Congratulations to all of you!!! To make it to this point, you must be very
special people indeed. It has been said, teaching is not a career choice, it is a
calling. Either you have chosen to teach, or teaching has chosen you. In either
case, you are about to embark on more than a career, you are embarking on a
journey. A journey of self-discovery. As a teacher, you think you are going to
teach your students, and inevitably they will teach you.
Congratulations to all your professors who have helped you get to this
moment in your life. I still remember the professors who taught me, mentored
me, and prepared me to work with students. To this day, 12 years later I still
contact a few for words of wisdom and to share success stories.
Congratulations also to all the friends and families here tonight who have
supported you during your time as a student. Families and Friends, be prepared.
You may think your job is done, however, the future teacher in your life may need
to call on you to help decorate classrooms, to listen when a day has gone wrong
or right, and maybe even to help grade the mountains of papers awaiting them
from their future students!
Graduates, having chose teaching, I can guess you are patient, kind,
slightly crazy, somewhat funny, very driven individuals. Your students will teach
you how to be more patient and more kind, some days they will drive you even
crazier, they will make you laugh, and you will work harder than you even
imagined possible.
On your very special day, I would like to share with you a few Pearls of
Wisdom, defining my practice each and every day. I hope you can take away at
least a few pearls as you begin your teaching journey.

The more you laugh, the happier you will be. This is true not only in the
classroom, but in life as well. At school try to find positive people who bring
you up, and try to be that positive influence for fellow coworkers, and for your
students.

Always have Chocolate ~ It will make even the most bitter moments a bit
more sweet.

Take the time to build relationships. BE KIND! Be kind to your student.
Teach them to be kind to each other. Expect them to be kind to you. It
sounds simple and trite, but it will make your teaching much easier if you
teach and practice kindness.

Always remember, your students are kids. I remind myself all the time that
the kids in my class have only been on the planet 9 years. This means eight
short years ago, these children were only learning to walk and talk. This does
not mean I lower my expectations, it means I remember they are kids and
give them the space to be just that.

Use your entire classroom; there is NO reason for students to be in desks all
the time. Buy a rocking chair! Have an escape place!

Separate the child from the behavior. Behavior can be modified; children must
be nurtured, taught, and loved.

Start everyday with a clean slate. There is no place for holding grudges in
education. Leave the past behind, and everyday becomes full of possibilities
for you and for your students.

Let them go to the bathroom.

Kaitlynn DuBois: Give them a Band-Aid ~ sometimes it’s about the Band-Aid!
My first grade teacher told me, when you bleed a quart to come see her. I
was six. I never forgot. I promised myself I would never be that teacher. I
have given out hundreds of Band-Aids because sometimes it’s about the
extra 15 seconds of needed attention; sometimes it’s about connecting with
the teacher because a student can’t say what the really need to say. This is
one way you can show you care and it only takes a moment of your time.

If you’re not having fun, change what you’re doing. Anita Archer: If you are
working harder than your students, you are working too hard!

Carolyn Marston: It’s okay not to correct every paper! Some assignments
are for practice. Know which ones these are, let them be practice, so you can
get to sleep before midnight at least 3 nights per week.

Every time a student asks, “what do you think of this,” put the question back
and ask them what they think first. They will learn a lot from reflecting on their
own work, just as you have during your time learning to become teachers.

Integrate the Arts! It does not matter what your focus is, you can integrate the
arts. If you truly want to reach all students, this is one path. Whether you are
a math teacher, PE, Social Studies, Science, Language, Health, or
Elementary Education, you can teach through movement, song, theatre and
the visual arts. By doing this you will reach kids in ways you never imagined.
They will be engaged and energized to come to your class. You will be
excited to!

Provide Authentic Experiences ~ Kids will begin to wonder, “Why do I have to
write a paper so the teacher can tell me what is wrong with it? What is the
point?” Provide students with experiences outside of the classroom which
make what they are doing in class real and applicable to the real world.
* Pepperoni Pizza Story

Don’t forget compassion. Compassion as defined in Webster’s Dictionary is a
feeling of deep sympathy for another’s suffering, accompanied by the desire
to alleviate the pain or remove its cause. Teachers have the power to be the
cause of suffering, or the remedy for suffering. I am reminded of a quote by
Hiam Ginott that I would like to share with you:
“I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in
the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my
daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous
power to make a student’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture
or an instrument of inspiration: I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all
situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or
de-escalated, and a student humanized or dehumanized.”
A person can never be sure what someone else will remember for the rest
of their life. It may be the compliment on a test well done, or the caring words
spoken when a student is down. It may be the time you let them get a drink
when they really weren’t suppose to, or the after school help with a book report
that no one else would help with. We can never be sure what our students will
remember. However if we teach with compassion, chances are what our
students remember will be the moments when their teacher was the only person
that really understood and responded to their needs, at that moment in time.
Finally, I want to leave you with how Ina J. Hughes described the students
you will be teaching. They are the type of children who will enter your classroom
every day:
<Adapted from the poem: "We Pray for Children" by Ina Hughes>
We teach the children
Who sneak Popsicles before supper,
Who erase holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.
We teach the children
Who bound down the street in new sneakers,
Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead in,
Who never go to the circus.
We teach the children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who bury goldfish,
Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
We teach the children
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
Who don't have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
Whose monsters are real.
We teach the children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
Who get visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don't like to be kissed in front of the car pool,
Whose smiles make us cry.
We teach the children
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who are never spoiled by anyone.
We teach the children
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being,
Who want to be carried And those who must,
We teach the children we never give up on
And those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.
In order to teach all of those children, hold on to how you are at this
moment. You are excited, you are energized, you are motivated. Have a goal
to be just as excited about teaching in your 30th year as you are right now. There
is a lot here, but you can do it. It is likely, to get you to this point, someone
believed in you, and just as importantly, you believed in yourself. Now it is your
job to believe in your future students, and above all, help them find a belief in
themselves.
Thank You!
Given at the Pacific University Commencement Ceremony in Eugene Oregon,
December 2009, by Donna DuBois