Outside of parenthood or a formal teaching role, have you ever taught something to someone in a purposeful and systematic way?

I’ve taught a few people to throw clay.
They wanted to learn and I didn’t mind teaching them as they are good company.
I learned a lot about their personalities.How much pressure they put on themselves and how they handle it.
How they deal with frustration is probably the most telling.
This was taught at my studio and it was one on one.
I’ve been asked to teach classes before but managed to escape that as I’ve learned that I don’t have much interest in doing that.

I’ve tutored/substitute taught high school Math and Chemistry (while in high school), student taught Geology for a summer school, taught a couple of stringed instruments, taught daughter to drive a car with stick-shift. Learned only some people can play an instrument, some people have a short attention span !

I used to teach sailing. I started as a teenager, teaching kids, but after I moved to Seattle 8n my twenties I taught a number of people both on small day-sailors and a few larger (35’-50’) boats.

The people on the larger boats were the wives of the boat owners, wealthier professional men who expected their wives to just “pick it up”. I had met them because I had a small (well, just me) yacht detailing business, and I had done work for their husbands.

It was very gratifying to see how much they enjoyed it, and in one case the woman was much better than her husband very quickly.

I used to do a lot of hands-on training for new chem techs at the nuke plant. It covered theory, procedures and operations of plant systems and analytical equipment. I got to be very good at it. What it taught me was that most people need to be taught how to think. I don’t mean that in a mean way, just that you need to have them think of the whole picture, not just a small piece. For example, one of the modules we had to train on was abnormal and emergency operations. One of the topics was reactor scram. That is when the reactor shuts down automatically or in a rapid, unplanned way. When that happens there are a number of things that will eventually have to be done. So I would set the scenario: The trainee is on backshift by themselves. It’s 11 pm and they hear the announcement “Reactor Scram” from the control room. What is their first action? They would start trying to list analyses that need to be done and I would ask if that was the first. They would think about other things that needed to happen and would fumble around for a while. I would then tell them. The first action for a chemistry technician in that situation is to make a pot of coffee. The reasoning was that none of the “immediate actions” had any time limits shorter than 4 hours. Making a pot of coffee does a number of things. It slows the person down a little. No panic actions. It gives them time to make a call to the supervisor to get help in. The help will need the coffee when they get there. It gives the person time to make a list of actions that are needed and to verify them with the procedures. In short, it makes the person look at not only what actions they will have to do, but what help they will need, what communications need to be made, and what preparations need to be done to accomplish all their goals. It is the best way to approach that situation…calmly and logically. Anyone can memorize steps, but not everyone can think logically or clearly.

I used to teach piano.

I taught my aunt how to use a DVR. I taught her how to use facebook. I’ve taught my dad several times how to use some apps on his iPhone.

When I worked in retail I taught staff how to use the registers, I taught them customer service skills, I taught them how to use their client books productively.

There have been two instances where I have left a job and completely trained the person replacing me. Both times it was about a week of training, and then even when I was gone from the job I was accessible.

I’ve shown my husband how to cook some things. Mostly, it was just cooking together really.

I tutored Algebra for a short while when I was in college to Jr. high students.

I teach Zumba, which typically doesn’t really involve any teaching, but I taught a Zumba Tips class that I invented, to give more pointers about how to do the steps and how to modify steps if you had trouble because they were too difficult, or needed more stamina than the person had, etc. It’s interesting to me how people can have so much trouble with left, right, left, right.

When I was in high school I spent a semester helping teachers in the elementary school. I helped children in 4th grade with their spelling and vocabulary. These children were in the below level group. Just the time and attention was very helpful, they all improved. I helped in 5th grade later on with children who spoke English as a second language. It wasn’t exactly systematic what I was doing in the elementary school though, it was more gut feeling what would be helpful for each child.

I am extremely patient with teaching and training. I don’t mind being asked the same thing twice, I try to explain something differently if they don’t understand the first time. I give tips for taking notes and sorting material if they seem to be struggling with that. I enjoy doing it.

During my active duty service I was assigned to the Annapolis division in charge of the vessels used to train Academy midshipmen for ship duties. The scope of my responsibility (during classes) was to stand by and watch line handling, and offer instruction when necessary. When they practiced anchor duties I was supposed to keep an eye on that too. I hated that part because the chain comes back up with mud in it, and boy did it stink!
One day we were waiting for the
next class to show up and the craft master (my boss, we were a crew of three) was complaining about teaching the kids of people of privilege and leisure. I scoffed that it was the world’s easiest job. He challenged me to take the next class.
I did. He liked not having to do it, so from then on I did the classes and got his paperwork done by the time classes were over.
I also trained new recruits coming in sometimes.
I couldn’t believe how much trouble some people have using a magnetic compass.
I took right to boats, 12’ Boston whalers to 80’ YPs. I loved piloting the boats. To be allowed to pilot anything I was required to demonstrate my skills aboard a 40’ MSL in a class. I nailed that without any problems.