If you read my profile and other posts, my job as a part time educator is not new to you. Aside from my normal 8am to 5pm office job, I am humbled and grateful because I was given the opportunity to teach and mold the minds of these young people. I particularly teach college students. So what I exactly impart to my students are depicted in these pictures...


In house Campus Trade Show
  



External Trade Show at SMX Convention Center
  

Some Organic Dishwashing Liquid

Still at the SMX Trade Show


In house Campus Trade Show at the Food Section
 

At last, they made it at the SMX Trade Show!
 

Spot me! Do I look as young as them? ;-)
 The pictures show only the best parts of my teaching experiences. Before my students reached this point, they underwent a lot of lectures, writing, editing, cramming and facing the big D or we call it the Defense.

I handle research related subjects. I have an undergraduate degree in Economics, but my career brought me to research. I started as a researcher in an academic institution where I conduct studies as reference for management planning and decision making. After earning my MBA, I was given a teaching opportunity and that started everything. I initially taught Thesis Writing. But after a semester, my teaching assignment was converted to Business Plan Writing and Business Plan Implementation.

Students who are enrolled under Business Plan Writing are obviously required to produce a viable Business Plan. As their professor, I screen and develop my students' business ideas and organize them to a comprehensive Business Plan. I lecture all the chapters and procedures of  writing a Business Plan. The stressful part comes in the editing and improving their papers. On the average, I handle 11 Business Plans that I have to read, edit and monitor every week. I have to ensure that my students are progressing with their paper. It is usually at this point where my strength and patience are exhausted to the highest level. If I have 35 students, I have to deal with 35 different personalities. I have cooperative and obedient students though and I thank them for making things a bit easier for me. The troubles and problems arise from those students who don't submit output on deadlines, skip my lectures ending them unknowledgeable on the paper, too conceited and hard headed to accept corrections, submit low quality papers just to comply with the submission dates, and those who love to complain first, blah! blah! blah!, than to do the actual work. If I would enumerate all those uniquely stressing cases, I might end up building another blog for them. ;-)

Once my students are done with the full text of their Business Plan, they are required to undergo the big D. They have to present and defend their Business Plan to a three-man panel. If they passed the defense, they can proceed and enroll to the next course, Business Plan Implementation.

When I first handled Business Plan Writing and Implementation, it was also the first time the school implemented this curricula. We were all in the trial and learning stage. I am proud to have worked and learned a lot from this first hand experience. There was even a point when a not-so-pleasing student challenged the management of the school for implementing this curricula. The kid claimed that the school is doing something unnecessary. The kid even started a protest through a signature campaign. I chose not to find out who among my students supported the protest. But honestly, I felt betrayed knowing that some of my well trusted students supported an immature destabilizing attempt.

I see nothing wrong with voicing out your concerns and complaints to the school's management. But you also have to bear in mind that life also entails the need to follow rules and accepting the fact that things would not always happen the way you always wanted them.
Sorry for my side story. ;-)

During the Business Plan Implementation stage, my job as a teacher doesn't stop. At this point, I verify and monitor whether my students are really doing their businesses. My students by the way do real and legitimate businesses. They aren't those that are included in the informal sector. They have business permits and they are regisetred to government offices.

Aside from ensuring the smooth flow of their business operations, their participation both in the in house and external trade shows serve as their main project. The school organizes a trade show where my student entrepreneurs are given the chance to showcase and sell their products. They join trade shows that are participated by other businesses, which are managed by older and more experienced entrepreneurs. They may not know it, but seeing them there gives me more than happiness.

Handling Business Plan subjects is a serious and tough job. I have to endure the exhaustion of speaking for more than an hour, explaining every part of the paper to its tiniest detail, reading and correcting papers, and deal with all those unique personalities. I used to have a relatively healthy life before I became a part time educator. I get enough sleep and rest well during weekends. I miss those days. But when teaching came, it's like experiencing a 360 degrees turn.          

I do not know what is waiting for me over the next years. Will I be given another teaching job? Will I be brought to another job? One thing will however remain certain, my love and passion for teaching will always thrive in my heart.
 
Photo Credit: Thanks to my former student, Manilyn Gemoto, for allowing me to grab and use some of her pictures at Facebook