Good Evening everyone.
Before I begin I would like to thank the Baccalaureate Committee for inviting me to speak this evening. I will point out that shortly after I was asked, a committee member told me that I had only five minutes to speak and should I go any longer, the microphone would promptly be shut off. As a teacher, this really does not surprise me, as every teacher knows that if we talk for more than five minutes in the classroom, every student chooses to turn off that little microphone in his/her head and we have promptly lost them. Well, at least I have heard that from other teachers, I have never actually experienced that myself.
That being said, I promise to stay within the allotted time.
One of the reasons I was asked to speak tonight is because of the topic of change. Since I had the GREAT pleasure of having many of you in both freshmen and senior English, I was able to see many changes within this class as a whole and within each student. This is not surprising, after all, as Robert C. Gallagher once said, “Change is inevitable- except from a vending machine. “
When many of you walked into my classroom as freshmen, I saw a group …show more content…
Oh, and you are so much better at writing. You are now ready to face the challenges that are waiting for you outside the walls of Iroquois. I have talked with some of you about managing finances, obtaining loans, balancing a job and school work, and what to major in in college. These conversations are all signs that you are ready to move on. These, by the way, are my favorite conversations with students. What a pleasure it is to sit and have an adult conversation with you. Your understanding of yourselves and the world around you has grown immensely. I would even rate these conversations higher than discussing Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet, if you can believe that anything would top
Before I begin I would like to thank the Baccalaureate Committee for inviting me to speak this evening. I will point out that shortly after I was asked, a committee member told me that I had only five minutes to speak and should I go any longer, the microphone would promptly be shut off. As a teacher, this really does not surprise me, as every teacher knows that if we talk for more than five minutes in the classroom, every student chooses to turn off that little microphone in his/her head and we have promptly lost them. Well, at least I have heard that from other teachers, I have never actually experienced that myself.
That being said, I promise to stay within the allotted time.
One of the reasons I was asked to speak tonight is because of the topic of change. Since I had the GREAT pleasure of having many of you in both freshmen and senior English, I was able to see many changes within this class as a whole and within each student. This is not surprising, after all, as Robert C. Gallagher once said, “Change is inevitable- except from a vending machine. “
When many of you walked into my classroom as freshmen, I saw a group …show more content…
Oh, and you are so much better at writing. You are now ready to face the challenges that are waiting for you outside the walls of Iroquois. I have talked with some of you about managing finances, obtaining loans, balancing a job and school work, and what to major in in college. These conversations are all signs that you are ready to move on. These, by the way, are my favorite conversations with students. What a pleasure it is to sit and have an adult conversation with you. Your understanding of yourselves and the world around you has grown immensely. I would even rate these conversations higher than discussing Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet, if you can believe that anything would top