If you love what you do, then it would be selfish not to share that with someone else. “Teaching is a necessity to continue any craft. “Every good teacher also learns from their students.” – Tony Allen Bernier That way they can understand the context of the techniques and apply them to their own unique work and style.” – Annie Libertini, Libertini Arts “I always try to tell the students why you’re doing the steps and why you’re doing them a certain way. We all need to have a bit more fun with our leatherwork.” - Jurgen Volbach Adults try to make sense of everything and look at it practically. That’s part of why I enjoy teaching children. If they don’t have the fundamentals, they won’t be successful in the ‘cooler’ projects they want to make. So many artists want the Mona Lisa to be their first project, but they have to learn by sketching an apple first. Teach appropriate content for your students’ skill level. Your students are also going to have questions that aren’t included in what you planned to teach, and it’s helpful to know enough to be able to give them a good answer. Things may not go as planned, so you have to have experienced those same challenges to help the student work through them successfully. “You have to do leatherwork to teach leatherwork. There are many people out there yearning to learn and will be entirely thankful for any information they can add to their resources.” – Kathy Flanagan “Everyone has something to share, something that others have not even thought about. But, being a good teacher comes with time and practice and if you have good information and the right motives, you’ll get there.” – Jim Linnell, Elktracks Studio What’s even worse is that if you have bad information or you teach someone wrong, as soon as they figure out otherwise, all that credibility that you are trying to build goes out the window pretty quickly. If you’re looking at teaching as just a clever way to make a quick buck or to try to sell something, it can seem hollow to your students. Second, you need to have the right motive.
When I first started teaching, I’d always refer back to the Stohlman books to confirm what I was teaching was correct. First is that you need good, accurate and useful information if you’re going to teach. “When it comes to teaching, there are really two foundational things you need to be successful.
Hopefully, a few of these tips might resonate with you enough to encourage you to teach your first (or next) class. The list ranges from several Al Stohlman Award-winning instructors to some folks who have only been teaching a few years. I also feel blessed that I can call upon many of them, and others, to share some of their insights on teaching with you all. Working with Elktracks Studio the last five years has afforded me the opportunity to connect with a lot of phenomenal teachers in our industry, many of whom have done videos with us. There’s some pressure that comes with that and it can be a little daunting, particularly for the first time. But a successful class has students walking away thinking, “I feel confident I can do that!” and not, “They are so good…I’ll never be that good.”īeing confident that you are worthy of sharing your knowledge is an important part of being able to get in front of a handful of folks and tell them that you’re credible, but don’t forget why you are there: to make them better. It’s an easy trap to fall into, with a captive audience listening to your every word, that we want to show them all we can do. On the other side of that, we have to have confidence in ourselves, but also be mindful that we’re teaching and not showing off. Now, I have a handful of lessons that I could teach with a minute’s notice…and I have! But it all started with that initial anxiety, “Am I good enough?” There were times that I was one day (or sometimes a few hours) ahead of the students that first year, but confidence did come with time. But I quickly learned, as long as you are one day ahead of the student, you’re the expert.” I’ve been teaching for over 50 years, but I remember my nervousness when I first started. I was leaving Tandy Leather after several years working in their marketing department and I asked George Hurst if he had any teaching tips that might set me up for success. I taught advertising at several large universities, and I remember the advice that resonated with me. But a lot of folks may feel like they aren’t experienced enough to want to teach. Last month’s article focused on the value of teaching to build your brand, establish your credibility and potentially (eventually) drive sales.
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