Learning To Teach - Appropriate For Teacher Appreciation Week

My daughter is 15 and we are going through that right of passage in learning to drive a car. It has been a challenging learning experience, a few rough spots but I think I'm getting better at it, because I'm starting to learn more about her along the way. You see the biggest challenge hasn't been in teaching her to drive, the biggest challenge has been figuring out how to be a better teacher for her.

My only experience as a driving instructor is my own driving experience. It is so much different than hers. I grew up on a farm driving lawn mowers, tractors and even my dad's truck from when I was probably 10 or 11 years old. When I was old enough to drive a car on the road it was a formality. Contrast that with her experience of a go cart track a couple times in her life. When I navigate roads I know names, numbers, north, south, east and west. When I tell her that Madison runs parallel and south of 14, I am pretty sure I sound like Charlie Brown's teacher.

We all have to teach someone something sometime, even when you aren't a teacher. The greatest skill you need is an ability to understand how your student learns the best. Let's face it, teaching is hard. Figuring out how to communicate the information the person needs is not an easy task. If the goal is for them to understand then help them learn by any means necessary.

I have a new appreciation for how hard a teacher's job is, and I don't have angry, annoying, disrespectful parents that think their child is perfect contacting me. Thank you to all of the teachers.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What A Little Kindness Can Do

Image
I was at the grocery store recently and I had the opportunity to help a lady who had her hands full put her cart away, it literally took less than ten seconds of my time. I walked away thinking about how good that smile and thank you felt. I realized something about myself that I hadn't ever really given much thought to, how much I like being kind to others. I don't know how much of an impact it really has on a persons life, but I hope that in a world with so much negativity that I can make a small positive impact. If you think of your own life, I imagine you can think of some random acts of kindness that someone did to you, and most importantly you remember how it made you feel. I had to make an appointment one time and the receptionist made a comment about getting things setup with the important person, and I told her that she was the most important person right now because without her I wouldn't get an appointment. I imagine that she has a difficult job at times, deali
Read more

Don't Let The Perfect Be The Enemy Of The Good

Image
I've heard this saying a number of times recently, in a variety of formats. I like the version that is attributed to Voltaire mostly because I like pretending to be smart by quoting Voltaire. There are too many times we don't like to move forward because we don't have all of the information, haven't covered all of the scenarios, or feel like we don't have all of the experience we need. We don't apply for our dream job because we feel like we don't have the experience needed or are simply afraid of being told we aren't right for the position. We don't want to start writing because we feel like there are lots of other writers that are much better than us. The part we never see is the countless hours of practice and bad writing that happened to become better, to be the writer we see today. Everyone starts out as a novice, a beginner. You can still make music even if you aren't Mozart. You can still write even if you aren't Shakespeare. You
Read more

Just Keep Swimming

Image
Have you ever stopped to think how brilliant Dory is? You know, Dory from Finding Nemo. If you forgot her she would understand. She had this motto that work wonders no matter what you face. Good things happen to us in life. Bad things happen in life. Frustrations happen. Setbacks. Losses. Wins. Through all of it, you really need to "Just Keep Swimming." When things are going well for you, it is easy to get lazy with what got you there. You need to keep improving, keep getting better. You need to "Just Keep Swimming." When things aren't going well for you, it is easy to give up. Setbacks don't define you. Most people will tell you out of their greatest defeats led to something even better. Learn from it and move forward. You need to "Just Keep Swimming." Life will throw all kinds of craziness your way. Whatever happens, good or bad, "Just Keep Swimming."
Read more