What all Trainee Teachers Need to Know from Experienced Teachers

I remember when I attended my first course in teaching. It was a true eye-opener. I had no idea so much technique, strategy, know-how was involved. Prior to that I thought teachers were simply people with knowledge imparting it to others. Maybe in its simplest, purest form that is true, but in the modern classroom with 20-30 learners- all with different needs- teachers need to be highly skilled. But can all these skills be taught?

My first teaching assignment was for a language school on Sardinia. I had classes with middle school students who were mainly interested in fighting one another, 1-1 classes with some factory bosses and evening classes with a mix of university students, professionals and self-employed traders. Nothing truly prepared me for that. All the techniques I had learned seemed brittle and forced. They didn’t always flow with the class. That didn’t mean they weren’t relevant, but I needed to filter them through my personality/style/ rapport with the class. Instead of subordinating myself to them.

Working with people is more of an art than a science. You can learn techniques but often end up modifying them or abandoning them to cater for the unique needs, personalities, learning styles, group chemistry and sheer gestalt of the class. A trainee teacher might observe you and come away wondering what methods you applied; they didn’t have a name but somehow they worked.

Swimming, riding a bike, driving, speaking another language all remind me of my experience teaching. It would be pretentious to say that teaching is an art but when you’re dealing with people and their unique psyches, it’s hard to ever formalise and systematise it. It flows some days and others it doesn’t.

If I could give trainee teachers any advice, I would say, yes, learn all the theory and all the techniques you can but that will have a limited impact if you don’t first learn how to be with people. Remember, you are teaching people not lessons.