Practice, Practice, Practice
“Teaching is a Skill Too”
I was talking with my coworker from my other job, discussing a class that we had just attended that wasn’t the best taught. It was an awkward class with overused props and a lack of focus. Was it the worse class that I’ve attended? No. I’ve been through many worse.
When talking about the instructor and how they weren’t good at teaching, my coworker shared that his philosophy was that the junior coworkers should be given classes to teach, to help them learn how to teach. I stopped him.
“What about teaching a class on teaching?”
“Do people really do that?” He asked. It dumbfounded him.
“Yes. Why waste time and energy watching someone flounder through a class? Why not teach them the principles of teaching and let them work off of the basics?”
In our line of work, instructing is a part of career progression and many senior leadership’s philosophy was for people to log hours of teaching and then depend on feedback for improvements. As demonstrated earlier, it didn’t always work and sometimes caused mental and emotional pain as we contemplated our life choice.
Have I ever walked out of someone’s class? Yes. Thankfully my seniority allowed me to do so. I think I told them that I needed more coffee and then never returned.
Without turning this into a huge production, there are a few things that you can do to help yourself improve.
Think simple. I love using props, objects, white boards, and videos but make sure they clearly fit the topic. I’m not sure why the instructor chose foam balls as a prop about communication, but yes, someone took one to the face…
I’ve stated before, I’ve taught lessons where I’ve spent hours creating elaborate activities for them to fail. Horribly. And then lessons that I’ve taught on the fly, were a hit. Simple. Clear. Concise.
Practice it. Which I HATE!! But it clearly shows when I’m teaching it for the first time. I stumble… I’m awkward (well, that’s somewhat normal)… it’s not smooth... Teach it in front of the mirror, you spouse, your dog, or a friend. Or sit there and just talk to yourself, going through the topic. Get those words to come out of your mouth so they become more natural.
I’ve sat through people teaching lessons for the first time. It shows. Generally, the third time teaching a lesson is when I start to get it to really flow well.
Talk less, teach more. I feel like Chris Schwarz stole my thunder when he talked about pushing his students hard during his lessons without extra words, but he’s right. His Substack post “Answer: ‘One Can of Whoop-ass’” talked about his straight forward classes. Build during class and bullshit after it’s done. I have a different type of audience than he does, but I’m not too proud to admit that it made me think about my teaching when doing project-based instruction.
Will the high school students get me sidetracked and talking? Oh yes, they sure do! But there’s a reason why I’ll allow it sometimes. We’ll cover that another time.
It really comes down to knowing when to shut up. I’ve sat through too many “war stories”, ramblings, and “back in my time” speeches that sucked the energy from the class. I also heard (thankfully didn’t attend) where an instructor talked for 90 minutes straight without a single pause or question. Don’t be that person!1
Read the room. This has been one of the best skills that I’m continually working on. Learn to be adaptive and flexible in order to give your students the best lesson possible. It doesn’t do you nor them any good when you see signs of disengagement. Glazed eyes… side conversations… looks of confusion… Take the hint and adjust your teaching as necessary. Further explanations… end instruction quicker… move on to the project faster… need to add a visual… There are so many ways to make improvements on the fly. This isn’t the time to muscle through something due to pride.
There are many more skills, techniques, and suggestions, but these are some of the basic ones that I catch beginner instructors needing some help with. Keep working on developing YOUR teaching style, and it’ll keep improving with time and experience.
And for my experienced instructors, what are some things that you’ve had to improve?
1 Have I ever been that person? Thankfully, not to that extent, but I will catch myself talking more than I should sometimes. Awareness is the first step.
Sadly, the worst offenders are not the ones looking to improve their teaching performance. Somehow they believe themselves competent.
While I’m not a professional teacher, I’ve been coerced into technical corporate instruction at various points over the years. I cringe at many of my early (and probably recent) attempts. All good points here.