Road To the Office: Tabitha’s Teaching Transition
Meet Tabitha (or “T,” as everyone calls her). She’s a second-generation truck driver, as her dad was a driver before her. “My dad taught me to respect the trucks and love the trucks when I was a kid,” she says, inspiring her to get a CDL at only 18. But now? She’s using her lifelong passion and real-life experience as an instructor here at Southwest Truck Driver Training.
Tabitha’s Empathetic Teaching Style
Because of her lifelong experience with trucks and drivers, T knows a thing or two about how everything works. She works with a variety of trucks out on our range, like cabovers and freight liners, getting the students into the vehicles for hands-on practice.
“I teach them that this truck’s not going to do what you want it to do. You have to slow down first,” T tells each of her students. But she means this on a deeper level than just driving; it’s about everything happening around them early in their training.
“You have to slow down first because, when they come in on day one, all the students are scared. They’re overwhelmed and they’re stressed. But if you just remind them to breathe on day one, if you just take it one step at a time and tell them that ‘you’ll get there,’ it helps them calm down.”
What Being a Trucking Instructor Is Like
Truck driving instructors teach about trucking and life as a driver. They provide lectures and hands-on training, meeting each student where they’re at and helping them grow in their knowledge each day.
What Trucking Teachers Need to Know
When you’re a trucking instructor, you need to know more than how to drive and maintain a truck. You need to develop other schools and be a lifelong learner.
Beyond driving skills, all trucking teachers must be able to:
- Understand best teaching practices
- Talk to students one-on-one, providing advice about their challenges and plans
- Grade work and provide feedback
- Be patient
- Recognize each student’s needs and adapt their training accordingly
- Plan lessons
- Remain aware of changes in regulations and laws
- Take notes and create detailed records
- Use relevant technology
If that sounds like a lot…it is. But it can also be very rewarding.
Tabitha’s Advice for Truck Driving School Students
T’s number one piece of advice for truck driving students is…to come to Southwest! She says that she’s been to other trucking schools, and this one is different. We are here for the students, and everyone is treated like family.
She says, “You not only learn the trucks, but you learn how to be a family. And you learn how to respect not just only each other but the equipment here. You learn how to have confidence in what you came here to do.”
We may be biased, but we couldn’t agree more.