Not Just a Teacher

When I started out transcribing at a local rehab clinic, I knew I would not stay there for my entire career, which was a good thing considering that place closed, although I’m not sure when that happened.  I still would have never thought I would find myself teaching this profession.  I have experienced a lot of things in my career, as you have read throughout these posts, but the ironic thing is that I found teaching has absolutely been the best part of my career.

I have shared with you some of the not-too-fun events that have happened to me, and obviously it would have been nice to have avoided them.  At the same time, though, I am happy they did happen because they have all been difficult issues that I have been able to share with my students.  It can always be helpful to get through a bad situation if you try to think about what you can learn from it and possibly share with others. 

As I briefly explained in my last post, I started out as a grader in January of 2000, and by April, I was teaching and slowly building my student roster.  The course I was teaching was a self-study program, but of course I would be available by email or phone to answer questions, review assignments, and grade tests.  I found out very quickly that teaching went beyond just helping a student learn how to research or to use critical thinking to determine those jumbled and mumbled words.  

Maybe it is because I did not deal with my students in the classroom setting where we would see each other face to face, so that perhaps made it easier to share things with me I really never thought would be part of the learning process.  I had students with seriously ill children or went through the loss of a parent or other family member.  There were some who lost their job or found out they had to work much longer hours than anticipated, leaving little time for their studies.  Of course, I also had a handful who always had excuse after excuse after excuse not to study, despite the fact they had a limited amount of time to complete their studies or face further expenses by paying for extensions.  And there was always that small portion who enrolled in the course, and then you would never hear from them, and they never asked to withdraw.  I think those are the ones who made me the most curious.  It’s like they just disappeared into a black hole, never to be heard from again.

I think the worst was a student of mine who was in the World Trade Center on 9/11.  She had enrolled early in the year, and we corresponded a few times, but she was one who started out okay, and then I never heard from her.  I decided to drop her a line to see if she was planning on finishing her studies.  A few days later I got an email from her husband saying she was in the Towers and did not make it out.  When I read his note, it literally took my breath away. I had no idea that is where she worked.  That was one of the more difficult emails I had to write, but I sent along my sympathy and prayers and made sure her name was taken off any mailing lists. 

I often was a sounding board for students who were going through difficult times, either something about a job, a family situation, and sometimes some pretty serious issues going on in their life.  I have always felt very excited for every student I graduated, but beyond that, I think the most rewarding part of the job was making a student feel better, even if just for a short while.  I was able to sometimes allow them to look at something with a different perspective that maybe did not resolve their problems, but at least made them look at things in a different light.  The hardest actually was when a student felt terrible over failing a test or passing with a low score.  Oftentimes, they would go on to improve and graduate with a solid GPA, but there were always those few who loved the work, but they were just not cut out for it.  So my goal would be to help them to understand not doing well in a particular profession does not mean you are not smart—it just means you don’t have the aptitude for the MT profession. 

I wanted to be a computer programmer when I entered college.  I had my studies and career all mapped out.  As it turned out, I could not grasp the programming language to save my life.  Even my friend tutoring me was of no help.  Of course, it was disappointing, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since I went on to have a wonderful career in a profession I knew nothing about or even realized existed.  Education is never a waste of time, even if you don’t use what you studied. You can still learn from that experience and let it lead you to something new, something you might not have ever thought about without that educational experience.

I even did more than just teaching at MTEC, again, things I did not think about doing until they just kind of fell my way.  I’ll get into that next time, so you know what to do now—enjoy your day!