How to teach a class

 Teaching is a huge part of the military that many people don’t think about when they first join. Everyone will teach a class at some point in their career and many soldiers, such as myself, teach classes on a weekly basis so it’s incredibly important that you know how to prepare a class. I’m just going to cover how to prepare a class and not how to teach that class, because If honestly this would be a seriously long paper if I talked about how to teach. That’s a topic that talks an entire book to cover in order to do it just, so I’m not going to try and cover it in a single paper.

If you don’t know how to prepare a class, the easiest way to begin is by just following the Army’s 8 step training model. It doesn’t apply to every type of class and if you’re an experienced teacher you can definitely skip a few steps, but it’s still a good guide to go by. The first step to preparing for a class is to plan it out. Determine what your expectations are for the class and what you want people to get out of it. Then determine what the best way to reach that goal is. Determine what format your class needs to take. Will it be in the classroom or out in the field. Do you need to make a PowerPoint or should the class be more interactive. Many people like to learn through the hands-on approach so can you create some sort of practical exercise.

If your class involves multiple instructors, then the next step is to train the trainer. Ensuring that each assistant instructor knows the information they will be teaching to such a degree that they can confidently teach it. Depending on how knowledgeable your instructors are this can take a long time or just a few seconds. The next step is reconning to the site. This is important if you are doing a practical exercise because you need to ensure that the site can accommodate your plans. The best option is to recon the site in person, but I have used Google Earth in a pinch.

Next step is to issue the order for the training. Basically, just inform everyone where to be, what time, what uniform to be in, and what equipment to bring. After that is the rehearsal stage. If you’re teaching the class, then just go over what you are going to say and make note of how long it takes if the lecture is on a time crunch. If there are other instructors just verify that their class is prepare. Best case scenario you they can give you the class before they teach everyone else so that you know exactly what they are going to do. The next step after that is to give the class, then evaluate the training, and then retrain. This whole process can be don’t over the course of months or in just a matter of second, and the more you practice it the easier it gets.