I'm here to teach, are you here to learn?

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.