Thoughts on teaching…
When I was growing up, my mother used to tell me that I should be a “school teacher.” Of course I never listened because that’s what kids do, they don’t listen to their parents. I refused to do anything that they did, which was go into civil service and get a pension.
All I wanted was to go into business.
Fast forward several decades later, and now I’m an adjunct professor at Hofstra University. And, I can honestly say, that I love it. There’s something to be said about helping someone realize his/her potential. Giving back, just makes you feel good!
Today was my last day of the fall semester at Hofstra. I teach digital communications in the Master’s program. This semester I had 10 students. The calibre of student was top notch.
Every class was more interesting than the one before and we got into some deep discussions about politics and business as it related to social media and how social media had an impact. We also talked about blogging, SEO, video production, podcasting and more.
As the last final presentation wrapped up, I told the class they were terrific. Gianna, one of the students said, “I bet you say that to every class!” I smiled.
The most meaningful thing to me was when all the students were leaving they told me individually that I made a huge impact on their lives and that they feel more focused and more determined after my class.
Or, when I get comments like this…
I just wanted to say thank you for being a part of my Capstone Committee and for being such a great teacher! I really enjoyed my time in your class and I had so much fun producing the content for the different projects we completed. I feel like I learned a lot of really practical techniques and general knowledge on the direction of PR in a tech-saturated world. Thank you again! Steven Hollwedel
And the list goes on… Well, that really made me smile!
