For so many people, the best way to learn is to teach, which is why I'm always so surprised at the lack of teaching opportunities most universities offer to undergraduates. The most teaching the average college student will do is a short class presentation or a tutoring job on the side.
Tufts, however, seems to be wise to the whole "teaching is learning" idea. Our university offers two excellent opportunities to teach our peers on campus - Explorations and Perspectives courses.
I had the incredible opportunity to teach an Explorations course in the Ex-College last semester, and there are few experiences that have taught me so much.
A friend and I co-taught a course called "Schooled by the Media: Representation and Education in 20th Century Fiction." As an English major who is passionate about education, I designed this class to be a marriage of my two favorite things.
We teamed up with an amazing professor, who served as the advisor for our students, and the three of us created a low-key, discussion-based classroom.
Each week, students would complete an assigned reading or viewing (our assignments ranged from Dahl's "Matilda" to "My So-Called Life" to Shaw's "Pygmalion), and we would discuss the educational implications and literary qualities of the work in class. The material was so much fun to teach, mostly because I was so interested in it myself.
Going into it, I thought teaching this class would be a great way to improve my classroom skills (I plan to go into education) and share what I'd learned in my three years at Tufts.
Being an Explorations instructor turned out to be more learning than teaching. Creating the syllabus alone forced me to think about how to best approach our topic. Planning and executing each class discussion really helped me to solidify my ideas about education and about literature.
Our students were by far the best part of the class. As a senior teaching freshmen, I first envisioned myself as a sort of benevolent older sister figure, generously bestowing my wisdom upon the eager young'uns.
My first impression turned out to be very wrong: I was less of a leader and more of a participant.
My students often swiftly shot down the brilliant ideas I had planned to impart to them. Though freshmen, they were sharp, insightful and hilarious. We laughed all the time.
All of these interactions taught me how to be a better leader, but also showed me when it's best to be a follower.
As upperclassmen, you have a chance, not only to help guide a rowdy bunch of bewildered freshmen through their first college semester, but to help yourself grow as an educator, a leader, and a human being.
I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful an experience teaching an Explorations class was. There's not a better opportunity out there, so get those applications in!
Sarah Joslyn is a senior majoring in English.
