Brushmaster Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 30 minutes is oodles of time for me to waff down a sandwich and grab a drink . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rastl Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 I'm torn between option 1 and option 3. Option 1 has you moving smoothly between classes if that's what you're doing and an easy schedule to remember since everything starts on the hour. But having back-to-back classes can be hard on both students and instructors alike. Option 3 should mean a more steady flow of people snarfing instead of a large hoard descending. With any luck you could also spend a little time in the paint and take area and try out a thing or two from the class you just took. Irregular start times might be troublesome tho. I feel your stress Anne. Scheduling something like this is never easy. What do the instructors have to say? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artists Wren Posted December 13, 2006 Artists Share Posted December 13, 2006 My preference would be for option one or two, but my vote is influenced by the fact that I'm a vegetarian and have to go off-site for meals rather than making use of the quick bite at Sonic option (although I very much appreciate the effort Reaper goes to in providing it!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mengu Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 I like option 1. It's worked fine so far. But option 1.5 could be a bit better for lunch management. Lessons starting on the whole hours is easier to keep track of. It would be nice to stagger some of the classes that encompass the noon hour though. So some classes may be 11am-1pm, and some could be 12pm-2pm. This would give multiple possible breaks for lunch, starting at 11am, ending at 3pm, instead of all lunch breaks squeezing between 1pm-2pm. Classroom schedule would not be affected by this arrangement. Since there won't be as many evening classes, dinner break will be less of a problem, so a scheduled 1 hr should work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaper User Vaitalla Posted December 13, 2006 Author Reaper User Share Posted December 13, 2006 A quick contribution: scheduling classes in staggered periods (some at noon to two, some at one to three, for example) has been unfeasible in the past not because of students not being able to take overlapping classes, but in that it means that an instructor teaching 1 to 3 is not available to teach any of the class slots either from noon to 2 or 2 to 4. Which is ten classes I have to fill, with instructor resources which I never schedule back to back. In short, sadly, impossible. I am afraid in this one I am very much on the side of keeping the instructors happy, as without them we have no students. --Anne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pae Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 Anne, you could always give the potential 'make instructors unhappy' assignments to the new guy. As long as there is bourbon to be found, I think he can handle it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwyksilver Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 I think I am going to have to take a class with Flynn just to haze/heckle him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shakandara Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 Ok, so while we are on the topic of how the schedule for the day should be laid out, can I bring up exactly how the classes are ordered? I ran into this last year trying to schedule myself both for the WL tournament and sculpting classes. The tournament's timing somewhat forced my hand, but the sculpting class schedule didn't help. Let me back up by explaining that I have no skills whatsoever, painting or sculpting (ok, that's not entirely true, but for purposes of the classes, it might as well be). I wanted to take 2 sculpting classes in particular; Sculpting Basics and Conversions. It sure seemed to me that taking Basics first would have made sense, then Conversions after that, to let one skill set build on the other. But that wasn't possible with the way things were arranged. So, my suggestion would be to establish sculpting and painting "tracks"; logical progressions on classes that would start with a basic class early in the day and proceed with techniques that would build on the pervious classes. I'm sure you could arrange both "beginner" and "expert" tracks to meet the needs of the talentless hacks (like me) and the super uber spiffy artists (you know who you are) as well. A description and registration option for the entire track would be cool. And if people don't want to take the track route, they can still pick and choose the classes they want to attend. Just a thought... ~v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mengu Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 an instructor teaching 1 to 3 is not available to teach any of the class slots either from noon to 2 or 2 to 4. But there wouldn't be anyone teaching 1 to 3. What I'm suggesting is taking the 11am-2pm slot (a 3 hr slot), and scheduling 2 hrs of classes and 1 hr of lunch time for each instructor. Some will take lunches at 11am, some will take lunches at 1pm. Every other two hour slot is untouched. The resulting starting times would be: Morning1 - 9am Morning2 - 11am or 12 pm Afternoon1 - 2pm Afternoon2 - 4pm Evening1 - 7pm Evening2 - 9pm Hope this made better sense than my earlier rambling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambard69! Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 So, my suggestion would be to establish sculpting and painting "tracks"; logical progressions on classes that would start with a basic class early in the day and proceed with techniques that would build on the pervious classes. I'm sure you could arrange both "beginner" and "expert" tracks to meet the needs of the talentless hacks (like me) and the super uber spiffy artists (you know who you are) as well. A description and registration option for the entire track would be cool. And if people don't want to take the track route, they can still pick and choose the classes they want to attend. I so love this idea!!! It gives me hope i could be talentless hack on Fri morning, and at least an unembarrassed contributor by Fri night! I think it would be cool if these tracks could be bought as a "package" deal. One price for a track with an artist all day? In agreement with the class suggestion thread, and the whole basis of this thread-i want the artist to have breaks and resting time too. But the idea of starting at the beginning and working your way through various techniques is AWESOME! Anne, you could always give the potential 'make instructors unhappy' assignments to the new guy. As long as there is bourbon to be found, I think he can handle it. Thank God someone else brought this thought up. I was beginning to think I was evil -the only one who was thinking can we bribe the artist with food, (or i guess in Flynn's case liquior ). I do like the idea of night classes, for those artists who want to be up that late. I see an advantage to the class size being small, the smaller classes seem to have the opportunity to be more of a hands on than a demo. And most of the painters i know seem to like to paint at night anyway. If the night classes don't appeal to the artists-maybe those would be the best times to include the "public time" in the paint and take area. (Which brings me to a question i had after something i read in regards to flying with paints-are there going to be paints in the paint and take are for anyone to use like there was in 05? Man, i wish i could have made it last year ) I guess the most important thing is Anne-what do the artists want to do? It's like you said-without the artist, there wouldn't be any classes anyway. So what do they want to do? Maybe some of them would rather do night, and some want to do day-so couldn't they be scheduled accordingly? My only request would be to let everybody know the day the schedule will be up and ready for sign up on line. I know when we came in 05, we didn't realize that we could have signed up on-line and only got into 1 class. The amount of change the 1 class made for my hubby was unbelievable-i can only hope that he/we will get to be in some more. And if during the course of the Con more classes become available, please advertise them a little more so everybody has a chance at rushing the registration desk (RUN FOR COVER-GUYS ) Oh-i have such hope now- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 Flynn's not the only one who can be bribed with liquor. I have been know on occasion to have a little of the Captain in me. Wren - Tots are veggies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haldir Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 take it from a person that took a day of solid classes this year, having a 5-10 min break in between classes would be great. Be able to gather everything & not have to worry if I left something in the previous class, ha ha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixminis Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 I vaguely remember Sonic being able to have special diet foods as well... or maybe I'm remembering something else... it's been a long day for me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artists Wren Posted December 14, 2006 Artists Share Posted December 14, 2006 Wren - Tots are veggies! An excellent point! :-> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reaper User Vaitalla Posted December 14, 2006 Author Reaper User Share Posted December 14, 2006 Interesting, Mengu! Let me run the numbers on this and see if it will work. Mostly I need to canvas my instructors and see who's a night owl willing to teach from 9 to 11 p.m. (other than Phil!), and also see if the ReaperCon Committee is willing to extend the hours the Con is open. We would need to be open an hour earlier and an hour later than usual to accomodate this schedule, which means someone with a key has to be willing to stay late...mornings would not be a problem as I show up bloody early anyhow. And you know I'm the one who's going to be teaching early-bird classes! What do other people think of this schedule? This does give you the opportunity to schedule either back to back or give yourselves hefty time between classes to absorb and practice, which I like. And it is very amenable to the "progression class" thing, where one instructor teaches a series of two, maybe three classes for those hardcore instructors, on the same subject. The only thing I could see a problem with, as I believe that Patrick already brought up, is that it seriously kills any evening "bonding time" the instructors normally get together during the Con. I will think and write to people and get back to you! Thanks very much for all your input so far!! --Anne But there wouldn't be anyone teaching 1 to 3. What I'm suggesting is taking the 11am-2pm slot (a 3 hr slot), and scheduling 2 hrs of classes and 1 hr of lunch time for each instructor. Some will take lunches at 11am, some will take lunches at 1pm. Every other two hour slot is untouched. The resulting starting times would be: Morning1 - 9am Morning2 - 11am or 12 pm Afternoon1 - 2pm Afternoon2 - 4pm Evening1 - 7pm Evening2 - 9pm Hope this made better sense than my earlier rambling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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