My Third Career Day

I've been working at my old school three days a week. It's actually been great! I don't have all the pressures of being a teacher as I tutor and substitute and I get to be with my friends there.

On Friday, we had Career Day. This is one of my favorite elementary school days. My school growing up didn't have Career Day but they were prominently displayed on my favorite TV shows like Full House. I think Career Day is a great idea to help kids see what types of jobs they can have when they grow up.

The event is set-up so that each class gets at least 9 presenters. This is great but the sheer number of participants means that some presenters will be duds. Some people's jobs are too complicated or too uninteresting for children. Some people are too complicated or uninteresting for children. This time I was subbing for a fourth grade class that got really engaging speakers.

We started with a lawyer, who did a decent job of explaining his profession to the kids. Then we had a woman from the city's gang prevention task force. She knew how to talk to children and had a nice powerpoint. My favorite part of her presentation was when she showed a picture of a woman with short blonde hair. (The presenter was a Hispanic woman with dark hair.) She asked who the picture was of and one of the kids said it was her. In fact, it was our mayor. Our kids really don't know much about our city government or apparently the difference between grown women of different ethnicities. The third speaker of that group was a judge, who looked to be about 25 but I am sure that was not the case.

The next group was probably the most interesting. The funny part of the presentations is that the other two presenters just stand there while one person is talking. It is interesting to try to guess what the other presenters do for a living before they speak. The cop was in uniform and he went first. Just before he came in, one of the kids had said he wanted to be a police officer so it was great timing. The cop was quite a character and I am pretty sure he would have talked the whole time if he'd been allowed. The kids started asking him if he'd fired pretty much every weapon that ever existed. I don't know if it's a good thing that they are so familiar with various weapons of mass destruction. While the cop was talking, I tried to figure out what the other people did for a living. There was an old guy who looked like a professor and a youngish guy who frankly, looked like a drug dealer. He wasn't dressed up at all and he had two facial piercings. I figured they wouldn't let a drug dealer in for Career Day so I guessed that he owned an auto body shop. Then when he began presenting, it was clear. He was Dave Morales, a DJ for local radio station, 96.5. He definitely had a great radio voice. He had the kids name their favorite singers and then told stories about how he'd met almost all of them. I think a girl almost fainted when he said he'd met Justin Beiber. It was hilarious! The old guy turned out to be an electrical designer, which simply can't follow after a cop and someone who's actually met the Beiber. Poor guy. It's like the year my dad, the lawyer had to follow the animal cop. He tried his best, though.

One of our last presenters was a retired educator whose son is our school's namesake. He was a state representative who died in a car crash. Then we had the most successful African American ballerina in Houston and a guy that worked at the Children's Museum. Overall it was a fun day and I think all the kids want to be cops or Djs now.