Teaching does come with its fair share of challenges. Sometimes I feel like I am tap dancing when teaching adults. Most adults listen attentively when they are paying for classes, so I have to think really fast. Questions are almost always higher level.
Of course, there are a few students in my classes who occasionally text or check football scores while I am teaching. I am not surprised that people can keep up with more than one thing at a time, because even at my age, I find myself doing the same thing. Unless they are disturbing others in the group, I ignore them and treat them as, yes, adults.
Maybe our brains are actually designed to have a bunch of ideas being processed simultaneously, and we are just now stretching our minds to take on more information and deal with it effectively. Who knows? Maybe the wiring of our brains is capable of way more than we are giving it to do.
Recently, a couple of my adult students thought I came on way too strong with something that I said. I am wounded. I am hurt. It is hard to take. Yet, with teaching, there is always some criticism. I am such a softy that I always aim to please. If my body could physically bend over backwards, it would.
There are some teachers that can get by with more than others. One of our fifth grade male teachers used to throw erasers at his students. The parents and students loved him. If I had done the same thing, I would have been thrown to the wolves. It is interesting that some personalities get by with more than others.
Life is never easy, and if you take risks, you are, every now and then, going to feel the pain. Yet, the more I do, the more I want to do. I feel that life is coming at me from so many directions, and I don't want to miss a moment.