How To Be A Great Scrapbook Teacher

By Julie Creek
Creek Bank Creations
www.creekbankcreations.com

I've been teaching scrapbooking for several years now. I run my own homebased business, in which I write and design instructional material for a living.  When I travel and teach at trade shows I am often approached by scrapbookers about teaching.  Here are some tips, which I think will help make you a successful teacher!

Be Enthusiastic!   This is the number one tip as it effects all the others!  Give yourself to the hobby, and your teaching whole-heartedly.  Get excited about what you know and what you teach.  Enthusiasm is contagious!

Be educated!   If you are just getting started pick one or two topics and totally educate yourself on those topics.  You should become the resident expert on those subjects.  Furthermore, educate yourself about scrapbooking in as much detail as you can, and by all means educate yourself about what is going on in your local scrapbook store.

Be well prepared!   Good teachers come prepared!  Think through your class, and make sure you have enough supplies.  This means you always come with EXTRAS of everything.  This will mean at times an expense to you, but your students will see the extra effort you give them!  I have found that for most classes lasting 1-1.5 hours papers need to be precut and ready to use, so plan accordingly!

Be valuable!   This means that when you teach you give the student way more than they expected!  Fill them up with knowledge, share tons or ideas, and send them home with a project that is worth the money they paid for it!

Be friendly!   I think the most important time for class is those first few minutes when students are arriving in the store or classroom!  Be friendly when they arrive!  Introduce yourself, offer to help carry in supplies, and get to know your students!  My favorite tip here is to come prepared with questions to ask students should that quite uncomfortable feeling come creeping into the room.  Questions like, "How long have you been scrapbooking?"  "What kind of album do you like?"  "How did you start scrapbooking?" are questions I like to keep fresh for class.

Be fun!   Don't be afraid to crack a joke or two during class, and have fun with your students!

Be Developed!   Good teachers develop material.  This means material is well thought out and planned out.  I generally spend the first 10-15 minutes of class going over the technical side of issues, and then move on to hands on projects.  Think through how you want to present your material.  Try to use word pictures, jokes, or analogies when presenting teaching concepts.  When I prepare my material I write it down, let it sit a few days, and come back to it.  I think about it, and often try it out my friend Julia.  If I want the class to try a project I have Julia do a "test" run first.  This allows me to practice my instruction and time how long a project may take.

Be a blessing!   If you are teaching in a store you do not own than you want to be a blessing to the owner or manager.  This means you are considerate of the storeowner, and the employees who work in the store.  Don't make demands on them, and be there to assist when you can.  When you are finished with class be a blessing and clean up the workshop area.  Pick up and put away papers, push in chairs and put away what you got out. Another point here would be to never speak poorly of another business in town, and stop gossip in its tracks.