A Good Two Classes
Monday, January 22nd, 2007Monday/today was the first day of my term, teaching computer classes to adults (mostly retirees) at Haslett Community Education. I had a wonderful time. I always do.
Teaching is SUCH a high. No chemicals required, beyond the adrenaline my own body creates as I explain things. There is such magic in showing people things they can use, that they did not know yet.
Even in the first class, the basic class where I expect folks to maybe never have touched a computer before… they left thanking me for the class. I can not tell you what that feels like.
I can never teach them all I know, even all they would like to know. I *can* take away the fear and replace it with curiosity and permission to explore. I let them know that if the machine freezes up, it is almost certainly not anything they did. I give them permission to turn off the machine if it freezes (they are very afraid to do that, even when there is no other choice).
And the second class, some of those folks have been with me a year or more now. It’s a wonderful group, they are a little bit of a social club. And I repeat the same things every term that must be repeated for the new people. And they all agree they learn every time (I try to present the same subjects from different angles but it’s repeat and it’s good).
I did get tired about a half an hour before I could go home. It was fine. My voice is doing much better than expected, and though I did have some coughing fits in the car on the way home I think it was from breathing cold air rather than the four hours of talking.
This is what I was born to do. I explain well. I sometimes say I’m a “professional explainer.” This is about computers, about teaching knitting, teaching polymer clay, even writing knitting patterns. It’s just my thing.
Mom and Dad both taught, both my Mom’s parents taught, my aunt (Mom’s sister) also taught. It’s in my cells, and I would not have it any other way.