Guidelines for Teaching for the TLA Network

The TLA Network seeks experienced transformative language artists to teach online classes for us. We currently offer 12+ classes each year, and will be expanding offerings over the future. We envision our online classes as one way we can support TLArtists making a living and creating work of meaning that serves the community. At the same time, the classes greatly serve the TLA community, which is rather dispersed, by allowing people to make community while learning about TLA. The TLA Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes proposals and applications from individuals of color, LGBTQ people, people living with serious illness or disability, and others marginalized at times in our culture.

Qualifications

Teachers need to be experienced in teaching (or related fields). We are looking for these qualifications:

• Experience facilitating TLA workshops and classes (such as writing in connection with healing or change, etc.) in the community, at colleges or other venues, at conferences, etc.
• Education (in academia or in the school of hard knocks) specifically related to TLA, such as advanced degrees in TLA, Expressive Arts, Arts-Based Activism, certifications in TLA-related areas (drama therapy, therapeutic writing, poetry therapy, etc.) or related areas (including people who have learned such things by doing them).
• Marketing and outreach experience and presence. Preference given to people with an active social media and web presence, including website, blog, and presence on any/all of the following and other social media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
• Connection to communities, groups, previous students, and others who would be potentially interested in taking a class from you (we find that approximately half of all class participants come through our teachers' networks, and half come from TLAN networks).

We seek to bring into the fold teachers with a social change focus, internationally-experienced teachers, and others to complement our current course offerings and help us grow TLA for many populations and communities around the world. At the same time, we give preference to people who have studied and practiced TLA.

Class Format

Timeframe: Classes can be multi-week (2, 4, 6 or 8-week sessions) or one-time sessions (1-4 hours).

Online Platform: We use Wet Ink as our main platform, which allows students to work on the class at any time, day or night, and which allows you a lot of flexibility as to what you post. Wet Ink is very flexible and user-friendly. Once your class proposal has been accepted we will create a Wet Ink classroom so you can begin uploading your course information. 

Zoom: Some of our classes are offered solely through Zoom or other video meeting platforms. Many classes offer a Zoom session at the start and at the end of a series or include weekly Zoom calls. We strongly encourage teachers to build some kind of synchronous video meeting into their Wet Ink classes, as the chance to connect with classmates makes the learning experience so much more powerful for participants and teachers alike.

Grading: We don’t require grades to be assigned, however there are some requirements for people doing the TLAN certification.

Class Focuses & Certificate

We actively seek classes on a variety of TLA genres – writing, storytelling, theatre-making, expressive arts, etc., as well as mixed-mediums (such as storytelling and writing) – and on a variety of topics, such as health and healing, social transformation, right livelihood, engaged spirituality, and ecological literacy.

Take a look at past classes here.

Our introductory certificate, TLA Foundations, requires people to take 5-6 classes (depending on whether they attend the annual conference). For people counting a class as part of fulfilling their certificate requirements, teachers must assess whether students have completed at least 80% of the assignments (we have an easy way to do this that requires minimal work).

Marketing

If you want to teach for us, you need to participate strongly in helping market your class. We meet you half-way: we will promote your class through emailings, our newsletter, our website and social media, and we’ll even meet with you to brainstorm ways you can reach your audience. We’ve found that successful classes always have one major thing in common: the teacher is cultivating a solid following through regular outreach (via social media, newsletters, in-person presentations, word-of-mouth, etc.). As part of the application process, we require a preliminary marketing plan where you can list your outreach ideas. We find that teachers who teach successful classes often acquire a TLA Network following for future classes.

Compensation

We split all net proceeds for each class with the teacher. This comes out to close to the same or more than many organizations offering on-line classes with more complex formulas.

Apply to Teach a Class

Please submit this form, Teach for the TLA Network. Make sure you let us know you have applied, and email your resume or CV (no more than 4 pages) to tlan.coordinator@gmail.com. The online form will include areas for:

• Proposed title of class
• Class description (limited to 250 words)
• Primary audience, such as who would benefit from this class? (limited to 250 words)
• Length of class—number of weeks or hours.
• Top three starting dates.
• Format—Wet Ink (asynchronous) only, Hybrid of Wet Ink & Video meetings, Video meetings only.
• Marketing plan, including how you’ll reach prospective students via social media (facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.), web presence (such as blogs and/or websites), media (newspapers, magazines, radio, etc. if appropriate), other classes or workshops or events you do that would work well to share news of the class, and/or word-of-mouth ideas (how to get out the word among people in your community).
• Experience and education in TLA, and your CV or resume (please limit to 4 pages).
• URLs to your website(s) and blog(s) and current social media pages.
• Teacher bio

Submit your class proposal today!

Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions at tlan.coordinator@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!