if you were a teacher

Ash Ketchup said:
Rather than teaching how to survive in a cruel world, I would teach how to make the world less cruel instead.

I'd like to teach humility, empathy, kindness, love and respect. Let's call the classes: cultural tolerance studies.
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I like this a lot!

I do tutor part-time but I am not formally qualified to do so as it is more offering additional homework help and prep for school children on top of their regular schooling. I did get trained but I recognise that does not make up for the lack of a teaching degree or qualification. That being said, I do like teaching and wonder sometimes whether I should have gone into an education degree or not.

I think if I were to choose a subject, I would choose to teach law at either a high school introductory level or a tertiary level. I truly like and am passionate about what I study (as much as I do struggle with it at times) and I can see myself teaching in the area if I end up on that path. Otherwise I would be happy to teach history at a high school level. If I was working in primary school, I would be happy to teach Maths as my preferred subject in terms of the familiarity I have with teaching it and how comfortable I am with teaching it.
 
I'll teach how to play an instrument. I don't play any sort of instrument, but for 30 seconds I could feel like jimi hendrix until someone realizes i'm strumming the guitar nonsensically.
 
Art! I would want kids to embrace their creativity and interests. I don't think any art style should be seen as "inferior" to others.
 
I was a teacher! Sort of.

I used to work as a dance coach whilst doing my education degree (focused on primary school)... that I couldn't finish because life happened but that's not important. I did get to work in a classroom though. I've done some tutoring too.

I like to think I'm a pretty good teacher. Although, admittedly, I can be on the stricter side. I expect people, kids or otherwise, to put their best foot forward and put the work in when they're committing to something/at school. But I think it's important that you can enjoy the learning process too. I know when I was planning lessons for prac and tutoring it was always important to me to make sure things were interactive and entertaining as well as instructional as best I could. You're more likely to get a lesson through to someone that way, especially if you've catered things to how your student best learns.

I always made a point of talking to whoever I was teaching in a more general sense too. I think a good rapport with your students is something a lot of people don't consider as beneficial but it makes a load of difference. At least in my experience. Something I noticed when working with kids especially is that a lot of times teachers didn't really talk to them like... people. It often felt very unnatural and condescending and you could tell that by the time they were like 7-8 kids were picking up on it.
 
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Probably Math. Imagines a focus on word problems. Would definitely tie in games, alongside a smattering of real-world situations. Helps to see "practical" applications. Could cover subjects like basic probability, averages, reading graphs, and algebra. Smiles at the idea of making students create a graph of two strategies as a game progresses, calculate the average roll value of three dice in Mario Party*, and comparing the damage per second of a strong weapon with no multipliers versus a weak one with several multiplicative modifiers.

Seeks to make math more tolerable as well. Intimidates a lot of people. May have fallen behind at some point. Compounds as time goes on. Involves hitting the basics here and there.

Would be a poor teacher, unfortunately. Might fare okay with plenty of preparation. Flails in the circumstance of a student not understanding the prepared method. Results in confusing and frustrating them more.

* 16.5. Sees people mess up average die results often. Skips the slow method of adding up every number and dividing by 10 (understandably). Usually clocks it as 10 / 2 = 5 for a single ten-sided die. Fails because of 0 not being on the die. Should be (10 + 1) / 2 = 5.5.

Could also catch yourself by listing out the results for a single die: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Consists of ten numbers. Should have an equal number of values above and below the average on a die like this. Becomes uneven with 1 2 3 4 against 6 7 8 9 10.
 
I would teach math, of course :)

I have a long answer to this question because:
  • I have already given private math lessons to three students over three years,
  • I am considering teaching math in high school as my plan C
  • I have been told that I was very educational in my presentations
  • However I have not experienced teaching to a full class sooooo I am most probably not relevant lol.

As Devalue mentioned, math intimidates a lot of people. I would even say that math traumatises half the people, and the other half doesn't see the point.

I have always thought that at the start of the year, I would make a special class in which I would explain why school teaches math, but also, the other topics.
Math: learn abstraction and reasoning, Physics / Chemistry / Biology: discover the world + how to do science on different scales; History: discover the past and the mechanics behind the creation of countries / cultures; Geography: kinda the same about the current world; and languages, well, they're obvious. (I'm probably missing a few classes lol)
Most pupils see school as a chore and as a "preparation" for the real life (for when you're 18). Actually school teaches you to be a citizen (of your country, or the world), rather than anything. You learn your job in specialised schools, not at "the" school.

Also, a big problem with teaching, is time. In general the schedule doesn't give enough time for the programme of the year. I don't know how to solve this, of course, I cannot create time. So I understand the teachers who just rush the programme and leave behind the pupils who struggle. I'd rather crop the programme, teach a bit less, so I can take maybe one hour per month to do a recreational activity to do some "fun" math (yeah, I know) or some practical cases that's not about abstract triangles or functions, just to keep the interest. Or maybe explore a part of mathematics that's not in the programme and that I find more interesting. Although the problem is that the interesting math is also complex and complicated, but when I see how easily I can communicate about my PhD, I believe that it's entirely possible.
 
I'd like to teach law because that's what I practice, and I run teaching sessions for my lawyer colleagues sometimes.

If I couldn't do that then I would teach history and geography as they were my favourite subjects at school.
 
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