During a recent 6th grade exploratory class, I was attempting to teach four 6th grade girls how to crochet. I started crocheting in middle school after taking a class with my mom at a local craft store. I’m by no means an expert but can read a pattern and crochet a decent looking afghan, hat, or scarf. What I noticed is how hard it is to teach someone else to crochet! It is something I’ve taken for granted these past 15 years, and now that I’m teaching it to someone else, it’s back to basics for me. I had to work really hard to think about going through each step of crocheting, how to explain it to the girls, and slow it down so they could understand and see what I was doing.
This is something that has struck me almost daily when working with our students, especially my terrific three-year-olds. It is often difficult to explain new information to them, especially when I learned it a long time ago. This is an essential part of being a teacher, simplifying information enough for students to understand, but engaging and challenging them in order to build their knowledge base.
I encourage all of us to value our knowledge and skills, knowing that we can always learn more and should do so. This helps us be better teachers and enhance the lives of students around us.
Also, in case you get the urge to crochet, take a look at this introductory video!
Learner, Thinker, Writer: Rebekah Daniell is a Media Specialist at Trinity School.
This is so true! It takes a lot of thought, effort, and planning to teach something in a meaningful way. However, that feeling you get when you see someone take what you’re teaching and make it their own is indescribable. It’s the cherry on top.
Thanks for the post about teaching. For some of you intuitive teachers, you really understand how to break things down into understandable steps. For the rest of us (me!) we need reminders about breaking things down into understandable steps. Also was inspired by your addition of the video. Having the ability to review as many times as I need is very important.
I think you have caught the sweet spot of teaching in your sentence about breaking it down enough to be understood yet keeping it engaging and challenging enough to build a knowledge base. Thanks for sharing with all of us.
Yes, Rebekah!
And breaking down your learned vocabulary so that beginners may also understand is another tough one. I find myself often asking, “do you know what I mean?” just in case I’m not being clear.
I learned this lesson through conversations with my husband. When he talks about finance, I get lost in acronyms, expressions, and industry jargon, and I learn absolutely nothing! In fact, I shut down and stop trying when I feel defeated. You articulated this so clearly and honestly, thanks.