Learning for adults

I started teaching a professors IT class every Monday and while I've only done three classes they are hilarious enough to be discussed at length. I was very nervous to start teaching because by now I know all the professors really well and it's weird to change dynamics and be a teacher instead of someone they laugh at. Our first class went really well, I introduced the parts of the computer and explained what they all did, how to turn a computer on, and the mouse and then I had them draw the flag of Burkina Faso in Paint. An activity probably every single IT volunteer has done at least once and one that I did with all my little middle schoolers. Getting them used to the mouse, moving it around, clicking and dragging and all the good stuff. So, they spent a good hour the first time, maybe a little more than an hour trying to draw the map and it was like someone flipped a switch and suddenly they were all in high school again. They were joking and making fun of each other's drawings and just being generally hilarous and adorable, enjoying playing on a computer. At the end of class they all thanked me and said it was really fun but that star is hard and they are going to go home and practice drawing it by hand. Seriously.

Also, turns out they are very serious about this class, they all brought notebooks and took notes, and then apologized for being late or missing it. It's fantastic, they are all very interested in exploiting me while I am here and I'm all for that.

First class, smashing success. Second class rolls around and they all get in there and immediately turn the computers on, open up Paint and start drawing the map again. I'm so surprised they remembered how to find Paint much less turn the comptuers on that I'm all for them practicing again. I settle in and help them a little waiting for them to get bored with it so we can move on. They continue agonizing over that star, and then two hours later I say, 'alright....we good?' I'm so bored right now... I've been watching you try and perfect this flag and that star for two hours and I could kill you all. Maybe next time we could move on to the keyboard or something? Because while you are all still adorable, I"m bored out of my mind. But they loved it, so can't complain right?

Monday. they all got there and sat down at the computers and a few started up Paint again and I was like 'oh god, please no...Hey guys can we do something else today? Like maybe the keyboard?'
They were on board with that so I taught the keyboard and the home row, which they all love because 'you always come back home' and then I had them do a typing game to practice typing with their fingers on the home row.
Holy cow was that the funniest thing that I have ever seen. They were so concentrated on that keyboard and doing it right and then they would celebrate if they passed and made me go by to see or they would complain if they failed and then try again. It's normal in middle schoolers but to see 30 year old teachers act like middle schoolers when they learn how to type was so adorable, I didn't mind watching them type jfjfjfkdkdkdkslsl for an hour and a half. They complained about it to, they were like oh man last week we were just drawing the flag and now this! My hands hurt, this is the real class huh? What we were doing before was just for babies. And I said, yup, you're big kids now, no more baby stuff for you.

I also told them to do finger exercises at home to warm up their fingers and then today when I saw them all I asked them how their fingers were doing and they all said they had being doing exercises and that they were sore.