I taught, myself, a lesson
What I learned from my first teaching experience
I'm excited! Last week, I got to teach an entire module at a professional master's program in digital design (DIDE) for SID, Scuola Italiana Design. It has been an amazing experience from the moment I was asked to do it until the end, and beyond.
I taught myself so much and experienced practically many of the lessons I've been writing about in the last few weeks.
The most important lesson has been to stay true to the title of this substack and my original intentions: to say "yes" to an opportunity even if I felt completely unprepared. The stakes were high. To give an idea of the situation, I was asked to hold a 10-hour module on UX design over a day and a half, with no material ready, in a week from the moment I was asked. And it was my first time ever teaching at this level.
Then there's the trust and opportunity I was given by others, and the trust I gave to myself, suffocating my impostor syndrome, accepting it light-heartedly, and starting to work hard on it. I believed in myself and that I knew what I was doing and that I knew my craft well enough to talk about it.
The power of asking questions. Making it about others and asking the coordinator of the course for any possible indications to make this lesson valuable for the students and in line with the rest of the course.
Making plans with anxiety. I focused all the energy of the short deadline on preparing slides every evening after work, and I channeled all the envisioning power of this anxiety to visualise and get comfortable with the lesson every day, all day, in every moment my mind was clear from other duties. I was moving along the spectrum towards excitement as my confidence grew day after day. As an introvert it has been a big success to find myself that morning, while I was driving to the place, not feeling my heart pounding in turmoil.
Together is better. Being there with those people exceeded any expectation. The dialogue it created, even with simple exchanged glances. Improvising and answering questions were the best part. Feeling that I was there for them and that I could be giving value, maybe even be of inspiration.
To be honest, I had to recycle 80% of the lessons to be able to make it on time in such a short time. It made me feel like an imposter so much at the beginning. But in the end, I looked back at the work I did to plan, synthesise, translate, and streamline everything. The effort I placed in being prepared, making it mine, and being confident in returning it. I approached the process with curiosity and enjoyed also the learnings of going through old lessons with a new maturity.
It was amazing to see all of the learnings of the last period distilled in action. And also to perceive the growth and the awareness that this retrospective process is giving to me and the value it creates. I’m so happy, I want to be able to acknowledge successes like this when they occur, hoping they’ll balance the struggle and the obstacles.
Takeaway
There's so much to condense, but apart from living on my own skin the feeling of a teacher taking in and learning much more than what I was giving, what I want to collect and share here is the feeling of excitement. The huge return on investment in taking opportunities and pushing the boundaries a little bit further.
Weekly retrospective
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Thanks for reading and see you next week!
Tobia