Hey man it happens. Some days it's like you've got a tap running into the hoover dam, and it's your job to make sure everyone gets an 8 oz. glass of water. Other days you've got that tap up and running, and the students want to know about the Gulf of Mexico. My advice would be, if you have another session with these same people, and if the next session is relevant to your recent one that didn't go so hot, start off asking a couple questions of the group that relate to the last session. There are many topics in networking that just don't sink in after only one exposure, and there's nothing wrong with somebody not picking everything up the first time.
Hell, you can even make fun of yourself if you're comfortable doing it. On more than a couple occasions when I've covered ISDN and interesting traffic, I've had to stop and say "Hey, who's the idiot that taught you guys access lists???" The other thing I do to gauge how much is getting absorbed is constantly encourage students to ask questions. They'll tell you what they don't get, but they do so by asking questions. By the way, if you find that you enjoy teaching, you might want to see if there's a college in the area that participates in the Cisco Networking Academy Program. Most community colleges love getting adjunct instructors who have current industry experience. Good luck, Hal Logan CCAI -----Original Message----- > From: John Neiberger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 5:12 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: OT: New Instructor Experiences [7:62826] > > > I just feel the need to rant/vent for a bit and I knew there were a > bunch of you who might be able to relate to this. I've > started teaching > a short, one-session general networking class for some of the people > here at the bank. The first session, which was really just a > runthrough > with a handful of students, went fairly well. In fact, it > went so well > that they increased the number of overall attendees to about 60 or so. > > Last week I had another session that went exceptionally well, except > for a couple of students who really didn't want to be there. > I couldn't > have asked for it to go better, and my boss heard lots of good things > about it. One person even said I should be a professor! :-) > Now, that > brings us to today.... > > Today I had an afternoon class, and in my opinion it sucked rotten > eggs. I feel embarrassed to have been involved with it. I can't > think of too many ways in which it could have gone worse. I > rambled, I > flew through 2.5 hours of material in about an hour, I lost my place a > lot. I'm not certain that I ever formed a train of thought > longer than > a couple of cars, and I think even those trains were without > engine and > caboose. > > Have any of you other instructors had days like that? As I even > mentioned in class, I felt like my 'explainer' was broken > today, and it > certainly was. I'm hoping that I could get some sympathy from other > instructors with similar experiences. > > Okay, I'm going to go drown my disappointment in some coffee! > > John Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=62836&t=62826 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
