Carla Martindale

I would just say my natural ability. I always joke and say, I wish when I was in college, I knew I had the skill of being able to learn software and teach it. But it just came about being in the right place at the right time, and having an opportunity that sort of opened it up to me to realize I'm good at this. It was just one of those twist of fate, you know? I have a knack of being able to learn software programs and to be able to relay that to students, whether they're adults or children, so that they can understand it and apply it.

That's a difficult one, because during the time that I started in the workforce, women were really just starting to get their foothold in non-traditional jobs. And I made a lot of personal sacrifices in order to further my career. I didn't know how to balance. It was either one or the other. And so, if they can find a way to balance having the career they want, pursuing the career that they want, and being able to pursue relationships, a family, you know, that's great, but you gotta find that balance. From the School of Hard Knocks, I'll say this: even though you may feel that you are perfectly qualified for a particular position or job, that doesn't mean you're going to get it when you look at obtaining a promotion in a position that you're in. But the key is to just suck up the disappointment and just keep moving forward, because somewhere out there, there's someone that's gonna recognize your abilities and reward you for it.

One of the biggest challenges is staying up to date, because everything is changing so quickly. Actually, this summer, I'm doing self-study on AI, because that's something we don't cover at the school, but I'm like, okay, I think I need to learn about this because the kids are all talking about it, and the English teachers are having a hard time with the students using AI to write papers. So I'm hoping that maybe I can give them some hints on how to make it a little bit more difficult for students to use AI to write their papers. The other challenge is sometimes I get students in my classes who have no desire to learn software programs, not like Microsoft programs. But I tell them it's just not about using Word or using PowerPoint, but it's being able to learn software and apply it. So when they get that certification, it shows that they have that ability to learn complex applications and apply them in a certain way. Because every job they go on, they're gonna have to learn some software, and so I try to get them to understand that's what that certification proves, that they have that ability.

People being upfront and being able to back up what they say, follow through. I believe in teaching people how to do things rather than doing it for them - you know, teach a man to fish, rather than give him a fish. If you know you can do something for someone, I'm happy to show you how to do it, but I may not necessarily do it for you. Sometimes it's hard to navigate people like that because they're gonna stick to that 'I'll never learn how to do this' kind of thing, hoping that you will step in and do it for them. So I like to see that people at least try. They may try it and mess it up, and I may have to fix it, but at least they tried.