Have you come away from workshops with satisfaction mixed with dissatisfaction? Though every tutor has an amazing depth of knowledge and skill, they often make some fundamental mistakes.
Before the workshop:
You are sent a list of items / materials you need to bring along which costs more than you can afford or are willing to spend. No explanations are included, so you don’t know WHY you need to buy a $50 brush as opposed to one that looks the same for $10.
Mistake 1: Don’t assume others have the same knowledge or understanding you, as the presenter,do.
During the workshop:
The tutor in a portraiture workshop asks ” Do you mind?” and the students says, “Go ahead,” expecting to be shown how to correct a slightly crooked eye only to find that both eyes, the chin, the nose and the eyebrows are all redrawn!
How about the 2 day mosaic workshop where the students come back on the 2nd morning to find their work has been “corrected” and “fixed up” overnight?
Mistake 2: Always respect each persons work, not matter how imperfect it is. By respecting their work and mistakes, you are respecting them as people and learners.
Mistake 3: It’s easy to confuse “Showing” with “Fixing.” When you “show” a student how to do something, you are modelling for them, so that they can then try / practice on their own piece. By “fixing” up the mistake, you are not giving them the chance to develop and hone their skills.
Mistake 4: By correcting mistakes the tutor is also telling their paying students that their work isn’t good enough!
Mistake 5: A student’s mistakes are not a reflection of how good a tutor is. Mistakes are rich learning experiences and a key part of learning.
When learning, we rarely succeed at something the first time, yet how often do we expect perfection in the first attempt at something?
At Nu4u our workshops focus on providing a respectful, safe learning environment where fun, creative expression and mistakes are celebrated and encouraged.
We even acknowledge when we make mistakes! The first picture of wall art is actually the result of several mistakes and our first attempt at making some wall art. The second was our next piece of wall art which we had a ball making.
In our new,upcoming workshop and on line tutorial, which focuses on how to plan and present the best workshop ever, we cover these points and more to help you be the very best presenter you can be.
Interested in learning more about starting or lifting your workshops to another level? Drop us a line!!!
