Last weekend I taught formally for the first ever time. I put on course at the request of a land-owner for a group of 17 kids from a Manchester School aged around 12-13 years old and I thought I would share my experience with you kind folk.
I've been asked to teach a few times before, however up until now I've shy'd away from teaching-formally as I've always had a nervous feeling that I either lack the knowledge to be percieved as an 'expert' or didn't think I had the confidence to teach to a group. The course I was asked to provide was a 1 day Survival course, going over the survival-priorities in depth & with demos, covering many things, like utilising kit & rubbish, having a go at many different fire lighting techniques & much more. Turns out I did pretty dam well and im chuffed with myself.
Admittedly the night before the course I was really kacking it!... mostly due to weather; my first ever course, with young kids and it was forecast heavy-rain all day with 22mph winds Believe me I wasn't feeling comfortable.. I was lay there in the woods on my own thinking of all the things that could go wrong due to weather & kit, not good when your trying to drift off to sleep.
I had worked hard a couple of days before gathering & preparing materials (mostly making lots of firebows and fire gear etc.), I also had a 22ft parachute of mine to setup that I knew definitely wasn't waterproof! :Wow: I had a last minute idea of setting up the land-owner's parachute over the top of mine, making a double-layered parachute teepe, thank god I had that idea as neither one of the parachutes were waterproof on their own but the two together did the job and created a waterproof classroom in heavy-rain! The layers & overcast day made it a little dark inside so I lit it up thanks to a friend's petrol lattern, I also lifted one side of the teepe up slightly to let more light in. The day went really well; I was well prepared, everything went smoothly & everybody was really happy with what they learnt. There was no wind in the valley so that was a relief and the shear enthusiam of all the kids just made the rain disappear from mind. I found it easier to speak and teach to the group than I thought I would. Demo's went well and there was plenty of kit for kids to play with and try.
The absolulte highlight of my day had to be the firebow session; I feel proud of myself and the kids for this one... from start to finish I sucessfully taught the kids to make fire by friction with the bow-drill in the rain!! None of them had ever tried before and there they were mastering the art of fire by friction in the rain, we weren't under the parachute for any of this session! I would say about 14-15 out of the 17 kids made fire by friction in the rain. With it having rained for two days the humidity in the air was terrible too, you know when you can tell as you cotton-wool soaks it out of the air or ground, so I thought this was a real achievement, felt so proud of them. So in conclusion I think I've got over my nerves, enjoyed it and will certainly teach again.
I've been asked to teach a few times before, however up until now I've shy'd away from teaching-formally as I've always had a nervous feeling that I either lack the knowledge to be percieved as an 'expert' or didn't think I had the confidence to teach to a group. The course I was asked to provide was a 1 day Survival course, going over the survival-priorities in depth & with demos, covering many things, like utilising kit & rubbish, having a go at many different fire lighting techniques & much more. Turns out I did pretty dam well and im chuffed with myself.
Admittedly the night before the course I was really kacking it!... mostly due to weather; my first ever course, with young kids and it was forecast heavy-rain all day with 22mph winds
Believe me I wasn't feeling comfortable.. I was lay there in the woods on my own thinking of all the things that could go wrong due to weather & kit, not good when your trying to drift off to sleep.I had worked hard a couple of days before gathering & preparing materials (mostly making lots of firebows and fire gear etc.), I also had a 22ft parachute of mine to setup that I knew definitely wasn't waterproof! :Wow: I had a last minute idea of setting up the land-owner's parachute over the top of mine, making a double-layered parachute teepe, thank god I had that idea as neither one of the parachutes were waterproof on their own but the two together did the job and created a waterproof classroom in heavy-rain! The layers & overcast day made it a little dark inside so I lit it up thanks to a friend's petrol lattern, I also lifted one side of the teepe up slightly to let more light in. The day went really well; I was well prepared, everything went smoothly & everybody was really happy with what they learnt. There was no wind in the valley so that was a relief and the shear enthusiam of all the kids just made the rain disappear from mind. I found it easier to speak and teach to the group than I thought I would. Demo's went well and there was plenty of kit for kids to play with and try.
The absolulte highlight of my day had to be the firebow session; I feel proud of myself and the kids for this one... from start to finish I sucessfully taught the kids to make fire by friction with the bow-drill in the rain!! None of them had ever tried before and there they were mastering the art of fire by friction in the rain, we weren't under the parachute for any of this session! I would say about 14-15 out of the 17 kids made fire by friction in the rain. With it having rained for two days the humidity in the air was terrible too, you know when you can tell as you cotton-wool soaks it out of the air or ground, so I thought this was a real achievement, felt so proud of them. So in conclusion I think I've got over my nerves, enjoyed it and will certainly teach again.
