I am a Chartered Accountant in Bangalore, currently on sabbatical. I am interested in teaching Commerce students, particularly CA students. Since I do not have a formal teaching experience, I don’t know how to start. Wanted some suggestions. Please advice.

Hi, to start with I can share my experience. The 1st Batch which I got in one of the Premium Institutes in Viman Nagar, Pune is for MBA and the 1st class was of Economics. I was appointed by the institute, as the teacher responsible was on maternity leave. I entered the class with full of enthusiasm and excitement as feeling great as a Teacher. But after I entered I saw a batch of 55 students sitting in the class and waiting for me. I started feeling a bit nervous. After half an hour of giving and throwing the bookish knowledge for which I have done a full proof homework the day before, I found some students yawning, some staring at me (as they have no other options), the backbenchers were cool enough to carry on with their Whats App Chat and Facebook, thanks to their parents for giving them the ultimate smartphones. I was not comfortable at all, as I was well sure that this class is not going anywhere. I gave them a 5 min break, and came out. As I myself was a mediocre student, I started thinking that if I was a student in this class, and if some odd professor has came in with this class like me, how would I have reacted. The answer came from within, "I would have gone mad", as the way which I was taking the class was crazy, I was just boasting them with knowledge of markets, demand, supply, cost which is not fare for me. I went inside, started chatting with them, asked their names, their hobbies, gave an introduction and honestly asked them about how was the feedback of the class till so far. The answer I got was the same which I expected. I smiled and started. This time I started framing stories from within. To make them understand the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility I framed a short story and the class enjoyed it thoroughly. They became interactive and started asking questions, they laughed at my small jokes which cracked to break the monotony, even I make fun of myself and made fun of them also. Now the class of 55 became a group of 56 friends. They were interested to listen from me, they were interested to know the outcomes of the then Budget declared, the context and contents of some news in economic positioning, the Subprime Crisis, for which India faced recession in 2008. We conducted debates in the class, sometimes I also participated in those debates. Surprisingly the marks which the students got in their midterm exam was a just a gift to me, they often say till now"The marks we got and will get in future in any exam and higher studies will be a token of love and affection for you", as I was the first person they met who has given them that importance, that boost that they inclined to read more, know more. They used to compete with me in knowledge. As I believe as a teacher I am not a magician or any trick master to convert a stone into diamond, I just play the role of dot-joiner, the dots are there within every student. So lots of lectures, but I know as you are a CA you will definitely do well in your class, and will be keen to know your part of the story as well. Just have the confidence and always remember, there are many things you can also learn from your students, so teaching is also known as knowledge sharing as both the teacher and the student benefits something out of the other. Try to maintain this chemistry between teacher and student and I can bet you will rock. Best wishes for your all endeavors. Regards, Tanmoy Chakraborty read less

Hi Shardha, teaching is very personal vocation and I use the tetmvocation and not profession. One gets involved with students and their career. To teach you might consider one subject or choose to coach all the subjects of CPT or IPCC etc. You will have to Dr use as to the methodology, books to follow, notes whether to provide or not, number of students in one group, time devotion to one group, fee structure. Finally and most important, marker by. How to bring studentss to you. read less