Notes on teaching
To be a good teacher, you have to…
- Have nice breath
- Look people in the eye when they speak
- Ignore people who are speaking while somebody else is speaking
- Listen to people who are speaking while somebody else is speaking
- Respond to people who are interrupting somebody else only if they are really contributing something worthwhile to the conversation
- Ignore the troublemakers unless they are truly more like funmakers
- If the troublemakers are just being troublemakers because they are insecure, ignore them until they do something positive and worth rewarding by giving it attention
- Basically being a teacher is like being a parent
- Or being a good human being
- It’s hard to be a good teacher
- There are plenty of times I want to crawl in a hole and die
- But when it’s good, it’s good… like sex
- And when it’s bad like bad sex, it hurts
- When you’re teaching and you’re in the moment, in the groove, energy is given and taken freely in the room, creativity happens, learning for everyone takes place including the teacher
- When you’re not in the moment, or you’re in the wrong moment, it’s a sucky place to be
- How to get back into the right moment? Take a deep breath. Switch gears. Call it like it is. Think positive. Keep moving forward. Don’t beat yourself up. There’s always another curve to go around down the road. Nothing stays the same. Don’t get hung up on it. drink some coffee. Ask THEM a question. Get the heat off of you for a while.
- If you forget that you’re teaching and you’re just being… that’s when you are the best teacher of all.
- And if you get them to forget that you’re teaching, better yet still.

the birds chirp
the babes are asleep
and i woke up to hear the kind of quiet you only hear after a night of weird dreaming

the air is clearly light
my body is rested from flight
and my mind is full but ready to be poured onto the page