Hi All,

I start teaching a beginner lampwork class on Monday & wondered if anyone had feedback about their own experiences in their first classes.  Positive or negative.  What would you want covered?  What is most important?  What's better left till later?

It's a 4 week deal, 3 hours per class.  I've taught this twice before, but in LBSs w/ carpet & cramped space.  Now I have the luxury of an art center w/ a Metals Classroom.  And only three [3] students, which is good for them, but not so hot for my paycheck!

I do have to decide wheher or not to use a kiln that's there or to go w/ the ole crockpot & vermiculite.  The brochure has already warned them that I expect them to do HOMEWORK!  I want to see new beads every week!  Good grief, they'll think I'm a tyrant.  But it's the only way to get 'em comfortable & give them enough time to practice.  This way, they come in w/ questions about problems they encountered when I wasn't standing over their shoulders.

So... any suggestions?  Thanks in advance.

sher

Hi Sher

I have done one beginner class in lampwork and it was a full day course.  I don't really have any complaints about the class that I did but there were some things I thought that were good and other things that I thought could have been better.

The good things were the reinforcement of safety - how to turn bottles on and off properly, and torches on and off properly, storage of bottles, pitfalls for the inexperienced etc.  Dealing with molten glass, flames, and explosive gas is dangerous, and I think my teacher did a fantastic job of scaring us just enough so we were cautious. 

Another good thing was the teacher would come around and sit at your torch and let you and other students watch while he made a more complex bead, so you could see how he did things and held things etc.  This gave me and other students a good view of how he handled the glass.

Probably the only disappointing thing was he didn't teach us much about decoration, I kind of fiddled and made it up as I went along, and therefore I was a bit disappointed with my beads because they didn't come out like I had envisioned.  Molten glass just doesn't behave like you think it would!

One other recommendation - as a beginner it is easy to become disheartened with your abilities, so if you can keep your students happy with their progress, they will be happy with you as a teacher.

Hope I helped some!

Beccie

Hi Beccie,

Thanks so much for the feedback.  We have now had 2 classes w/ another one coming up this evening.  The first nite I did do a grand job of scaring everyone.  The looks on their faces were priceless!  Then I cracked a few jokes about how much they would love their beady babies no matter how deformed they were, & they all busted up!   A definite shift in the atmosphere.

Fortunately, the students are wonderfully enthusiastic & an inspiration to me.  I do reassure them that their beginner beads are just fine, & that practice is the only way they'll improve.  They are supposed to do homework & bring in their results, which I praise to the skies.  Yes, they do like that!

I've also shared some klutzy stories of my own w/ them, which got laughs.  Smoldering holes in my shorts, unknown utterances out of my mouth when things explode, that kind of thing.  Then I had two demo beads pop on me while I showed them around the table, & they seemed to relax.  After the two poppers, my lone teenager shoved her chair waaay back in a show of lack of faith, & that move brought down the house!  So I'd say we're all having fun.

I began offering lampwork classes in November and am now teaching most days of the week, primarily beginner. My first comment is that the incremental process of passing information from one person to another varys greatly depending on the person. Beginners especially are bound to be nervous (as I am on day one!) which can make it more difficult for them to absorb information. I have found that the key is to try and create a very calm environment within which to work, present the information in a very relaxed manner and to stay focused on a point until the student truly understands.

Also, I've found that people tend to assume that they are not learning as quickly as other people. Reassuring students that they are doing fine and pointing out areas where they are excelling goes a long way towards relaxing them. In that way they can be in the moment and allow for the learning and creative process.

Best of luck with the class!!

Tim