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Always Use Positive Encouragement

Lesson 25 from: How to Teach a Craft Class

Ashley Nickels

Always Use Positive Encouragement

Lesson 25 from: How to Teach a Craft Class

Ashley Nickels

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Lesson Info

25. Always Use Positive Encouragement

Lesson Info

Always Use Positive Encouragement

My philosophy is being kind and that goes for everything you do in class, so I want to make sure that you guys use this this is well and I don't know it's not second nature to us all just because I think as we kind of talked about before, we have a tendency to be hard on ourselves, right? And so we want to make sure that we aren't doing that are we're preventing are both our students from doing that and we're not letting ourselves be hard on ourselves, okay? So always be positive always always, always look for the good and student work, okay, there is nothing wrong with you being like looking at something your student is making and think it's horrendous, right? That's fine, but you would never leave that lead onto that never ever right you're always looking for the good and in their work, okay, you always want to avoid unsolicited critique or even unsolicited advice, okay? So if you're if you're circulating around the room and you notice that somebody is kind of messing up unless it's ...

something that you think is going to affect the final product of what they're doing, I would never try to correct them or to give them sort of I would do it this way unsolicited if they ask you fine but don't don't give them sort of negative feedback out of the blue ok, you don't want to undercut their progress right? Because they have probably have an idea of what they're doing and you want to just see where that's leading without kind of trying toe lead it too much okay, unsolicited positivity always always, always always there is nothing like you don't have to worry about being too nice or being too celebratory about your studio it's work okay that I don't think in my opinion there's no such thing and it's not going to be like overwhelmingly positive because you're going to have enough people around you to kind of spread it out and what's the worst thing they could say oh my gosh, she was too nice that teacher was too complimentary of my work I'm not going back okay? Not gonna happen probably, um this is a big one too, because I've seen this happen and I've actually been in classes and obviously is a middle school teacher. I saw this I'm an expert in the whole idea of a click as a teacher try to avoid falling into a click with the more outgoing students ok? And the situation that I'm imagining is you're in a like in the evening class and it's a very social environment and you have a group of students that kind of city where your demo station is and they kind of while you're working, they kind of occupy your time and then, oh, you connect and so you you get along and see you as a teacher, you tend to stay with this little group of people, please, like, avoid doing that because you want to make sure that each student in your class feels like you are with them, right? And if your state sticking with a specific group of people, it almost feels like you're creating this little club that they're not a part of, okay, so try to avoid doing that, okay? Even if it feels the most comfortable for you tryto try to, you know, get outside yourself and avoid doing that, and in order to do that in order to do this next thing you're going to have to not do that, which is I want you guys to engage the extroverted or the introverted student whenever possible, okay? So look for cool stuff they're doing by going around, and they're they're not necessarily going to call you over, they might, but you should go to them and call out something cool they're doing ok, make sure they feel like they are getting your attention even without asking you for it, okay, check in with them during work time just make sure that they know that you are there to answer their questions go over and say, did you did you have any questions? Okay, they might not be like super forceful about getting your attention, so you want to make sure they know that you are available? Yeah online about timing and distractions dealing with students and it's how do you respond with the rusher when she says I have to leave early and want to get this done? I would say that I will try to help you get all of the steps you need done, but unfortunately if you have to leave early, you might miss some something's, right? I'm happy tio I'm happy to follow up with you afterwards on an email that's what I would say like you're not going to change your your whole lesson for that? Sure, and if you have the time to do a little bit of anand vance's demo like if you only have four students, for example, you might have time to do that, but I would not change the pace of the class for the student who needs to leave early that's a great question, any questions from you guys? I think you're a positive group anyways, this shouldn't be too hard, kathy, I never really thought about the click component, but I look back on my classes I see it actually happens a lot where we'll start name dropping because we've all been toe other events and we know certain people in the industry and we'll start throwing names around and I'll have you taken some so's class and every scene silences product and and it does I would imagine exclude the people who have no idea what we're talking about because they don't work in the industry or they're not you know immersed in it so that's a really good one yeah it is something that we I think we have a natural ten to do as humans right and it's all about inviting people into the conversation so maybe maybe it's not like you have to cut that conversation off but you know maybe open it up to the whole class kind like yeah and finding commonalities but not dragging it out how long that it before is everybody else yeah and you could say you know you could kind of cut that off too and be like oh let's talk about that leader I would love to talk to you more about that later something like that yeah I think that's something that is really important to keep in mind especially with adults you know because we were all kind of fall in tow are when we're in our peer group who are you know are you know it's a little bit different with with younger kids easier to kind of like I don't need to begin your click you know but it is harder for what's harder with adults I think that that setting the tone always be positive is great because you're modeling, especially when it comes to teens and younger in the teens and their. Sometimes they give each other unsolicited feedback. And so, yeah, yeah, and it's really fun to do with younger kids, too, holding up their work. So if you're like, you could do it with adults, too. But you want to make sure that the person is going to be comfortable with it. But, you know, walking over me like, oh my god, look at what amy just said over here and showing it to the class, and like that that's kid or that student feel so they're like, oh, my gosh, the teacher just highlighted my work, like that's, really cool, especially with an introverted student that's, a really good way of making that dash more timid student feel empowered. Yeah, that's, really good.

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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!

Student Work

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