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The Different Types of Classes

Here's the two technique versus project so I think chassis you had mentioned you are like thinking that I had to teach a technique well, I'm telling you that techniques for example for quilting we do a lot of technique based classes but a lot of different crafts are going to be more powerful as project based classes okay where you can you know, teach a technique in there but you you're going toe create a lesson fine for a project versus a technique technique okay, so here are the definitions that I use a technique is a skill or process that the students will practice during class using sample materials cry so that that is very general but you know, we like to think in general that technique is something that will be practiced but they are not necessarily going to walk away with this, you know, clean finished product ok, they're going to walk away with a skill but they're not necessarily going to walk away with a full project or maybe they will walk away with the beginnings of a project...

okay? And a project is a concrete physical product that the students will complete start to finish okay and that obviously start to finish we're not going to be too rigid about that obviously state your students might not fully fully finished your project depending on a few other factors okay, but that's the general idea project technique okay now we're going to break down so you guys gave me a few examples in the earlier segment of some ideas of things to teach so now we're going to see if we can break these things down into categories ok, so what can I teach? We're going we're gonna look at it I'm gonna give you some examples project ideas, technique ideas okay, so for example ahh project for ceramics could be a pinch pot. Okay, so obvious I'm not ceramics artist forgive me if the surroundings hardest out there like I would never teach a pinch pots but you get the idea it's a pinch pots something that your students can walk away with at the end of your class or for croquet maybe an infinity scarf is your class teach how to crash a an infinity scarf or for jewelry, a charm bracelet or for me for quilting potholders. So nine patch potholders that could be a nice project based class that I could teach for colton kind of getting the idea here and where we will we'll talk about how make those sound more exciting to on ben for techniques for example, for ceramics you could do a class on pot throwing so a general skill or technique again apologies to ceramics artists out there that say that that ideas not extremely um in line with the lingo not schooled in ceramic lingo um and then a technique for crash a how to do the popcorn's stitch jewelry using different stone settings or example for quilting piecing techniques fine patch and more so would be a class to show different piecing techniques versus having that walk away with a with these potholders at the end of class okay, can anybody think of what would be some advantages or disadvantages of doing one or the other? Maybe in your own personal experience as a student even kathy think of like what can I teach? A lot of it comes down to the space I'm in and for an example if I taught jewelry I can fit people able to rebel and I can get twelve around a particular table if I'm doing a paper craft I can really only get six around the table so I always think in terms of their space in the materials and and then I kind of whittle it down and then create the project around that rather than the project and then try to figure out the logistics exactly but I would like to do some jewelry too awesome yeah and you meet you bring up that really good point that I mentioned at the very end of our last segment that there are these factors that you have to consider based on your venue based on your space that you really do have to keep in mind okay and so aspirational e we can plan lots of lessons, right? You could have like your resume, you know, you could have like your teacher resume with all of these different ideas for classes, but when it comes down to it when you're proposing a specific venue or when you know your space, you need to make sure that you that you propose something that's gonna work in the space that's provided to you and on another note I'd never thought of classes is one of the other, but what I like about thinking this way is when I do a project I'm always really concerned I'm gonna get called out because I don't know the right he said to use or whatever I'm not doing the exact right technique, so if I think of it more as a project exactly people can come and bring that that's where you learn from the students as they bring their own things and definitely that's a really good point anybody else have? Ah, like an idea of advantages or disadvantages doing it one way or the other? Edna well, I'm thinking of I noticed on the under the projects to teach I started listing and then I realized a lot of them have technique in it that I would have to show because for like, for example teaching having somebody come up with a self portrait there's all kinds of media, so to show how do you use the media in some cases with on, and also help them build confidence in their line work or whatever? Definitely, yeah, and I think that's something that you can determine again based on the venue and how long your classes and we're going to get into do it into what to do in terms of demos. So, like, for example, even if you did a self portrait, your class, you could do three demos in there, you could do one demo on media one demo online work, you know, so you could actually incorporate some technique demos within a project based class, you know? Does that help? Yeah, yeah, anybody else? Jessa? Well, I like that project based classes are make things feel more approachable, like if there's ever something that I wanted to try that is really different than things that normally d'oh d'oh usually take project based class, because then, even if I don't like the thing ultimately, I'm like like I took a spoon carving class like that's a related fun, but I don't think I'll probably do it again, but look, I have a really good thing, I think that's a great thing to keep in mind for everybody to know that we just heard from the student experience that just because maybe they're not going to be you know, throwing pots from now on they're going to walk away from that class having you know being like look or I guess you were talking about a project would be like oh look, I made a pinch pot and that's a cool result as well so we don't necessarily need to worry um if you know if we if we aren't as calm, confident in the technique based class the project based are a great way of sort of it's almost like a sampler of your of your of your um you know of your craft, susan, I think people like to walk away with something that they made and not take something that's like half made yes exactly definitely indefinitely when we're talking about, you know, an evening workshop or kind of like I was saying like a sampler, right? If you're getting into the like for example in the quote the halting world like teaching at conferences and things like that, you have your kind of die hard, you know, you know your audience a little bit better and they definitely are there to learn techniques that then they'll take home with them and put into their own projects especially because quote third like these giant things so like a start to finish quote class is a little bit tricky so it's all about knowing your know your audience and knowing knowing what you want your students to take away from your class lily do have any anything from way dio great alison and flavors farms says technique classes can lead to serious classes and then a finished product project class it's an excellent point, and she also, as is some project classes are can highlight a specific technique. And, again, this could be a siri's one project done with multiple techniques because a different technique for class yeah, that idea of the siri's classes, it really is a really good thing to think about as well. And I'll mention that when we talk about different age groups to teach with children, for example, it's it's a really good idea to do a siri's because your classroom, they're gonna be shorter because they have short attention spans. Therefore, it needs to be stretched out over multiple, you know, sessions in order to even get one product project finished. So all right, great. Thanks for those comments from the online audience. I love it. So anything else from you guys about project versus techniques? So far, I used to think before teaching it was going to be just a technique based class. Then I learned how much people enjoy the project based learning, actually, more than half of the people who come to my classes I just wanted to get away like it wasn't that they just wanted to do something creative yeah just spin thing kind of reminded like they might not ever be interested never making a spoon again but it was just a fun way to get together with your friends to do something crafty totally and that's another thing to think about in terms of marketing your classes too to really it's a really awesome way of getting people together right if you're the kind of person that loves to get people together teaching a class and being being the teacher of the class is a great way of doing that and I totally agree so many people just want to take a class because we all want to be inspired right? We want to be created we want to be more creative and so that is why teaching can be such a powerful community builder too because you're just you're out there spreading this love of what you're doing and your students are going to pick up on that and they're going to be so happy to be to have just gotten out you know okay so do we have anything before you move on? There is one more question one more comment linda ryan says in her last class she made the mistake of not calling a practice piece learning ex technique before graduate to the project so the students spent too much time on the practice before moving on to the project and not enough time on the project. That's. Where maybe there was a combination class. And, yeah, kind of fuzzy. Get setting clear, clear expectations that the billionaire class is going to be really important. And another way of potentially avoiding that happening is having your practice peace be, like, really boring looking? Or, like, like, for example, for quilting, like using, like a piece of muslim. So it's, very drab. And it couldn't be a final product anyways. And so people don't feel tempted to spend like hours and hours doing the practice peace before moving on to the break, brightly colored one.