I teach wood turning on a one on one basis - just me and one student. What we cover will depend on the skills and the interests of the student.
For beginning students, I concentrate on basic wood turning skills - how the basic tools work and how to get comfortable with them. I heard Stuart Beatty, who started a formal apprenticeship under his father at the age of seven, say that the best way to have a student learn was to put a piece of wood on the lathe and have the student turn it until it was gone, and then do it again and again. I think that is the best advice I have ever heard for a beginning student. It is a big mistake to try to make something at the start - your concern not to screw up the piece will only lead to bad habits. I know from my own experience. What you want first to learn is to be comfortable with the tools, and how to use them with confidence. And this can only come with practice, and that is what you will get.
If you are not a beginner, then take a look a the kinds of things I make and decide what you would like to learn. I will try to teach you how I make them. Again, only practice makes perfect, or, at least, better - you won't make one, you will make several and you won't, I hope, worry too much if the first ones don't come out too well. What I will try to teach you is not just how they are made, but the skills that make them possible.
The instruction takes place in my shop on Captiol Hill in Washington, DC, using my lathe and my tools.
If you are interested, email me at brian@butterwood.biz or on my cell at 202-841-5235 and we can discuss the details.