Tip#6 - TEACH, don't tell.

"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself."- Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton

As a writer, I am constantly reminded of the advice SHOW, don't tell.

This refers to writing in a way that paints a picture for your audience, using descriptions and images and the senses, rather than just straight out TELLING your audience how someone feels, or what the atmosphere of a particular place is like. It's all about bringing your reader closer to the characters, the story, and the setting; bringing your reader INTO the writing in order to make the piece more memorable for him or her.

For example, compare these two sentences:
Lucy is scared to open the door.
Lucy's hand shook as she reached for the doorknob.

The first sentence TELLS, while the second SHOWS.
When SHOWING, the reader can come to figure out himself that Lucy is scared, and get a deeper sense of the extent of her fear. Perhaps the description can also make the reader FEEL what the character is feeling. And that's when you just never forget that piece of writing, that book, or that author.

This reminded me of some of my most memorable moments as a teacher and as a student. What has stood out to me the most are the teachers who allowed me to come to my own realizations, to explore a particular topic or question on my own, in order that the learning becomes personal and sticks in my memory.

Instead of giving away particular answers, there are times when teachers can take the opportunity to facilitate the type of learning where students are guided to make their own discoveries.

Does the teacher still have a role if the student is doing the discovering? Yes, of course. In fact, there is an art to doing this, just as there is an art to SHOWING what is happening in a particular piece of writing.

It takes creativity to find ways in which your students can come to find answers themselves. And you are still leading them towards particular answers, but allowing them to do it in their own ways. It also takes patience and a good understanding of the learning process to avoid just spilling out the answer. WE may know the answer as teachers, but how about giving your students a chance to figure it out themselves?

Though particular subjects such as science or literature seem to lend themselves more easily to this type of learning and teaching (because they involve trial and error, or interpretation), it can actually be used in any discipline.

If you are teaching math, see if your students can use objects to discover how to create particular formulae. If you teach dance, allow your students to try out different body movements or even make up their own, within a certain framework of rhythm or space. If you are teaching voice lessons, give your students a chance to play around with different registers to see if they can find out what works for them. If you are teaching literature, get your students to play around with first starting with a character, or first starting with the plot to discover their own framework for short story writing.

This is not a free for all learning session. Teachers still have particular objectives and end results planned for this type of learning. But you just need to have faith and flexibility to allow your students to get to these results themselves. And when they seem stuck, it is your job to find ways to nudge your students in the right direction.

And remember, whatever it is that you are teaching was most probably taught or created by someone who was not afraid to explore, play around and just discover long ago. Why not allow your students to do the same, rather than just feeding them information and facts? You never know what they may come up with! Maybe they themselves will discover a new way to reach a particular answer, and how excited would they be to teach it to you!

Don't get me wrong. I know that this cannot be done all of the time. There are times when giving out facts and clear information, giving out answers is most productive. Just as in writing, there are times when TELLING your audience exactly what you want to say is important. But the trick is to make sure you are using a combination of the the two, because not all teaching involves TELLING. Sometimes, you have to help your students come to their own conclusions so that what they learn will stick with them over time. This way, they can say, "Hey, look what I figured it out," rather than saying "Hey, this is something my teacher TOLD me."

Making the learning your own... As a student, that is so beneficial and memorable. And helping your students see and apply this makes you an inspiring and memorable teacher. More importantly, WHAT you teach is not just the information that you were trying to get across, but also the process of learning- how students can make their own discoveries.

"Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve." - Roger Lewin