This past weekend I took the League of American Bicyclists’ cycling instructor course. If I passed, I would be a League-certified instructor (LCI), and could teach Street Skills courses, etc.
The course isn’t so much intense because they test on how much you know, but they focused almost equally how well can you . . . teach.
I didn’t think much about the teaching bit, but it’s really fascinating and challenging. How to get the message, the key concepts across to different audiences. Teaching is hard. Especially for most of us, who don’t usually get to speak in front of a crowd or do formal presentations in our real life. The twelve of us in this course were mostly doing this out of a sense of contribution, volunteering to promote something we all carely deeply about: bicycling.
But anyways, I have a bit more respect for teachers, not just for the enlightenment but how its conveyed. It’s effective marketing, in an educational form!
I don’t know if I passed or not. One bloke in the class was taking it for the third time. The standards are awfully high . . .
Fishface 
I hope you made it C2. Good luck (or is it “Break-a-spoke” in bicyclese?)!
I’ve tutored and taught companies employees on various subjects. One thing is for sure, preparing to teach something is one sure way to make sure you REALLY know your subject matter (that is if you want to be able to field questions).
I have always had a lot of respect for teachers, being The-nerd-that-I-am. Always hated to gohome after school…
Cool gig too — once you’ve prepped the course, you’re all set except for correcting homework and tests (pawn that off on TA’s). You get summer off as well, unless you want to work summer school. Theoretically, this is great depending on what kind of students(weapons) you get, and how big an educational discount you get for bulletproof vests…
j.