Thread: New teacher advice

I am a relatively new teacher though I have been dancing for about 6 years now.

I was wondering if and or when should I get insurance?

What is the best way to teach regarding location? Rent a studio, Home studio, Fitness place, college, other.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me as I begin teaching?

So many suggestions, it's hard to know where to start! Have a browse back through the pages of both 'Student and Instructor Centre' and 'Business of Bellydance', or do a search on your keywords first. There's some great threads on all these topics. Once you've done that, you'll probably have a lot of more specific questions to ask.

It's just that there's so much info in what you're asking that it's hard to know where to start a reply...

There is also the Teachers Forum. Send a PM to Beafarhana if you would like to join. It's a private group that you navigate to under "Hafla" in the menu at the top of the page.

Originally Posted by dancingwithjuls

I am a relatively new teacher though I have been dancing for about 6 years now.

I was wondering if and or when should I get insurance?

Get insurance whenever you don't want to take a chance you can be sued. You may think your students are your friends and they'd never turn on you, but that's a foolhardy assumption. People are people, and they do weird and shortsighted things when they think they've been wronged, someone has been negligent, and money might be had.

What is the best way to teach regarding location? Rent a studio, Home studio, Fitness place, college, other.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each. If you are teaching as part of another studio or rec facility, you may be covered under their insurance. You also have the luxury of separating your business from your home. This is significant for two reasons: (1) The IRS likes to look very closely at home-based businesses, and you need to keep meticulous records. (e.g., You may think you are making an improvement to your "studio" but they may see it as your "living space.") It's much more difficult to separate your job from your home life when it's in the same place. (2) If your business is at your home, then your business address is where you and your family sleep at night. This can be a practical safety concern. It means you are inviting strangers into your house, and if your business becomes successful, you could conceivably have students needing studio access (e.g., troupe rehearsals) at times that aren't convenient for you, and perhaps even requesting access when you're not home. If your property is such that you have an outbuilding or independent, locked access to the studio, then that tends to work out better than the situation where students are traipsing through your house to get to the dance space.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me as I begin teaching?

Remember at all times that this is a business. It might be fun, and it might not be your primary source of income, but you need to treat it with the seriousness of any other economic endeavor.

I am a relatively new teacher as well, and I have had good success with teaching through city-owned recreational facilities. The pros:
- better studios than I could provide through my home (mirrors, changerooms, luxurious sound systems, etc)
- they promote my classes in their leisure guide, which gets distributed to every home in the city - this means I don't have to promote as heavily as I otherwise would
- some facilities have equipment I can make use of, like mats

The cons:
- I really have to keep on some of them to pay me in a timely manner - sometimes they forget my cheque in a file somewhere, etc. because they have so many instructors and/or are disorganized.
- Driving all over the city to different rec facilities on different nights - I live in a small city so this isn't such a big deal, but if you were in a big place with a lot of sprawl your gas bills could add up pretty quick.

Random suggestions:
- Don't expect to borrow props all the time from a fellow teacher. Once is ok, but after that you should get your own. Don't spend all your money on props though - don't go out and get canes AND veils AND candles AND fans all in the first semester.

- Always be early for class so you can get your music set up and go over whatever you're teaching that day.

- If you are teaching multiple classes, take a few minutes to write down at the end of each class what you covered. Sometimes it's hard to remember which class needed extra time on hip drops and so didn't move on to hip circles like you planned.

- Wear something nice - I like to wear black pants with a coloured exercise top and matching hip scarf. I also wear jazz runners because my feet get sore if I'm teaching more than an hour at once.

Good luck and have fun!

Originally Posted by dunyah

There is also the Teachers Forum. Send a PM to Beafarhana if you would like to join. It's a private group that you navigate to under "Hafla" in the menu at the top of the page.

Can I just point out that the only house rule of the Teachers group is that it is for active working teachers, and it tends to be used for more sensitive and confidential posts about teachers's problems or issues or weird situations, that they would not otherwise discuss on the more open forums.

For those who are interested in teaching, but aren't yet doing so, it was felt that the existing forums work fine, they didn't really need that confidential forum. Would Be Teachers can get plenty of material from the general board. As this thread exemplifies!

Originally Posted by beafarhana

Can I just point out that the only house rule of the Teachers group is that it is for active working teachers, and it tends to be used for more sensitive and confidential posts about teachers's problems or issues or weird situations, that they would not otherwise discuss on the more open forums.

For those who are interested in teaching, but aren't yet doing so, it was felt that the existing forums work fine, they didn't really need that confidential forum. Would Be Teachers can get plenty of material from the general board. As this thread exemplifies!

Okay, got it!