I’m a pre-school teacher and a networker also. After few years of working in the business i learned a lot of thing, and now that I’m a teacher and I work as a pre-school teacher, I realized, every teacher should learn some business skills.
When i was still at university learning about teaching, we learnd a lot of things, like the national days, pshcology and crocheting, while we didn’t learn nothing about communication. It is said that school is complete the home education, we teachers work together with the parents. How to work with someone, when you can’t communicate right? Sometimes it is easy to communicate with a parent, mostly when everything is perfect, but when there is a problem, everything turns into a mind game.
Lets use a fictional example. I see that a child show sign that something is not right, with they understanding. I can’t go to the parent and say that something is wrong with your child, you should bring them to a specialist and they can achive a big inprovmemt befor elementary school. If i do this, the parents became defensive, because it’s hard to accept that something is wrong with our child, everyone want’s to see the best in their child. Just like in business, let the other speak and ask questions, because the one asking questions is the one who controls the conversation. Back to the example, i can ask: How you see your child? How they listen to their parents? Was there any problem when they were a baby? Etc. Untill we get to the point that the parent realizes that there is a problem, because then we can offer help. If there is no problem in their mind, then why would they need help. Let’s say I have to sell them the help their child needs in this situation.
This was just one eay of using business in school and just one way of communicating with parents, there could be other types of parents, problems and if I want to be honest, most parent looks down on us and it’s worse for me because I’m young.
The other great way of using business methods is with the kids. The next example is a true story.
Before work I started reading Just Say Next! by John Fuhrman and at the beginning he talks about, how kids don’t give up until they get a yes. At the work place I had a great opportunity to try out the go until you get a yes. One of the three years olds was sitting at the table and shouting: Who wants to play with me? and when noone answerd he started crying. I told him to go up to other kids and ask them personally. He did that. He walked up to one child and asked him to play with him. Well that kid was busy with playing something, so he said no. What the kid who asked him did? Started crying that the other kid said no. Then I told him to ask everyone untill you get a yes, and he started asking everyone one by one and when he got a no, he just went to the next person and at the end he found a yes.
I think this example models business greatly. He went trough the steps of sitting and shouting, which didn’t work, then asking one person, which wasn’t enough, then working for his goal, by going untill the end. It was an eyeopening moment for me. A three years old did it and didn’t quit, so we adults can do it too. But I have to say, without me giving him advice, he would be still crying at the table, and me without meeting with networking and reading books anout it, i would have never give him this advice.
These are things, that I didn’t learn at the university but i use them almost everyday. That’s why I think we need to teach business, networking to teachers.
My Choice 