Teaching, Learning, and Paying It Forward

Here's a little-known fact about me: for a while, I was actually a certified Secondary English Education teacher. (That's right, take a moment to envision me with my hair in a bun with a pencil stuck through it. Got it? Okay.)

My original college education was in Psychology and Theater (a good background for writing rituals, when you think about it), but a number of years later, I went back and got my certification to teach middle and high school English. I did my student teaching with the seventh grade, and no one was more surprised that me to discover that I absolutely loved teaching. A number of different things conspired to send me down a completely different path, but here we are, LOTS of years later, and somehow, I've come back around to teaching again. And yes, I'm still loving it.

I started out teaching a couple of popular online writing classes, including Beyond Fangs: Creating New & Interesting Paranormal Characters, which I'll be giving for the last time (for a while, anyway) over at the Savvy Authors site April 9-26. Then, this year, I gave in to the folks who'd been nagging me (you know who you are!) and started my own Workshop Loop, where with the help of fellow author and pagan Heather Long, I give classes on Witchcraft, and the occasional writing seminar.

I'm having a great time giving the classes, and it earns me a bit of money on the side, which is always useful (especially when you need new brakes for the car and a new washer in the same month), but that's not why I do it. In fact, the teaching really cuts into my personal writing time, and takes a lot of energy.

So why do I do it? Two people, really. My grandmother (Germambie, someone I've talked about here before) was a life-long learner. She was auditing classes into her 80's, just because she loved to learn.

And Candace Havens . Candace is an author who goes out of her way to teach others, both by giving workshops, and by hosting others on her Write_Workshop loop. When I was just starting out writing fiction, she took the time and energy to mentor me--giving me a much needed (and much appreciated) boost when I had SO much to learn.

She also strongly advocates paying it forward: if someone does something good for you at the beginning of your career, she thinks it is important to pay that forward to others when you are further along the road.

So I teach because I enjoy it, but also because I think it is important to keep learning (and I learn something from my students in every single class I teach). And because it is my turn to pay it forward.

See you in class!

Writing class has started

Today was the first day of my online writing class, Witchcraft for Paranormal Authors (that is to say, those authors who write paranormals...not actual paranormal authors).

So far, so good.

I actually posted the first lesson (an intro to me and the class) late last night, because I had a REALLY early meeting before work this morning. But even before then, lots of the class participants had signed on and introduced themselves. This is great, because one of the challenges of online classes is that one often gets lots of "lurkers" (who just read all the lessons but don't actively take part). This isn't a bad thing, necessarily--I've taken a few online classes myself [which is actually how I got sucked into giving this one, if fact], and sometimes I just don't have time to be an active participant.

But it is great that most of the folks taking the class are already excited and ready to jump in and get going.

No pressure :-)

I also found out from one of the organizers from www.lowcountryrwa.com where the course is given that my class has a higher enrollment than any they've given in quite a while. Wow. How cool is that?

So for the moment, I am cautiously optimistic about the way the class is shaping up--although also mildly freaked out by how much time it is already taken up, and that's BEFORE we get to the assignments I'll have to respond to. Wait, isn't this why I got out of regular teaching?

I'll keep ya posted. Wish me luck.

Teacher Deb