Did you ever teach a class? Tell us about it.
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Us Girls..Our Views 
Yes. I don’t know what inspired this question, but let’s see what I can remember.
Adults: I taught a semester of international tax (graduate school level). I had 5 students and it was a lot more fun than I expected, but I was barely earning minimum wage once all the time was figured in. Of course you don’t do that for the money, really. It’s funny, but people get impressed when they hear I’ve taught a grad school class.
I also taught basic international tax to younger colleagues at my previous firm’s national training sessions. The courses ranged from a couple days to a week long. Again, it was more fun than I expected. A lot of work, though.
As an education student, I had to teach some brief classes to my classmates. That’s all I can remember off hand for teaching adults.
Kids: I did some “student teaching,” the longest of which was a six-week stint teaching gym classes in three schools. That was . . . a learning experience. The schools were in different socio-economic neighborhoods and the attitudes of the teachers were starkly different, which affected everything else. They used to physically discipline the kids to get them behaved in the low-income school. In the more educated area, the kids were far more considerate of each other and respectful.
I taught a short stint of Sunday School, taught Junior Achievement to a couple of KG classes, tutored many kids in reading, and done several one-off presentations. Can’t think of anything else off hand.
nope
No, not one that I ever had to grade papers or actually teach in! As confirmation students we worked in the preschool room, but it was more about coloring and getting along then teaching them anything!
For three years I
workedwas paid as a “Teacher’s Assistant,” but did the work of an Assistant Band Director, in a massive middle school band program. We had about 425 students spanning 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, we saw all of them each day, and each grade was split into two classes. We had seven periods in a day, plus lunch. We taught for six of those periods, and had “planning” at 1 PM every day. That’s when I caught up on inventory, instrument repairs, budget balancing, and general mayhem.The actual teaching part: I was responsible, along with another assistant, for taking out sectionals each day. For those unfamiliar with a band program, each instrument is called a “section”, so you have the flute section, the clarinet section, saxophone section, etc., all the way back to the percussion section. Because my degree is in flute, I taught the flutists exclusively, my partner, the drummer, was exclusively the percussion teacher (although, in his absence, I’d test his students on music reading – he kept teaching them “shortcuts”, and I’d find that they couldn’t actually read the music. Drove me nuckin’ futs). Anyway, we’d take a section each day to a separate classroom, where we’d work on technique, difficult passages in the music, answer questions, do “Chair Tests”, etc. It was as much a learning experience for me as it was for the kids. I learned to play every instrument in the band, including Bassoon (which, I was shocked to discover, I’m pretty darned good at!!), but I can’t, for the life of me, get a decent sound out of a clarinet or a french horn. But once upon a time, I knew the fingerings for at least one scale per instrument, and could teach a ride pattern (on drum set) in my sleep.
In the band director’s absence, especially drawing close to concert time, my partner and I would take the podium and rehearse the band. That was always fun. I used to get up there and make them do “minute drills”, too, when it was marching season. A “Minute Drill” is where you are instructed to march in place (“mark time”), or stand at attention, or whatever, for a full minute, with the entire band. Every time someone is discovered messing up – marching on the wrong foot, scratching while at attention, etc., one of the watchers yells “Start!” and the time starts over. Surprisingly enough, the kids LOVED it, even though it was hard. And it made them more aware of their feet.
We took those kids to Disney World during my first year, and they marched in the Electric Parade. They did awesome, and I will remember it forever. It was very cool… I’d done that in high school, and then there I was, as a teacher.
During those three years, I also had my own Flute Studio, based at the school, with roughly 24 students. We held lessons after school, and all of my girls went to competition and placed well.
I miss that job. People gripe so much about “kids today” and mouthy middle schoolers and whatnot, but I found, in general, the band kids were truly awesome kids. I loved nearly every single one of them, and learned so much from them. I only ever had a problem with two of them – one didn’t want to be there and considered the entire program beneath her (and couldn’t play a single note, and was highly offended when I recommended her for failure of the class), and the other was worshipped by his mother and didn’t know what to do with me when I wouldn’t put up with his crap, put him in detention and wouldnt’ let him out when he pleaded with me. That’s a story for another day.
I have to go way back for this. I always taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School when my guys were in it. I liked it and figured if I had to take them I may as well help out.
I taught swimming lessons for The Red Cross when my boys were young. Part of my pay was free swimming lessons for them so that was a win win.
This wouldn’t be called “teaching” but when I lived in Canada I did scrap-booking in the care home with the older folks. That was very rewarding and I enjoyed it immensely.
No. Maybe someday.