Assignment 1.1 White Water Rafting

The author described teaching as white-water rafting in chatper one. Although I have limited experience teaching due to my current career. I would like to fancy myself to be a teacher of life. I am the oldest sibling of one brother and one sister. I'm also an older cousin of many in my family. I'm a leader in my community and I'm a leader at my job. I see teaching as an every day experience, and I don't believe it should be limited to a formal classroom setting. I can still see the similarities and differences between white-water rafting and teaching. I have never been whitewater rafting personally, but I have engaged in other outdoor activities such as camping. According to http://www.howstuffworks.com/, "White-water rafting is an outdoor activity where participants paddle a raft through whitewater or river rapids." Depending on your location and the time of year or day the water may have rocks, waves, other obstructions, or the water maybe fast or slow. It can be an extremely exhilerating and rewarding experience full of adventure. I think that is really similar to teaching often time teaching has periods of calm followed by bouts of excitement and unpredictability. There are times when teaching inspires you and other times when teaching makes you feel discouraged. Sometimes there are alot of personality conflicts when it comes to teaching. There are also people who are stubborn and prefer to learn in their own way. For example I work in an Information Technology Warehouse where we store a lot of communication equipment ranging from laptops, desktops, montiors, cell phones, and servers. As apart of my duties and responsibilities I teach a class once a week for new Equipment Custodians. Equipment Custodians each have accounts in our database and they're responsible for keeping accountability and inventory for a set number of communication devices. During the course of my instruction, for the most part they go pretty much smooth, sometimes I run accross people with difficult personalities. Sometimes these individuals come from other bases, they've been through the training before, or they're simply impatient. Regardless this training is required anually and I am obligated to give them this information whether they choose to listen or not is their choice, but if something were to happen down the line they cannot say they were not informed. I also have them sign a training letter, I make copies, and then I file the paper in their account file. In chapter 2 we encounter the core assumption that skillful teaching is whatever helps the students. For the most part I agree with this assumption if students can learn material in a better way I believe they should be free to do so. That is why I offer to e-mail the equipment custodians a copy of the powerpoint presentation upon request so that they can study and review the information further. I guess the problem that troubles me the most is when I encounter idividuals who believe they are more knowledgeable about a particular subject. I think I will probably go to the grave experiencing this problem because there are times when I will run into inividuals frequently who are indeed more knowledgable about the subject. However I guess I can be more assertive and acknowledge their expertise but explain to them the requirements that I'm obligated to uphold.

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/water-sports/white-water-rafting.htm