Teaching

I've had a lot of opportunities to teach lately. Here are some examples. Yesterday, I taught two recitation sections of a college class. It was so much fun! I'm slated to teach a few hours of a professional short course next month. I taught part of a short course once a few years ago and I really enjoyed it, so I think it will be great to do it again. I'm hoping we can do it more often. Starting in January, I'll be teaching a college class two or three times a week during spring semester. I've also had several opportunities to do some volunteer teaching in my church lately. I love to teach and all of these opportunities have been coming at me recently. It has been wonderful.

It's hard to explain exactly why I love teaching, but it's very satisfying to me. I invest a part of myself in the class and offer that piece of me to my students. It's very satisfying when the students find value in what I'm offering to them and I love the feeling I get when I watch someone's eyes light up with new understanding. That's a lot of fun. It's also extremely useful to me personally to teach a concept to someone else because it requires that I think the concept through thoroughly and present it in a way that makes it accessible to someone or a group of people based on my evaluation of their background and current understanding. That process of examining the concept and presenting it to someone else helps cement the concept in my own mind and makes it much more my own.

I have a similar experience when I write. A part of me floats out of my soul and into my writing, which I offer to the world. One medium through which I offer myself is this blog. I also find that the process of organizing my thoughts enough to write them is illuminating in a way that's similar to the thought process I have to go through in order to teach something. Writing is, I suppose, one mechanism by which we can teach. Maybe that's one of the reasons I enjoy this blog. I don't, however, view this blog as solely a teaching tool. It just has some of the same advantages that teaching has. It's more a medium through which I can express myself and solidify my thinking.

The only frustrating thing is that sometimes I seek feedback to see if I'm connecting with my students and all I get are blank stares and silence. That happened a couple of times yesterday. When it happens, I just forge ahead hoping that what I'm offering is of value to the students. With feedback, it works better, but it's still fun without it.

I'm enjoying this blog and I'll keep writing whether I get feedback or not because of the value I find in doing it. Some of you have offered feedback on my blog through the comments section, by email, or in person. Thank you. If you're interested enough to be reading this, please consider telling me what you think of my writing, my ideas, or anything else on your mind. Writing is still fun without it, but feedback makes it more satisfying somehow.