Steemit To Fuel A Teacher's Passion To Teach

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During the question and answer session with my students after yesterday's Steemit sharing session, the topic on the teacher's pay was brought up. Now, I am thankful for my job but its rewards are lacking, monetarily speaking. Googling the statement 'teachers aren't paid enough' would bring you to many articles dedicated to the topic.

One of the key concerns of the teachers lack of pay is the large exodus of skilled teachers to other jobs that pay more. Some of these jobs are not teaching related. Furthermore, teaching has been seen as an undesirable choice by many fresh graduates. This is due to the perceived extreme demands placed on them and low salary given. This is based on my experience talking to some of the other teachers I know from other countries.

The students from the sharing session had an idea what awaited them upon their graduation. Thus, I pointed out a few reasons as to how Steemit could help them. The first point of course, is the social aspect of Steemit.

Getting Engaged With Other Teachers

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Throughout my time on Steemit, I have come to know some truly amazing education content creators. These Steemians include @hanshotfirst, @giantbear, @flaversham, @heartscally, @upsydaisy and many others. These Steemians have been inspirational in helping me creating my own content. If teaching is the giving of knowledge, then you are only able to give as much as you have. Thus, there is also a need to receive from others in order to boost one's teaching capacity.

It is possible to receive from academic journals and conferences. But these formal input of knowledge can be enhanced with some of the fun and interesting perspectives that can be found in these content creators' posts. I once wrote a few posts relating Star Wars to teaching and got a visit from Anakin.. I mean, @lordvader himself. Such engagements can't be found in real life and Steemit is a great place to help a teacher in training grow by engaging with other Steemians who are of the teaching profession, as well as those who aren't.

Steemit For a Living & Teach For Fun

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All of us who have continued to create content on Steemit know of its potential. It wouldn't be far-fetched to say that the price of one Steem would be in double digits in the near future. With its tremendous potential, I shared that my dream one day is to post on Steemit for a living and teach for fun. I would not mind heading to school or university in the morning to teach and focus on creating content on Steemit in my spare time.

That would be the ultimate dream. It wouldn't be impossible especially when the price of Steem and Steem dollars grow. I pointed out that this could be possible for my students as well. They have 5 more years of studying left. It is possible that their payouts could be used to supplement their tuition and daily expenses as well. After all, they are already posting on Facebook and some of them even blog. Thus, it would not be a huge paradigm shift for them to start doing the same on the many avenues of the Steem blockchain as well.

The Positive Impact Fund

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As I spoke to the students on the near future, I pointed out that throughout their career as a teacher, they would need to set aside a fund called the positive impact fund. This fund is required to pay for school supplies and the occasional pizza party with the class. This is important as students learn with their minds but they would only do so if you have won their hearts.

As much as giving inspirational quotes and stories in class helps, actions do speak louder than words. Giving a student money when their family is in trouble or just buying a hungry student a meal will inspire the child in more ways than you can think. In addition, it can be difficult to teach as well without school supplies and at times, some students are just not able to afford it. That's where the positive impact fund comes in.

I set aside some Steem dollars for this. The Mcdonalds' lunch for the students yesterday was paid in Steem dollars. Well, actually, it was converted to Ethereum, and later to my local currency. However, you get the picture. If a large end of the year party is needed and there is no funding, the positive impact fund comes into play.

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I also love how @ethandsmith used Steemit to raise funds for school supplies. It all went quite well and this was suggested to the students as well.

Conclusion

Steemit is a community of some really great people and I think most of us here strive to be a positive impact. It may be being a positive impact to our students or to our community, but because of the payout potential, there is much good that can be achieved through this platform. This is especially true for a teacher. For most of us, fundraising is part of our job description and personally I am happy that I can do this through Steemit. It definitely beats raising funds by washing other people's cars.

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