TEACHING

Are you an artist, performer or craftsperson in the greater Seattle area who works in a visual, written or performing art?

Are you skilled and knowledgable about your work, and good at communicating about it to others?

Are you looking for a venue where you can share your expertise with students who love learning, and make a good (part time/hourly) income while doing so?

Consider offering a course through Classesandworkshops.com (a rapidly growing independent educational program serving the greater Seattle area since 2002).

If your course is accepted into our program, we will:

1. Create a class page for your course on Classesandworkshops.com, which describes it to our students and includes registration links so they can sign up immediately.
2. Advertise and promote your course on several key websites in the greater Seattle area.
3. If you offer your class every quarter, we will promote it continuously, year-round, so that the online interest can keep building, and so that students can always sign up for the next class session you have coming up.
4. Find and rent a classroom for your class or workshop, at our expense.
5. Take care of every aspect of the registration process, including collecting the tuition and registration fees.
6. Notify students about your course location and what to bring.
7. Send students driving directions to find your class.
8. Send you a list of students before your class starts….
9. … and pay you by check or Paypal (your preference) when your course is completed.

In other words, we’ll take care of the business aspects, promote your class, find you a classroom, and handle the registrations, so that you can focus on teaching.  

We don’t simply list your class and forget it.  We launch and maintain an intensive program to advertise and promote every single class that’s listed on our website.

How to propose a class (two steps):
 
STEP 1) Read this page over first, to make sure you understand how our program works.
 
STEP 2) Email us a course proposal. Our email address is Info@classesandworkshops.com.
 
Your course proposal can be very short. It should contain:

1. Your name
2. Your phone number
3. The course title (a working title is fine… you can fine-tune it later)
4. A short description of the course (150 words or less) (if your course is accepted, you’ll be asked to write a longer description later)
5. A short note about yourself, telling us, in a nutshell, about who you are and your qualifications to teach the class you are proposing.
6. It would also be helpful if you can include a link to a website (if you have one) where we can see (or watch, or listen to) the art you do and teach

If your proposal looks like it may be a good fit, we’ll contact you and arrange a meeting and interview. After that, we’ll let you know whether or not your class is accepted.  If it is, we’ll lock in the dates and times, and start things rolling.

Questions? Please scroll down:

When do the classes meet?

How long should classes be?

Our students have told us that short classes tend to work best for their schedules.  A typical class might meet for three, four or five consecutive Mondays (or another week night), for two hours at a time (which adds up to eight to ten hours of instruction).

Keeping classes short helps keep them affordable.  This gives students a chance to try a class in a new subject area without feeling like they are making a big financial or time commitment.  Then if they like the class and instructor, they can consider taking a follow up class.

If your class is much longer than that, consider breaking it into beginning and intermediate sections (such as, a four week intro class followed by a four week follow-up class.)  This way, students can try out the intro section, and have the option of signing up for part two if they’d like to continue.

What kinds of classes are you looking for?

Anything in the arts!  Such as:

• performing arts: dance, acting, comedy, improv
• writing: stories, articles, books, different genres of fiction
• film and video (movies/multimedia)
• visual arts: drawing and painting
• music and singing
• healing arts such as yoga and meditation
• language arts
• design, illustration and graphics software
• and more

What if my course is similar to one you already offer?

As long as it doesn’t directly compete with an existing class, we’ll consider it.  For example, if you’re a painter, and see that we already offer an acrylic painting class, you might propose an oil painting class…. or a class that approaches acrylic painting in a different way.  If you teach dance, check out the kinds we currently offer, and propose one in a different style or form of dancing.  

Where are the classes held? 

We rent classrooms in various locations around the city, including the University of Washington campus, Phinney Neighborhood Center, Fremont, North Seattle Community College, and other venues. If you need a space for your class, we’ll rent one for you.

What if I already have my own classroom space?  Or want to teach in my studio?

If you already have your own location, or find and rent one at your own expense, you’ll receive a larger percentage of the tuition revenues for your class.

Are instructors employees of Classesandworkshops.com?

No, they are independent contractors. This means that we don’t oversee the details of your class, tell you how to teach, or look over your shoulder while you’re teaching. We handle the promotion, facilities rentals and registrations; you’re free to focus on developing and teaching a great class.

Who should apply to teach?

We’re looking for instructors who:

• are highly skilled in their subject areas
• are good communicators, able to organize and communicate information well
• love teaching
• love the subjects they’re teaching about
• will conduct their classes in a safe and thoughtful manner
• will treat students of all ages and backgrounds with respect.

How much do instructors make?

• The instructor’s income is based on a percentage of the tuition times the number of students who sign up for (and pay for) your class. 
• If we rent a classroom space for you, at our expense, you will receive 50 percent of tuition revenues for the class.
• So (for example), if you charge $100 for your class, and have 15 students, you would receive 100 x 15 x .5=$750.00 for that class.
• Sometimes (rarely), students request refunds or credits after the first meeting because they realize a class isn’t right for them.  If this happens, your payment for that student only will be lower.
• If you provide your own space to teach in, at your own expense, you will receive 60 percent of the tuition revenues, times the number of paying students.

So your program keeps 50 percent of tuition revenues? That seems like a lot.

It may seem that way, but our goal in setting up the program was to be fair to everyone.  Our payment model is based on the one Seattle’s community colleges use in their continuing education programs, except that they typically pay the instructor 40 percent, and we pay 50 percent.  The percentage we keep goes to pay for office space, salaries, phone lines, computers, classroom rentals, and day to day operating expenses. An instructor with a successful class can make a very high hourly income through our program.

When are instructors paid?

You’ll be paid as soon as your class ends. You can request that the payment be made by check or by Paypal (if you have a Paypal account). Any applicable taxes, licenses or insurance are your responsibility.

Can I charge students for materials I provide?

Yes, but please try to keep it minimal, and state up front in the description what the cost will be. If you do charge a supply fee, it should reflect the actual costs of supplies provided to students, and should be listed in your course description.  It’s your responsibility to collect the supply fee (if any) from students. If your course has a supply fee students will need to pay, or materials they’ll need to buy, please note it in your course description so it won’t be a surprise to your students.

How much should I charge for my class?

As the instructor, you set your own course fee, up to a limit of $20 per student per hour of instruction. Of course, you’ll likely get more students if you keep the fee fair and affordable. Most instructors end up basing their tuition around $10 or $15 per hour of instruction. If your course is accepted, we can let you know whether the fee you’re thinking about charging is likely to feel reasonable for our students.

When should I propose a class?

You can propose one whenever you like, but bear in mind that it takes at least two months, after your class page goes live, to give a class a good chance of filling. Three months is even better. This gives time for students to find your class and research it before deciding whether to sign up. So it’s best to propose courses well in advance of the dates you propose teaching them.

If my class is accepted, will it run every quarter?

We hope so! Our goal is to find long range instructors who are happy teaching through our program, and connect them with students who love their classes. But sometimes for various reasons we may need to stop including a class. So while being accepted for one quarter does not guarantee your class will be run in future quarters, if it’s a successful class, we’re generally happy to keep running it. The basic arrangement is that you can stop teaching whenever you want to, for any reason, without penalty, and we can stop listing your class at any time, for any reason, also without penalty.

Thank you for reading! We hope this page answered your questions.  If you’re interested in teaching, we would encourage you to propose a class.