I thought that it was time to move away from all of the industry related posts and write a personal one this time.  People continue to ask me why I teach and not go into Real Estate full time.  Well my response is simply because I like working with the kids too much.  People always say, “How do you put up with those kids?” “ I couldn’t handle the attitudes!” “Kids are lazy now a days” .  They are right yes there are attitudes.  Some are hard to handle and yes there is attitude, but last night illustrated the true reason why I teach.

At Estevan Comprehensive School I teacher in the Business Education Department.  Over the past two years I have taught may technology based classes, accounting and of course the one that I love the most Entrepreneurship.  I partner with a great non-profit organization called Junior Achievement.  The resources and experience they provide is fantastic, it is real life, hands on and a true experiential learning opportunity for the students.  From September – January I had the pleasure of teaching 37 budding entrepreneurs the ins and outs of running a business.  The 37 were split into two classes and created two companies.  Truffle Shuffle was a business that made hand crafted chocolate truffles and First Class Baking was a group that prepared single serve deserts in mason jars.  You can see the videos by clicking on the links at the end of the post.  This semester was one of the most challenging that I was involved in, the businesses were very successful and Truffle Shuffle made upwards of 3400 boxes of truffles and First Class Baking made 3200 deserts.  They had to prepare everything from scratch, package and deliver to each of the buyers.  They also had to secure sales opportunities and did so by negotiating space in the local farmers market, craft fairs and even went as far as door to door selling to different companies around town.  The classes had to prepare business plans, marketing material, shareholders reports, hold company board meetings and present plans in front of different local business owners.  They worked tirelessly on weekends, during class and before and after school putting in close to an additional 100 hours of time to complete the projects (classes are only supposed to be around 100 hours).  These kids worked very hard and to see them go from not knowing anything about business to creating products and handling customers is impressive.  To be able to sit back and see a group of students develop and grow is something that is rewarding as a teacher.

Last night was the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Awards in Regina at the Ramada Hotel.  Here all companies that participated in the venture program were brought together to celebrate their accomplishments.  Estevan Comprehensive School was successful in securing nominations in each of the award categories and brought home award for:

• Top Salesperson of the Year
• Production Excellence
• Top Shareholders’ Report
• President of the Year and:
• Company of the Year

To see the kids’ faces light up as they won the top award is the most exhilarating, and rewarding moment for a teacher.  It is the moments that we call ah ha moments in education and it is the moments that are more rewarding than any monetary amount could be.  To know that you took a group and taught and mentored them to being the Top Company in the Southern Region of the Province is Huge!  That same feeling happens when I open the door on Possession date to a client getting their new home.  The excitement, the wonder, the true belief that you have done well for someone and created a true, memorable experience is something that makes me want to continue to do both jobs for a long time!

So to answer the question “Why do you still teach” it’s because of the moment I experienced last night.