As a teacher, I’m used to sharing things I now with kids. I’m even pretty comfortable sharing with other teachers and coaches.
I’m less comfortable sharing things I don’t know.
The past few months I’ve learned to do a few new things—things I didn’t previously know how to do at all. And now, a few months in, I really recommend learning something new for every teacher.
I started with macrame. I was shocked at how quickly I learned to make the simpler designs just like I saw on Etsy selling for $50, $60, even $100. When I tried some more complicated patterns, I had to work a lot harder - I spent more time undoing stitches than doing them correctly, but I persisted. I wound up with wonky versions (like on the TV show Nailed It) but it was fun anyway and really for the first time in my life I enjoyed an activity purely for the process and not the product.
Even with writing, I can’t help but hear that little voice in my head second guessing, and wondering what readers will think. But with macrame - I’m totally in the “zone,” in the moment, not thinking about anything but tying knots and counting stitches. It’s lovely.
The next project was friendship bracelets. While my kids and husband played in the ocean in Maine, I spent our vacation lounging under an umbrella, making a zillion friendship bracelets. You should have seen my first few. They were just a mess of string with no discernible pattern. But unlike the macrame which got worse as I progressed to more complicated patterns, the bracelets got better and better. I can make wide woven bracelets now! I made them for all my family members, friends, I’m still going. I have no idea what I’ll do with them all, but I don’t really care.
Lastly, I started making beaded bracelets. These are my favorites. When I was about 10-12 years old I loved making beaded bracelets and could even do daisy chains. I picked up a needle and thread for the first time in 30ish years and it all came back to me! I dug around in my basement and I even found my old tackle box with the very same beads and unfinished projects from the 1980’s, preserved like a time capsule! Unlike the other two projects I started with something I remembered and got better at it. I can do daisy chains still, but after watching a few YouTube tutorials (which are awesome, by the way) now I can do elaborate designs I didn’t know how to do before.
All this is to say, go find something new to learn. I promise you it will make you a better teacher of all things. When you put yourself in the position of learner, it helps you appreciate how important these things are: process (not product), choice (not assignments), and time to get better (not being rushed).