Unit 13: BECOMING THE CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL

By Dr. Pat Moody University of South Carolina If you really want to become an excellent teacher, you need to decide early in your career that you want to be the consummate professional business educator. There are teachers and there are teachers, but the very best ones are those whom we look to for professional leadership. You will get out of teaching what you give. In fact, the more you give to your students, to your profession, to your colleagues, the better teacher you will become and the more rewards you will have. If you have pride in your profession and if you truly believe you have a job where you can make a dramatic difference in students lives, then you will want to work hard on becoming a professionalnot just another teacher. If you are a professional, you own the discipline. You feel that this discipline is a part of you, and you are a part of the profession. From this ownership, teachers assume responsibility for the care and nurturing of the profession. There is no doubt that the very best teachers are true professionals. They are the ones who will make exceptional contributions to their students, their colleagues and the profession. It may be easier to just get by and let somebody else do it. You may be scoffed at by seasoned teachers who have fallen into a pattern of doing enough to get by, but you should not let these people change your desire to become a professional business educator. If you sit in the teachers lounge for very long, you will see some people who have become jaded to the educational process. Some of them have given up on studentsand students have given up on them. You can try to lift them up, but you must not let them drag you down. Be nice to everybodythats part of being a professional, but dont let negative people discourage you. Surround yourself with energetic, caring colleagues who are making a difference and who give you energy. Share your enthusiasm for students and teaching with other professionals. Professionals are always becoming. They never quite get to the point that they think they know enough, have made enough contributions, have done more than their share. As a professional, you will always be changing. First, you will be growing in knowledge, character, ability, and interests. Second, you will be moving up the ladder in your professional organizations, and you will change and get better as you take on new

responsibilities. Third, you will begin to see that others respect for you is increasing, both in your school and in your community. To become a professional, you will have to give more, but you will get more. You will become a more confident person, you will make life-long friends, and most important, you will bring so much more to your classroom and to your students if you are a professional.

So What Is A Professional?
Professionals have many characteristics in common. They may be different in many ways, but there are some things that are true about all professionals: They care about their students, colleagues, and the profession enough to give more than they have to. They never have a Let someone else do it attitude. They are willing to do their share, and they will do the dirty work as quickly as the glory work. They think, speak, act, and dress like professionals. They meet and greet people comfortably. It has been said that in life in order to get what you want, you must look like you already have it. Professionals know that they represent their schools and themselves and that they need to look like somebody. You will see many teachers who come to school looking like they are going to a cookout in someones back yard and perhaps no one will say anything to them. You, on the other hand, need to have pride in your appearance and should model appropriate business dress for your students, many of whom will have no role model except you. Observe the people who are highly respected by students, administrators, and colleagues in the schools where you are teaching or observing. These are the ones to emulate as you shape your own professional stature. Your job as a business teacher is to look like you mean business! Professionals demonstrate the entire Ive got it together package, including professional business cards. Have business cards printed or make your own. Use them beginning now. Business cards will elevate your status among other professionals. You will be asked often, Do you have a card? Since you are a businessperson, your card should reflect that fact. Avoid too much flamboyancy, color, etc. when designing your business card. You want to look like a businessperson, and you want to be taken seriously by other professionals.

They join their professional organizations and become active members. In your case, the professional organizations you need to join are the National Business Education Association (NBEA) and your state business education organization. You might also consider joining the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) and its state association for legislative action. You may need to join other organizations at the local level, but those listed above are a must for professional business educators. As you know, joining NBEA is a requirement for this course. You will use NBEA publications throughout the course. This requirement is designed to get you off on the right foot and to have you start thinking and acting like a professional early in your career. Certainly, you should do more than just join an organization. You should become active immediately by attending the conferences, volunteering to help on special projects, and by letting it be known that you would like to serve on a committee. Leaders are always looking for new teachers to involve in the professional organizations. If you want an opportunity, all you have to do is ask. Tell the President that you want to be involved. If someone asks you to do a job, it is imperative that you do it right. If you earn the reputation of someone who does not follow through, you will make a bad impression, and then it becomes difficult for you to get other opportunities. By all means, you should try to attend a NBEA convention. This convention is the premier conference in your discipline. Here you will meet people who are immersed in the same courses as you are. You will learn new technology and software. You will hear excellent speakers on subjects that you are teaching. You will, of course, be among other professionals from across the country who love the field and what they are doing. You will find this convention inspiring and rejuvenating, and you will soon have a network of friends in many parts of the country with whom you can share ideas. In addition, you have the added benefit of the excellent publications offered by NBEA. You will find these publications to be very valuable throughout this course. Likewise, you will soon be using these publications frequently as you develop lesson plans. As you gain experience and confidence, you may even

want to write for these publications yourself. Professional Student Organizations. The student organizations provide the opportunity to showcase our students. Through the student organizations, students have opportunities to put into practice many of the things they have learned in the classroom. The Business classroom provides an environment for students to explore career interests; learn and practice citizenship, social, and leadership skills; and develop a commitment to community, state, and country. Through the student organizations, students can apply the knowledge and skills from the classroom. Two student organizations are available to Business students Business Professionals of America and the Future Business Leaders of America. All teachers should serve as advisers and should integrate organization activities into their Business classrooms. Membership and organization. Student organization activities conducted within the classroom should be available to all students enrolled in the Business classes. Local membership may extend to activities beyond the classroom. Regional, state, and national activities are open to students who have state and national membership. Questions on membership, chartering school chapters of these associations, and other questions may be addressed to: Business Professional of America 5454 Cleveland Avenue Columbus, OH 43231-4021 614-895-7277 bpa@ix.netcom.com Future Business Leaders of America Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. 1912 Association Drive Reston, VA 20191-1591 800-FBLA-WIN general@fbla.org Professionals have excellent spoken and written communication skills, and they use these abilities to promote their programs, their students, and themselves. As a professional business educator, you

will need to be able to recruit students from many sources. You will have to be able to meet with parents and discuss their childrens progress in a professional manner that commands parents respect and confidence in you and in your school. You will need to be able to attend a community organization and sell your program. You might have an opportunity to meet with the school board or your superintendent or principal in an effort to sell your program or a particular project. It is very important that your written communications reflect a positive impression of you and your program. Never send out anythingletters, newsletters, tests, notices, emailsthat are not representative of the professional image you want to portray. Excellent oral and written communications are imperative for a professional business educator so you will need to do everything possible to become an excellent communicator. If you dont feel confident in your ability to speak well, you might want to join a Toastmasters organization to improve your confidence. Professionals are known for their diplomacy and attitude. They do not discuss their private business at work; they do not enter into discussions about their colleagues; and they never discuss colleagues with students or parents in a disparaging manner even if the colleague leaves a lot to be desired as a professional. True professionals always speak well of their program, students, school, and administrators. As a professional, you should avoid bashing administrators just because they are in that role and just because it appears to be the thing to do. Chances are good that you would make the same decisions if you were in the position and had the same information they have. You are much more likely to get support for your program if you support your administrators and the goals they are trying to accomplish. A good rule is never to speak negatively about your colleagues inside or outside of the school. Professionals are stable and consistent. They have control of their emotions, and they dont fly off the handle. Their demeanor and conduct are not up and down to such a degree that no one knows what to expect. Professionals dont whine, complain, and criticize. They dont talk about their health, how bad everything is, and they do not display an aint it awful attitude. We tend to avoid people who are inconsistent in their behavioror who are consistently

negative about everything. Listen to yourself. If you sound negative most of the time, you need to work on your own attitude before you take this behavior into a classroom and inflict it on students. Professionals have a great sense of humor. They see the humor in most things and in most people. They can laugh at themselves. Professionals know how to diffuse a difficult situation by using appropriate humor. They also know what kinds of humor are inappropriate and always careful not to make a joke at someone elses expense, especially students. Professionals should be able to laugh with students, but never at them. We should establish a respectful environment in our classrooms where are students feel invited, accepted, and comfortable. No student should ever be ridiculed in front of his or her peers. Excellent classroom teachers almost always interject humor into their classes. Humor is like a magnetit attracts people. If you can get students attention with humor, you can slip in knowledge so much easier, and they will remember it much better. Someone has said that retention is increased 800 percent when students are having fun. While it is true that all education does not have to be and cannot always be fun. Conversely, a classroom with no humor and fun is missing one of the greatest motivational strategies used by professionals. Professionals are totally committed to students and to their program. They are committed to growing their programs, to seeing students become as successful and confident as they can, to selling their programs everywhere they can. Professionals are consensus builders. They know how to negotiate and compromise when necessary to achieve a bigger goal. They are skillful at bringing people to a good conclusion. They understand the fact that politics exists, and that in order to get something accomplished, the political network must be taken into consideration. Networking is a very important skill used by professionals. You can never accomplish by yourself what you can by working with other people and groups of people. Begin immediately to network with all kinds of organizations and people from all walks of life. As a beginning teacher, you will want to know the newspaper reporters, the State Department officials, the School Board

members, and guidance counselors who will determine how many students go into your program. Counselors should be treated as VIPs. Invite them to your classes when you are doing something new and different. They will talk about your program to many students so you want to impress them as soon as you can. J. W. Marriott said, Friends do business with friends. This is a very important statement for you to practice and an equally important principle for you to teach your students. If you are becoming a professional teacher yourself, you are much more likely to be developing professionalism in your students as well. It is very difficult to teach something you are not doing yourself. Business teachers should be a model of what their students should become. Your program should have an excellent Advisory Board. Many programs have Advisory Boards in name only, and this is a serious mistake. If you choose wisely and get the right people on your board, they can help you in many ways. First, they can advocate on your behalf with other community members. They can talk to the School Board and make statements that may be difficult for you. They can solicit businesses to help you purchase equipment or sponsor a student group. Build an excellent relationship with a newspaper reporter for the local newspaper. Provide them information on a regular basis about your students success. Take responsibility for your programs public relations program. Professionals keep parents informed. They send information home frequently to parents to let them know how their children are doing. An especially good practice is to send good news letters to parents about their children. No matter how old the student is, he or she loves to get these letters and so do parents. Spread good news everywhere and every way you possibly can. Spread good news about students who are not accustomed to hearing compliments. You might see an amazing difference in these students attitudes. Basically, you are saying, Johnny is doing well because I am his teacher. Thank people when they help you, especially parents, businesspeople, guidance counselors, and guest speakers. If a mentor teacher does something nice for you, send him or her a card or bring a rose to class. You can never thank people too often, and it is a positive reflection on you as a professional. Put your praise in writing. There

is something about written words of praise that have a lasting impact on people. Dont forget to praise your students in writing. Just a simple note on their homework or test papers can work miracles. Begin your career by projecting a professional image from the beginning. Immerse yourself in all facets of your profession that make you the consummate professional business educator. Make up your mind to become a leader in your profession by first becoming a positive role model in your classroom for your students and in your school and community.

An Example of Professionalism
This course has been developed by the cooperative work of a group of professionals who care enough about the discipline to freely give their time, talents, knowledge and energies to provide a methods course that is greatly needed by people all across the country. This course is the foundation of the profession. While each of the committee members has given a great deal to the final course, each has also had the opportunity to learn from their colleagues and to know they have made a lasting and significant contribution to the profession. They have nurtured the profession and collectively have developed a course that is far better than one that any of the committee members could have designed alone. While working with this group, we have seen demonstrated: enthusiasm, humor, years of experience, dedication, leadership, unselfishness, wisdom, technology expertise, vision, loyalty, friendship, and genuine caring about the profession. As you work through this course, you will see woven throughout the narratives, exercises, and assignments the true meaning of professionalism, and you will experience a course that is the best of all of us.