All TV news broadcasts were reporting about COVID-19 and the new pandemic waves. Just that time, I got introduced to a remote teaching job by a friend that was for teens at a high school. I had no clue what would it be like teaching others what you've experienced for a couple of years. I had to take and teach Programming, Web Development, Mobile App Development, and Algorithm courses in different grades. In addition, that was my first ever experience teaching technical subjects like programming and development.

At that time, I was quite experienced in programming and algorithms. I had no idea about programming mobile devices in Basic language though. (I had to teach them B4A which is Android programming in Basic language)

I wasn't actually into the philosophy part of teaching whereas you must be an expert at something to be able to teach that thing properly. All I needed was something to hang around with and to make the lockdown less painful.

Started Teaching

I started the job. That was pretty interesting, meeting new teenagers and teaching them your knowledge, and giving them the space of researching, teaming up, and collaborating with the tools and subjects they've learned throughout this way with your help.

My boys were highly motivated by the subjects and courses I had with them. After the first two sessions or three, they started as teams, working on projects and turning the basic algorithms into actual working programs and that was quite amazing to me how lovely they had found the subjects and more precisely, programming.

Generally, during the time I had with the students there, I got lots of valuable insights about teaching and studying. As you follow along as a teacher, the more motivated students you find in your class, the more passions and good vibes appear inside you and it makes you keep teaching. For a teacher, struggling and discussing with his students over scientific topics is what makes time fly.

I Taught for Over 8 Months

Now, it's been almost eight months since I started that job. That was a worthy lockdown for that time. It made me experience teaching and figure out awesome important thoughts on it.

Even after years, I'm still connected to some of my students. They let me know about their progress and projects and I'm so thankful for being the reason for them finding what they're talented into.

Nothing lasts forever. Eventually, that's the time for me to move on and work more specifically with what I'm better at that's Backend Development back in the day.

I Quit for A Reason

At that time, that was the only reason for my quitting. I needed to work as a backend developer so I found my proper position and I quit. I personally didn't want to though.

To be honest, that was not quite disappointing leaving my students at that stage since I got lots of other stronger reasons for my quitting right after I quit teaching. I put one of my friends right after me for finishing the subjects and topics I started teaching students and I headed to my backend career.

I. Expertism is the most basic requirement for teaching

I feel like that's quite obvious that you have to be an expert at something in order to be able to explain and teach that thing.

II. Don't teach for personal reasons

Don't use "Teaching" as a learning leverage for yourself. Teaching is not a way of learning something. If you do so, lots of questions will remain unanswered in your classes. In fact, it's about teaching what you're highly experienced in.

III. Teaching makes you aware of your weaknesses

If you have active students in your class, it can help you find your weaknesses in the topic you're teaching. You must minimize your weaknesses and always be aware of them. Of course, it does not mean you can teach any subject with any amount of experience you have.

IV. Teaching takes responsibilities

When you're older than your students, you ARE responsible for every single word that comes out of your mouth. You have to be extremely careful about not being the reason for inappropriate wrong thoughts shaped in your students' minds.

That said, you have to be a real expert and believe in what your expertise doesn't cover and always be in process of learning and knowledge-seeking. That's why teaching takes lots of responsibility.

V. Expertism is not enough for a teacher

Other than the main teaching subject that you better have expertise in, another key point is the knowledge and experience of teaching. Being well-experienced at something doesn't qualify you as a teacher of that subject. A good practice is to examine your teaching by putting yourself as a student of yours or by your students' feedback on your teaching.

Conclusion

If I get back to that time, I would surely try teaching again. I indeed was not a perfect teacher at the time but hopefully, it didn't end up making a mess. On the contrary, it did help me gain awesome insights and get a proper self-scrutiny about myself. Hopefully, this short experience of mine has helped you get to know more about teaching and academics.