Would it make you nervous to teach a class? / LJWorld.com

Asked at Massachusetts Street on August 10, 2008

“If I knew a lot about what I was talking about, I wouldn’t be nervous. But if I wasn’t confident in my knowledge of the subject matter, I would be.”

— Lisa Egan, homemaker, Lawrence

“Yeah, I probably would be. I’d be afraid that someone would know more about it than me and call me out on it.”

— Josh Rome, unemployed, Lawrence

“I think it would depend on the age group. I’d be fine with little kids, but any older than that would probably make me nervous.”

— Becky Davis, Lawrence High School senior, Lawrence

“Yes. Talking in front of so many people would make me nervous.”

— Michael Suher, Brown University graduate student, Providence, R.I.

Lesson plans: First-year teachers ready to take on the classroom

Delicious
Digg
Tumblr
Wordpress
Reddit
Copy and paste the link:

ohjayhawk 4 years, 9 months ago

Lisa took my answer.

sgtwolverine 4 years, 9 months ago

Yes. I spoke to two middle school digital photo classes last year, and it was terrifying; doing that on a regular basis would probably kill me. I'm not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination; I'm terrible at public speaking, and I'm terrible at passing along what I know. Speaking to the middle school classes (which I do partly because I know the teacher from sports, and he's a good guy) is pretty much as far as I want to go with that.A couple weeks ago I got an email from the director of my local center for the arts asking me if I wanted to teach a photography class; I think you can guess what my answer was.

Fangorn 4 years, 9 months ago

Absolutely not! I enjoy teaching. Two keys are to know your subject matter (and review it beforehand) and to take charge of the class. Don't be afraid to address unruly behavior. You don't have to be rude or aggressive, just show them you're not going to let them run the class.I also worked as a para (at the old South Junior High) and had one class that I pretty much taught when the regular teacher was out. I also teach classes for my military unit (ground and explosive safety) and for my civilian job (a number of automotive industry-related computer systems).

jimincountry 4 years, 9 months ago

No..........not in Kansas.....well maybe a a place or 2 in Kansas City or Wichita>BUT, YES in the ghettoes of the east coast and the west coast!

denak 4 years, 9 months ago

Heck yeah, that is the scary thing! I was a paraeducator a few years ago and thinking about becoming a teacher, so one of the 2nd grade teachers offered to let me teach a few classes. Omg, you wouldn't think a bunch of 2nd graders would be intimidating but they are. The first time, the teacher suggested that I play a math card game with them. Simple enough. Sit in the front of the class and do flash cards. Well apparently, I was showing too many subtraction cards and they let me know it. Talk about ruthless! I think I quickly came to the conclusion that teaching was not for me!People think that teaching is easy but it isn't. It takes a lot of skill, patience and knowledge to be a teacher. And I honestly believe that most people couldn't do it.Dena

jonas 4 years, 9 months ago

jim: Are those two things mutually exclusive?

jonas 4 years, 9 months ago

Little nervous, but looking forward to it. "This says enough to me about the nature of sociological human interactions among the "educated" to do things my own way and not the way others do them without thinking about it."From one study?

tangential_reasoners_anonymous 4 years, 9 months ago

Nervous? Somewhat... whether I felt I had a command of the material, or not... but in a good way.And, BTW, a lot of the anxiety expressed above could be dispensed with a simple reorientation away from the viewpoint that learning environments need to be adversarial.