Advice, tips, and cautions for teaching privately.
While being a public-school teacher I have also taught privately for over 25 years. I have seen requests in Facebook groups asking questions about teaching privately, so I will share my thoughts and advice here.
Your first consideration should be of liability. The USA is a litigious country so you need to keep that in mind when you plan. For example, I DO NOT RECOMMEND giving private lessons where you are the only adult with a child. (Nor do I recommend private lessons to adults.) Even in my own classroom, if I am tutoring a single student, I make sure my door is wide open and we are in full view of the doorway. You can remediate this issue if you teach in your own studio, by having a passive camera filming the whole time or only hold classes with groups of people. I have done both, a passive camera and groups of students. When I teach in my studio, I do not allow access to my personal home to others. Try as best you can to keep business and personal spaces separate. If you cannot, I would strongly advise you find a space to rent or reconsider the notion altogether.
I have run after-school classes, and evening classes for teens and adults during the school year. In my summers, I set aside 1 month to teach an art camp, and 1 month for rest and relaxation. I think it is imperative for teachers to get time “away from teaching” to recharge our mental batteries and avoid burn-out.
My after-school classes were 90 minutes and students were expected to have a pad of drawing paper, color pencils, and a simple watercolor set with brushes. I did have some supplies set aside but for the most part, they had a tote bag with their stuff in it. My evening classes were 2 hours, and students brought the supplies they wanted to work with. I ran it like an open studio and I helped them individually with what they wanted to learn. Some may think of it as a TAB setting or maker’s space.
I charged $12.50 per person per class to be paid on the first weekly class of the month ($50 each, no refunds for missed classes). I allowed only 10 students to join. I ran my classes Wednesdays, right after school for elementary students, with a break for dinner, and my evening class for teens and adults after dinner from 7-9pm. I would earn about $600 to $1000 per month for essentially 1 evening of work per week. I believe my pricing was a bit low, and if I was doing it now, I would charge $15 or $20 per class. If you have a waiting list of students to join, you can raise the price for your population. That said, I never refused entry for a student based on their inability to pay and would take on a few scholarship students who I felt would benefit from the experience. They would pay what they could, if anything. In that case I might have a class of 11 or 12 but no more. I did not want it to feel like “work.” I played music while we worked, and for my adult class I’d have hot water for tea or coffee available.
Summer camp was a significant source of income for me. I lived in an old firehouse and was sometimes able to hire 1 art teacher and an aide to help me. We had 2 classes of 10 running at the same time. The base cost was $150 per week per ½ day student or $300 per week for a full day student. I provided supplies but never food. I have attached my 2018 summer camp schedule below. We ran classes from 9am to noon, and 1 to 4 pm with a 1-hour supervised lunch for those staying all day. Parent could pay an additional amount for 30-minute early drop off or 30-minute late pick up. All students were expected to bring a snack which we ate 90 minutes into class as a break in both sessions. My most popular weeks were always cartooning, drawing, painting, sculpture, art excursions (where we would walk around town, parks, bakeries, and draw) and “CrAzY ArT” week where we use media in unconventional ways (Painting with squirt guns, hammer-printing flowers, burning sticks to draw with our own charcoal, etc.) Weeks that were too specific tended not to fill completely, the ones I mentioned always had a waiting list. You’ll see from my program that my descriptions were pretty general so I could really do whatever I wanted to using whatever supplies I had on hand.
Your first consideration should be of liability. The USA is a litigious country so you need to keep that in mind when you plan. For example, I DO NOT RECOMMEND giving private lessons where you are the only adult with a child. (Nor do I recommend private lessons to adults.) Even in my own classroom, if I am tutoring a single student, I make sure my door is wide open and we are in full view of the doorway. You can remediate this issue if you teach in your own studio, by having a passive camera filming the whole time or only hold classes with groups of people. I have done both, a passive camera and groups of students. When I teach in my studio, I do not allow access to my personal home to others. Try as best you can to keep business and personal spaces separate. If you cannot, I would strongly advise you find a space to rent or reconsider the notion altogether.
I have run after-school classes, and evening classes for teens and adults during the school year. In my summers, I set aside 1 month to teach an art camp, and 1 month for rest and relaxation. I think it is imperative for teachers to get time “away from teaching” to recharge our mental batteries and avoid burn-out.
My after-school classes were 90 minutes and students were expected to have a pad of drawing paper, color pencils, and a simple watercolor set with brushes. I did have some supplies set aside but for the most part, they had a tote bag with their stuff in it. My evening classes were 2 hours, and students brought the supplies they wanted to work with. I ran it like an open studio and I helped them individually with what they wanted to learn. Some may think of it as a TAB setting or maker’s space.
I charged $12.50 per person per class to be paid on the first weekly class of the month ($50 each, no refunds for missed classes). I allowed only 10 students to join. I ran my classes Wednesdays, right after school for elementary students, with a break for dinner, and my evening class for teens and adults after dinner from 7-9pm. I would earn about $600 to $1000 per month for essentially 1 evening of work per week. I believe my pricing was a bit low, and if I was doing it now, I would charge $15 or $20 per class. If you have a waiting list of students to join, you can raise the price for your population. That said, I never refused entry for a student based on their inability to pay and would take on a few scholarship students who I felt would benefit from the experience. They would pay what they could, if anything. In that case I might have a class of 11 or 12 but no more. I did not want it to feel like “work.” I played music while we worked, and for my adult class I’d have hot water for tea or coffee available.
Summer camp was a significant source of income for me. I lived in an old firehouse and was sometimes able to hire 1 art teacher and an aide to help me. We had 2 classes of 10 running at the same time. The base cost was $150 per week per ½ day student or $300 per week for a full day student. I provided supplies but never food. I have attached my 2018 summer camp schedule below. We ran classes from 9am to noon, and 1 to 4 pm with a 1-hour supervised lunch for those staying all day. Parent could pay an additional amount for 30-minute early drop off or 30-minute late pick up. All students were expected to bring a snack which we ate 90 minutes into class as a break in both sessions. My most popular weeks were always cartooning, drawing, painting, sculpture, art excursions (where we would walk around town, parks, bakeries, and draw) and “CrAzY ArT” week where we use media in unconventional ways (Painting with squirt guns, hammer-printing flowers, burning sticks to draw with our own charcoal, etc.) Weeks that were too specific tended not to fill completely, the ones I mentioned always had a waiting list. You’ll see from my program that my descriptions were pretty general so I could really do whatever I wanted to using whatever supplies I had on hand.
| camp_application.pdf |
My greatest promotional idea was to do flyer-coupons. Each flyer to promote my camp had a $5 coupon attached to it for the person who posted the flyer. I strongly requested that every family post 1 or 2 and EARN $5 to $10 off their registration. This became my primary method of promoting my camp. I had 2 or so student every year wo came for free for a week or so because they posted so many flyers. This was my primary scholarship. I would even provide stacks of flyers for these families and they would begin posting them in February for the following summer camp. My classes started to fill by mid-April.
If I only had 15 or less students for a week, it was me and a college student I hired to teach the students. I paid them well. If I had 16 or more sign-ups I would hire a second teacher, pay them $20-$25 per hour, and split the classes by age. We’d have a teen room and an elementary room.
We had a sign in sheet on Mondays, if students were allowed to walk home, I got a signed release from the parents, and we stood in from of my building when it was time for pick-up. Fridays we’d end a tad early and everyone helped to clean and organize the space. It was a good studio habit to instill.
As with your own classes in school, start every Monday with a reading of the rules and expectations, and be clear about consequences. I have parents sign a behavior agreement and it says students can get kicked out for bad behavior without a refund. Only once in my 25 years did I have a student hit another student. Thankfully no one was “hurt.” What happens in school, can happen in your program, so be thoughtful about that.
Camp also allowed me to experiment with ideas I would later use in my classroom to keep things interesting and dynamic. Many of the lessons on my blog and in my publications are a direct result of my summer camp experiences. It was valuable personally and professionally. If you need a resource for camp lesson ideas, TRY THIS.
If I only had 15 or less students for a week, it was me and a college student I hired to teach the students. I paid them well. If I had 16 or more sign-ups I would hire a second teacher, pay them $20-$25 per hour, and split the classes by age. We’d have a teen room and an elementary room.
We had a sign in sheet on Mondays, if students were allowed to walk home, I got a signed release from the parents, and we stood in from of my building when it was time for pick-up. Fridays we’d end a tad early and everyone helped to clean and organize the space. It was a good studio habit to instill.
As with your own classes in school, start every Monday with a reading of the rules and expectations, and be clear about consequences. I have parents sign a behavior agreement and it says students can get kicked out for bad behavior without a refund. Only once in my 25 years did I have a student hit another student. Thankfully no one was “hurt.” What happens in school, can happen in your program, so be thoughtful about that.
Camp also allowed me to experiment with ideas I would later use in my classroom to keep things interesting and dynamic. Many of the lessons on my blog and in my publications are a direct result of my summer camp experiences. It was valuable personally and professionally. If you need a resource for camp lesson ideas, TRY THIS.
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