Thread: Teaching my very first workshop, tips?

Ok, I was "encouraged" by one of my dance sisters whose show I attended tonite to go ahead and teach my veil workshop idea.

Ok, so "encouraged" wasn't exactly it, she all but told me she'd strangle me with her veil if I DIDN'T! .w.:..l;,..g.:

Sooooo, any tips for a first time workshop instructor? I have a pretty good idea of what I want to teach and how I want to teach it - but will write everything down in an outline so I accomplish my objectives. I'm going to keep the size limited so I can give individual attention.

All tips appreciated!

Hoo-ha! I'm glad you're going to do it!
One of the things I greatly appreciate when I go to a workshop is if the teacher hands out copies of a written outline or notes. Even if it's just a page. The thing about a workshop is, it's a long class full of what may be all new material for the student, and there's no further follow-up class where you get to review any of it. Therefore students just can't remember a lot of it a few days or weeks later. There are some perfectionist students who will madly scribble down notes through a workshop, but that in itself is disrupting their workshop experience.
Rosette

Relax, have fun. I think limited size is a good idea and I agree with Rosette about handouts, you should have at least one page or make it accessible via e-mail or your website.

hmmmm, ask me next week end!

Even if you do not provide choreography notes, write down the name of your music and where students can find it. It drives me crazy when you learn a choreography to a song that you can't practice or perform because you don't know what the music is or how to get it. Most dancers never keep up with the choreographies they learn in workshops, but it's still a professional gesture to offer them the opportunity to do so. There's no excuse for teachers not having song information available. If you can't read the Arabic on a CD, pay somebody who can read it for you!

I am a stickler for not illegally copying and distributing music, and I think it is perfectly acceptable to just give the names of the song, album, and artist (and vendors, if you feel comfortable endorsing sources). If a teacher picks a song that is out of print or difficult to get a hold of, maybe he or she needs to rethink the choice.

Hey Zorba:

I'm hijaking your thread a bit. I wanted to let everyone know that I saw your article on Gildedserpet!

Woohoo!

Azeeza

Thanx Azeeza! The first draft of the second (of three) has been finished.

Thanx for all the suggestions so far - there's no choreography as its a technique class, and I was planning on printing out the pertinent portions of my website as class notes. Does it make sense to print out a copy of the class outline for the students as well?

handouts are the bomb. I like to provide a pretty spare outline of the topics/names of movements/concepts/whatever, with space between so people can write their own notes. I also let people know ahead of time that I will re-demonstrate everything at the end of class so they can take their notes then, and not have to worry about missing anything while they scramble for a pen. :)

don't teach too much material! it's so hard not to want to give people everything that you can! but there are two good reasons not to: too much or too complicated stuff is too hard to retain and keep; and you can save some of that stuff to sell at another future workshop. ;) it's also nice to be able to teach what you want without being rushed - both for the students, and for you.

repetition is lovely. one of the best workshops I ever took was with razia. she gave us combos, and then we drilled the combos until we really owned them and felt comfortable with them - but not so long that we felt like we were getting bored with them already and can we please move on to something else.

a good warmup and cool down is nice.

good luck, zorba! and keep at it. the more you do, the easier it gets.

Originally Posted by zorba

she all but told me she'd strangle me with her veil if I DIDN'T! .w.:..l;,..g.:

what!?!?!! i don't remember any threats of physical violence against you, my veils on the other hand...

REALLY looking forward to it zorba! i love your idea of keeping it small, and offering individual feedback. maybe everyone leaves with a personal 'things to improve' list from you? not written but just verbal comments that we can jot down...

Good luck Zorba! This is an exciting step. My tip: Work out what are the main things you'd like to teach, and then add some 'nice-to-teach' bonus items. That way, if everything takes longer than expected, you've passed on the most important stuff. But if there's extra time, the students get some bonus material.

You could even use the last 5 minutes to do a quick demo of 'what else there is to know' (ie: bonus material) as an incentive for them to hire you for a second workshop :)

Oh, and keep the handout minamilist (perhaps with space for their own note-taking), but put any additional notes on your website and include the web address on your handout. That will help drive more traffic to your website.

PS - I also like to include a scheduled 10 min break mid-workshop, so I can have a breather - good for rehydrating, loo stops and getting your brain together if it's feeling frazzled! When possible, I like to put on some relevant DVD footage and answer questions during this time - often people will ask Q's during this more informal time, whereas they may have felt uncomfortable speaking up in front of the class during the official 'working' time.

One more thing about handouts...It sounds obvious, but try to make them match what you actually teach. I don't know which is more annoying--having a teacher go off on some brilliant-but-obscure tangent with no way to reference back to it later, or getting a handout listing material that didn't get taught (What the heck was a "Beledi Wedding Gesture" going to be?!).

One thing I'd add is to keep the warm up and cool down fairly short. People are paying to learn dance from you, not to do a 1/2 hour long yoga session. I've actually worked with sponsors who now have it written into their contracts that workshop participants are expected to arrive warmed-up and the instructor can spend no more than 5 minutes on warm-up exercises...they've been burned before.

i don't really care for technique or choreography handouts because different teachers call same thing with different names so it's confusing. i like handouts which are like background of whatever the subject is.

i would like to have short 5-10 mins mini break(s) in between, not to rest, but to try and remember and absorb what has been taught so far. and hopefully the break will be followed by question and answer section so students can clear up everything before moving on.

i like when the teacher separate students into two groups so we can learn from observing the teacher and classmates while taking a sip of water.

i wish teacher, although friendly, would be strict about no talking in class because it's so annoying. also please no noisy coin belt and please if the room is crowded, ask the students with too too long hair to tie it up in a bun.

please ask the students to change lines, like the first row go to the back and the 2nd row moves up etc. also once in a while ask everyone to scramble so students on the side can be in the middle.

i like when the teacher ask us to do the combination on our own and check if we can follow and make us drill many times until almost everyone remembers. i rather learn few things that i totally understand which i can carry home than to learn many things that i don't understand and will never be able to work on.

Zorba, even though you're so far away and i can probably never have the chance to take your workshop, thank you for wanting to know what us students want! i wish your workshop be a success x

Originally Posted by emtink

what!?!?!! i don't remember any threats of physical violence against you, my veils on the other hand...

HA! I have witnesses and pictures to prove it!

Just making sure you're paying attention! ..l;,..l;,

Great stuff so far!

I'd also recommend practicing/rehearsing the actual workshop. IOW, have your outline handy, grab your veil and actually teach your workshop several times. It doesn't have to be for anybody else except the cat, but it always amazes me how much this activity helps; you could also tape yourself at one of these rehearsals. By actually teaching your workshop several times in advance, you can discover what works as is and what needs some tweaking.

Do everything in your rehearsals that you will do in your workshop: introduction, passing out handouts, changing CDs, explanations, demonstrations. You will find out that what you thought might be a 2-minute explanation/demo actually takes a bit longer and adjust accordingly. You also might find that by rehearsing your workshop, you become more efficient at certain things and sections you might need 10 minutes to do now will become 7 minutes as you practice them.

Oh! And don't forget to practice being one of your own students who is having difficulty with a concept and needs a bit of personal help; from the original description of your workshop, I know you are very keen to make your workshop very student-focused, so this is something for which you probably have already accounted. For example, while you're rehearsing, you might remember what it was that made Task A a bit difficult when you were learning it, which will help you anticipate questions or difficulties from your students, which will help you "head off" those questions or difficulties with your instruction.

One more thing: it's okay to look at your own outline during your workshop; it helps you stay on track. I've been to many a workshop where a "big name" has his/her notes and refers to them several times during the workshop. The last workshop I offered, I had two versions of informational notes: one version for the students and one version for me; the one for me was the same as the students' version, except that I had made notes with examples, music for various sections, etc. I had also marked my music and placed it in the order I was going to use it; of course, you can always burn your workshop music onto one CD -- just be sure to have a back up!

I'm certain you're getting excellent feedback and help with this project, Zorba. Thanks for letting your fellow Bhuzzers offer you some of our advice, too! The best to you as you prepare for this workshop!

Deborah

Originally Posted by casbahdance

Great stuff so far!

I'd also recommend practicing/rehearsing the actual workshop. IOW, have your outline handy, grab your veil and actually teach your workshop several times. It doesn't have to be for anybody else except the cat, but it always amazes me how much this activity helps; you could also tape yourself at one of these rehearsals. By actually teaching your workshop several times in advance, you can discover what works as is and what needs some tweaking.

Yea, actually I was planning on making my wife suffer through it! She has veil-phobia too!

Oh! And don't forget to practice being one of your own students who is having difficulty with a concept and needs a bit of personal help; from the original description of your workshop, I know you are very keen to make your workshop very student-focused, so this is something for which you probably have already accounted. For example, while you're rehearsing, you might remember what it was that made Task A a bit difficult when you were learning it, which will help you anticipate questions or difficulties from your students, which will help you "head off" those questions or difficulties with your instruction.

An excellent idea.

One more thing: it's okay to look at your own outline during your workshop; it helps you stay on track. I've been to many a workshop where a "big name" has his/her notes and refers to them several times during the workshop. The last workshop I offered, I had two versions of informational notes: one version for the students and one version for me; the one for me was the same as the students' version, except that I had made notes with examples, music for various sections, etc.

If you don't refer to your outline notes, why even bother with an outline? One of my regular teachers refers to her outline every week so she teaches everything she has in mind for that class.

Thanx for the tips (everyone)!

Once the veils commence to flying anyone who isn't in the first row won't be able to see much. If space allows, put them in a circle or at least two parallel lines facing each other. You work in the center and change who sees your back. Be sure to tell them which side (left or right) to start on. People who are looking at your front could either try to mirror you or use the same arm as you. Depending on the movement there could be some serious whacking going on. If you tell them which hand to use it shouldn't be a problem.

Aradia handles this situation well, so if I'm not clear and she doesn't pop in on this thread you might want to PM her. Best of luck and congrats!

Originally Posted by Andrea2

Once the veils commence to flying anyone who isn't in the first row won't be able to see much. If space allows, put them in a circle or at least two parallel lines facing each other. You work in the center and change who sees your back. Be sure to tell them which side (left or right) to start on. People who are looking at your front could either try to mirror you or use the same arm as you.

Oooh, I like that!

As a "debug session", there'll be a lot of 1 on 1 going on also - but I like this suggestion for when we're all going at it!

Originally Posted by Andrea2

Once the veils commence to flying anyone who isn't in the first row won't be able to see much. If space allows, put them in a circle or at least two parallel lines facing each other. You work in the center and change who sees your back. Be sure to tell them which side (left or right) to start on. People who are looking at your front could either try to mirror you or use the same arm as you. Depending on the movement there could be some serious whacking going on. If you tell them which hand to use it shouldn't be a problem.

Aradia handles this situation well, so if I'm not clear and she doesn't pop in on this thread you might want to PM her. Best of luck and congrats!

Thanks Andrea, I prefer to do veil work in a circle, even if you have a stage all that fabric flying about ruins visibility. Just change your direction so each side of the circle can be behind you to follow allong! Good luck Zorba!