Teaching requires careful planning and consideration of the steps involved to get to the desired result…I almost didn’t do that.

I am not a tremendously seasoned teacher of thirty years but in the years I have taught, I thought I had gotten pretty good at it. This may sound kind of funny but from my experience, being a good teacher is dependent on three things: knowledge of the student’s level, in-depth knowledge and understanding of the content material, and experience of presentation. If you have these three key factors then you can maintain your class’ attention and just about everyone at all skill and knowledge levels will be engaged and learn something from it. One of the cardinal sins of the classroom is to assume knowledge and the foundation knowledge of your students. This leads me to the statement above and a popular analogy, try to never “put the cart in front of the horse.”

My YouTube Channel is currently in a new rhythm to shake things up and every third Sunday I am posting a camp project or gadget. I knew that the first project should be fairly simple and as the series goes on to build on the skills and techniques of the previous project, much like any subject in school right? I started out with my plan and identified the parts and materials I was going to use and as I started cutting the parts I came to the realization, “there’s another project that would make this one and all future projects easier.” I had to course correct, which happens regularly in the classroom as you read the room or realize the majority have not mastered a certain level of knowledge or skills. This is precisely what I had to do but in a different classroom!

I started to change course and as I was making the first part of the new project I realized how good it was for me to change direction because I was noticing new foundational things I would have likely missed in the first planned project! That is the beauty of teaching, as you go along you are also learning, perhaps not the content itself but the techniques and steps that make you a better teacher. I would have put the proverbial “cart before the horse” and neglected important parts to make all future jobs easier for those I was teaching and in truth, myself.

Everything has a foundation, sometimes it is not initially clear what that foundation is or needs to be but it is rarely too late to take a step back and build one for the future. The greatest sin is to ignore the lack of one and push forward anyways, and I believe this can be applied in our every day lives and direction. Spend the time to build the foundation, the structure you want to build is worth the attention and will be much stronger, especially if that structure is your life.