One of the strangest things about being a college professor is that no one ever teaches you how to teach.
Unlike K-12, college faculty have no required instruction when it comes to teaching. My first teaching experience was similar to many – I arrived at grad school a few weeks before the semester started, was handed a syllabus (plus some slides and examples, since I was teaching an art class) and told to ask if I had any questions.
I was given an opportunity to sit in on the same class I was teaching taught by another teacher, but thanks to the holiday weekend, my class was suddenly a day ahead of the class I could use as an example. Not much help there.
As I write this, I’m realizing it was exactly ten years ago that I taught my first college class.
And since that first teaching experience, I’ve worked very hard to become the best teacher I could be. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my own teaching style and the behavior of my students. I constantly evaluated projects, student responses, and results to see what I could change. I looked for areas of student confusion so I could alter the way I taught a topic the next time around.
I also began using any opportunity I had as a student to reflect on what works and doesn’t work for a class. This has become my default mode of thinking anytime I take an e-course. But I also found opportunities for learning about teaching in some unlikely places – like a yoga class.
When it comes to yoga, I’m definitely on again/off again. If I don’t love the teacher or the studio, I’m not likely to commit to a regular practice.
But back when I was teaching at a university in Maryland, I found a yoga studio I loved, and became a regular student.
That studio, and my favorite teachers there (there were many) worked for me because, as I eventually realized, we shared the same teaching philosophy.
That studio emphasized a very hands on teaching model. Teachers walked the room, making adjustments to individual students to help them find the version of the pose that was best for their body on that particular day. And while the yoga studio did have some rather large classes, there were also classes offered in a smaller studio, which I frequented, that often involved only the teacher and a handful of students. (Once, I was the only student. Best day ever!)
One of the things I emphasize in Do/Teach is getting inside the mind of your (future) students. It’s really easy to make assumptions about how our class should be based on our own perspective. Which is precisely why I find being a (highly observant and reflective) student such a useful tool for becoming a better teacher.
In the first session of Do/Teach, I had many students worried about the number of students who would sign up for their class. They worried that the students who were enrolled would be disappointed if the class was small, because it would show that the class wasn’t that popular or that the teacher couldn’t get enough interest.
But as a student, I love small classes! Small classes mean more attention from the instructor, more feedback, and in the case of yoga, more opportunities for hands on adjustment.
And for me, hands on adjustment is really at the core of what it means to truly be a teacher.
My experiences taking classes at a yoga studio has informed not only my experience of yoga (I get annoyed now when I’m in a class where teachers don’t adjust, especially when there are beginners) but my own teaching philosophy. After taking yoga classes, I found myself employing more hands on adjustment to my studio teaching. It was amazing how slightly adjusting a students hand could make a different between a broken saw blade or not, how a slight tweak to the angle of a torch could make the difference between success and failure while soldering. Just like in yoga, these slight adjustments where difficult to communicate in any way other than one on one interaction with a student.
And while I now teach online, where hands on adjustment, in the literal sense, isn’t possible, I’m constantly looking for opportunities to utilize this philosophy. Hands on teaching becomes a metaphor for close involvement with my students. For listening to a student’s question and giving them advice tailored to their specific situation. For treating each student as an individual and helping them make adjustments to be their best on any given day.
I believe that great teachers are made, not born. (Or perhaps I should say, they develop over time.) For many of us, we are thrown into teaching (whether it’s at the college level, being asked to teach a workshop, or deciding to launch an e-course) without any training or experience. It’s one of the main reasons I created Do/Teach.
But it’s also one of the reasons that I view every class I take (and every class I teach) as an opportunity for learning. I’m not just talking about learning about the subject matter. I’m talking about learning more about what makes a great teacher great (and a not so great teacher not so great). I’ve learned and grown as a teacher a lot over the last ten years, and it’s my willingness to learn from any experience that has truly helped me grow.
As I’ve mentioned here before, teaching can be a fantastic day job for artists, makers, and other creatives. (Especially if it’s not the traditional teaching route!) But if you’ve never taught before, teaching for the first time can be intimidating. Fortunately, we’ve all had the experience of being students, and those experiences can help mold our own teaching philosophies. So the next time you find yourself as a student (whether that’s in a yoga class, an e-course, or some other, seemingly unrelated class) use it as an opportunity to study the art of teaching. You might be surprised at just how much there is to learn!
I couldn’t agree more. Most of my graphic design teachers were this way – they’d always take the time to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with you and show/explain something until it made sense to you. To me that really is a great way to teach b/c it gives each student the courage to try, fail, and try again.