Take the same amount of money and purchase a used small machine with metal parts. Those new cheapies usually cause lots of headaches. If you can find a Featherweight (maybe with some scratches or damage to the decals so it looks a little rough) you would certainly have a much better machine. There is also a Elna Grasshopper which is a light machine and it sews wonderfully, but the case is heavy. Be careful that you get an actual grasshopper as sometimes they label a larger model as a grasshopper and they are heavy. I have several small machines that I purchased off E-bay and any of those would be suitable for classes and I didn't pay a lot for any of them.