The Joys of Teaching

And why I enjoy it.

Good day everyone!! I hope you’re all doing well. Christmas is around the corner. The tree is up, I already have some food in the freezer, I’ve been watching Harry Potter and I’ve started to buy gifts. I’ve gotten everyone vouchers (its a cop out I know) though I have gotten the younger members of my family proper gifts. Bluey (how cool is Bandit) and Peppa Pig are very popular amongst my younger family members. I’ve also brought them some gifts that help them to learn in a fun way. At the age they are, learning about the world around them, in a safe manner is obviously a very important thing (thoughts about helicopter parents is a discussion for another day maybe.)

So as people may or may not know. I’m a military man. My main job is usually to teach baby AB’s (that’s what we call them) at the beginning of their careers. My recent time on HMS Queen Elizabeth was a side thing and I’m now back to teaching whilst dealing with some medical stuff. Whilst I was on QE I thought about the classes that I would not see as they pass through the teaching system here in the UK.

It made me realise that I bloody love teaching but with some very particular caveats. I don’t think I could teach secondary school (11-16 years old) pupils as, being a sailor, I kind of have a bit of a potty mouth that sometimes speaks before my brain engages (typical man maybe?). I also have a LOT of inappropriate stories from my time serving that would probably get me hauled in front of the headmaster/mistress if a teenager asked me to recount one.

I am also very aware about the Woke curriculum that is being pushed by certain teachers. Obviously the opinions I hold would probably trigger some of the teachers that I work with and so I wouldn’t want to cause them any lasting harm by blowing up their brains with actual facts.

The most amount of students I deal with per class is like 6. So dealing with a class potentially 20+ hormonal teenagers sounds like my idea of hell. If any of you who read this, have teenagers, then please look up Kevin the Teenager from the 90’s starring the legendary Harry Enfield to see a humorous take on teenagers and see if it’s similar to your own darling children.

So yeah whilst I have caveats I do love teaching. I deal with mostly 18+ students with a few of the oldest being 30+. You get a wide range of backgrounds which is awesome but it is mostly guys who join up so it is nice when a girl is in the class as it just changes the basic make up and the feel of the class.

So why do I like teaching? It’s watching the students take in all the information when they take the theory lessons, not always understanding it, but still taking notes etc and then using the information that has been taught in the practical phase and seeing them understand why they were taught.

They conduct their practical phase, which is usually 2 weeks in the simulators. These are pretty good but I guarantee that it would be 10000% better if they let guys who can code and love strategy video games build a version of what is currently being used. During day one its like a deer in headlights. Mistakes galore, voice reports going awry, ships wrongly labelled, tears, I’ve seen it all. 2 weeks later though and they are competent users who look like they’ve been using the kit for years.

This is the part of teaching that I love. The progression. Just being in the room when it clicks for the student and they go a full morning with basically no pick ups. There might be small nit picks but that’s okay. All major mistakes are done and it’s brilliant to watch as you finally see them start to relax an enjoy the training.

I love passing on my own experiences from my time in the RN. Passing on the stories of being in the mess like the “Crossing the Line” ceremony and the different stops (one of my favourite stops is Kiel Week) and nights out where lads have made fools of themselves. This gets them looking forward to their own times on the ships that they will eventually join.

My teaching style? I’m pretty laid back, maybe too much so (this has sometimes pissed off previous girlfriends a lot lol). I get the knowledge across but still manage to make it fun. Since they’re all grown adults I get them to call me by my nickname though when someone of a superior rank enters the room I get them to call me by my own rank.

As for teaching in the real world. There truly are some amazing teachers out there. There also some crazy ass and quite possibly evil teachers out there. You only have to look at Libs of Tik Tok too see some of the evil teachers. I also appreciate that teachers are most likely underpaid and, in some cases, having to pay or things like books and stationary out of their own pockets. That’s not right. I wonder, in situations like this, what the pay of someone like the Headmaster/mistress and if they’re like politicians where they’re overpaid for being a manager.

Anyways I feel like I’ve kind of finished this musing. I have an afternoon in the sims and the class are doing very well. What are people own thoughts on teaching? Are there any teachers here? What has been your best teachable moment? Mine? It was teaching my nephew how to drift on Mario Kart and seeing him progress enough to nearly beat me. He’s not quite there yet.

So there you go. I hope I find you all happy and healthy on this Friday evening. I’m drinking a whiskey and watching The Tudors.

Vulkan