My Example of Teaching

The National Beta Club is a an honor organization, that focuses on service to others. Today we were to have a Beta meeting. We've built our club up so that we can't all fit in any of the available classrooms, so we've moved to the cafeteria and were to begin as the middle school kids cleared out. Imagine tables after 400+ teenagers have eaten. Clean is not a descriptor. 


Because I am one of the sponsors, and closest in proximity to the cafeteria, I arrived early. Middle schoolers were still eating and playing and lining up and being kids in the cafeteria. The workers were in the kitchen and had not begun cleaning tables, so I set my things down and quickly grabbed a cloth and bucket of cleaning solution. 


I wanted to be able to begin our meeting right away because time was limited with lots to do, but I did not want to sit at the dirty tables. By the time the Betas were called to the meeting and arrived, I had cleaned most of the tables. 

They were surprised to find me washing down tables and asked me why I was doing that...it's not my job, they reminded me. Our meeting began on time, and we managed to get to everything on the agenda. Later, when students asked me again about cleaning the tables, I told them simply that the tables needed cleaning. At that point they realized that I'd cleaned all the tables--not just my own--and thanked me. I believe in teaching by example. 

"Children may think about what I say; they learn from what I do; and they never forget how I make them feel."