I’ve always enjoyed teaching people what I know and the rewards of teaching are… well… rewarding… to me at least.
Seeing someone improve upon their confidence, their skills base and to take the knowledge I give them to advance to the next level has always been a creative process for me.
Not everyone learns in the same way, not everyone uses certain skills in the same way and that to me is the creative challenge that I miss while I haven’t been teaching.
I’ve been privileged to have taught people from all walks of life from the age of about 17 to over 60 years of age.
I’ve taught people who were getting ready to start work, to people who were retired, to people with disabilities; physical and mental. I’ve taught people who were “big shots” in the city, to people who had never worked yet. I’ve taught people of all colours and creeds and it’s the teaching and learning which I found to be a great leveller. I’ve learned so much about people while teaching… and I’ve learned a lot about myself.
I also know that while I teach, I love learning new skills myself in order to keep a freshness in my own teaching abilities and techniques. I love reading through the blogs I’m subscribed to… and as you can imagine I’m subscribed to more than just a few techie and gadget blogs on in addition to the non-techie blogs I follow. I’m a avid podcast junky and once again, as well as non geeky and non techie podcasts, I listen to quite a few techie and gadget podcasts.
While I was in teaching, I’d have a ferocious appetite for keeping up with the latest developments in new and social media and all manner of techie stuff. The more I’d teach, the more I’d want to learn and stay fresh. I had the impetus, the momentum.
The more I’d learn, the more I’d want to give my knowledge away and share my own passion with others. I’d be a conduit for all the learning I myself would devour.
I’d also always be aware that to be a good teacher you have to be a good listener.
Ask anyone… I’m a great listener… and that’s why I’m a good teacher.
I’d rather teach than work in technical support, which I’ve done alongside my teaching in many of my roles.
I suppose if you’re in IT people assume that anything to do with computers is right up your street.
Nope, not always.
All of my teaching gigs have also seen me as the tech support person too. Often times this would be on an unofficial basis as it would be easier to “call upon Alex” than contact the IT department… it figures, I suppose.
People don’t realise that IT, just like art, covers such a wide range of skills and subjects.
You can be an artist… specialising in bronze sculpture and never having used watercolours…
You could be an artist… specialising in pop art and never having held a lump of clay in your hands…
You could be a 3D computer artist and wouldn’t know French Ultramarine from a Raw Sienna…
You could be a programmer. You could be a graphic designer. You could be a database
supervisor. You could be on the hardware side and specialise in disk drives… and so on.
Ask David Beckham what tyres are needed on a Formula 1 car driving a certain track on certain weather and you wouldn’t expect him to know just because soccer and Formula 1 are both sports, would you?
No, I’m lucky to have a good general knowledge of IT which can be a blessing or a curse at times.
I’ve lost count of the number of barbeques I’ve missed outside because of the host cajoling me in to “take a look at their computer which as been acting ‘funny'” and they assumed that I’d do it…
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve missed the dessert course because once again the host would want me to check out their pc because “it’s been playing up…”
I prefer teaching; the rewards feel better to me and the skills I pass on can last a lifetime… I can fix my own pc and that’s good enough for me. Sure, at a push, I can be persuaded to slip the cover off a pc and get involved in the “robot entrails” inside… but you’ve really got to push me and if I say “yes”, then you’re very lucky indeed. Surprisingly enough I spent 3 years as a computer field service engineer fixing customers’ computers… and I enjoyed it immensely… but for me, teaching is where it’s at.
I’ve always been lucky to have taught in an environment where my students have all been working on different subjects in IT and have usually been on different levels. That would mean for example that one moment I could be sitting with someone helping them to get to grips with queries in a database and then next moment be helping someone sort out their 
layers in Photoshop.
One moment I could be helping someone fairly new to computers to get to grips with copy and pasting from one directory to another, while the next moment I could be showing someone new to Quark Express how to select different boxes for either text of pictures.
I’ve always enjoyed this type of teaching; it’s always kept my brain alive and effervescing quite nicely. I haven’t yet had the challenge of teaching in an environment where I’ve had to stand in front of a bunch of people and teach the same thing… to people of different abilities, each with a different way of learning…
… but soon that’s going to change.
I’ve gone ahead and applied for some adult teaching posts which I can do in the evenings and weekends at some local colleges. Starting this September I’ll be teaching social media type skills to people wanting to get into blogging as a hobby and for business.
Doesn’t that sound great? I’m going to be teaching something which I’m passionate about myself.
So far I’ve got a couple of these gigs lined up and they’ll run for a few weeks at a time… and I’m really, really looking forward to them… I’m hoping that these gigs will lead to something permanent…then I’d be really happy and life would be sweet.
New media, social media, podcasting, blogging… I love ‘ em all…
There’s no denying that in recent years the common availably of broadband has given social media and social network sites a welcome boost; where people can share their interests, passions and ideas… which has in turn given IT a more lighter tinge as opposed to the techie white shirt and dozen pens in top pocket image 🙂 Now it’s cool to be geeky.
… and to get the opportunity to start teaching these subjects… what a privilege 🙂
Visit my Tumblelog at
http://solentdreams.tumblr.com
Subscribe Free To This Blog By Clicking Here
My goodness, time does fly… cruelly and quickly at times.
Solent Dreams 