Last week I shared what I’ve learned about being a good student. This time I’ll share what I’ve learned about being a good teacher. I’ve never taught in schools and, aside from a few times I’ve been paid to teach juggling, I’ve never taught professionally. However, I’ve taught a number of people how to juggle, dance, and do other cool things. This post will cover some of what I’ve learned about teaching and why skilled teachers deserve a lot of credit as teaching is much harder than it looks.
- Be patient. This has been one of the hardest things for me to practice whenever I’ve taught someone. Something that’s crystal clear to me may be clear as mud to someone who doesn’t understand it or has never done it. Even when I think I know a way to help them understand it, that way might not work; that’s when I tend to feel the most frustrated. On good days, I can take a breath, regroup, and try something else until I find something that works.
- Understand and teach to the student’s way of learning. Get to know the student and what the student needs to learn effectively. Not everyone learns the same way so it’s important to explain things in ways the student understands since I already understand it. Only by seeing things from their perspective can I find a way that works for them.
- Make it safe. Learning something new can be scary, especially around other people. There’s fear of failure, fear of being judged, fear of being shamed, and many other fears involved with learning. That’s why the best teachers make learning safe. Safe to ask questions, safe to experiment, safe to fail, and safe to try again. This way, rather than being turned off from whatever they’re learning, the students can learn effectively, have fun, and want to learn even more.
- Think outside the box. With teaching, what matters most is that the student learns in a way that allows them to succeed and makes them want to continue learning. As long as that’s accomplished, it doesn’t matter whether conventional or unconventional methods are used. Get as creative as necessary to get the job done and don’t be afraid to get silly if that’s what it takes.