At its best teaching is a tool for transformation, inspiration, creativity, change, healing and growth. At its worst teaching is a tool for control, to discourage individuality, to stifle creativity and ensure that ambitions are quashed in favour of the economic needs of society. You may be an expert in your field, however this does not necessarily equip you as an expert teacher. Successful teaching is an art in itself, and once the art is grasped both the teacher and the student benefit enormously.

 

"Bad teaching can ruin people. Good teaching can help people. Inspired teaching can transform people."

 At its best teaching can transform people's lives, giving them access to new information, skills, options, dreams, aspirations and a way of making new dreams come true. At worst teaching is a tool to ensure that dreams, aspirations, goals and options are limited and diminished until they are non-existent. Bad teaching can ruin people. Good teaching can help people. Inspired teaching can transform people. In this article I want to look at 4 things that anyone who teaches, or wants to teach, can do to ensure that what we teach and how we teach can be even more powerful and transformatory.

 

Know Your Subject

Although this may seem very obvious, teachers need is to know their subject. People pay to come on our courses because, as teachers, we know something or can do something that others want to learn. Knowing our subject means that we have to be constant learners. Fundamental to being an inspired teacher is that we continue to be inspired students. We will never know everything, and if we are constantly learning then we still be passionate about what it is we teach. But more than this, we owe it to our students and course participants to constantly improve our own knowledge of what we teach.

 

So often, because we are good at what we do, we are asked to teach others. We may be great healers, tarot readers or experts in personal development, but the decision to teach means getting the timing right. Are we ready to teach? When we feel we know our subjects, or areas of expertise, in enough depth, and with enough confidence to share it with others, then the time is right.

 

Acknowledge Our Expertise

This can be difficult for many of us because we do not want to appear arrogant or big-headed, but it is an important thing to acknowledge if we want to be inspired teachers. Acknowledging our expertise, providing we actually do have some, is not about being big-headed, and it is never about being the sort of teacher that has power over their students.

 

Acknowledging our expertise is acknowledging both our gifts and talents and the work we have put in to develop them. We need to acknowledge our expertise as a gift, and a gift to share with others. The only power we need to have to be inspired teachers is power with our students.

 

Acknowledging our expertise should be seen, not as an egotistical statement, but rather as an act of humility. Teaching is always about focussing on other people, so to acknowledge our expertise, and sharing it with others, allows our grandeur and our unconditional power to show through.

 

'Think Student'

This simple idea is at the very heart of inspired teaching. When most people are asked to teach something they know that the next step is to work out what they are going to teach. The next thing people tend to do is ask themselves the following type of question: 'so what do I want to teach the people coming to my course?' Now, this is bluntly it is the worst thing any teacher could do. The mental shift we need to make is to always THINK STUDENT - start thinking from the students' perspective, and start asking ourselves what our students need to know, learn, understand, or be able to do.

 

"Inspired and passionate teachers create inspired and passionate students."

 To 'think student' and to aim to be an inspired teacher is about sharing our power and expertise in an effective way, and to be effective means that we create a space and an environment in which our students truly learn.

 

Everything about teaching, from planning a course or workshop to the advertising, from the use of resources to how to teach particular topics will be enhanced when we come from a 'think student' perspective. Whenever you are planning any sort of teaching, ask yourself the following questions:

 

1. Does this help my students' learning?
2. In what ways does this help my students' learning?

 The answers to these questions will begin to show you how effective your teaching can be.

 

Be Passionate & Enjoy

The most inspiring teachers are always the most passionate. It is equally important to be passionate about your subject as well as teaching itself, for your passion about your subject is the true qualification you need in order to properly teach what you know, but your passion for teaching itself shows your students you care about them and their learning. Inspired and passionate teachers create inspired and passionate students.

"It is often what we learn that gets us out of the problems we have."

 

Remember to enjoy and love what you do. It is crucial that we remember to love and enjoy what we do - if we do that we can expect it in return from our students. Put simply, whatever your mood, get excited before you teach; you will have more fun and so will your students.

 

Teaching as tool for healing and transformation.

Inspired teaching gives people new opportunities and shows them new possibilities. This is a healing act, for it is often what we learn that gets us out of the problems we have. Inspired teaching can help people transform themselves, give them new ways of earning an inspired living, and give them a new self-esteem.

 

To teach is a gift in itself, but when we teach in an inspired way we give your gifts to others, and that is both the gift of ourselves and the gift of what we know. This gift can truly transform the lives of others.

 

© Rick Thorn, 2004.  Learn about Workshops with Rick Thorn

---

Rick Thorn is available for one-to-one sessions, consultancy work; as well as talks and workshops.

What Others Have Said About Inspired Teaching:

'Rick has a natural gift of showing you how to unlock the potential in your material and then to structure, package and deliver it to people that are eager to learn it. Anyone who is interested helping others to learn and grow will benefit from Rick's experience and insights, and discover that they are probably sitting on a gold mine.' - Nick Williams, founder of Heart at Work London, co-founder of Dreambuilders Community, and a trustee Director of Alternatives author of the Work We Were Born To Do, Unconditional Success and Powerful Beyond Measure.

'Rick's work provides a marvellous and insightful overview to the possibilities of applying one's purpose, through teaching, to the service of helping others on their quest for their truth. Rick's positive planning method cast an illuminating light on the potential of my material, pinpointing both the pitfalls and how to expand the wider vision.' - Tim Wheater, international musician, composer, sound healer and teacher.

 

For more information and contact details see Rick Thorn's website www.inspiredways.com.