Teaching Means Improvisation

Of all the skills required to be a great teacher, this one is my favorite.

I have always been interested in the relationship between creation, perception, and delivery. When forming a sentence, the end of the sentence is not thought out, it just comes along seamlessly, one word at a time. This is because we have a high understanding of the skill required (talking) and of the point which is to be made via the skill (the meaning of our sentence). The brain allows us to create and perceive the words, structure, and meaning of a sentence, as well as support a point of view, simultaneously. This is the simplest form of improvisation. It occurs so naturally, subconsciously in fact, that we do not even perceive we are improvising until something new is introduced to the creativity/perception/organization/delivery relationship: a subject which is not easily processed by our brain due to lack of functional practice.

Ever talk to someone (remember, speaking is improvising) and speak fluidly until you try to express deep emotion? It becomes hard to do and we usually get hung up on our words, failing to organize a functional sentence, or we organize a sentence with great effort that may not deliver the exact meaning we want or feel. This is because we are attempting to process emotions that are not regularly processed as words in a fluidly constructed sentence. I other words, we do not have a complete intuitive and technical understanding of what we are attempting to deliver as well constructed thoughts. There is a break down within the creativity/perception/organization/delivery relationship. The better functional understanding we have of our surroundings, emotions, structural material (to be delivered) and delivery process, the better we will be able to process and apply the information as we "create" it or remember it on the spot.

As a public speaking competitor, I was always obsessed with the ability to improvise. Improvisation was always a necessary part of my competition arsenal because it added spark and life into my presentations. It let the judges know I wasn't a robot reciting a script in my head, but that I had talent and could deliver a great speech. It also served me well in the case that I saw my competition use a speaking technique I liked or if I had a new idea just moments before going before the judges. After a while, if I felt my judges were not emotionally invested in my performance, I would begin improvising to change or improve the speech as I spoke. Eventually, I started practicing giving speeches with no prepperation at all. I was obsessed with determining how well I could create ideas in my head that I understood, structure a sentence, and deliver it, all the while building on to a bigger structure: that of the fully formed and functionally structured speech. This skill has served me well. As early on as age eleven, I was giving speeches and science presentations. I improvised every chance I had. Like any skill, you only get better with practice and that practice must be done in a variety of settings under multiple conditions.

When I was fifteen, I began teaching high school science classes at a private co-op. Many of my students were older than I was. Ever since that first class, I have realised how important this skill is. Here's why.

(1) It adds life to your class and reassures the students that you aren't reading from a script. The last thing you want is a lifeless teacher who never chases rabbit trails or adds spice to the class by changing the routine. I guess when you hear "Bueller....? Bueller....? Anyone....? Anyone....?" you know it's too late.

(2) Possibly most important of all, classes don't always go your way. Heck, what ever does ALWAYS go your way? Nothing, that's what. When a problem occurs it's best if you don't fight it, but roll with it and find a way to not only keep teaching, but use the problem to your advantage and make your class/speech/presentation the better for it. I have seen countless (I'm not talking 50 or 60, but thousands) classes or speeches hit a problem and stop in its tracks. Teachers freak out and have no clue what to do. If you ever want to see how people usually fail to improvise, watch a state level public speaking competition. I have always believed in watching my competition, which is something I learned from combat sports. When you watch fifty speeches in a day, you will see at least fifty things go wrong. At least...

This occurs for the same reason vacations are postponed, we get sick before important events, microphones fail, flights get delayed, and fish don't bite. It all seems so shocking; "How could this go wrong?" or "Why does this have to happen now?". But it's actually quite simple: you can't control time and space, period. Things happen all the time without our permission, scheduling, or approval. We only notice it when we make plans in such a manner that we begin to think we can actually, through our plans and schedules, control the chaotic environment around us. There's a lot more than just us in the mix. What happens in life is a result of a complex web consisting of God, me, you, the other 6,000,000,000 people on the planet, the 3,699,653,106,579,668 pathogen species that exist along side us and infect us every day, the weather, the geology of the planet, the spin of the Earth, the sun and moon, the tides, gravity, the 30,000,000 animal species on the planet, the climate, modern technology, the coriolis effect, the different biomes that cover our planet, the second law of thermo dynamics, and some good old fashioned random chance to name a few. Who are we to think we can have perfect, uninterupted plans? Better learn to improvise.

The first step to mastering improvisation is simple: do your homework and know your material better than anyone. You could be the best improvisation artist in the world, but if I asked you to give me, without any preperation, a five minute speach on the practical application of the "Wigner Distribution" within Quantum mathematics, something tells me you won't be able to do it. You won't be able to do it because you have no idea what I'm talking about (if you are reading this Joel, discard that last comment..). Our minds cannot create new information. Our minds can only connect pieces of information, combine pieces of information, change existing information, or rearange the way in which information is processed. Improvisation is like living in a big city, like New York. The better you know the city, the more ways you can get around in it. The better you know your subject material, the more ways you can deliver info on it or make connections with it to other information stores within the mind (comparrisons and examples are born from this).

Another important thing to do is to intentionally put yourself in demanding teaching/speaking/presentation positions and intentionally go in unprepared. It forces you to improvise, to react and create from the stores of knowledge in your head and from impulses from the environment around you. When I was working as a substitute teacher, I would walk into a class (all grades but mostly high schools) and teach actual lessons the entire day on whatever subject they were studying, without preparation. I would try something a little bit different each class period, experimenting to see what teaching methods worked best. This allowed me to improvise better and better each time, both in teaching the lesson and in dealing with the students. I consider that year the time when I really learned how to adapt on the spot. When someone causes trouble or something goes wrong in your class or program, don't panic, but thrive on it. Love the moments when you are challenged to adapt. I would often ask what other teachers thought the hardest classes were and who the worst students were, then I would specifically ask to sub for those classes. I did this to test my skills and improve. When you think about it, adaptation has always been the most crucial quality to the survival of any living organism. It's so important that it's even listed as one of only six current qualifications for life. It's by far one of the most important qualifications to be a teacher.