or 703-307-2106