Is this work for me? · 8 min read
Is teaching right for me? Teach one fifteen-minute lesson and find out
Plan and teach a fifteen-minute lesson with a clear goal and a check for understanding. Learn whether explaining, adjusting and repeating suits you.
The short answer
Teaching suits people who enjoy explaining the same idea in several ways, notice quickly when someone is lost, and can stay patient through repetition and interruption. A good first test is a fifteen-minute micro-lesson: choose one small skill, plan how you will check that a learner has it, teach it to a volunteer, and change your approach when they get stuck. Then volunteer with real learners before committing to a qualification.
On this page 8 sections
What a lesson really involves
Explaining something you know is the visible part. Most of the craft sits around it: deciding exactly what the learner should be able to do afterwards, finding out what they already know, noticing confusion before they say it, and checking at the end whether they can actually do the thing.
Plan the micro-lesson
Choose a small skill you know well that your volunteer does not: tying a bowline knot, reading a bus timetable in a new city, calculating a tip, making a pivot table, a chord on a guitar. Write a one-sentence objective that names something observable.
| Too vague | Teachable |
|---|---|
| Understand pivot tables | Build a pivot table that totals sales by month from a given sheet |
| Learn about knots | Tie a bowline that holds when pulled, without looking at instructions |
| Know how tips work | Work out a 15 percent tip on three bills without a calculator |
Carnegie Mellon's teaching centre recommends objectives that describe what students will be able to do, using action verbs. The same principle works for a fifteen-minute lesson in your kitchen.
A fifteen-minute shape
- Two minutes: ask what they already know or have tried.
- Four minutes: show it once, slowly, saying what you are doing.
- Five minutes: they do it while you watch and say as little as possible.
- Two minutes: they do it again without help.
- Two minutes: ask what was confusing and what you could have explained better.
Watch for the moments that matter
The informative moment is when your first explanation does not land. Did you repeat it louder, or find a different way? Did you take over the task, or let them struggle productively? Did you enjoy that moment or dread it? Teachers spend a large part of every day in exactly that situation.
What one lesson cannot tell you
A cooperative adult volunteer is very different from thirty teenagers on a Friday afternoon. If the micro-lesson went well, the next test is a few sessions with real learners in the age group you are considering, through tutoring or volunteering. Ask to observe a full school day if you can; the time outside lessons is part of the job.
A worked micro-lesson (illustrative)
Objective: the learner can work out a 15 percent tip on three different bills without a calculator.
- Ask: how do you usually work out a tip? (They say they use their phone.)
- Show: 10 percent is moving the decimal one place; 5 percent is half of that; add them. On a 40 bill, 4 plus 2 makes 6.
- Practise: they try a 60 bill and a 24 bill while you watch silently.
- Check: they do a 38 bill on their own. (3.80 plus 1.90 makes 5.70.)
- Reflect: they say the halving step was confusing at first; next time you would show it with coins.
Notice the check at the end. Without it, you would not know whether the lesson worked, only whether it felt good.
Questions to ask teachers
- How many hours a week do you work outside lessons, and on what?
- What helped you most with behaviour in your first year?
- What do you wish your training had prepared you for?
Questions people ask
- How do I try teaching before training as a teacher?
- Tutor, coach a youth team, volunteer in a classroom or after-school programme, or teach adults in a community setting. Many schools and organisations require background checks for work with children, so allow time for that.
- Do I need a licence to teach?
- Public school teaching usually needs a licence, certificate or recognised qualification, and the rules vary by country and by U.S. state. Private, adult and online teaching often have different requirements. Check with the relevant education authority.
- What do teachers find hardest?
- Common answers include workload outside class hours, behaviour management, and administrative demands. Ask working teachers directly; their answers will vary by school and age group.
- Can I teach without working in a school?
- Yes. Corporate training, instructional design, museum education, tutoring, coaching and adult education all use teaching skills.
Exercises are practice, not evidence of career fit or a qualification. How to read our guides and report a correction.
Sources
- High School Teachers (Occupational Outlook Handbook) · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Articulate your learning objectives · Carnegie Mellon University Eberly Center
How this page is written
Sources support the factual background, not a guarantee that an exercise predicts career fit. Fictional practice material is labelled. Dates record content updates; no independent expert review is implied. More about OffLadder.