Celebrate the PR Educator

In my December 21^st blog post, I announced that #PRStudChat would move forward with themed Twitter discussions. I also discussed that this week’s chat would “Focus on the Educator.”  It’s our way of thanking educators for their hard work and for bringing real world learning into the classroom for students to experience public relations.

When I was in grade school, I used to think that having a teaching job was really easy.  After all, you get the summer off.  Both of my parents were teachers at the time.  My mom taught for many years before she became an educational consultant, and my dad started out as a teacher, became principal and the Superintendant of my school system before he retired.  I guess I never paid attention to how they worked and the long hours they kept.  Today, I know differently, having taught for Fairleigh Dickinson University’s (FDU) Global Business Management program for more than six years. Teaching is a passion, with countless hours of preparation.

I was interested to see how Americans celebrate the teaching profession, so I looked up American Education Week.  According to the NEA website, “NEA’s American Education Week (AEW) spotlights the importance of providing every child in America with a quality public education from kindergarten through college, and the need for everyone to do his or her part in making public schools great.”

However, I didn’t see any type of celebration specifically focused on the college/university professor who teaches the youth leaders of the future.  When I “Googled” Professor Appreciation, I came up with links to Teacher’s Day, and Teacher Appreciation Week and National College Week.  Please feel free to share any other ways that we appreciate the educator!

Because it is so important to celebrate the College/University professor, we have created our #PRStudChat session in appreciation of the educator.  The discussion on Wednesday, January 13^th will honor all of our participating educators, and some of our very special guests will include:

Terri Bailey (@tabfla , Florida Gulf Coast University)

Suzanne Carbonaro (@suzieprof , Rider University)

Kalene Elizabeth  (@Kaleneelizabeth, Humber  College)

Mary Ann Ferguson( @Fergi22 , University of Florida)

Melanie James ( @melanie_james ) University of Newcastle

Emily Kinsky (@ekinsky, Pepperdine University)

Brooke Fisher Liu (@bfliu , University of Maryland)

Ellen Mrja (@ellenm53 , Minnesota State University)

Barbara Nixon (@BarbaraNixon, Georgia Southern University)

Dara Quackenbush (@Dquack, Texas State)

Karen Russell (@KarenRussell, University of Georgia )

It’s wonderful that @Journchat is also celebrating the educator this week.  Tonight’s #journchat has a very special guest, NYU Professor Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu).  Don’t miss this exciting event, which takes place every Monday night from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

I hope you will join us on the 13^th for a very dynamic Twitter discussion.  We also have our student guest moderator, Mikinzie (@mikinzie) who will guide the conversation.  Valerie (@valeriesimon) and I will be hosting the event and look forward to chatting with you then!