When I took the Wilton first course, I found the whole clock thing really confusing, so I ignored it and just played around until it looked right. Fast forward a few years, and now I am setting up a class to teach my friends how to decorate cakes.
So I'm wondering, did you find this confusing as well, or was it actually helpful? If most people find it helpful, I'll go back and figure out how to teach it that way, otherwise I'll try to pay more attention to what I'm doing and figure out a good way to teach it. What do you think?
I remember not finding it too confusing during the classes. I had a great instructor who explained things very well. However, after I took some time off from decorating and went back to it I had to review how to pipe flowers and I would have to stop and figure out what the directions meant. It came back pretty quick though.
Maybe you could come up with another way to explain it and then use both methods during the class because some people will get it one way but not necessarily the other. Good luck teaching! Are you working for wilton in a store? I'd like to start teaching but there aren't any of the chain craft stores nearby.
I find the clock face method very useful and easy to interpret when reading directions.
Rae
Okay, maybe I'll try to figure it out. 
I'm not teaching at a craft store. I'm just making up my own class for some friends. Basically I'm going to teach them how to frost a cake, make a FBCT and then add a shell border. Personally, I think these are the most useful skills for young moms (which is my audience).
When it comes to describing the clock position to my students I usually say, "The shell if done on the board at a 6 o'clock position, so our back is bag towards our chest."
For the 3 o'clock, I remind them that the back of the bag is off towards our right, and for 4:30, the bag following your arm back towards your shoulder.
haha turns out I've been doing my shell at "3 o clock" this whole time. Maybe I should work on my technique before I go off pretending to teach others.
Really when you are doing it around the edge of the cake you are at more of a 4:30 or 3. Wilton does teach it on the board at a 6.
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