A Teaching Handbook for Wiccans and Pagans Read Online Free PDF Page B

very good people skills? Do you have problems speaking in front of groups? Are you impatient? Do you get sensory overload when you have to deal with too many people at once?
    Is there a way you can work on any of these weak areas to improve them before you teach? Is there a chance that the act of teaching itself will improve them?
    Do You Have the Time and Energy to Teach Right Now?
    Teaching time commitments vary, but in general, if you are going through a big life change (marriage, divorce, having a child, going back to school, moving, transitioning jobs), this might not be a good time for you to begin teaching. These life events require energy, time, and emotional resources. If you have a family with young children, elderly parents to care for, or a job that takes up a lot of your time, you might want to wait as well. Some chronic illnesses make it difficult to teach, while others require that you take very good care of yourself so you’ll have the energy to teach. Carefully weigh your desire to teach against your other obligations. Don’t forget to allow time for a social life, either. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the needs of your students that you forget to see to your own. You can’t—and shouldn’t—expect your students to meet all your social needs.
    Do You Have Support for Teaching
from Friends or the Community?
    Having the support of friends, mentors, or elders can make all the difference in the world to new, inexperienced teachers. It’s important to have people with whom you can vent, brainstorm solutions to problems, and get advice. Oberon Zell-Ravenheart commented, “It’s best by far if you have had really great teachers you admire, as they can serve as your inspirations and models.”
    If you’re teaching a tradition, you might be able to rely on the elders in your tradition, or the people who taught you. You might even have been taught how to teach within your tradition. If not, you might wish to find mentors outside of your tradition, either in person or online. Even if you can’t find people to learn teaching from directly, there’s a lot to be learned about teaching by simply hanging out with teachers. As T. Thorn Coyle points out:
    I wasn’t taught much about this in any formal sense, though student teaching in Reclaiming was helpful, as was my experience teaching at Witch Camps, which made it possible to watch various teachers and experience success and failure going hand in hand. Mostly, though, I learned by osmosis, just by being around teachers. Luckily, I learn pretty well this way, though I’ve certainly had to struggle at times to fill in the gaps.
    It’s also helpful to have the support of your local Pagan community. Members of the community can refer students to you, get the word out about your classes, and sometimes provide advice or feedback. They can also give you a window into how the community perceives you as a teacher.
    What Concerns Do You Have, and
How Can You Get Them Addressed?
    What are you most afraid of or worried about? It’s good to take some time and really think about what scares you most about teaching. It’s possible that whatever it is isn’t likely to happen or could be avoided. What can you do before you start teaching to minimize the chances of those things happening?
    What Does It Take to
Be a Pagan Teacher ?
    When I was doing the interviews for this book, I tailored my questions to each interviewee, based on his or her areas of expertise, but I asked all of them what qualities they thought a Pagan teacher needs to have. I got a lot of different answers to that question, but despite the variety of responses, several common themes bubbled up across most or all of the interviews. All of these qualities are very helpful—even essential—for Pagan teachers.
    Deep Knowledge ofand Love for Your Tradition or Path
    Perhaps the most often mentioned trait of a good Pagan teacher in my