I recently got back from a twenty-four-hour trip to Philadelphia to work with my teaching fellow, a teacher at Hotchkiss and a graduate student in University of Pennsylvania's Master of Education program. For her work, she teaches some Hotchkiss classes, takes courses (both online and in person at various points in the year), and works with me on thinking about how best to help our students learn to read, write, and think about literature.
I know the old adage, "Those who can, do, and those who can't, teach" and I know there are people out there who think, "When I'm done with my real job, this one that makes me a lot of money, it would be fun to teach for a while," but the truth is that teaching is not easy and shouldn't be an afterthought. Good teaching works to distill the most important/interesting/relevant content into the best format. Every part of that process takes work. At its best, teaching might seem effortless because the teacher figures out the best ways to present the material before the students ever enter the room then adapts the method based on what those students bring to the table. The process is iterative, continual, and seamless.
Working with my mentee, a young woman who is both smart and thoughtful, I get to see my own practice through her eyes and observe her pedagogy with consideration to how to help her do what she's trying to do even better. Of course, in articulating how she could do what's she's trying to do, I also consider how I should do what I'm trying to do. Through helping her learn, I improve my own teaching.
Do you do something that helps another person and also helps you? Please write about that in the comments.