My teaching metaphor: Driving manual

About a month ago, I began the arduous and often frustrating task of learning to drive stick-shift. My boyfriend had tried to teach me a few months ago, but we had to stop because he was afraid his engine was going to drop out of the car from all the stalling and that the tires would be stripped of their rubber from all the peeling out (what I did when I wasn't stalling out). However, over break I got a car with manual transmission and thus had to jump right into the learning process, and for me, that learning process has been much like the process of learning to be a teacher.
Learning to teach and driving stick are both a mixture of practice and theory. The night I started practicing, I went on the computer and read up on how manual transmissions work and how to drive them, looking at different theories/ideas on how to do it best. As I practiced, I received advice from various family members and friends (much like I read, listen, and learn about the theory and methodology behind teaching). While all that research and advice was extremely helpful in giving me the basic information I needed to "know" how to drive stick-shift, in the end, it would've been for naught without the actual experience of driving (mistakes and all). I see this in teaching, as well. The theory and methodology has been extremely important in giving us a background and foundation, so that we "know" how to best teach, but when it's all said and done, it's the practice and experience of teaching that will best help us fine tune our skills. Eventually, with time, we'll be able to make smooth transitions and teach with efficiency-- things that we now think through and plan so thoroughly now will eventually become more automatic.
Teaching is like driving a stick-shift, and the teacher is the driver (we'll call the teacher a "she"). She's in charge of starting the class like she starts a car. She's in charge of determining pace, changing gears, and guiding the classroom and its activities (steering, if you please). She provides materials and support, like a driver provides gas, maintenance, and precise driving. She juggles plenty of things all at once, just as a driver of stick-shift requires paying attention to the road, steering, accelerating, operating the clutch, shifting gears, manning the turn signal, etc. (and when she's got that down, maybe even turning up the volume on the radio between gear changes). She facilitates the movement of the car, but what is most important and poignant to me is that she is not the one creating the power or the movement. Without her class, a teacher won't get anywhere, and unless the power and the learning itself comes from the students, they won't get far either (here, the metaphor becomes less well-fitted in my mind, but nonetheless, I hope you follow the idea).
The most important thing, I've found, about driving stick-shift, and the thing that draws so many car-lovers to that type of transmission, is that driving stick-shift requires knowing the car. You have to listen to the engine, watch the rpms and the speed, and feel the way the car reacts to your driving. For example, if the engine's whining, and the rpms are high, you've know you've got to change gears. I believe that a good teacher requires the same sort of acute awareness of the functioning of her classroom. Of course, students aren't always as easy to read as the rpm meter of a car, and they don't always voice their frustrations and problems as clearly as a whining engine. Nonetheless, a good teacher not only has a plan for her classroom ("I know I'm supposed to shift to second gear around 15 mph...") but also maintains awareness of her students and their reactions, difficulties, etc. ("...but the engine's starting to whine, so I'm going to shift, even though I'm only at 13 mph").
While I feel this analogy has its flaws, this awareness and "with-it-ness" is one of the two things I like best about the analogy: teacher has to know her classroom and students like a driver knows her car. And the other, that while the teacher provides materials, support, and guidance, she's just a facilitator for the movement and learning of the students--the students are the ones that create the power. They're the ones do the moving...