In the front of the room

I am in Maryland today and tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be presenting a one day workshop on teaching Visual Basic .NET. I really do like VB .NET as a first programming language. I have written that often before. But what I am really excited about today is being in front of a classroom full of students again.

Now anyone who has taught teachers will tell you that it is not like teaching a regular class of ordinary students. Now some will say it’s harder and I would not argue against that. Some will say that teachers are horrible students but that I would disagree with. Teachers ask questions. They do not assume things not in evidence. And they do not hesitate to tell you that you are going too fast or too slow or that you are just not explaining things well. They are professionals at what they do and they expect professionalism from people who would teach them. To me that makes them great students. Teaching teachers is not a walk in the park. It is a hike up the mountain. But like the hike the work has its rewards.

I expect to learn a lot tomorrow. Hopefully the teachers in the class will learn a lot as well. After all that is why they are there for the day. But I would be a poor teacher indeed if I did not plan to learn from my students. I hope to get a better understanding of how to teach some of the concepts I teach. I hope to get some good project ideas. And I hope to improve myself as a teacher. And that is something I think every teacher should work towards whether they are teaching children or other teachers or anyone else.