Mentor Teleconference - October 30, 2018 | 5pm CT

@hopeful33250 it is unusual to be both. None of the rest of us had any creativity. My daughter does have some creativity though. Despite starting out as a physics major she wanted a liberal arts college so it would have some of the arts too. She ended up dropping physics and is now a writer.
Jane

I have a Master's Degree in English, with sub majors in sociology and education. My passion was always English and Composition. After my Master's, I took enough hours to be 1/2 way to a PHD. That had to stop for family reasons. I never wanted to be anything but a classroom teacher, and I worked my passion for 42 years. In an exclusive private school I taught AP English Literature and Composition to 12th graders. I taught AP English Language and Composition for 11th graders, and taught Honors English for 10th graders. In addition to the classroom, I coached Oral Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Competitive Composition
I also taught college classes when it was called English 101 (the beginning English class required for college freshmen). At the same college, I taught high school students from four counties in a program called Upward Bound. This brought together students in poverty areas who had never had anyone in their families attend college. I taught them English and Composition every Saturday for four years and six weeks in the summer. Then the program was terminated.
I also taught Boy Scouts in the summer so that they could get their Communication Badge (that was before computers). I have taught Sunday School and Bible School. My whole life has revolved around teaching.
I often make typographical errors because I never had typing (keyboarding as it's called now). I hunt and peck because I attended an excellent college prep high school. I took Latin, not typing or anything related to business.
I intended to die teaching. I thought I would probably be scanning a poem or teaching Theatre of the Absurd or giving an AP Prep test and would just drop dead when I was 100 years old. But The Good Lord had other plans that meant I could no longer teach.
It was all I ever wanted to do. I would have done it for free! So every day I do grieve for what I thought would be, and then I think of something else realizing it was not meant for me to continue. I do not consider myself retired because learning, researching, reading, and writing continue to be my passions.
I continue to take classes when it's time so that I will always have an active Teaching Certificate. I will never let that lapse, if I can prevent it. I could tell you more, but this is sufficient and is more information than you wanted to know.
Carol, @retiredteacher
Volunteer Mentor

Scott, is this the first time the "dog ate my...." excuse is legitimate? Glad the pup is OK though! When my dog was a pup he was mostly well-behaved, other than his obsession with chewing up any and all blankets. He would chew little circular holes in them. Luckily, it never bunched up in his stomach.

I also regret not being able to make it last night as well. Evenings are difficult if my wife is working as we have a toddler at home who is not exactly quiet 🙂 I look forward to meeting many of you in person when I have the chance. I also would like to extend my thank you to all of you as you are all a huge reason why Connect is so successful.

@retiredteacher You certainly taught a lot of high-level students and classes. I think you are smart to keep up your teaching credentials, whether or not you ever do use them. It's simply a matter of pride and accomplishment.
You were fortunate to have had 42 years doing something you loved so much, and I'm sure your students were very fortunate also. There is nothing better for learning than to have a teacher who really is passionate about teaching and wanting to help their students. I think that excites the desire to learn in the students. Bad teachers of course do just the opposite.
Jane

Hello @llwortman

You have mentioned several times about a CD you have used for breathing. Could you tell me how I could get a copy of that? Is it available on Mayo's website?

Hi, @retiredteacher - years ago, when I worked in the office full-time in Mayo Clinic Public Affairs (I'm part-time working from home now) we had a former news media relations employee who'd been a stay-at-home mom for many years - and did a little freelance writing -come in for 3 months to cover another media relations employee's maternity leave. She was totally overwhelmed by how much technology had moved since she'd been working full-time. There were all kinds of things she felt she didn't know how to do, even though she had all the work experience and head knowledge from many years before. She was pretty discouraged and questioned her utility.

I remember talking to her and telling her "It's just tools. Those can be learned. What's so valuable is you and who you are, and all the previous work experience and knowledge you bring to the table."

I'd really say just the same to you, Carol. Your experiences and knowledge you bring to the table, and who you are are what's truly key and what will help make you a wonderful mentor. The rest are "just tools." You can learn them, and we are here to help. It may take some time, and I hope you can be easy on yourself.

Colleen will be a great coach to learn some of the tools.

@johnbishop,

I was so bad in art that my art teacher in high school tried giving me a C on a project. I had to convince her to still give me a good grade in the class. I lobbied that although all of my projects were admittedly quite bad, I was trying and completing things on time, they just looked like I rushed them last minute 🙂 . My lobbying worked as I still got an A in my art classes, but my projects never got any better.

Just an amazing story about advocating for yourself, @JustinMcClanahan!

@JustinMcClanahan you did great by lobbying your art teacher. Didn't work for me with my high school English teacher when I was a senior. He pulled two of us out of class one at a time to talk with us about an open book test he gave the previous day. He took my out second and when the other kid came back he said if he says anything punch him. I was worried walking down the hall and going into the room where the teacher was waiting. He showed me two papers that were word the same with essay type questions with a grade of Zero at the top. I told him that's not fair you know I didn't copy his paper. He sits behind me. He basically said he has to give us both a zero and that was that. I was fuming so when I got back to class I wrote a short poem and tacked it on his bulletin board on the way out of class. His name was Mr. Beard.

I once had a teacher who's name stood for goatee,
His ego was huge and so was he.
He tried to be funny when he was in class,
But all he did was act like an xxx.

When I came to class the next day I was surprised to see my poem still on his bulletin board but he had graded it an gave it an A minus. He didn't say a word to me but I did transfer to a different English class the following semester which was a mistake because my new teacher was an ex-Marine who was really strict. But then again, I did learn a lot from him and I always guarded my test papers in class ☺

My favorite grade 1 teacher, Mrs. Anyan, politely called me a "social butterfly" on my report card, saying "Colleen is a social butterfly and loves to help others. I encourage her to concentrate on her work and let her classmates do the same." Didn't she nail it? Little did she realize that the behavior that might have been disruptive in the classroom would actually turn into an international career in online patient communities. Tee hee.