By Dauna Easley
Fast approaching is one of the most satisfying times of the year for a teacher. Within the next few weeks, we will watch proudly as our seniors graduate. We’ll witness that meaningful moment when all of our efforts on their behalf come to a positive climax. For some students, the path to a diploma has been a breathtaking roller coaster ride, as they maneuvered the summits and pitfalls of life and learning. These are the great moments, and many of us have to quickly wipe away a tear.
But as the graduation speaker reminds us, a commencement is a beginning. What do great teachers know? Never stop teaching when they graduate. This, I believe, is one of the ways in which career technical educators shine. We don’t stop teaching when they graduate. We’re programmed by our profession to do periodic follow-up phone calls with our students and their employers.
But our ties go far beyond simple requirements. In fact, I believe I’ve done some of my very best “teaching” after my students have graduated. Why? As a career teacher, I’m lucky to share a passion for a profession with my students.
I love to teach, and I get to share that enthusiasm for teaching with my Teacher Academy students. They’ve chosen my profession because they’re also excited about it. That gives us some very important things in common. As they progress in their postsecondary education, they continue to contact me for advice about teaching. I actively encourage this connection.
Recently, one of my students was applying for acceptance into the college of education at her university. She asked me to look over the essay she had written and make suggestions. I was happy to comply. That same young lady reciprocated by coming home to stand with our Teacher Academy display board during freshman orientation while I was out of town attending a student competition.
My former students also help to keep my current curriculum up to date. I ask them about the parts of my class that proved to be most helpful to them and seek their advice for ways I can improve what I offer. I ask them to recommend good college classes for me as I continue to update my own licensure. My current students read one book per quarter about teaching, and my graduates often e-mail me from college to recommend a great book they’ve read there. Recent graduates also make fabulous guest speakers for my current students. They talk to them about college life, finding scholarships, financing college and great programs sponsored by their universities. They make wonderful coaches for current students preparing for competitions. They are particularly effective because they are close in age to my current students.
This year I extended an invitation to all of last year’s graduates to meet me for a casual holiday dinner at a local restaurant. It was such a success that I know I’ll repeat it every year. All but two students attended. Remember how excited you were to see your former classmates the first time you came home from college? I capitalized on that. We had a great time comparing notes about college life and reconnecting.
Luckily, technology has made it easier to nurture these connections. Even though I had changed positions, a student from about five years ago surfed the Web to find me this year. She was taking a college class and had to interview and write a paper about someone from her past that she admired. As a result, we both profited a great deal.
Another graduate from two years ago contacted me to tell me through e-mail that she had just had two poems published. What an accomplishment! She thanked me for believing in her and encouraging her to live her dreams. She told me about her upcoming out-of-state college graduation, and I promised to be there to share in her success.
Many of these special relationships go far beyond the curriculum of teaching. Unforgettable was the day a former student called me from her hospital bed. It was the very day of her baby’s birth. Her own mother was deceased, and she had just learned that her baby was born with a disability. She remembered from our many classroom discussions that I had a daughter born with cerebral palsy. I was her first phone call. What an awesome responsibility! I struggled to keep my emotions under control and tried to share just the right words. For many years she called me every time her child went to the hospital for evaluations.
Another time, I was chatting on the phone with a former student whose wedding and baby shower I had attended. I had lost my own teenage daughter to cancer during that particular year. I told her how much I was dreading getting out my holiday decorations because my daughter had enjoyed the holidays so much. Without any hesitation, she volunteered to come to my home and help me put up my decorations—and she did! How much easier the task was when shared with this thoughtful young woman.
As I write this, I can feel all of the career technical educators nodding their heads and mentally telling me their own stories. Caring doesn’t start in August and end in June. Education doesn’t begin at age five and end at age 18 or 22. As a teacher, I’m a lifelong learner welcoming my former students who share with me their insights about education and life. Through them, I continue my growth. I’m also a lifelong mentor as I encourage them in their dreams, role model reaching for mine, and cheer until I am hoarse for all of their accomplishments.
Teachers Touch Eternity. When we teach from our hearts, we really do reach forward and impact future generations. As I watch my seniors cross that stage in June, I will celebrate not just their graduation, but also the beginning of our new adult-to-adult relationship that we will share for many years to come.
Dauna Easley, author of Teachers Touch Eternity, teaches a teacher academy program for Butler Tech at Lakota West High School in the Cincinnati area. She is also a popular speaker at state and national conferences, including the ACTE Convention. She can be reached at easley-d@prodigy.net.
- Techniques May 2005 Issue -
