How I Became a Teaching Artist and How You Can Too 👩🏫✨
my thoughts on teaching, community, & curriculum - welcome back to The Slush Pile!
The past year has taught me a lot about myself but none so much as what I’ve been up to outside of writing. I always knew I loved being a student—conducting research, writing essays, discussing the latest hot topic with my classmates—but I never knew how much I loved being a teacher. How much I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experiences and stories with others, exchanging ideas, making my passions into something tangible. How much I grow when I learn from students to create an engaging, reciprocal relationship in the space, developing my own writing along the way. As a creative writing teaching artist for almost two years, I’ve made mistakes and learned new things, and now for Issue 30 of my newsletter, it’s time that I become a teaching artist for you and share what I know so far, while acknowledging and celebrating the fact that I’m always developing, changing, and evolving in my practice.
I became inspired to write this issue of my newsletter because of a friend of mine who reached out to me a few weeks ago asking how I became a teaching artist. At first, I didn’t know what to say because this was the first time someone had ever asked me, even though I’d been doing this for a while. But as I thought more about it, I realized that there are probably many out there wondering the same thing but perhaps not feeling qualified or experienced enough to dare to ask. So I decided to make a guide, a how-to starting point for anyone who might also be wanting or wondering how they too can share their talents, knowledge, and gifts with the world. These are the same strategies I learned and continue to use as a teaching artist today. This is coming at the perfect time too because I happen to have a whole line-up of events coming this March and April (!!) including a poetry performance, a political protest poetry workshop, and a four-week poetry workshop series celebrating NaPoWriMo. For more information, be sure to click on the link to each event. Now, let’s dig in!
What is a teaching artist?
Before we get started, it might be worth spending a moment on what a teaching artist actually is. In fact, you might already be a teaching artist without you even knowing it! Teaching artists can look many different ways and come in many different forms but in general, teaching artists are simply creative people who teach their art form to others. This means that any artistic medium is fair game, from writing to painting, pottery to embroidery, sewing to cross-stitching. They can also work in any number of places including schools, community centers, prisons, and federal agencies.
However, what is consistent across different types of teaching artists is that you’re promoting the arts in your community and teaching others how to do what you do or improve upon their craft. It is worth noting that if you look up this term in Google, you’ll often see people label us as “creative professionals,” though I tend to shy away from that definition, not because I don’t think it’s true, but because it excludes people who may not be ready to embrace their knowledge and expertise as their own, don’t claim their passion as their identity, or don’t believe they’re qualified because they don’t have the “proper” degrees and certifications. What “professional” means and looks like can also be loaded with pain, classism, and xenophobia, especially for BIPOC, so I’d rather not use it at all in this context.
The truth is, everyone will have different standards but in my experience, as long as you love what you do and are excited to share it with others, you will always find people who want to learn from you and give you the opportunity to teach and improve in your own practice. Don’t hold yourself back!
Attend other teaching artists’ workshops
Before I started pursuing the work of a creative writing teaching artist, and even to this day, I made a point of attending workshops hosted by other teaching artists. I wanted to see and notice what other people were doing before I started putting together events on my own—what topics were being discussed, their teaching style, the organization of the event itself, what readings they incorporated, how they encouraged attendees to participate in discussions and activities. This was also when everything was being hosted on Zoom, so I also wanted to see what different online features they incorporated to make the event engaging.
This is also what I would encourage you to do. As with most things you’ll do in your life, it’s best to begin your journey by throwing yourself into the community and the voices who have come and begun before you. It’s not that you can’t do it without this step but you’ll find that the best teaching artists will inspire you and even give you insight into the kind of teacher you want to be and the kind of space you want to create for attendees. As you attend these events, take notice of what they’re doing that you like—or don’t like—as well as what inspires the most creativity and engagement in you and others. Don’t be afraid to ask questions too! If you want to learn more about how the workshop leader arrived at the place they’re at, don’t be afraid to go up to them or contact them after the workshop and ask them for direction or advice. More often than not, we’re more than willing to help!
Determine your interests, passions, and expertise
As a teaching artist, don’t feel that you have to pick just one of your artistic mediums and stick to it! I primarily teach creative writing workshops in poetry and nonfiction but I’ve also expanded to crochet and would love to teach some in fiction as well. Basically, this is the time when you can seriously think about what you love doing creatively. I’d advise you to make a list of all the mediums that you love engaging with—again, could be just about anything creative!—and seeing what ideas come to mind in terms of how you would teach these skills to others.
If possible, I want you to stray away from framing the entries on this list as “what I’m good at” and more as “what I’m comfortable teaching.” Because the reality is, you can be good at something and have a lot of experience with it, and still struggle to communicate how to do it, as I learned very quickly when it came to crochet! But don’t worry too much yet about what teaching experience you may or may not have. For now, only consider what you theoretically would be comfortable showing others how to do and trust that your passion and experience will carry you through.
Have an idea of your teaching philosophy
With this list in mind, it’s now time to think about how you would work with a group of people to learn the skill you want to teach them—we call this a teaching philosophy. Again, don’t worry too much about your teaching experience or lack thereof. Because the truth is, we’ve all been students. We’ve all had people trying to teach us something many times in our lives in our school days. You might be a student now or know other teaching artists whose workshops you attended. Go back through your life and consider these questions:
What teachers have I loved throughout my life?
What did I love about the way they taught?
What made me excited to learn from them?
Or, what teachers didn’t make an impact on me?
What was it about their teaching style that made it hard to understand?
Did you like the way they balanced lectures with activities and group discussions? Did you like the way they guided you through every part of a process? Or did you like the way they gave you free rein and let you discover things on your own? Answering these questions will help you figure out the beginnings of a teaching philosophy for yourself, which I know might sound serious and overwhelming. But it’s important because even the bare bones of an idea will guide you through this journey, keep you focused and confident, and give you something to return to when you’re feeling stuck.
Brainstorm event ideas
Now with your list of creative mediums and your teaching philosophy, it’s time for the fun part: brainstorming event ideas! This is your moment to answer the question: what would be the best way for me to share this idea with others? Is it something that can be taught in a single workshop? A workshop series? Should it be in-person or virtual? What’s the maximum number of attendees I could work with without being overwhelmed? What should the theme be? What is the goal of the workshop (for example, is it for them to leave with a draft of a poem, a finished clay pot, the basics of embroidery stitches)? How much time do you have and want do you want them to learn? If it’s a writing workshop, what genre should it be? It might also be worth thinking about what’s happening now in the world and see if there’s a skill you have or way to frame that skill that could be relevant for people to learn.
For example, as I mentioned before, I’ll be leading a political protest poetry workshop this month—it’s no accident that it’s taking place as Israel continues its horrifying genocide on Palestine. While I don’t want to capitalize on the moment, I do want to give space to those who may be feeling all kinds of anger, grief, and desire to protest, and in doing so, give them the tools to pour those emotions into writing and empower them to change the world with their words. Put another way, the medium is writing, the genre is poetry, the theme is political protest, and the goal is to have them write one political protest poem. If the medium was writing and the genre was fiction, maybe the theme could be character creation and the goal is for attendees to write a scene with this new character. As you brainstorm events, it might be helpful to organize your points this way so it’s easy to promote and share with others.
Another example is a workshop I’m going to this weekend at Matilija Books in El Monte, CA where a Palestinian embroiderer will be teaching attendees how to cross-stitch tatreez, a form of Palestinian embroidery that is in itself a form of resistance. It’s a little different because of the medium but the same principles apply: the medium is embroidery, the genre is tatreez, and the goal is for people to learn the basic techniques. Depending on your audience, these aspects may change (for example, maybe you want to do less of an introduction and more of an advanced workshop) but your event should always be focused and specific.
Create a curriculum/agenda
Depending on your experience and comfort level with teaching, as well as your own personal preference, your curriculum can look any number of ways—a full-on script, a list of bullet points, an outline. But no matter what, it’s best to prepare some kind of agenda for yourself to keep the workshop organized and within time. This is where you can start playing with different sections, strategies, and methods like activities, group discussions, time to work independently, time to share/show and tell, Q+A. Think about what materials you’d like to provide attendees like hand-outs, written instructions, examples, photos. Also consider if you want to provide materials that they’ll need like paper, pens, and crafting materials, or if they should bring their own. I know it’s a lot of questions but these are all really important for you to take into consideration, especially for the next step.
Collaborate with partners in your community
I know plenty of teaching artists who organize all the details on their own, from the date to the time to the venue, especially if it’s online because you can provide a Zoom link without outside help. If you’re just starting out, this might be a great way to go just to get your feet wet, let everyone know that this is something you’re offering, and see what the response is like before you go bigger.
The more you do this work, however, the more potential you have to work with partners in your community, and trust me, you have more out there than you think! As a teaching artist, I’ve worked with local event spaces, bookstores, libraries, schools, colleges, publishing presses, magazines, and writing organizations to create, organize, and promote events in collaboration with one another. I love doing this because I’m able to widen the reach of my audience and the number of attendees who would be able to come, and meet even more community members. They can also give you great pointers when creating flyers and promotional materials.
Before reaching out however, it’s important to already have a workshop idea thought-out and organized, that way it’ll be easier for people to understand exactly what you’re offering and why it’d be a worthwhile endeavor to offer the opportunity to others. You don’t even have to create the curriculum until you confirm a space if you don’t want to. But at the very least, you should come prepared with a solid plan and foundation in place.
Money, money, money
Many people have started turning their role as a teaching artist into a full-on job, which I find so admirable and commendable as someone who unfortunately doesn’t have that kind of time. But I think something I will always struggle with is, if I’m not doing a free event, how to decide a price point that reflects my worth and the time I’m putting into the event while also being accessible to as many people as possible. Unfortunately, I don’t have a straight answer for you, nor a magic number that will resonate with everyone. Depending on a number of factors like their experience, credentials, expertise, and knowledge, some might be very comfortable charging $100+ for a workshop, while others are below $25. All I can say is that this is a very personal decision and only you will be able to determine what your event may be worth. For my part, I try to balance this conundrum with sliding scale pricing, scholarships, and reduced rates, especially if the workshop is aimed at marginalized communities (which it almost always is). Honestly, this is great practice for you to grow confident in yourself and determine your worth as a creative and I will say that this aspect of it is always the most challenging but empowering part.
Promote your events
Again, this is another difficult part of the process I’m still trying to reckon with. By nature, I’m a very introverted person who hates drawing attention to myself or promoting what I do, even if I love it. But here’s the rub: if you don’t promote your event, no one will go, and it’s as simple as that. And it’s not because they didn’t want to go but because they didn’t know about it! So as this is a great moment for you to practice self-promotion, here are some strategies that I would impart to you:
Create a graphic or flyer
Share on social media through a main feed post, constant story reminders
Ask your friends and family to repost it to their stories/share with networks
Print physical copies of the flyer and pass it out to relevant organizations or local spots (coffee shops, libraries, bookstores, colleges)
Send personal email or direct message invites to people you know and ask them to share
Send cold emails to figures in the community you don’t know but who would be interested in attending
Let everyone know you’re doing this really cool, amazing thing!
Believe me y’all, this might be the most nerve-wracking part but you’ll never know who’ll say yes!
Host the workshop
Okay, I lied—maybe this is the hardest part lol! I’ve been doing this for over two years now and I can still say that every single time I host an event, I always have this fear that maybe no one will go. No one will show up. No one cared to come. Every single time, I have this thought and guess what? At least one person will always show up. If you do the work to promote your event, I promise you that this will always be true (mostly because you’ll be there! :)). For me, the smallest group I’ve had was two people and even that was still so much fun because it was incredibly intimate, the discussion was lively, and people didn’t feel the need to perform or be anyone but themselves. So do me a favor now and don’t stress too much about how many tickets you sell or how many RSVPs you get (the real number of people who show up tend to be a little lower anyway). The way I like to think about it is that the people who attend the workshop will be the ones who need it the most. They’re there to see you and learn from you, so no matter how many people show up, take a deep breath and give them a workshop to remember.
Reflecting and trying again
So you gave your workshop! Fantastic! What next? Hopefully, it went well and you’re feeling that much more excited to offer more workshops in the future. But first, it might behoove you to take a step back and reflect on what you just experienced with questions like these:
What went well? What didn’t?
What would you do differently next time?
If the turnout wasn’t great, how might you promote the next event more?
It also might be worth reaching out to attendees and asking them these same questions from their point of view, which I’ve found to be the most helpful feedback of all. More often than not, they’ll be excited to share their two cents and help you grow in your role as a teaching artist.
The most important part of this whole journey, to me at least, is not giving up. There will always be more opportunities to practice and grow. You will find a footing. You can always give the same workshop more than once until you really nail it! Being a teaching artist is hard but having done it for so long now, I honestly couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I love teaching. I love sharing my art with the world. I love developing and growing as an artist. And with time, I hope you will, too.
notes from the writer’s desk ✍️
my favorite recently pub’d pieces:
updates:
I have a whole line-up of upcoming events! As I mentioned at the beginning of my newsletter, I will be participating in a few events in March and April as a teaching artist and performer! See below for details and links to RSVP/buy tickets:
My crochet shop launched its new collection! If you haven’t heard, I have my own crochet shop Sofíe’s Yarn and we just released our love letter launch! If you love handmade crochet goodies and accessories like hair ribbons, wallets, purses, book sleeves, decorative pillows, bookmarks, and more, be sure to check out our new collection!
I’m a weekly columnist, y'all! Every week, I’ve been writing for Syracuse’s student newspaper The Daily Orange. In my most recent piece, I discussed family vloggers and the need to protect children beyond just film and TV. Be sure to follow me on social media to keep up with my weekly essays, which will focus on pop culture and media.
I’m so excited to announce the upcoming publication of my debut children’s book!! The book will spotlight past and present queer heroes from Latin America and the U.S. and is forthcoming from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. More info and details to come soon! In the meantime, please read this thread I wrote about the project.
resources:
Looking for book recommendations? Check out my Bookstagram and TikTok to keep up with what I’m reading and loving right now! On TikTok, you’ll also get more snippets of my everyday writing life and lifestyle/fashion content. See you there!
other stories i’m loving 📖
currently reading:
Be a Revolution by Ijeoma Oluo
currently watching:
Manifest S3
currently listening to:
“the boy is mine” by Ariana Grande
all my love,
sofía xx