How did you start to become a teacher?

[ongaku_oniko]

I personally might like to some part time teaching sometime in the future, maybe even near future.

I was wondering, how did you guys first start teaching? WHat made you decide you were going to teach? What credentials did you get before you started teaching? How did you find students who were willing to learn from you?

Thanks

[m1469]

Well, some part of it was innate for me.  I have a sister who is a bit more than a year younger than me, and I started helping out with her (feeding her bottle, etc.) when I was a little more than 2 years old (so my mom tells me).  And, I remember I would work on flash cards with her to help her learn her alphabet to prepare for kindergarten, when we were really young.  I started actually babysitting when I was 11, and while that's not necessarily teaching, there are inevitably influential moments and experiences with that, too.  But then, over the years, I started volunteering and working in all sorts of ways that put me in the position of "teacher" to the kids I was with, even if not in formal ways of calling myself a teacher.  I've been camp counselors for tons of things, basketball coach, nanny, a teacher's assisstant in an actual classroom, etc., etc..  My first official attempts to give actual piano lessons were to the first family I nannied for, and I was actually a pretty horrible teacher for that, because I didn't understand why they couldn't just play.

I mentioned this somewhere else recently, too, but I decided I wanted to be a teacher when I was 10 -- but, it's not exactly as though I knew what I was deciding.  It was more a recognition and awareness within myself that it seemed like a honorable type of life (that is what I thought at the time).  I have a BA degree in piano and that is good in terms of having a piece of paper that people trust, but I consider my real credentials to be love for working with people, my love for learning, and my love for music.  Second would be my huge amount of experience in working with people and kids in all sorts of circumstances, as well as the ability to play and sing, and the specific skills that I have learned through my studies.

Aside from the kids that I nannied being my first students, when I actually made a job change in my life (while I was in University), and decided to start teaching piano privately for work instead of what I was doing, I made up a flyer, which I placed in every cubby box at the children's care program I worked for at the time.  That's how I got my very first students, and I don't quite recall how, but it more or less started blooming from there.