Building creativity and ability

A teachers’ college mantra through the four year degree was “...and write a reflection”.  They wanted us to learn to reflect on everything, at all times. At the time I was a young ‘un and I really didn’t know what I would reflect when I did reflect because I didn’t have the nouse to know I’d have to stop and think first.  I just wanted to do it as quickly as possible, get the grade and go do something I was interested in.

As a part time job during those years, I taught a small studio of violin students and I was fortunate enough to have an amazing mentor.  She supplied me with games, ideas and even stickers.  Even with her help, my lessons were awful.  I would finish everything in ten minutes, leaving twenty minutes to improvise.  The improvisations were bad too, I was empty of words.  My response to this was: "At least I won’t be doing this forever!  I’ll be in a classroom with 30 kids and everything will be much better."

It wasn’t, it was super hard.  I’ve learned that there’s no two ways around it, there’s more to teaching than just having a job.  

Today I started a violin student and it is amazing to see where I have come in 12 years.  I have this knowledge, a teaching pedagogy, that has built up over the years.  I still use a lot of my mentor’s material but I know what to say in the gaps and I know how long I should spend doing activities.  I probably didn’t reflect on it the way I was taught in teacher’s college, but I have developed and improved none the less. 

Did your twenties do this to you, too?

This post relates directly to what I’ve written earlier here and here.  I’m remembering to be bored so that I can be creative.