Not being the teacher

For 21 years I was the teacher who had to teach, prep, and evaluate student presentations. Today I got to just sit and enjoy. For two hours I listened to young people at YearUp in San Francisco make PowerPoint presentations on a variety of tech companies. They did an admirable job and I learned something too.

I have been tutoring on Thursday afternoons at YearUp for a few weeks now and today the students invited me to sit in on their presentations as there would be no tutoring session. I was delighted to go and see what they had learned and see all of them in action. Well, one half of the class. The other half was upstairs, presenting there.

They were poised, well dressed, articulate, and in all cases, but one, shared the platform with a partner. I could tell they had practiced the give and take of doing a joint presentation. A few of the teams even threw in some light-hearted banter. Probably to relieve the stress on their end. Many of the students stopped to introduce themselves to me and to chat for a few moments. It was a nice effort on their part and one I thoroughly appreciated, knowing how hard it is to train young people to make that effort.

Tutoring at YearUp has been a joyful experience for this former teacher. These are young people, 18-24, who have graduated from high school but want an advantage so have applied to YearUp for an extra year of training, much like what the students in the Marketing Academy received while in high school. They will get a 5-month internship at local companies, giving them experience to put on a resume. All good preparation for continuing with college and/or going to work. From today’s presentations, I would say they are on their way to successful futures.

Shut up and sit down

Just read this over at Seth Godin’s blog:

No one ever leaves a speech or a eulogy or a presentation saying, “I wish it was longer.”

Amen to that.

Out of the bus and back to reality

The trip to San Francisco was wonderful.  We had a great charter bus driver who manuevered through traffic like he was riding a bike instead of manhandling a huge bus.  The weather was pristine with the temperature in the high 60s.  All of the students behaved very well, getting back to the bus after each stop with time to spare.  The bus driver was very complimentary of the kids and we explained that these were our top students.  All of my students, though, get high praise from bus drivers because they are well mannered.  It takes training.

My husband went along as a chaperone and our daughter (who is 6 months pregnant) joined us for lunch so it was a family affair for me.

Mr. Zody with our grandchild-to-be, oh, and our daughter

On Friday we went back to school and reality hit.  One of the students had missed the bus and complained to the principal.  Fortunately, Mr. Principal knows us very well and explained to tardy student that he saw all the cars and no bus which meant that we probably left on time.

My senior marketing students have been working on business plans for months now, and I have devoted the last three weeks of class time exclusively to this project so they can have the plans in good shape for presentation.  The Fresno State University sponsor came on Friday to hear preliminary presentations.  They were terrible.  I can only imagine what this woman thinks of my teaching, or lack thereof.

One senior, who went to SF the day before, was absent, and I needed her to work on a project for our next big event–the Valentine’s Party.  When our secretary got ahold of her she said she couldn’t come to school because she had gone on the fieldtrip the day before.  What?

My multimedia students have their own passes, which they made, to use when they leave class to gather information and pictures for web pages and videos.  They CANNOT leave class without the pass.  One of the 5th period boys returns without his partners but with a phone number I am to call because the partners were picked up by campus security.  When I explain to the VP in charge of on campus suspension that these multimedia boys have passes, he says, NO, one did but the two prisoners did not.  I was livid.  “Keep ’em in jail.”  He said that since I had called, he was releasing them to me.  Their passes were AT HOME.  Now, I ask you, dear Reader, what do I do with such bad behavior?  And, here I am again looking like some delinquent teacher who doesn’t know how to run her classes.

Hey, Mr. Bus Driver, can you come back and get me?  San Francisco was so much nicer than reality.

 

A billboard just off Union Square

Do you attend conferences?

I have a new blogging buddy, right over there, top of the list, Beth Holmes.  She had an interesting post about education conferences and I contributed this piece:

So much of what I hear at conferences is what I already know.  Many times I’m doing even more than they are sharing. Or, the people who are presenting do not work with the same student as I do.  The conferences are always far away, at expensive hotels, and I keep thinking about how I could be using this money in my classroom with my students.

Preparing to be away from the classroom is also difficult.  For a number of years my team was on the speaking circuit and we realized we were gone more than we were in the classroom.  That’s when I said, “if they want to hear what we have to say, they have to come see us.”  We had a few years of visitations, but as more people started doing what we were doing, that trailed off.  We get about one visitation a year now.

It’s final time

This week is much more relaxed for me because I only have to check what my kids have done, I don’t have to teach anything new.  Today begins presentations in my marketing and multimedia classes.  The seniors will present their business plans, using PowerPoint, to a small panel, including me.  One of my outstanding students has come home and will sit in and give his opinions of their work.  This young man has just lost his job as a head buyer at Mervyn’s so he brings with him a whole repertoire of information about running a business. 

This afternoon the multimedia students begin presenting their websites.  These are very small, only 4 pages, and are about themselves.  It will be a chance for the others in the class to see what everyone else is doing.  They have been so intent on their own website that they are oblivious to what others are doing.  A few have done some good work that I want to show off.