Classroom organization?

[Aaron__McNabb]

Hi all, I checked these forums for this sort of thread and didn't find one. I apologize if this has been covered before.

I am creating this thread so that those who have benefited from a successful classroom environment (Houston guys, here's lookin' at you) can share their experiences with the rest of us transitioning from a study group to a full-fledged class. How do you organize your classroom? What drills do you do every session? How long do you spend on each topic? How often do you review each topic? What is your ratio of sparring to instruction?

As some of you already know we (ARMA A&M) have started an 8 week training course covering the basics of ARMA. We have 2 GFSs and 1 veteran member who are now instructing 20 or so new members.

So far, we spent the first day giving them "The Speech", teaching basic footwork and the touch drill, and learning the first basic stances. This took 2.5 hours, and they seemed to retain their knowledge for the second session a week later. We seem to be doing well, but it never hurts to ask for help or new ideas.

Kyle has already started us down the right road, but we (as well as other groups who read this) can still benefit from any advice you guys have to offer.

Thanks!

-Aaron

[Allen Johnson]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Doing it is worth a thousand pictures.

If you instruce in a classroom it might be helpful to create study guides with illustrations to help them retain the info through the week. I have done this with actors when teaching them fight choreography and it seems to work pretty good. But nothing compares with actually doing it.