Teaching is Tough!

I am realizing that teaching is no walk in the park. It takes lots of organization, captive creativity, and efficiency to make the best use of your relatively short amount of time with students.

I stepped forward early last week and agreed to do a lesson on Friday refining the skill of running. I asked Matt to help me out and he enthusiastically agreed. Professor Yang had a great idea for an instant activity and I added a little bit to it and everyone seemed to love it. It was a poster board with pictures on it that the students had to figure out what it meant. I spaced answers around the gym and they had to perform different loco motor patterns to and from the corresponding areas. We had music on and everything was going great!

Then it was time to give some cues and instruction on how to improve mechanics and become a more efficient runner. Still I thought we gave some excellent cues, people seemed to be engaged, and I checked for understanding. OK...after reviewing the video...this is where I seemed to lose people. I gave a demo and may have talked a little too much and probably confused the initial "raise your gaze" cue by telling them to focus on the horizon. Then when it was time for everyone to run I forgot to give Matt the signal to turn on the music...darn!...for most people running is much more exciting to the sound of energetic music.

If I had to rate us out of 10 I would probably give us a 7 or so. We had a good instant activity, intro, cues...then it got a little iffy....kind of hit the wall (just like in running!)....but we closed pretty well. Great learning experience and we were able to get some constructive criticism from grad students, Professor Yang, and class mates.

I still need to get used to seeing and hearing myself on video...Is that me teaching???!!!!!!!!!! Yes it is! baby steps, baby steps............