So, here’s the thing: You go through life thinking teaching is so easy. That harks back to grade school, I think. Back when your sense of appreciation for the people up by the chalkboard was none too high. Why would it be? They always took offense to you sailing paper airplanes across the room, and they never found funny a spitball lodged so deep in a buddy’s ear that it required surgical tweezers. I mean, come on — that’s funny! At some point, most of us gained a bit of fondness for our teachers, but I can’t say we ever stopped thinking what they did was easy. That anyone with the right amount of chalk or a pair of reading glasses dipped low along their nose could do it. Because it’s teaching, right? I mean, you get up there, you say some stuff, you write it on the chalkboard for emphasis, you snap at a couple of kids — “I’m warning you. I once bit the ears off an alligator! — and then you write on reports, “Your prepositional phrases don’t cohabitate with your conjunctivitis.” Easy peasy. Anyone can do it. Your whole life you think this, and your whole life you would continue thinking it … right up until the moment you walk into the classroom yourself, stand up by the board and think, “Holy fish sticks! What in the heck am I supposed to say?” Then a paper airplane sails across the room. I had the pleasure of teaching a … Continue reading Teaching 101: Not as Easy as It Looks