9. Describe an experience when you taught someone to do a new thing
You should say:
What you taught them to do
whom you taught
How you taught them
How you felt about it
Some years ago I taught my younger brother to tie shoelaces, but I still vividly remember it like it was yesterday because it was one of the most painstaking tasks in my life.
At first, I thought it would be a piece of cake. You see, it takes no more than 2 seconds to do it. You do it automatically without thinking about it. I mean it’s as Natural as breathing. So I thought I would show it once or perhaps twice and it would be done, but no such luck.
And, actually, that was my biggest mistake. First, I tried to teach him this task when we were rushing out the door! Of course, my brother couldn’t repeat after me. In the end, I felt nothing but frustration. And he couldn’t understand why I was so angry.
My mom told me that this process could take up to a month of consistency and dedication from both the teacher and child and a lot of patience.
I understand that, first of all, I myself had to learn how to teach somebody. So, I watched a number of video tutorials which showed different ways to teach a child to tie shoelaces.
Who’d have thought that this seemingly simple action consists of so many stages. After that, we started practicing 5 minutes everyday and I broke down this complicated task into smaller steps Not to overwhelm the child.
At first, I practiced with his shoes off. I used laced of 2 different colours to help him differentiate One Lace from other.
we started from learning to make a starting knot. I showed him how to cross the left end over the right end of the lace, wrap one and around the other, pull both ends to complete the knot.
When he finally succeeded, we moved on to a more complicated task. I started teaching him to make both ends into ‘loops’ that look like bunny ears, then cross the two loops over each other, wrap the right loop another the left one, grab hold of both loops and pull the knot tight.
Everyday we took one small step forward. Everything was OK when we did it together, but when I asked him to do it himself, it was terrible.
It was as if he had never practiced anything before. Several times I was on the verge of losing my temper.
But I didn’t give up. It was a challenge for me. I wanted to see what I was capable of as a teacher. When it all was over and he managed to tie his first shoelaces single-handedly, I had a sense of satisfaction and relief.