New Learning

Learning to Drive Tractor-Trailor: 

Everyone is a learner in this world, and one should keep learning new things otherwise will become stagnant in the things they do.

Recently, I got interested in learning how to drive tractor-trailor. I have always been intrigued by big machines and thought why not to try tractor-trailor. So, I shopped around for the schools that teach this and found one that looked professional in their approach. After getting all the information from this school and registering as a new student, I started preparing for the written exam.

After passing the written exam, I started the driving classes with that school. I was so happy to sit behind the wheel and drive that big vehicle around the school. I had never driven any vehicle that big before. It was a feeling that can’t be described in words.

I was happy to drive the tractor but driving was not all I had to learn. There were other aspects of learning as well which were important. Before you could drive the tractor, you need to do the inspection of the vehicle. It is called circle check. You had to perform the steps of inspection in a particular order. It was hard to remember the order of inspection. If I missed any step, the instructor would ask me to repeat from the beginning. This was really frustrating as I often missed out some steps, and had to start all over.

I had assumed all I need was to drive the tractor on the road. But that was not all. There was also an air-break course that was mandatory to complete. So, I had to spare extra time to attend classes for that course. I had also assumed that driving the tractor would be easy, but that was not true. Because the tractor was attached to a trailor and total length of the vehicle became 75 feet. It was hard to make turns and change lanes. So, I had to pay close attention and be very careful.

Eventually, I was able to do the circle check, drive the tractor-trailor with ease, and was able to back the vehicle. My initial assumptions were that driving this vehicle would be easy, but that was not the case. There were many other aspects that I had to either learn or need to pay close attention to them. Through this process, I learned that learning isn’t walking in the park. You may know few things about the new concept you are learning and you may make assumptions as well, but there are many other minute things that you need to consider.

This experience enhanced my understanding of how learners respond and behave under certain conditions. They may come to the class with various assumptions. They may get frustrated while going through some concepts. But you being the facilitator, has to provide a healthy, fun-filled and engaging classroom environment that is helpful to all the students and enhance their learning.