For the past month, I have been teaching up at the University. It was only for a month, which looking back at I am glad it was only for a short period of time. It was a good experience though, and I would consider doing it again.
I was teaching the Screen and Media 101 course, just running a lab/workshop. I had to teach the different groups how to use the Apple Macintosh computers (quite flash ones too, the department purchased 10 new Apple iMacs), and get them using Photoshop, just the basic functions. I didn’t think it would be that hard. It was not really, just that I guess a bunch of 17-18 years olds are at a certain stage in their lives, and don’t always choose to be on their “best behaviour”.
Most of the groups I had were good. They listened and did the work which was presented to them. I only have one really terrible one, where all but three people just walked out of the class by 11.20 (the class started at 11.00 and ran for an hour). After speaking to their actual tutor, I discovered that they were just a bit of a stroppy bunch, and believed that they knew how to do all of that stuff, so they didn’t think they needed to be there.
Needless to say, it was compulsory to attend, and you gained 5% if you attended the lab classes. Unfortunately for them, they also lose 5% off their final mark if they do not attend.
It was a very different experience, really. Demonstrating things to a group of people can be really daunting, actually. There was not much response from any of the people a lot of the time, and that was a bit strange. Although I knew I was doing okay, because a handful of people always said “Thank you, I learnt something today”, and that is supremely gratifying.