Student? Instructor? Both?

[MJS]

Do you learn from yourself teaching? Do you find things that you had missed before? Its a little different than just learning from an instructor.

Yes to both! When you're teaching, it really makes you look at the material. You have to break it down for the newer students, so it forces you to really take a different look at it. In addition, there have been many times when a student asks questions. As I said above, it really forces you to take a more in-depth look at the material.

Mike

 

[NDNgirl4ever]

I'm a begginer, so I'm just a student.

 

[jdinca]

I'm an instructor but I also have a weekly lesson with my teacher, in additon to instructor workouts that are run by our GM and Master.

Don't know that I would want a teacher who thought they had nothing left to learn about the subject.

 

[Carol]

I'm just a student. I only teach by exasperating those that try to teach me

 

[Trent]

I'm both, all of the time, but in different ways. When training with my instructors I am a student of their lesson; however, I am also instructing my mind and body on how to absorb and work the material. When instructing my students, I am learning how to understand and communicate the material on many levels. There are different levels of overlap from those as well.

 

[jdinca]

Here is a new twist to this. As anyone thought of themselves as a student while being a teacher. If teaching someone else is supposed to teach you also wouldn't you be a student also?

Most definitely! Usually, the student doesn't even know it. For me, I learn from every student about attitudes, personalities, physical abilities and limitations, just to mention a few things. All of this helps me learn how to tailor what and how I teach so that the each student gets the best instruction.

 

[jdinca]

I'm curious about peoples' perception of instructing and learning - thus this poll. Commentary is also requested - how do you define instructing? Assisting? What is the difference between an assistant instructor who teaches independently and an instructor? Are there rank requirements in your organization for instructing, and does that impact whether you are an assistant or a full instructor, regardless of your duties?

Missed part of the answer. I consider instructing to be pretty straight forward. If you're running a class, or if you've been assigned private students, you're instructing. If you're assisting in a class and maybe running a drill, you're a trainee, or just assisting whoever is running the class.

An orange belt in our school can be invited to join the instructor trainee class. It's a seperate path from belt material. As you advance in this class, you can be more involved with teaching and assisting. At blue belt, you can be promoted to an instructor provided you've met the requirements, passed the tests and been blessed by the powers that be, but you cannot teach student less than two belt levels below your own. I.e., a blue belt instructor won't have any students above purple belt. I'm a 3rd degree brown belt, the highest level student I have is a blue belt. Currently, our lowest ranking instructor is a green belt.

A trainee who has advanced to the top level in the trainee class and is at least a blue belt can be assigned students. They will be white, or yellow belts but they are the trainees private students. In that case I guess you could say that they are assisting but also teaching independently.

 

[Gufbal1982]

I marked other because I am a former instructor, but I still study.

 

[kidswarrior]

I'm an instructor in several after-school programs, which I do after working my day job. I'd love to train with some former full-time instructors, but unfortunately with them it was all or nothing. I couldn't do all, so: train on my own, study tape (dvd's, etc. [1] from my former instructors, and [2] from outside masters--if college and pro coaches can learn from tape, so can I), books from other masters (besides my former instructors) in my foundational arts, and I put in hard training with students. Hey, all you can do is all you can do, especially at my age (Vietnam vet, so do the math).

 

[tshadowchaser]

I am an instructor yet I continue to learn by studying with a few instructors in different styles/systems. The more knowledge I have the more I can pass on, plus I love learning and working out with different people from time to time.
As an instructor it is a relief to go somewhere else and have someone else worry about if people are doing things correctly

 

[kidswarrior]

Here is a new twist to this. As anyone thought of themselves as a student while being a teacher. If teaching someone else is supposed to teach you also wouldn't you be a student also?

Yes! In fact as long-time teacher by trade, I've long believed (and heard) that the teacher always learns the most in any lesson. To put a classics twist on it: Seneca said, A man, as long as he teaches, learns. (Yeah, I know he was sexist, but his heart was in the right place). Some of my greatest Aha! moments have come when I was teaching something, maybe answering a question, and I just saw it in a new way.