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Cascade88 Regular user Sam 104 109 Posts |
If I wanted to teach in a school I would like some advice.
How do I advertise? Do I sell the kids balls or scarves? How long should the workshops be? How much to charge? Ill have plenty more questions later. I do not plan on doing this now. I would like to get a lot better. Maybe when I can juggle a 5 ball cascade I'll do it. -thank you
"Once is magic Twice is education."
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itshim Elite user Milton Keynes 417 Posts |
Lots of questions but very little detail of what you want to do so here goes nothing...
If you want to teach juggling skills in schools your best bet is to direct mail the schools. It also helps if you have a LOT of juggling equipment (so that you can teach a whole class at a time), have lots of relevant experience and can pitch your sale to something that schools actually want. So, for example, I am a qualified teacher (of maths) so can be left with the class on my own, can speak the language that teachers understand, can tailor a programme of study to the schools requirements and understand the need of flexibility. I also am a jester, so can introduce juggling as part of a history week. Have lots of previous experience delivering workshops to scouting and guiding organisations. Have worked with children with special needs. And can handle up to 40 children at a time for a one off workshop or for a whole year program with certificates to show student progress and with my performance experience can develop a show where the students can demonstrate their new skills. Being able to juggle 5 balls is much less desirable than having a wide knowledge of the various manipulation skills and a good understanding of how to teach them. With a clear idea of how to stretch pupils who are achieving whilst demonstrating different approaches for those students who are struggling at the first method you demonstrate. (i.e. differentiation in teacher speech) How much should you charge? In the UK the standard fee is something between £200 - £300 per day but less than that for longer courses. It is worth being able to sell all the props you use but don't force this on schools as many don't like this. However be aware that these BOR sales can account for over 50% of your profit if sold correctly (a donation to the school often helps). Other considerations: You should have full documentation (in the UK this means Public Liability Insurance, CRB check and Risk Assessment) and remember that personal recommendation is worth much more than all your advertising. Nigel
I knew a man who kept saying "pliers, pincers, scissors". He was speaking in tongs.
www.itshim.co.uk |
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Cascade88 Regular user Sam 104 109 Posts |
Thank you very much for your help. By saying doing a 5 ball cascade I mean ill need more expierence.
again -thank you
"Once is magic Twice is education."
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Al Angello Eternal Order Collegeville, Pa. USA 11045 Posts |
I do a scarf juggling workshop for schools where I spend the whole day in the gym teaching kids, and teachers how to juggle scarves. I usually get about an 80% success rate for grammer school age kids in a 45 minute class, and I have no problem teaching 100 kids at a time. At the end of the day I do an abreviated show spotlighting some good students, and teachers. I don't sell anything because a tax number puts the IRS in your business, which in my opinion is asking for trouble. I call it "a day with Al" and I charge $800 for the day. I usually do one, or two of these a year, it's a lot of work but it's a good day's wages. I also do a summer camp version, and I charge according to the number of students. Nigel's answer is different than mine because we live in different countries. It is essential for every performing professional to have liability insurance.
have fun Al Angello PS- A 5 ball cascade is not as important as a solid entertaining show. Do you think there will be someone in your class ready for 5 balls?
Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/ "Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone" |
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Turk Inner circle Portland, OR 3546 Posts |
The above answers are are very good. you definitely will need liability insurance in a minimum statuory amount that the schools can advise you on. Also, because of the fact that you will be around children and/or students and becasue of 9/11, I'd be surprised if you did not need a criminal background check.
Finally, IMHO, lots of doors will be more easily opened (especially in school situations) if you can provide a resume of past work (and with letters of recommendations). I think such info will not only brand you as "professional", it would also let the schools know that you know what you are doing and are not merely someone that just decided to do this sort of thing and that they are your first client. Hope this helps. Mike P.S. Bobo used to do a lot of school shows and I think he put out a book that covers these types of thing (i.e., about how to get booked at schools and what you need etc.). Your answers being sought are not unique to a juggler or juggling act. Rather, they are relevant to school performance bookings.
Magic is a vanishing Art.
This must not be Kansas anymore, Toto. Eschew obfuscation. |
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Al Angello Eternal Order Collegeville, Pa. USA 11045 Posts |
I have never actively solicited any business, they all come to me, so I can't tell you how to schmooze potential customers. My liability insurance is from the SAM. I do lots of school assemblies where I don't teach, but I have been at it for 18 years, so my reputation precludes the need to beat the bushes for business, and no one has ever asked me if I have a police record, yet.
Al Angello
Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/ "Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone" |
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itshim Elite user Milton Keynes 417 Posts |
Al,
The UK is very different. You will really struggle to work for any large childrens organisation without a police check (called CRB). Nowadays every local council requires it, every school asks for it and half the agencies I do childrens stuff for seem to want it. Another thing to consider in the UK is that in a travel time of 2 hours I can visit approx. 30,000,000 people or roughly half the country. So my travel is very different from the US. I refuse to teach scarves on the basis that juggling them does not help to learn to juggle any other prop, as the air resistance means that both upward and downward movement is totally different. This is not a criticism of anyone who uses scarves but a personal peculiarity. Nigel
I knew a man who kept saying "pliers, pincers, scissors". He was speaking in tongs.
www.itshim.co.uk |
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ac-magic Regular user South East UK 149 Posts |
Do you not find that the co-ordination helps though? Just to get them started?
Cheers Ali
A , mind reading, funny escape artist wanna-be
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Roslyn Inner circle UK 3405 Posts |
I agree that as a general rule scarves don't really help with juggling as a whole.
However, I do like to use them with under 6s and I also think they're great for teaching special needs too. I've also used scarves when teaching large groups of older children as a warm-up excercise. Talking of equipment that people use, what stuff do you take to a workshop? Is it just juggling type props (balls, rings, clubs, diabolos, devil sticks etc) that you use, or do you also take unicycles, rola bolas, tightwires, walking globes, stilts (hold-on or strap-on) etc. Ros
The Magic Cafe account of The Conwy Jester, Erwyd le Fol formerly known as Roslyn Walker.
My home online Join me on Facebook Follow me on twitter |
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Al Angello Eternal Order Collegeville, Pa. USA 11045 Posts |
Both of you are right, but an 80% success rate for 6 year olds is a great selling point to the teachers, and the money is great, especially for summer camps on week days. Nigel I don't have a police record, unless you are asking about those party I attended back in the 60's.
Al Angello
Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/ "Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone" |
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carbone1853 Loyal user RI USA 239 Posts |
How do I advertise?
As said above direct mail is works. Just be sure you take the time to design a good mailing piece (or pay some one to do it), Samuel Patrick Smith has a good book on this. The piece could be a postcard or a brochure. A response rate of 1% is in the ballpark, for a single mailing. Do I sell the kids balls or scarves? I would not think selling balls of scarves would be the way to go. If schools want juggling equipment they have access to prices that you would have a hard time making money against. They may even be able to buy the items cheaper than you. You will have to provide the items for your workshops. So if your workshop will have one class that would mean around 40 students x 3 Balls per student = 120 Balls. How long should the workshops be? 40-45 minuets which is one class period with time to move the students from their class room to the gym. You could do 4-5 workshops per day. How much to charge? Depends on your area and your experience level. For a full day at a school: Free to $300 for little or no experience. I would suggest you do a few free shows to gain experience. $300-500 for a beginner $500-1500 for an experienced person $1500 + If you are famous. As said above a 5 ball cascade would not be needed. Solid 3 Ball skills is all that you would need. Chris |
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carbone1853 Loyal user RI USA 239 Posts |
“what stuff do you take to a workshop?”
For an elementary school work shop I would keep it to just balls or scarves. When I did work shops in high schools I had lots of other props. Such as: Clubs, diabolos, spinning plates, devil sticks, cigar boxes, rings. Basically anything I could do a few tricks with. I amassed 2 or 3 sets of all the above equipment over the years. The format of the work shop was, at the start I would break the group into skill levels. People who could not juggle at all People who could kinda juggle People who were comfortable with 3 ball juggling. The first group I would start off with just tossing 1 ball The second group I would also start with 1 ball but would move them to 2 and 3 faster than group 1. The last group I would teach them a few 3 ball tricks they did not know. After we did the ball thing for 15 min or so I would have everyone take a break and I would demonstrate the basic moves and a few tricks with the other props I brought. After my demo I would say that if they want a change from the balls they are welcome to try the other props and I would be happy to answer any questions on the other props. Dave Finnigan has a book “The Complete Juggler” which has a lot of info on teaching people to juggle. |
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itshim Elite user Milton Keynes 417 Posts |
I have at least 40 of sets of balls, diablos, devil sticks, spinning plates, poi, peacock feathers. I also have about 10 pedal gos, a low level tightrope, a walking globe, a couple of unicycles, shaker cups, an unrideable bike, 6 sets of hand held stilts, 2 sets of strap on stilts and various other bits and pieces that I rarely teach (rings, clubs, cigar boxes etc.)
Over 90% of my workshops are one offs so I don't want to be teaching things that are labour intensive (such as stilts or unicycles) and generally I find it is better to teach as a group. When I am teaching under 6 I go for spinning plates, feathers, pedal go and tightrope (with continual teacher support). For older groups I quite often teach 60 - 90 min sessions that include balls, diablo, devil stick, plate manipulation, plate spinning and possibly feathers. For plate manipulation tricks please see Rhys Thomas in the US or me in the UK (I'll be doing a couple of workshops at the BJC) Nigel
I knew a man who kept saying "pliers, pincers, scissors". He was speaking in tongs.
www.itshim.co.uk |
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Al Angello Eternal Order Collegeville, Pa. USA 11045 Posts |
Nigel
Holding their attention is a challange. With all those props how do you get any semblance of order? Al Angello
Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/ "Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone" |
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itshim Elite user Milton Keynes 417 Posts |
Al,
I teach a very structured lesson. I bring sufficient props on the day so that I can give variety to the lessons. I tell the kids that I am going to start with the harder props first and only if we have time will we be able to get to the easier (more fun) props. I teach as a whole group, if I have to split the kids into smaller groups I teach them a number of skills (as a group) and then split them and rotate them. And of course my overwhelming personality and stunning abilities help Nigel
I knew a man who kept saying "pliers, pincers, scissors". He was speaking in tongs.
www.itshim.co.uk |
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Cascade88 Regular user Sam 104 109 Posts |
I am creating a props list that I am trying to keep under 300$ how does this look?
30 sets of balls 105 bucks 5 sets of rings 50 bucks 10 sets Silks 60 bucks 10 Spining Plates 50 bucks Anything to add or subtract? -thank you
"Once is magic Twice is education."
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ac-magic Regular user South East UK 149 Posts |
1 Thing to note,
You have 30 juggling balls, but the other quantity of equipment you will purchase on comes out at 25. If you're teaching 30 kids and 30 wanna change item, 5 kids will get annoyed. Those 5 kids will no doubt tell parents and over-protective parents may get in touch with the school... This will be expensive, but buying 30 balls and then 15 lots of each item will mean that those who don't want to stay on balls could work on a rota system. Hope I helped Ali
A , mind reading, funny escape artist wanna-be
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Cascade88 Regular user Sam 104 109 Posts |
Yes you did help so should I decrease the amount of balls or should I buy something else, More spinning plates or something along the lines of that?
"Once is magic Twice is education."
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ac-magic Regular user South East UK 149 Posts |
Right Okay... I'd buy 30 sets of balls, 15 Rings, 15 Plates and 15-20 sets of silks.
I would only give the silks to people who were perhaps struggling with balls. If you're teaching 30 kids at a time and everybode gets the balls, then you could split them in to 2 groups. By the way, I'd buy 15 sets of 2 plates and 2 sticks. I managed to learn plate spinning very quickly and so if they had another stick and plate to balance somewhere else then it would keep them occupied much longer. Also, if you're teaching school kids, accidents will happen. This being the case perhaps buy 5 extra of everything (perhaps even the balls incase they split or something). Go to a juggling shop to buy these. If you're buying several hundred dollars worth of juggling equipment then they will probably be more than happy to give you a discount. Ali P.S. Are you thinking of including the juggling equipment into the price i.e. the kids get to keep the balls OR silks plus rings plus plates. If this is the case then that is an extra profit margin and you will no doubt get repeat customer discounts from which ever shop you are buying from.
A , mind reading, funny escape artist wanna-be
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Cascade88 Regular user Sam 104 109 Posts |
Im thinking of not selling them the equipment, now that I think of it. I am thinking of divideing it because I may have a partner. Half balls and silks, half plates to fool around with. How long should these worshops be?
-thank you
"Once is magic Twice is education."
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