How Do Classes Make the Catalog?

Have you ever wondered how that staggering catalog of classes on offer at Guild School comes into being? The actual process of selection is spread over several months, here is the condensed version.

Sometime in late winter, Guild School Director Barbara Davis, sends a notice to all IGMA’s Artisan and Fellow members, asking for proposals for classes for the following year.  Prospective teachers, all of whom must be Artisan or Fellow members, have until May 15, to submit their ideas which generally include a brief description and a photo. The photos are very important as they are often the only information that students will have on which to base their opinions on which prospective classes they would be interested in taking. All these photos are posted on huge display boards outside the cafeteria at Guild School, and those display boards are often the first thing returning students look for. Nothing like planning for the next year when you haven’t even begun the current year’s classes!

A proposal from Ann High that eventually became a class.

A proposal from Ann High that eventually became a class.

Students have several days to examine the posted photos and mark their preferences on their opinion sheets-indicating with a 1 or 2, which classes they are definitely interested in taking, and which they might be interested in taking. These ‘votes’ are tallied and each proposed class then has a sort of beginning point from which further evaluations can be made. This is all what I’ll call Step One in the process.

Step Two is in the hands of the School Committee. Upon arrival at school, each committee member receives a large packet of information containing photos and descriptions of each proposed class, along with a little information on the instructors and their teaching experience. Committee members are responsible for familiarizing themselves with that material during the week so that when they meet at week’s end, they are ready to help with the selection process. When the committee meets, all the previously mentioned items are present for discussion. The student opinion tallies are often the beginning point, but committee members also spend a substantial amount of time reading student reviews of classes/teachers who have proposals under consideration.

A proposal that did  not become a class.

A proposal that did not become a class.

Next, large sheets of paper are posted around the meeting room, one for each category of class, i.e. furniture, structure, metal, etc. to ensure that a variety of media and disciplines will be represented in the final choices. Starting with the longest classes, 48 and 36 hours, the list begins to be winnowed down. Any proposal with good numbers and strong teacher performance will make the list. If that teacher has more than one that proposal that looks good, discussion will ensue as to which might be the more popular choice, but often the final decision in cases like that is left to the director to work out with the instructor. When all proposals have been considered, then work continues to make sure the list is balanced according to category and media, by number of offerings overall, and also by time categories; for example, you obviously want more 12 hour classes than 36 hour classes as students can take 3 – 12 hour classes in the same time as one 36 hour class.

By the end of the meeting, which often takes a good 6-8 hours, Barbara Davis winds up with a list of possible classes for the following year. And that leads to Step Three, Barbara now goes home and begins to contact instructors. Sometimes she needs to ask them to make changes in their proposals to address questions that may have arisen in the committee meeting. Sometimes she needs to ask them if they’d mind teaching more classes, or fewer and be a student part-time. Some classes/instructors will drop out here, and sometimes, when registration begins, other classes will be dropped due to lack of interest. In any case, about 6 months after the process began, the school catalog is in production and the list of classes goes up on the website where eager students pore over the possibilities and start to make their lists!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>