SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2024 TEACHING

 SATURDAY MOTIVATION - SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 2024

Some quotes for teachers.

1. “If you have to put someone on a pedestal, put teachers. They are society's heroes.” - Guy Kawasaki

2. “One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” - Malala Yousafzai

3. “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams

4. “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” - B.B. King

5. “Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best they can possibly be.” - Rita Pierson

6. “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” - Phil Collins

7. “How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank

8. “Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” - William Butler Yeats

9. “We never know which lives we influence, or when or why.” - Stephen King

10. “Kids don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.” - Jim Henson

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I was an educator.  I’m unsure if this career was chosen for me or if I chose it.  After my master’s degree, I tried to get a computing position, but it didn’t work out.   Even working summers at Citibank in Sioux Falls didn’t deter me from wanting to get back in the classroom in the fall.

I was the “Gazette Newspaper Paper Boy of the Month” in eighth grade.  I was interviewed and asked what I wanted for a career, and I instantly answered, “I want to be a math teacher.”

When I went to Winona State University, I became a Math Education major.  I added Social Science / History as a double major by sophomore year.  

I taught at West Grant High School, Keokuk High School, Winona State University, Mount Hood Community College, and then “hit paydirt” - Dakota State University.  Then, Quinnipiac University and the University of Texas rounded out my teaching career.

A colleague and friend was asked, “What do you teach?”  His answer was “STUDENTS”. 

My answer, too, is “I taught students.” Sure, I had a discipline (Management Information Systems), but I was a teacher.  

Aside from that, most college professors never taught high school.  They got a doctorate degree or were graduate teaching assistants but never took classes learning HOW to teach.  I had some less-than-adequate teachers (especially on the graduate level).  Sometimes, you learn from the teacher, and sometimes you learn independently. 

My last three years were at the University of Texas.  I had big classes (with 75 to 80 students) and worked hard to get to know them - learning their names, backgrounds, and maybe some of their passions. Learning occurs when the student knows they are respected and loved by their teachers.  

I’m 76, and I’d love to teach again, but that doesn’t happen.  I could do one of the first-year orientation experience classes - mentoring, guiding, and encouraging.  

It comes down to:

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, ©, February 17, 2024