Training from a Different Angle

I've been teaching speech, critical thinking, and English for close to ten years. I've taught both online and onsite.

But now I teach classes now like a long training sessions.

What's different?

Well, first, I try to allow for more group work and discovery versus lecture. Or, if I have to lecture, I lecture on the larger issues and then help them see how pieces are connected. This style is different than how I was taught to teach. Granted, I was told to use group work, use class time wisely, use lecture sparingly. But, always with ME IN CONTROL.

Now that just isn't the case. I go on with an idea of what we are going to talk about, an outline so to speak of the high points I would like to cover, and then I walk into class or go online and see what develops. What are their strengths, their interests, their concerns and how can I use that to help them get from point A to point B? I've read books that talked about teaching "organically" and I may have even laughed and thought that must be a new euphemism for teaching without tools or technology. I guess we all grow.

So I look at the tools, technology, and social media and I try to see how we can use this to our benefit. How can we learn something together. It's no longer about what I can teach them, but what can we learn together. I find myself no longer bored in class. And yes, if you've ever taught, you know you can be bored even while the information is spewing out of your mouth like lava. Sometimes you can even stop yourself in the middle of a lecture and suddenly realize you have no idea which class you're in.

I've come to realize there is this job market for trainers. I always thought that if I wanted to teach, it had to be though a University. I didn't know there was a market for corporate trainers. In fact, eLearning development seems to have helped create distinct training departments for me. That was how I discovered training--I worked for a company creating online training, curriculum development, and facilitator guides.

Then I began reading books like Social Media for Trainers by Jane Bozarth or The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning by Wick, Pollock, and Jefferson. It helped me see teaching differently. I began to consider ways I could set the class up to encourage learning without me being the focus. I began to see how much more I enjoyed classes and enjoyed the learners.

That's what teaching is about, right? The learners. I don't know if it used to be when I started ten years ago, but now? Yes.

I still lecture, only not as often and not for as long. While I've always preferred teaching adults, I've come to appreciate those adults who have to take my class, who have to come back to school to learn a new discipline and are really hesitant. In fact, watching these adults change over the weeks from worry to enjoyment is probably one of my favorite moments. I watch them make connections with the subject matter and with each other.

And that is what has become important. Teaching was always about learners' success. It just means more when I stand aside and let them do just that.