Professor for a Day

When I was little, one of my favorite things to do was to pretend to teach! I would have my stuffed animals and Barbie dolls sitting as I would proceed to “lecture” them on my big white board in my game room! I never thought to pursue a career in teaching, as I felt God calling me elsewhere. But you better believe that I jumped on the opportunity to play professor for a day when I was asked to teach the Abnormal Psychology class at Oral Roberts University! From a career perspective, this is an amazing opportunity. However, I had so much fun at the thought of getting to live out one of my childhood pastimes on a larger and professional scale!

It was not too long ago when I was in college and graduate school. So I thought about what I wish some of my classes would have been like and took that approach! Instead of doing a typical presentation that is lecture style, I decided to have a more interactive format. I wanted to the students to ask questions and brainstorm ideas together. I wanted them to truly learn what I was teaching them instead of just sitting through another class. I also found out ahead of time that the students had been learning about mental disorders in adults. Since mental health also affects children, I geared my class specifically towards this age group so the students could learn more about a population that they could come across in their future careers. As I was preparing for this class, I did a simplified version of my presentation to some of my 6th grade students at work. I figured that middle school students are WAY more intimidating than college students. So if I could get through 45 minutes with them, then I was sure the college students would be a breeze! All in all, my middle school students loved the presentation, and the college students had so much fun interacting, that it made for an awesome class. The professor told me that he is still getting positive feedback from my time with them.

It is opportunities like these that have made being Miss International such a blessing! I can’t wait to see what is in store as I finish my last few months!

Continuing to break the stigma,

Elise Banks
Miss International 2015