I Get Paid to Learn

Of course not every day at work seems glorious. There are times when driving to the campus, I'd just as soon keep right on going. Some days those North Shore mountains look so appealing. Yet, days like that are definitely in the minority. I'm usually quite satisfied teaching Communications at BCIT. It's not necessarily the efficiency of the Institute or my department that keeps me coming back; it's the students!

Again today, I was left in awe at the hard work and professionalism demonstrated by a great number of them. You must understand that my department's goal is to allow students, who lack high school equivalency in Canada, an effective way into the Institute. The great majority of my classes are made up of professionals who've immigrated to this country. Many have degrees and substantial work experience and bring a variety of interesting backgrounds into my classroom. Presently in a single class, I've got students from Russia, Morocco, Iran, India, Korea, Vietnam, and China.

This is our final week of class, so my students are giving their 'big' oral presentations. Today, one third of the class gave presentations on topics as varied as using a drain-cleaning snake to how targeted marketing has contributed to the success of Mattel's Barbie. Many students use Microsoft PowerPoint for their first time in my class and they do a superb job.

I occasionally get stressed due to our tight schedules and my drive to be extremely organized and efficient during classes. Yet the payoff for this type of work can be immense.