Teaching About Learning...

So on Tuesday I had the opportunity to teach a 20-minute segment of my Psych class about cooperative learning. I was initially upset that I did not get to go teach with everyone else at the elementary school, but I think things worked out just fine. I think it is really smart of John to make us teach somewhere while we're here, in order to make us actually exercise and apply some of the things that we've learned in his class this semester. It's one thing to be taught how to teach people, and it's easy to sit in class and think about it hypothetically. But when you're actually up in front of a class, you get to know what it feels like to be a teacher, and you get to experience what it's like to have to keep all those different concepts and strategies in mind while you're actually teaching. If anything, I have a greater appreciation for teachers, especially that they get up and do that every single day of the work week- it was stressful enough for me to do it one day for 20 minutes.
When I was first given the topic options, I thought to myself, "I don't know anything about any of those." Teaching it actually made me study it that much more in depth, and made me process it deeper in order to be able to try and teach it. i was still nervous going up there, and I still feel like I didn't quite know what I was talking about, but all in all it at least taught me that teaching isn't something that you just get up and do - it takes work and effort. And perhaps, given that I actually know a bit about what I'm talking about, I wouldn't mind ending up as a teacher or professor someday, if that's where I end up.