I teach for a living.
I’m not a teacher, I see myself as an instructor, but saying “I instruct
for a living” sounds rather odd. The difference
mostly is in duration. I only have a
class for a couple of days and I don’t give any tests or grades. My goal is to impart knowledge to folks so
they are better at their jobs.
And I take my job very seriously. I spend hours making sure the content is
correct and up to date. (This is really
hard with Oracle, since its always changing.) I spend hours coming up with exercises that
will help students understand the concepts being presented in an easy to understand
way. I will stay late to help folks understand
something they didn’t get. I’ll work
with them even after class thru email.
I love what I do. I
really do. And based on the many years of feedback, I’m
quite good at it too.
What does bug me is that some students
show up to class with an idea that this is some sort of vacation. While I’m
not running a basic training camp (did that in a past life, not really into
that any more), what I do have is a really great curriculum that I
have poured my life into and I hope you will come with an eagerness to
learn.
I’m not here to start class late, take a 2 hour lunch and
then for you to cut out over an hour early “just because”. When you come to my class, be ready to learn. Ask the tough questions, I don’t know all the
answers but if no one asks the questions we’ll never have the opportunity to
find the answers.
True I don’t give a test at the end of class, your test is
when you get back on the job and can perform your job better. If you slept thru class then you will fail
your test.
See you in class soon.
