Advice

I was talking to a new instructor yesterday - telling him how he has to find inspiration on his own when he teaches. A lot of new instructors get inspired only when they see a big group of people and/or certain advanced and energetic members. Most of them don't realize how long it takes to accumulate the good and devoted regulars that make the classes the way they are.

I have taught my share of lame classes. Classes that started with five people who had no idea how to do anything. So I'd try my hardest to teach the few people I had and made a good class out of it, and thought that we would go from there. Wrong. The next week five different people showed up.

Attitude counts for a lot when it comes to teaching. The class floats and sinks on the instructor's attitude. That's all there is. I could have a bad day at work but if I tried not to let it get to me, then nobody in the class will know and the class will be just fine. In my more disciplined days of teaching years ago, the positive attitude carried me through many tough classes.