Since I quit my job in April 2009, I had been working on a a few projects as an entrepreneur. Although I still haven’t been able to crack that open opportunity that I have been trying to exploit, I am still going to go on and capture it until I succeed.
Since I had no office place to work at, and I couldn’t afford one as well… I was using the library at SZABIST (my university) as a business incubator to carry on with my work processes. To cut the long story short, I was lucky to be present at the university as aspiring new entrepreneur, when I got the chance of teaching the “Entrepreneurship Course” to the BBA students.
To be very honest, I was one of the weakest speakers in my class and when I got this opportunity, for a second I was fearing the consequences that could have happened. With my heart beating at a 4x faster rate, I kept on working on my first lecture for a week. I always intended to teach, and had also been teaching Maths after I did my O’levels when I first started a Maths tuition center named “Mathemagics” at my home with one of my ex-teachers. But that was an entirely different experience.
To teach at a university level, was something that I thought of doing a few years down the line. But as they say that, opportunity knocks the door very few times in a lifetime, so I thought of going ahead with it. It was the summer semester, and I was all prepared for my first lecture when I reached in the classroom well before time. Students, as usual, came in late … and some of them had this surprised look on their faces as they couldn’t realize I came in to teach them. Either it was the name, or it was the fact that I wasn’t an old chap… but it was funny as some of them confirmed it from me more than twice whether I am the teacher for Entrepreneurship. Extremely nervous in my first class, I started off the lecture … and I was shocked that I was moving ahead so quickly with my ‘power point’ slides, that I almost completed my 3 hour lecture in 1 hour. Damn! I was nervous … couldn’t help it! It was hilarious … oh well.. I had some substitute audio visual material.. and I put up a half an hour informative speech by “Steve Jobs” at Stanford. Its one of my favorite speeches… it motivates me every time I watch it. I cooled myself down while the video was playing for the next thirty minutes. And as soon as the video got over.. I had a small interactive session and gave a break! The break actually helped me as I planned and prepared myself. It also helped me organize my thoughts rather than rushing with the chapter. After that… there was no looking back. And now.. I believe that I have finally overcome the weakness of public speaking.
I got an evaluation of about 96% in the summers which is one of the highest at college. I would like to thank the BBA Coordinator at that point in time who kept the trust in me and gave me a further of two courses to teach in the fall semester 2009. I have taught about 3 classes by now which makes up to (26+23+28) 77 students in all. I tried be a different teacher altogether, tried to be more practical than bookish and kept more a friendly attitude. I don’t know how the students really felt… and if they learnt anything at all.
A lot of students were nice and understanding. Plus… they were serious about taking the course. Some were just trying to get off with an A grade because they thought I was a “thand” teacher. The rest had such a careless attitude… that my patience was being tested.. which finally ended up in me bursting with anger in the last class. The problem is.. that a lot of people don’t realize the issues the opposite person might have been going through.. and they just care about themselves only. A lot of students tried to act quite smart when they tried to trick me with various … ‘stupid questions’ to be honest, which of course made no sense. I don’t know where they get this much of over smartness… its going to effect them in the long run if they don’t correct it right now.
I plan to take a break with teaching for some time because I have other areas to concentrate on. But it was a great experience as I also went on to take some extra classes of Marketing Principles for a colleague in Iqra University. Apart from this I was honored to be called in as a guest speaker at various places. All in all .. it was great knowing a lot of students, and it was a pleasure teaching them.
Umm, Since i am one of the 77 pupil you taught i think i would be in a better position to tell how WELL you did in teaching is
Yes, I totally agree that you were the THAND teacher but surely that didnt make you less of a teacher . I think its not neccessary to tell you and it would be like hundreds of cmments that you get which tell you that “You were a great teacher ” but honestly You were one of the very best teachers who have taught us by now and there was somtheing about your course which brought us to class everytime,im sure many times you would have been mad at me for not taking your class but you wont imagine how guilty we would feel ,if we would miss your class.
I hope you have a great life ahead but yeahnext time be a bit strict sir
Nicely put sir…I had a really good experience with you as a teacher; got a lot of information that hardly gets into my head when someone tries to forcefully! I hope you continue to teach us and other students and spread the knowlege of how it feels when someone actually starts up his own work and stands on his/her own feet! and offcourse the practical experience of starting up initially ….
It was totally fun and a great experience to have you as our teacher…you made the best come out of us and were actually able to make some of us realize what we are good at:)…thank you sir and Good Luck:)
I won’t comment on the SZABIST bit but love the blog’s look and the background
@ Sahar: Thanks for your comments Sahar. It is an encouragement. And yes, to be honest, I have been mad at you and a lot of other students as well but the whole point of being THAND was to let the creativity flow. I just tried to pool in everyone with simplistic creativity that at least made everyone think on the basic lines that we never get the time to think.
I know I should have been stricter… but I believe that it kills the objective of nurturing creativity. But its great to have an amazing feedback … and I surely will try to incorporate it if I teach the next time.
@ Moiz: Thanks a lot. You have been one of my favorite students because of the ambition and seriousness to learn, and actually trying to implement the idea rather than going about and taking alternatives ..
@ Madiha G: Your comment is definitely an encouragement. And yes … I loved the cards that you and Arooma made .. one of the few best implementations of the project. You are most welcome …
@ Omar: Haha.. thank you Omar… I am about to change the outlook of my blog .. just a bit bored with it now …
Tell me don’t you think yourself that you are a ‘Thand’ teacher? May be there’s a better word . . . And as far as an A grade is concerned many people make your name synonymous with this grade but this is not what i perceived in the first class . . . At times one just desperately needs to graduate and grades don’t matter much then.
Maybe there is a difference between being Thand and trying to instill creativity… Thanks for your comments Hiba!
wow i am so glad you weren’t my teacher. I ain’t one of the best teachers around as it is a huge task. I would rather let people understand stuff better by discussing it with them and checking out their perception of how things are.