16th February 2026 at 12:01 am

Teach Me Anything task

NOTE: You don’t need to read this discussion until you reach the “Teach Me Anything” lesson this week.

——————–

Please prepare and teach something in 5–10 minutes to a small group of people.

Ideally, please teach the other trainees on the course. Try to organise a short Zoom session together to do this.

If this isn’t possible, you can teach a few friends or family members gathered around the kitchen table or somewhere similar. If you can’t get two people together, then just teach one person. Face-to-face is best, but online is fine if needed.

You can teach them anything you like, for example: “how to fix a bicycle puncture”, “a few basic salsa dance moves”, “how to tie a fisherman’s knot”, “how to do the moonwalk” or “how to introduce yourself in Russian”.

Spend a little time preparing beforehand. Think about:

  • What will you say?
  • Will you write or draw anything to support your explanation?
  • Will they need to make notes or do anything else?
  • Will you bring in any objects to show them?
  • Or will your students mainly just listen to you?

After you’ve given your lesson, have a short discussion with your peers/students. Together, agree on what went well and how the teaching could be improved. What do you wish you had/hadn’t done? What have you learnt about teaching?

In the forum discussion:

  • Write a few paragraphs describing the experience as your main post.
  • Post a second comment responding to another trainee’s entry.
  • Lisa

    18th February 2026 at 3:24 pm

    Hi everyone! I did the “Teach me anything” task earlier with my daughter as I needed to move forward on the course.
    I decided to teach her “how to make salad dressing”. She’s 12 years old and it was part of our lunch 🙂
    I asked her get the utensils we would need. Telling her one at a time. I had her set them up near all of the ingredients. I told her how much oil and how much vinegar. She measured them into the bowl. She added salt and pepper and the base was done. I then let her smell and choose from all of our spices. I only suggested the quantity. We both tasted it. I suggested some more salt. More tasting, and then she wanted to put some more curry powder.
    Finished!
    We both added the lettuce and some other ingredients. She was excited to try it at lunch.
    I felt it was necessary to proceed one step at a time and let her touch, smell, measure and choose. It was fun for her and she enjoyed the result. We both did!

    • Alexandra

      18th February 2026 at 8:52 pm

      For this task I decided to teach my husband. I taught my husband how to putt. Today was the perfect day to teach him because it was beautiful outside. For the materials, I used a putter, a golf ball, and the putting green at the golf course. To ensure that he understood, I went step by step starting with how to hold the club. He already knows how to hold a club so that part was review for him. I modeled the placement of the club, and the stance. He copied my movements. Next, I showed him how to “swing” the club. I made sure to clarify that it is never a full swing! He practiced the movements of the club. After practicing the swing, we added the golf ball. It was important for me to explain ball placement, and to show him the marks on his putter so that he is able to aim. Lastly, it was time for him to actually practice with the ball! This was a fun lesson, my husband enjoyed learning how to putt!

    • Lisa

      19th February 2026 at 4:40 pm

      It looks like you found an agreeable way to complete the task too! I love it!! Could this be the start of something?? 🙂

    • Emilie

      19th February 2026 at 8:27 pm

      wow cooking and playing golf! good ones 🙂
      That is a brilliant way of getting your daughter involved with both housework and your studies! I agree with the importance of the different senses when cooking. Also looks like it was very clear and that you adapted to your daughter’s reactions.

      and Alex, I know nothing about golf but thanks to you a little more now!! I agree with Lisa, we might need to organise a practice session during the week in Toulouse 😉
      It seems to me that it was really well planned as well, adding information progressively, step by step, and getting him to practice. Good work!

    • Alexandra

      20th February 2026 at 9:24 am

      Absolutely! April is the perfect time to golf so I definitely think we can arrange something!!

    • Alexandra

      18th February 2026 at 8:53 pm

      This sounds like the perfect lesson. I bet your daughter really enjoyed doing this with you, and the salad dressing sounds amazing!

  • Emilie

    19th February 2026 at 8:12 pm

    I have done this task with my husband.
    He was complaining of neck pain today, so I decided to teach him some stretches.
    I didn’t have any documents or images to show. I was demonstrating on myself the muscles that we were going to stretch. Then giving the instructions, one action at a time and I was doing it at the same time to demonstrate how to do it. eg: bring your right arm down, then your left ear to your left shoulder until you feel a resistance.
    The hardest part was to remember to say the opposite side to what I was doing as he was facing me.
    We did this for a few neck muscles and his neck felt better afterwards. I wondered if I needed anything to show muscles, but then I was just pointing on myself to keep it simple and not an anatomy lecture.

    He reported that I was clear with my explanations but that one time I could have been more precise and turn around to show the stretch better.

    • Patrycja

      20th February 2026 at 7:54 pm

      Oh wow, what a great idea! Hopefully your husband’s neck pain dissapeared after it!
      It seems like you gave really good instructions, step by step. I should come for your stretching lessons as well haha

  • Patrycja

    20th February 2026 at 7:50 pm

    For the “Teach Me Anything” task I have decided to teach my boyfriend how to make pancakes.
    Before I prepared a glass of flour, a glass of milk, a half a glass of water, 2 eggs, some salt, a bottle of sunflower oil, a large bowl, a spatula, a large pan and a wooden spoon.
    I let him do everything following my instructions. I told him step by step what ingredients to put in the bowl and to stir with the wooden spoon until the texture becomes smooth, without any lumps. After that I told him to put the pan on the induction, put the heat on medium and wait 2-3 minutes for the pan to heat up.
    In the meantime I realised that I forgot to prepare the ladle to pour the dough on the pan. I explained to him that we need to add a little bit of the sunflower on the pan and move it in circles so the oil would cover the whole surface (I tried to mime it). Then I decided to show him how to make a perfect pancake. I poured some dough on the pan and showed him how to move the pan so the dough could form a pancake. Then I told him to take a spatula, wait 1 minute and turn the pancake on the other side. After that it was his turn to do it. He followed the previous instructions and finished all the pancakes.
    It was a very fun exercise to do, we got to spend a really good time together. It was also my first time telling someone how to cook because usually I prefer to do it myself so it was nice to change the roles.
    After I thought that I could have probably given him the ingredients in their original packaging, explained to him how much of each ingredient we needed and let him do the measurements. Also I didn’t think to prepare every tool (the ladle and the plate where he put the cooked pancakes).
    But overall I really liked the exercise and the pancakes were delicious so I think he did a pretty good job.

  • Jonathan Davies

    21st February 2026 at 7:05 pm

    Well done Lisa, Alexandra Emliie and Patrycja! Really interesting to hear about what you did and in all cases the “student” did something rather than just sit there and listen!

Log in to reply.