MetaChat - How good a teacher are you?

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13 February 2008

How good a teacher are you? →[More:]Yesterday, I was called to an aunt's place to help my nephew with a poem that he would have to sing in a competition in front of his class. I'd been struggling the whole day to find something suitable for him to say (which wasn't too long, or too hard to memorize), but wasn't coming up with anything. It was either too childish for him, or way out of his league. So I thought I'd compromise and cut out a few lines from a poem that I kind of liked, and thought he would too (The Farmer in the Dell), and would see how that goes. When I reached his house, he'd just gotten back from school, and was in a bit of a grumpy mood (having his lunch), and on seeing me, got even grumpier, at the thought of learning a poem just one day before its recitation. Not even one day--maybe half.
So there we were, sitting on the couch, he looking straight down at the ground, not even wanting to acknowledge my presence, and I asked him what the matter was. If he thought that he wouldn't be able to do it? And then I said--look--it's easy, you just have to learn this first para, and the first two lines of it are the same, and the middle one is just a rhyming sequence of words, and then the last line is the same one again. That's it. You basically have to learn two lines and you've got the whole poem. Aw, you should've seen his face light up as soon as he heard that. He was still a bit hesitant, but you could see a glimmer of hope on his face, and I grabbed it.
I dived into the poem with my best poetry voice, and sang the first stanza as sincerely as I could. He was hooked. "Okay, okay--now I'll do it." And that was it. Withing the next 15 minutes he'd learned the entire poem, sans a few lines towards the end, which I'd removed so as not to make things too complicated.
And you know what--he ended up getting first place the next day. Howzaaa!

post by: hadjiboy at: 19:46 | 14 comments

Cool!

I'm actually a terrible teacher - I organized the tutoring program in high school, but I was v. bad at actually tutoring. I've got no patience, basically.

posted by muddgirl 13 February | 20:13

I feel like I'm a poor teacher, but when I have to train people at work (sometimes I have to teach new employees how to use our edit systems; other times we have interns, and I'm just giving them an overview of our whole operation) people sometimes tell me I'm a good teacher.

I'm patient, which helps I guess; the reason I'm patient is because I think there's no WAY they're grasping any of my rambling explanations. :)

posted by BoringPostcards 13 February | 20:57

I can only teach what I know. I could never teach, say, a general elementary class, but I can teach acting IF the students are willing. I can impart my knowledge, but I can't fight through resistance from a student. I'm not a teacher, I take a guru or director kind of role. My husband is a very gifted teacher, and I love him for it. It amazes me. Good for you, hadjiboy.

posted by rainbaby 13 February | 21:01

I've done some training when I worked in retail. People said I was good at it.

posted by jonmc 13 February | 21:02

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to give a series of lectures on popular American music in the 20th century to a class of (mostly) ESL students that a friend of mine was teaching. I had a lot of fun doing the research, and talking to the students was really great. I don't know how well I got across the ideas I was trying to teach them, but I was encouraged by the fact that there would usually be a number of them wanting to get further information after class.

Here at work, I've sorta become the default trainer for our section, but I think that's mostly due to my having been here longer than anyone else. So in answer to your question - I don't know.

posted by bmarkey 13 February | 21:09

I'm not a good teacher, though I had a long-lived (now vanished) ambition to become a teacher. I'm too eager to cram all possibile instruction into any given session, which overwhelms almost anyone.

I'm learning now to hold back a bit: give an overall instruction, then add bits of info as they become necessary. It makes me nuts when professors do that, so it's hard to train myself, but it seems more effective.

posted by Elsa 13 February | 21:12

I must say, I think I'm a pretty good teacher. I would give all the credit to my parents, who are both excellent teachers. I remember asking my Dad stuff when I was little that I already knew, just to hear him explain it.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 13 February | 21:41

With a motivated student, I'm a very good teacher. With an unmotivated student, I'm not a very good teacher at all. Which is to say, I suppose, that I'm not a very good teacher at all.

posted by box 13 February | 21:46

I've always had good reviews as a teacher and my girlfriend of 11 years was one of my students so I guess I'm OK.

posted by arse_hat 13 February | 23:11

Well, as I type this, I'm printing out an exam on Shakespeare's Othello and Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (one of my favorite books -- a 19th century soap opera, to be sure) for my seniors to do over winter break next week (two essays from a choice of six, one on each work). Some might say this makes me an eeeevil teacher. Heh.

(Sounds like you're a natural, hadjboy... the world can always use more good teachers.)

posted by Pips 13 February | 23:24

I taught for three years and found there were aspects of the profession I really didn't enjoy. I did a lot of things pretty well, including conducting learning conversations with kids, and identifying intellectually exciting stuff to do with them, and creating enthusiasm, and developing courage and confidence. I was not so great at working with kids who needed a lot of repeated practice at some skill area, and I was not so great at the routine and rather dull aspects of teaching. What finally drove me from the classroom was the fact that so little of my time and energy was actually allowed to be directed toward teaching and planning.

My profession today is in the world of education, broadly defined. It's a good fit, but I don't do much direct teaching in this role. I'm a better lecturer and research and curriculum planner than I am what I consider a teacher: someone who can assess a student's needs quickly, and then empower them to develop with just enough support and just enough challenge, moving through a series of objectives. People who can do that and love doing it are pretty gifted. I also lack a certain flair for drama and humor in teaching and tend to get too task-focused.

posted by Miko 13 February | 23:28

Nice work hadjiboy.

I am a crap teacher, but misanthropy will do that to you.

I reckon I'd be a great teacher for someone who thinks just like me... but we'd hate each other.

posted by pompomtom 14 February | 00:15

I am a very good student. I'm working on becoming a better teacher.

posted by occhiblu 14 February | 01:03

Yay hadji!

I'm a good trainer, or so I'm told by evaluations and colleagues. I write good courses and deliver them well. I think it's because my first training experiences were training people with intellectual disabilities, so I learnt to break everything down into the smallest steps and use diverse methods to check for understanding. Then, moving into staff training, I've had to train staff working with people with challenging behaviour in crisis response, so they had to get it, sometimes their lives depended on it, and so I developed further as a trainer. For me the two key elements are confidence (in your delivery and the material) and knowing your shit, and both of these come with experience (in the field and as a trainer) and time. Experience and time also allow you to build up a good repertoire of pertinent anecdotes and scenarios to use when speaking and in group and individual work, which are invaluable. Flexibility is also important - if the group is having a productive discussion let them run with it, and find a different way to insert the point you wanted to make. Use the session plan as a guide, not as gospel.

It's pretty hard work, though. You have to be on the ball and responsive and alert, and I'm usually exhausted after a full day's training, let alone a five-day course. But it's fun and rewarding and challenging and I mostly enjoy it. I've only ever taught people over 15, though, and teaching kids might be a different kettle of fish altogether.

posted by goo 14 February | 12:00

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