You can do Anything

What person fits the following statements?
1. taught criminally insane people how to swim
2. refused a phone call with Oprah
3. works in education

Ladies and Gentlemen, this was our last speaker, Dr. Donna Jacobs, the Dean of the College of Education. And might I add that she is also a very sweet lady. She talked to our class about teaching as a profession and the values that go with it.

First, lets talk about values for teachers. Teachers can be awesome. They can also be plain awful. And let's face it- we've all had that one teacher we just couldn't stand. Well, these terrible teachers (alliteration!) are like this because they didn't follow Dr. Jacob's list of values for teachers. Perhaps if they did, they would be much cooler teachers, or not teachers at all. Maybe they'd be working at an asylum for the criminally insane or some other awful job far away from children. So here's the list of values teachers should have:
1. Honesty- Don't be a Pinocchio- it's quite unattractive. Who wants a nose that large? No one.
2. Intelligence- How can you teach if you don't know anything yourself?
3. Good communicating skills- This one is easy peasy. Get ur students learned with proper English and such.
4. Fluent in sarcasm- All of my favorite teachers are Pro's at this value. Muy importante!
5. Committed to the job- Pretty self exploratory, right? Teachers should want to teach. But this is where those terrible teachers fail. They just don't want to teach. This is also a fail for Value #2. If you don't like what you are doing for the rest of your life, you will be unhappy and make everyone around you unhappy. In other words, you'll be a complete fun-sucker of life. So do society a favor and don't choose a profession that you absolutely hate. That's just some common sense, people!
6. Never talk to Oprah- Not sure exactly that this fits as a value, but it is some fun words of wisdom, I thought. If you talk to Oprah, things get blown wayyyy out of proportion and it's just a big, nasty mess. Oprah can't fix your problems- she just publicises them.

Follow the values! If you break one, you pretty much break all of them. To all you future boring and monotone teachers: Stop your plans to torture students and find a job more fitting to your personality, like reading a commercial for Shane's Jewelry. I've taken the liberty of finding the application website for you: http://www.shaneco.com/careers/.

Now that I've weeded out those terrible teachers, let's look at teaching as a profession. This is for all of the awesome teachers of the world: You have a super fantastic job!! In my opinion, teachers are the most influential people in the world. Teachers lead children the way they should go in the world to be a functional member of society, but even more than that teachers are what make the world thrive. What would we do if we had no teachers? Probably be nomadic people who walk around poking animals with sticks and spend our days picking at the grass and wondering what those crazy puffy white things are in the sky... Okay, so maybe don't actually know what the world would be like without teachers, but I know it would be horrible. I wouldn't be typing this blog right now, and I wouldn't be in college, which would be a crying shame. So thank you, teachers, for existing! Other than the sentimental value of teaching, the working hours cannot be beat. Teachers work 180/365 days a year, give or take a week or so depending on breaks and how much extra time a teacher spends to prepare for school. But teachers also get breaks off for every holiday and sick days and personal days every year. And while a lot of people say how teachers are payed practically nothing, the pay is pretty good. Teachers only work for half of a year and an average teacher gets payed around $45K. $45K for half a year of work is decent.

My favorite value of a good teacher is how wonderfully encouraging they are. So here are some encouraging closing remarks: Whether you are planning on being a teacher or not, your career path may take some twists and turns, but the best thing is that you get to choose where you end up. Figure out what you want to do and put your all into it. And never sell yourself short, you can do ANYTHING.