Teaching a Class Is My Favorite Way to Top

One of my top kinks is teaching. "Now wait, that's not really play!" someone says. But isn't it? Teaching can certainly be a scene all on its own.

As part of a scene in a playspace, I love teaching a new top how to do something that'll I'll enjoy as their bottom, but I also appreciate the chance just to impart knowledge to someone that values it, even if we never do that thing together. I love watching the brain-bulbs light up when something connects.

So how much more, then, when I have a room full of people to teach? Whether I'm teaching one of my Community Essentials classes, or just providing a demonstration to a small group at the dungeon, it's absolutely a scene for me.

The process of teaching classes lines up with the flow of any other kink-play. Like any other scene, I need some preparation, some negotiation, and will follow it up with aftercare.

Preparing to teach - learning how to teach - involves going to a lot of classes. Like learning how to top often involves bottoming. Becoming a better teacher happens by teaching badly at first, and getting better. Improving as a top means practicing with relevant toys, and then playing, sometimes poorly, until you get better.

Creating a class, getting to a place where I know the material I'm going to teach is analogous to any top learning how to use their toys and how to manage a scene, watching and/or asking for advice from others with experience in that kind of play, and planning what they want a scene to look like.

Scheduling or planning a class is the negotiation process. What class will I be teaching, and what are all the details we need to iron out before I and the attendees show up? And advertising the event brings in others to the negotiations. Their contribution is to read the event and click the RSVP button. Expectations have now been set and agreed to.

The day of the class, we warm up with introductions from host. I build some warm-up into the beginning of my class too, like talking about the experience I have - and the knowledge I DON'T have, and when it's appropriate, any trigger/content warnings. I try to get an idea of where my audience is coming from, too.

Then we can jump right into the actual material. I vary the intensity by covering some vocabulary, then having examples, and also asking questions and encouraging audience participation - I want my bottoms to be actively a part of the scene. There's lots of room for humor and laughing in my teaching scenes, too.

Once the main material has been presented, the tail end of my classes act as cool-down from our teaching scene. Some 'yes, and' material, prompts for audience participation, a chance to ask me questions, then a summary of what we've covered. I end my classes with my contact information on the screen so folks can take a picture to contact me later or follow me on FetLife.

And then it's time for aftercare and clean-up. I hang around for a bit for questions, comments, and just some social touches with my bottoms. Once they have all gotten the closure they are looking for, now it's my turn. I'll clean up my computer or whatever I brought, and then it's time for ice cream! Maybe a meal first, depending on the clock, but eating ice cream while decompressing and discussing the class with my assistant. That's what I need for aftercare.

And just like we follow up after a kink scene the next day, I'll pick the class back up over the next few days to check in with class host and message with people that attended. I'll take feedback or my own mental notes to review the class and update it to be better and ready for the next time, and I'll update my notes here on FetLife to show that the class happened. Sometimes I'll drop a bit, like with any other scene, and other times I won't.

So you see, teaching a class follows the same pathway that any kink scene might. Learning & preparation, negotiation, warm-up, play, cool-down, aftercare & clean-up, then some follow-up afterward, with a risk of drop, too.