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If You Could Teach a Class About Something What Would You Teach?
If for some reason you were asked to teach a class of high school or college students about any topic, what would you choose to teach?
To clarify, I guess I am thinking of this more of like a onetime thing where you just talk about stuff for half an hour or something. Also, what you teach does not necessarily have to be academic, it can be whatever kind of knowledge you would care to share.
Comments
Historical European martial arts, of course, with a focus on the German Kunst des Fechtens. That's pretty predictable, though, so I may as well provide a secondary answer.
... and after a good few minutes of thinking, I've got nothing. Swordfaggotry it is.
Pokemon.
K-pop.
Dutch language or debate.
Game Design or Film Production.
Magic: The Gathering?
I plan at some point to teach a class called something like "Understanding Fiction"
I would teach them about either One Piece or D&D. Or maybe "Moeshit Appreciation".
I want to teach precalculus, calculus, or music theory.
Sorry if that first post was pretty unclear about this, but does anyone have any thoughts about how you would choose which parts of those subjects to teach? I mean, I think it would be pretty tough to teach the entirety of say Dutch language, calculus, or Pokemon in 30 minutes, so it seems like you would have to make some decisions about how to narrow stuff down a bit.
I am far too happy to explain this in detail.
To begin with, I'd spend 2-3 minutes on a basic overview of the historical European martial arts and some of the myths I'm going to debunk. I'd probably have a short video as part of the introduction, which would do some of my work for me. The next few minutes would be about Kunst des Fechtens in particular, and what we know of its history. This would cover what we know about Johannes Liechtenauer, plus it would mention some of the more notable authors concerning his style.
At that stage, I've probably covered about 7-10 minutes. The next 5 or so would be spent on detailing the differences between sword types, while working in an explanation of what makes a sword work, as well as stuff about other weapons. Types of steel, blade angle, cross-section, points of balance -- all that kind of stuff. It would include which eras each type of weapon belonged to, as well as some of the more subtle differences between the same weapons in different eras. For instance, a 13th century longsword is a "greatsword" -- it has a thicker, lengthier blade than later longswords, which are more narrow and taper more heavily towards the point, all the better to thrust into the gaps of armour.
I'd try to keep that between 5-7 minutes, leaving the final stretch (or "act", if you like) free to discuss the nitty gritty of technique and principle. This is stuff like single-time combat, the Master Strikes, fuhlen ("feeling", kind of like if the Force was real but downscaled significantly) and binds. At this stage, I'm unlikely to have used the full half hour, so I'd take questions -- hopefully about five minutes of such.
Well, I'd structure my class around analysis of the inner workings of fiction. Examination of plot, characterization and the subtle and different ways you can characterize people differently across different mediums, as well how themes operate.
I don't know, there isn't anything I am good that that other people aren't better than me at.
If I had thirty minutes...
I'd just spend the entire time ranting about the TVXQ/JYJ/Toshinki/Don Ban Shin Ki NOT!break up.
But Really, a general outline would be something like:
The evolution of the 'pulp' series, starting with penny dreadfuls and stuff like Sherlock Holmes, moving into pulps and early comics, then moving into the airplane sci-fi/fantasy novels and their related media.
I'd probably go for something about game narrative. Not entirely sure how I'd structure it...I'll think about it.
I know, I'd have to study the topic but I'd talk about the evolution of animation!
Math.
How to tell stories.
...I think i missed the bit about this being a one-time half-hour thing.
Alex,
I am far too happy to explain this in detail.
Nah, this stuff interests me for some reason, so if you feel like doing it, going into detail is a plus in my book. I guess I like hearing about the different kinds of things people would want to talk about and how they might reflect their interests, perspectives, or whatever.
An extended course over three weeks on how to tell stories.
I'd also teach Batmanology
Can I host a seminar-like discussion about the media economics, digital distribution, piracy, and copyright?
Not that I know that much about it, but...
^^Would that be next door to my JJJournalism?
Magic.
What? You didn't say it had to be a real thing.
Yeap. In fact, we can even team and write a thesis and call it "World's Finest (Teachers)"
so like I just stumbled upon this thread by accident
and feel like pulling it from its grave
If I were in a class as the teacher i'd lecture about MMORPGs, most likely. (Though I have rather limited experience on subscription-based MMOs)
I'm not sure if 30 minutes would be enough for me to even scratch the surface though.
Got a few:
- European history, with an emphasis on the evolution of national and transnational culture from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the post-Soviet era.
- Etymology and historical linguistics, with units on the evolution of grammar and syntax, phonetic development and divergence, cross-pollination of words and linguistic concepts, and the effects of society on language and language on society and how they change with time.
- Musicology and music history, with a focus on the importance of tuning, scale and timbre as musical devices in different cultures.
- Deconstructive literary analysis as applicable to all media.
- The history of political theory and the evolution of propaganda as a tool.
- Comparative religion.
- Art history and theory.
- A comprehensive course on the relationship between the artistic avant-garde and popular culture, especially in music and film.
- The history and mechanics of animation.
What can I say? I am nothing if not didactic.