When I first started teaching out in Vauxhall I wanted to make sure my many talents outside of the classroom could be seen as well. That meant I volunteered for everything. I mean it, everything. Some were the usual jobs that needed doing but were somewhat thankless and not pleasant. Others were the tasks I love to do, but others seem to dread. Public speaking; more specifically MCing events. My first year I volunteered to MC the school fundraiser. The new teacher standing in front of the community and school body cracking jokes (my jokes) and playing songs (my songs, on a ukulele no less). There's no better way to say "Look I may be awesome in the classroom, and I can bring so much more". Or this is what I was hoping would be perceived, it could have been a lot more awkwardness and perspiration. Well because I was willing to volunteer then, I have been given some amazing opportunities later on. One of my favourite is now being able to MC our schools baseball academy banquet and fundraiser, GO VAB JETS. This event lets me get to know the ball player students I may not teach yet and it lets me see even more into the lives of the students I do teach. These guys are normally very busy, so the school may be the only place to see them. Add on that most of their parents live in other cities or even provinces and this becomes an impromptu parent teacher night where you can just relax. There's also a selfish reason that I love this event. Being the MC I get to hang out with and interview their guest speaker. Since I've been there we've had Devon White, Jesse Barfield and the man in the picture "Mr. Clutch" Pat Tabler (we have a Blue Jays connection so there is often a theme. I'm a huge Blue Jays fan so I'm good with this). I didn't get to interview Devo, but I made his entrance video (another skill to showcase) and both Jesse and Pat were gentleman and great interviews. Yet none of this would have really happened, if I didn't decide to be more. To not sit back and do the bare minimum. To think my duties as a teacher were only required in the classroom (this falls a bit with my personal philosophy). Nope if I didn't decide to go along for the ride, I would've missed out, and missing out on an experience is just missing out on a potential opportunity. |
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Keith Miller"I'm sure you've read something about me already, now for you to do some writing" Archives
February 2020
Categories |