When SUNY Morrisville professor Sheila Marshman asked me if I would be one of the guest speakers she was lining up for her Fall 2008 Micro-Enterprise class, I thought – “Here’s my chance!”
I’ve always harbored the secret desire to be a teacher. As a child, playing school was one of my favorite pretend games. I’d line up my motley collection of dolls and stuffed animals and give them spelling lists, math assignments and even a pop quiz or two. I even carefully recorded the marks of my eclectic group of “students” in my little grade book.
At some point, I put thoughts of being a teacher behind me and chose to pursue a degree in economics instead. With that degree in hand, I worked for more than a decade in various aspects of marketing. It was this expertise which Sheila wanted me to share with her class, a group of adults interested in starting and/or expanding their own small business.
After I got over my initial reaction of being flattered and had visions of all my unfulfilled dreams of being a teacher, well, filled, I got a bit nervous. How the heck was I going to condense 10 years of working in several industries into a 50-minute discussion?
After a few calming breaths (and 3.7 cups of Egyptian Licorice tea), I felt focused enough to tackle the task at hand. I spent at least a week brainstorming and distilling my different experiences into something that I hoped was generic enough not to be exclusionary, yet specific enough to be useful. Of course, this was more than a month before my date with destiny, so I didn’t bother to get any of it down on paper or into a PowerPoint presentation. I had plenty of time. Right?
Suddenly my classroom appearance was only a few days away. With this realization I, once again, began to panic. Repeating my breathing exercises and herbal tea routine, I got back to it.
Somehow I was able to put it all together. And voila! Five low or no cost ways to market a small business in 20 PowerPoint slides or less. Now obviously professionals who do this on a regular basis don’t get more than a month to plan one lesson. Nor do they only do one lesson a day. But I was proud of myself nonetheless.
Laptop in hand, I presented myself at Morrisville’s Norwich Campus at the appointed time. I was ready to impart my wisdom to the masses. Well, to the six participants in the class anyway.
Sheila and I had a few minutes to talk before the members of her course arrived. She shared a little about each member of the class, so that I would be able to tailor my presentation to their needs and interests. We also talked about the class’ curriculum. I was truly impressed by how thorough a program it was for someone starting a new business.
I was also impressed with the technology in the classroom. It was just as sophisticated as equipment I’ve encountered in corporate board rooms. More so, in fact. Those days of blackboards are long gone.
Once the class arrived, it was time to get started. Sheila allowed me to introduce myself and give some background on my experience before asking the students to do the same.
There was Michelle from Oxford who has an animal rescue and Jo, also from Oxford, who is renovating an apartment house with retail space and is thinking about acquiring a local coffee house. Kim from New Berlin operated a day care facility which she was looking to expand. Then there were Darlene, Tullio and John from Norwich. Darlene is hoping to translate her years of food service experience into a personal chef type business, providing freshly prepared healthy meals to families. Tullio is interested in opening an Italian bakery and deli. John is still deciding on the nature of his small business venture, but is considering the idea of a mobile paintball business which could be transported to different events.
I went over my allotted time by roughly a half an hour. But I thought it was productive and Sheila seemed to think so to. (Although there is always the possibility she was just being nice.)
Having the snapshot of each student’s interests helped me relate my talk to their needs and there was a lot of dialog back and forth as we all shared ideas.
When it was all over, I realized that I hadn’t actually felt nervous at all once I got in front of the class. That surprised me. I found sharing my knowledge and experience with the class very rewarding. It was challenging to find ways to relate the subject matter to each of the business ideas to help them really connect with what we were discussing. But it felt good.
Obviously my one little lesson is nothing in comparison to what real teachers and professors do on a daily basis. But I did learn a lot during the time I spent preparing for and delivering my presentation.
I have always had a lot of respect for those who dedicate their lives to education, but I left campus that day with a new understanding of the challenges educators face every day. Knowing that you have been able to guide students to make the connection between their own lives and the subject you are teaching is empowering. For me that would make it all worth while.
I only hope that my six students got half as much from the experience as I did.