Nuances of Teaching

Teaching is hard.

Yup. It is.

Most days when I leave the classroom, I feel stirred up inside. When I start my day that way, I can blame it on caffeine, but in the afternoon, it’s something different entirely.

It’s like my body and soul can’t decide between being energized or depleted.

As a portfolio mentor, I have no set curriculum to teach - no single set of concepts or techniques to stand on (or behind) as the basis of my relationships with my students. If all I had to do was assess them on how well they build a website, my job would be easy. I would have a rubric, with a checklist of criteria on which to deem all student performance and/or contribution as satisfactory… or not.

But good teaching, I’ve found, is more nuanced than that.

When the conversation shifts to “What are you working toward and how can I help?” - I have to step outside the safety of a well-crafted lesson plan to see (truly see) the individual before me. This is an incredibly vulnerable place… for us both. In this space I have to remove my armor of expertise, face the discomfort of not having all the answers, but be willing to help anyway.