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Greetings! 

Welcome to the quarterly newsletter from the Metal Clay Academy. In this edition, I'm very pleased to announce our new training standards section.
 
During late 2008 and early 2009, the Metal Clay Academy Advisory Board have been discussing and compiling a number of resources and guides for metal clay teachers. The well-known and respected teachers on the Board have a wealth of knowledge and experience about teaching a number of subjects including metal clay. Their combined expertise has been used to create these resources.
 
I hope you find them useful.
  
Best wishes,
Julia
 Copper clay by Gail Lannum
Gail Lannum's copper clay pieces are gorgeous! See more on her blog here
 
 
Standards of Practice for Metal Clay Teachers
 
This document aims to lay out some fundamental aspects of running a good class. It is designed to help metal clay teachers improve the standards of their teaching.
 
This list of tips for good practice has been compiled and endorsed by the Metal Clay Academy Advisory Board and reflects the years of teaching experience board members have.

See the whole article here...
Bronze Cupcake
 
This bronze clay cupcake was made by Xuella Arnold. Visit her website here.
How to build confidence in your teaching skill - a guide for new teachers
 
This short article will give new teachers some pointers on how to build their confidence when first starting out teaching metal clay. As with most things in life, the more you practice something, the easier it gets and the better you get at doing it.
 
Metal Clay Beginners Training - Suggested Outline
 
This short article suggests topics and activities that you might cover in metal clay beginners training. It's pretty generic so applies to Art Clay or PMC.
 
Which of these elements you include in your training will depend on several factors; the age or previous experience of your students, the length of the class - whether it's a few hours of taster or a weekend workshop. It may also depend on the facilities you are training in.
 
What's New...?
 
Every day the what's new page lists everything that's been added to the website in the past 24 hours. This page is one of the most viewed pages on the site. Check it out regularly to keep on top of everything new in the metal clay world.
 
 
Debbie Carlton
This metal clay and polymer pendant was made by Debbie Carlton. See her work here...
Support the Metal Clay Academy 
 
The amount of visitors to the MCA website increases daily. We had 10.5 thousand unique visitors in February 2009 and the site traffic is growing by an average of 12% a month. Getting your name or business in front of these interested and motivated people is easy with our sponsorship or advertising packages.
 
Sponsorship of the site is available and provides stable exposure to the MCA target audience - people interested in metal clay and jewellery making. Your sponsor ad appears on every page of the website in the left hand column. Sign up is quick and easy through Paypal. To find out more about becoming a sponsor, click here.
 
Advertising on the site is organised through Project Wonderful. These ads appear on the right hand side of every page on the website. Advertising is cheap and easy with Project Wonderful.
 
The Metal Clay Academy is a not for profit resource and relies on sponsorship and advertising to deliver its mission. Simply by putting a link to our site on your website, blog, Facebook or My Space site etc helps to drive traffic to us and increase our exposure.
March 2009
In This Issue
Standards of Practice
Building Confidence
Beginners Training
What's New
Support the MCA
Difficult Students and Situations
Lesson Planning
Learning Styles
Other Resources
 Dealing with Difficult Students and Situations
 
What is a difficult student? This is a hard question to answer because everyone has a slightly different view of what's difficult and what's not.
 
There are a number of things that cause teachers angst in the classroom and this article suggests some ways of dealing with these commonly reported problems.
 
Lesson Planning

Before you begin teaching a class, you have to plan it. This seems obvious but how do you go about it? This article goes into the basics of lesson planning. It provides a checklist for you to follow when you begin to plan your lessons. At the end of the article there are various resources to help you.
 
Learning Styles 

People learn in different ways. When you're planning your lessons, it helps to understand the basic differences in the way people learn so you can make sure you include a number of approaches in your classes. This will ensure all your students get the kind of teaching and resources they need to learn easily and comfortably.

This article outlines some basic learning styles and is an introduction to the subject of learning theory. There are many websites which go into learning theory in more depth and we've included some links to these at the end of the article.
 
Other Resources for Teachers 
 
If you're offering classes, you should make it very clear to students what happens if they cancel their booking. You also need to tell them what happens if you have to cancel a class. We've created a draft cancellation policy for teachers to use. You can use this freely and modify it to meet your own needs. Find out more here..

As a teacher, you are always learning. The best judge of your teaching skill is your student so asking them about their experience helps you in several ways.
We've put together a simple feedback form that includes information most teachers would find useful. You can use this form freely and modify it for your own needs. Find out more here...