T is for Teaching

My favourite T word was already used last year. Seen that I am not in time with this post, I am a bit late, I did realise that many people did write about time too. You might enjoy this post in relation to time. 

I have no idea when I first started to be drawn to teaching. Every time that I had a good teacher I enjoyed their lessons and absorbed everything like a sponge. They showed me that teaching is not only a job, that it is a “calling”, that it can be done with passion, and that you can always learn something new in the process. They taught me not only what they were meant to teach, no they taught me more, often times to go further. 

One teacher tried to teach us how to think outside of the box! He also taught us how to build dream catchers and well did shape my decisions regarding my studies quite a bit. I had teachers that I could not stand, and others whose lessons I was completely drawn to.

Many of the teachers, lecturers and professors that left a mark upon me. I am sure many of them are worth a tribute post, just like the one for my ESL teacher. They taught me valuable lessons that I can now apply as a teacher myself. They taught me how to teach. How to make a lesson fun and interesting, how to teach languages, how to deal with fixing deadlines… The list is long.

Maybe it’s due to all these people that I wanted to teach myself. It took me long time to realise that I wanted to work in teaching. Often times I found myself explaining things to classmates without understanding them correctly myself, they could follow my explanation quite well.

Today teaching is teaching me so many things. I started out as a complete novice three years ago. With time I learnt many things, and I am still learning especially when it is about German grammar. Teaching has taught me many things about children, teenagers and their behaviour and their learning capacities. Teaching has taught me a lot about psychology, as many students pour their hearts out to me.

Every time that I work with a new student I sense an excitement. Some students (mainly the adult ones) push me to go further, to better my teaching skills, to never stop growing. When teaching German history or literature I have had to teach myself the facts in order to explain things. Many of my students teach me, I have learnt about pharmaceuticals, classical music and other things.

Teaching isn’t something that only goes one way. Good teaching goes both ways! I recall a professor who told me he really enjoyed his course as it taught him many new things and as the seminars where rich in information he did not know.

And if you are looking for someone to teach you German, then please don’t hesitate to let me know. More on my teaching here. (sorry about this shameless plug…)

The time it took tired Tim to take ten ten tokens talented Tina told three tales of thousand thankful thieves in Timbuktu. 

During the month of April, I am participating in the A to Z Challenge, my theme is authenticity and eclecticism, which in my book go hand in hand.

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© Solveig Werner 2016. All rights reserved.