Schooled by the Workplace, v 2

Good morning, everyone! Good news: it's time for Round Two of my series, "Schooled by the Workplace." I am thrilled about having one of my all-time favorite bloggers guest-posting here today! If you haven't already met Suze, you need to hop over to see her right away. Suze is a St. Louis girl with an adorable little baby boy. She teaches high school French and is, undoubtedly, the "cool teacher" at her school. Every school has one, and I'm quite sure she is it. My favorite things about Suze are her humor and huge heart. Go Suze!

And now, for some lessons from the lady herself.

Hi, everybody!  I’m Suze from Straight on the Ground.  

My delightful friend Cammie asked if I would contribute to her creative blog series about what you’ve learned from your job that you wouldn’t have learned in a formal education setting.  Well, I am at a disadvantage, as I work in a formal education setting.

However, most of the lessons I’ve learned in my job have not had much to do with formal education.  They’ve had to do with people.

1.       Do what you say you will do.  This one is pretty obvious and a lesson everybody learns somehow.  I learned it when I told the kids that I would make them crepes and then something came up and I didn’t.  You don’t want 180 kids asking you over and over, where are the crepes? Followed by their disappointed faces.  Ouch. 

                                        

2.      Teenagers are awesome.  For the most part, kids are not the delinquents we are made to think they are.  They are also really good judges of character for the most part.  (With the exception of their opinion of Nikki Minaj.  And sometimes they can be duped as a group.)  They always know. 

3.      If you stop doing stuff for fun, you might as well be dead.  I guess Hemingway really said that first, or something like that anyway, but my kids at school have taught me that lesson over and over again.  I feel like we are taking fun away- not just from kids at school, but from everybody.  And it’s really important to value fun, or life kinda isn't that great anymore. 

                                       

Well, thanks, Cammie, for letting me be a part of your series!  I hope you’ve all enjoyed my lessons.  Next time you see a teenage kid out working at Target or McDonalds or something, be extra nice to them.  Sometimes we forget what it was like to be sixteen.