Making Mistakes as a Teacher/Instructor

[katy524]

I'm not sure if this is the place to post this but I'm a nontrad so I figured I'll start here. Has anyone ever messed up as an instructor/teacher? I'm an assistant first aid instructor and today did a very poor job demonstrating a treatment procedure to a group of young adults. I feel like I let my teaching team and my students down. I'm great at teaching small groups and I know my theory but put 20 pairs of eyes on me and I start to stutter and draw blanks. I'm especially bothered by this because I've been at it for 9 months now but still have this problem. Any advice from former/current teachers? How do you deal with feeling like you disappointed a bunch of people?

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[RoadNurse33]

Hah! (Laughing at myself there) boy have I done this. Taught one brownie troop first aid merit badge and completely revised the "curriculum." No more tourniquets. We are headed back to the basics.

This stuff happens all the time. If you vapor lock, call a time out and ask for help. Maybe another instructor. Hey, this is kicking my ass, can you help me. Heck, I've gotten a few "phone a friend" calls before too...when I can hear the aircraft starting to wind and there's some whispered question about the ventilator or something else haha. It happens to everyone.

If you get the same group again (say the next day) then lead off with the "I did a terrible job demonstrating xyz and I am not going to give you that crappy education." Then redo it. You'll get more respect from your students. Just make sure you practice it until you can't botch it.

 

[FutureDrB]

This has happened to me too. What I did when I felt like I was doing a poor job explaining a concept was to call a timeout for myself as RoadNurse suggested. I'd give the class some "busy work" while I gathered my thoughts and restarted the lesson.

What always bothered me more was at the end of each semester we'd get student reviews and there were always a few students who were like, "Mr. XXX was the worst instructor ever, this class was a total waste of time." Thankfully it was always just a few students out of 30+ so I just looked at it as you can't make everyone happy...but it did eat at me a bit and made me wonder what I could've done to better-serve those students.

 

[Goro]

Let's see...I've given exams with the answers still on them, and given outright worn info in lectures. What I do is apologize, and then give the correct info. I've written bad test questions and gave the students a bonus once I figured out what happens.

If you have trouble with a large group, focus on one-two students and talk to them, not the class.

Otherwise, always do the best you can.

Take some acting/debate/speech classes to help with speaking anxieties. As a medical student and a doctor, you'll need to address large crowds for Grand Rounds, journal clubs, presentations etc.

I'm not sure if this is the place to post this but I'm a nontrad so I figured I'll start here. Has anyone ever messed up as an instructor/teacher? I'm an assistant first aid instructor and today did a very poor job demonstrating a treatment procedure to a group of young adults. I feel like I let my teaching team and my students down. I'm great at teaching small groups and I know my theory but put 20 pairs of eyes on me and I start to stutter and draw blanks. I'm especially bothered by this because I've been at it for 9 months now but still have this problem. Any advice from former/current teachers? How do you deal with feeling like you disappointed a bunch of people?