First You Learn the Lesson….Then You Teach

Life is full of lessons. Every day I learn at least one thing that I didn’t know the day before. I would say we probably all do.

The past 5 years or so have been a time of tremendous learning and growth for me. I’ve bought a house, gotten married (yes, in that order – which I highly recommend!), become a full-time entrepreneur, worked hard to weed out the negative people in my life, and reconnected with some wonderful old friends. I’ve discovered a rich and fascinating online world, and made some really great new friends here.

It’s like I’ve been climbing up a slope of learning these past few years. The path was really steep sometimes. Occasionally I stumbled, even fell. Other times it leveled out; it was pretty smooth sailing. I’m grateful to have had plenty of help on my journey, from incredible friends, and of course my family.

Now I feel like I’ve come to the top of the mountain. I can see pretty clearly what lies ahead of me, and more importantly, what I need to do to get there. As I begin to travel down the other side of the mountain, I am able to release some of my new knowledge as I go. This is happening in all aspects of my life right now.

Professionally, I have the amazing opportunity to pass on my more than 18 years of media industry experience to young people who are just starting out in their careers. Now that I am happily married, I find myself passing on advice to my single girlfriends about dating, finding the person that’s right for you, and being happy in a relationship. And, now that I’ve weeded out the bad energy in my life, I’m able to help others to do the same.

I know that once I am through this teaching phase and at the bottom of the mountain again, I will climb the next mountain of learning. There are many more mountains to climb, many more challenges to face. I am happy to know that I’ve made it this far, and that I have something to offer as a result. And I am excited to know there’s much more to come.

Photo by Matt Phillips on Flickr.

Why It’s Important to Keep the Well Full

I spend a lot of my time teaching other people things. I might be teaching my clients how to envision their perfect web or video project, or teaching them about what options and technologies are available to them.  I might be teaching (more coaching) staff on projects. This Fall, I’ll be teaching college students the basics of digital audio and video production.

Whatever I am teaching, in whatever capacity, it’s a lot of output. I’m spewing forth a ton of information each day, week, and month. I’m not complaining. I love to teach. I get a real kick out of showing someone something new, of helping them to see things in a different way. It’s a real high for me.

But the absolute key to being a good teacher is being a good learner. To love teaching, you must love learning. To be able to have the kind of output that teaching requires, you must keep inputting new information all the time.

I find that my input/output goes in cycles. I will have cycles when it’s all about output…I’m teaching classes, teaching clients, teaching staff, all at the same time. But then I have times, like right now, when I’m in the learner’s seat. I’m online, learning about new technology. I’m attending things like Podcamp Montreal. I’m attending train the trainer sessions at the College. I’m working on my inner self. This input is critical. I NEED to learn. It is something I crave. If I spend too long on the output, I get tired. It’s almost as if my well of knowledge empties out. I need to fill it back up again before I can continue.

I guess that is true about everything in life…you need to empty out once in a while, so you can fill back up – whether it’s knowledge, work/family balance, or technical work/creative work.

How do you keep your well full?

Photo by szlea, from Flickr.

Are you a Great Teacher?

I was never the greatest student back in high school. I was miserable at math (still am), and miserable at English. I had to take makeup classes after school when I was in Grade 11, because my grammar was “atrocious”. Ironic that I’m now a writer (take that, Mrs. Dicresce!). I muddled through high school, managed to maintain about a B+ average, and escaped as fast as humanly possible once I was done.

Despite my former lack of enthusiasm for school, I love to learn. And the best way I have found to learn, to REALLY learn something, is to teach it to someone else. That’s how I learned, really learned television production. By teaching my volunteers at the cable station the finer points of lighting, camera, audio, directing, and producing. It’s how I learned web design. By being forced to learn HTML, Dreamweaver and Flash in 2 weeks back in 1999, and then showing 20 college students how to do it.

I read a lot of blogs and interact with a lot of people online. And I’m always learning. There are plenty of great teachers out there. A secret to success? Teach people something. Share your knowledge and experience.

Here are some things I’ve learned about what makes the difference between a good teacher and a great teacher.

Doing Is Better Than Showing

I fondly remember my Grade 11 History class as “nap time”. If I was actually awake while the teacher droned on endlessly about the war of this and the revolution of that, I most certainly wasn’t paying attention. However, when I was in my earlier high school years, I lived on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) and our history classes took place in the wilderness, up close and personal with majestic totem poles, carved canoes, and longhouses. Our field trips took place in the same places where Emily Carr created her famous paintings. Haida elders would come to our class and teach us their language, legends and art. It was captivating, breathtaking and you’re damn right we learned a lot.

It’s one thing to blabber on to people about a topic, to subject your learners to death by PowerPoint. It’s entirely another take them, show them, make them do, see and experience. People learn so much more when they are an ACTIVE participant in their learning. Great teachers make their students take action and participate. The result is, the students retain what they’ve learned and are excited and enthused to pass it on to others.

Beyond The Comfort Zone

My friend Dave is a piano player and singer. He can play ANYTHING on the piano, in pretty much any key. He’s an extremely talented musician with years of experience. And he can’t read a note of music. The best part about being a musician who can’t read music is you don’t have any rules to abide by. Dave is free to experiment and explore and create. (Incidentally, Paul MacCartney can’t read music either.)

Every class I have ever taught has an underdog. The one person that walks in and you can just tell they feel perplexed being there. Since I do a lot of technical training, my underdogs are usually those people who don’t feel comfortable working with technology, who have been forced to attend the course by their employer and really don’t think they are going to be able to learn anything.

Underdogs are most rewarding people to teach, because they are the like the musicians who can’t read music. They are completely open to learning, because don’t have any preconceived notions. They are a blank canvas.

It takes tremendous patience to teach the underdog. But being a great teacher requires that you not only share your knowledge, but that you encourage people to break out of their comfort zones, to explore, experiment and create. Like my friend Dave, and Sir Paul, breaking down the barriers of rules and preconception leaves one free to experience true understanding.

Passion, Passion and More Passion

Have you ever been completely captivated by a speaker? Check out Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED Talk and you will see an excellent example of this. In her talk, she goes from laughing hysterically to shouting to talking softly to crying. You walk away and I guarantee you will be thinking about it for the rest of the day.

I had a Math teacher in Grade 11, Mr. Hanley. Now, as mentioned, I HATED Math. Was lousy at it. But I LOVED Mr. Hanley’s class. Why? Because he was absolutely passionate about his subject. In his world, there was nothing more beautiful, more incredible than algebra, calculus and functions (shudder). Every day he found a new and interesting way to get us worked up about it. And even though I still completely sucked at Math, I was having fun. I learned something, too, because I ended up with a B.

Being passionate is the single most important thing you can do to be a great teacher. If you truly are passionate about what you are teaching, your students will be excited about what they are learning. It’s that simple. Passionate teachers create passionate students.

Learn to Share, Share to Learn

There is something about sharing knowledge with other people that allows it to really sink in to your brain. If you can explain it well, it means you truly understand it. But teaching is more than that to me. The best part of teaching is seeing what people can create once the have the knowledge.

You already know a lot. Now is the time to share it with others.

photo credit: talldude07, MorgueFile

Things My Mom Has Taught Me About Social Media

I’ve been pondering for a couple of days what to write for my Mother’s Day blog post. I knew it would be something about all of the things my Mom has taught me over the past 37 years or so about life. But this morning I started thinking that many of the things she has taught me apply directly to my experiences with social media.

So here is my list of Things My Mom Has Taught Me About Social Media:

Play Nice With the Other Kids
When I was growing up, my Mom always told me to be polite and kind to the people I interacted with. This meant grownups as well as the other kids around me. She said it’s okay to disagree with people, but always be respectful of others’ opinions.

How do I apply this lesson to my online interactions? Simple. I often disagree the opinions of others. I don’t mind saying so by commenting on their blogs or sending them a message. But lately I’ve been noticing more and more negative discussions hovering around my social networks. Healthy debate promotes positive change. Bashing people and negative talk doesn’t accomplish anything. Play nice and everyone will benefit.

Be Grateful For What You Have Been Given
When I was growing up my Mom always reminded me to be grateful for the things I had been given…a nice family, a roof over my head, nice clothes, 3 meals a day, and so on. She also told me to be grateful to the people around me when they did nice things for me. And to try to do nice things in return.

I am eternally grateful to all of the people who’ve helped me on my journey so far – from my my great friend André who took a chance on me when I was just 19 and gave me my first job in TV, to my brother who dragged me up to the computer room in 1996 and showed me this amazing thing called the “Internet” for the first time, to all of the people (too many to mention here, but they know who they are) who have been mentors and teachers of all things social media. I do my best to do nice things for them too. And I am now passing on what I’ve learned from them, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to do that.

If You Don’t Know How to Do Something, Figure It Out
My Mom is a voracious knitter. Over the years I’ve watched her go from knitting simple potholders and scarves to ultra-complex hooded sweaters and baby clothes. The work she does is beautiful and frankly I am amazed at how she does it. It’s a talent. But if you ask her, she’ll say “I just worked at it till I figured it out.”

Today, I live by that advice. In 1998 I graduated from a college program where they taught us about CD ROM development. All we learned about the web was one class about HTML coding. 3 weeks after I graduated, one of my teachers came to me and asked me to teach a course at the college in HTML and Dreamweaver. I said sure, having no idea how I was going to do it. But I spent the next month learning everything I could. I messed around, messed up, and worked at it till I figured it out. I taught the course and got rave reviews. Today, because of Mom, I get excited when I don’t know how to do something, because it’s an opportunity to explore and figure it out.

Don’t Spend All Day On That Thing
My Mom realizes the importance of variety. When we were growing up, Mom wouldn’t let my brother and I spend too much time doing only one thing – watching TV, reading, playing outside, and even homework. “Take a break, do something else. It’s all about balance.” she’d say.

I spend a lot of time on the computer, but eventually, somewhere in the back of my mind, I hear my Mom say to me “Don’t spend all day on that thing!”. So I shut down the computer after a while, to make sure that there is a balance between my online life and the rest of my life.

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My Mom is a wise woman. The impact and influence she has had on our family’s life is remarkable, and she continues to inspire us daily with her energy, love and commitment. Thanks Mom, for being you and Happy Mother’s Day.

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(Note: My parents are no social media slouches themselves. My Mom is on Facebook, regularly Instant Messages, and my Dad runs a blog at villagesquares.wordpress.com and uses Flickr for all his photo sharing needs.)