What Does It Take To Become A Good Instructor?
What kind of answer would you get from a group of ten youths? ten teens? ten adults?
If anybody has a sure-fire answer, would teaching become a career that everyone would want to be?
This career change took me awhile to complete. And it started without my obtaining my Bachelor's Degree from college. I received my Associate of Arts Degree in Business from East Los Angeles College located in the city of Monterey Park, California. However, I still had four more classes to take in order to complete the Microcomputer Application curriculum.
Was I reaching for something, a goal, that was not obtainable? Did I have what it takes to become an instructor and start a new career. How was it going to affect my home life? a new job, no vacation time for another year, a new way of living? At the retail level, I had vacation time coming. I had a good crew that respected me and was working with me, not for me. And finally, I was slowly going up the ladder of success in the retail business.
As an Operation Manager, the next step would be the Store Manager position. Sure I had six months of Store Manager experience under my belt. The Norwalk store was mine when the company closed it down. The little store was caught in the middle of a merger. The company was undecided about closing the store down, or keep it open for the neighborhood. I was proud of running that little store. As the new year rolled around, I had the store ready for inventory. Then the news came. The district manager said I did a good job getting the store ready for inventory. But the store was closing down and the merchandise will be distribute to the other stores in the district. 'Get it ready for transfer' was all he said.
The Receiving Clerk at the South Gate store was nervous about the change in management. She thought she was losing her job to another person. That other person was my Receiving Clerk at the Norwalk store. The South Gate clerk asked when I was making the change in the Receiving Department. As the Operation Manager, the Receiving Department was under my direction.
I asked her if she was doing anything wrong that would cause me to demote her.
She said no but she thought that I would want to replace her with 'my own' clerk.
"Do I know anything about you, or the way you do your job?" "No," she answered. "Have you been properly trained in the position of Receiving Clerk?" Again she replied, "No." "Then let me give you the opportunity to learn and be trained properly. I will train you for three months. And if you cannot do the job properly, then I will have someone who can do the job correctly. Is it a deal?"
She replied, "Yes!"
The Training Began. Not Knowing It, The Instructor Was Fine Tuning His Skills Before He Changed His Career. Within The Year, Events Would Lead To A New Beginning,