It is such a tremendous honor to be here today! Especially flattering is being chosen by our students to give this speech.

Families, friends and faculty, I want to say a few words towards acquainting you with the Class of 2005.

We have a very special group assembled here tonight.

If you look at things like SATs, ACTs, GPAs, Praxis scores, number of academic honors, placement rates this group is very competitive, often out-ranking their peers on campus, in other institutions within or outside the state.

They are brilliant, which of course shows in their choice of speaker.

Others recognize their brilliance as well.

After working with our student teachers this fall a teacher wrote about their “contagious enthusiasm”.

“They often help me rediscover why I became a teacher. Over and over again these students teach me as much about education as I am able to teach them. It is through their very "starry" eyes that I can once again envision the possibilities that exist for teachers to influence the future.”

Working with this group of new teachers I know they will continue to distinguish themselves as our graduates have in the past. Singing the praises of our teachers a hiring official from a large school district recently said,

“University of Iowa teachers have a strong sense of purpose. They understand why they went into teaching, know the value of fostering collaborative relationships with teachers and parents, and are committed to the growth of children. These teachers have a good understanding of technology and how it can be used in instruction. Iowa is by far the best.”

In terms of geography our graduates today are from all over the place.

From Denver Colorado to Nevada, Iowa
From Mount Pleasant, Iowa to Mount Prospect, Illinois
From Lake Bluff to Lake Forest
From New Hampton to New Vienna
From Arlington Heights to Soddy Daisy, Tennessee

This group did their student teaching in four different continents

In cities with less than four hundred people to school districts with over 400,000 students.

Close to a dozen programs areas are represented by this class from Art, Early Childhood, Elementary, Math, Music, Science, Special, and Social Studies Education.

Others will be teaching languages like English, Spanish, German and even Latin.

What brings these students with such varied backgrounds and interests together? What common traits or aspirations do they share?

Is it a sincere appreciation and deep fondness for ePortfolios? (inside joke)

I believe it is commitment and dedication to the most honorable of professions, teaching.

Anyone who has done anything of significance that contributed to our betterment has had a teacher to thank somewhere along the line. Everyone who does anything of value was not born knowing how to do it. Somewhere a teacher was there to show them the way.

Teachers are an important link to our past. We do not have to “reinvent the wheel” every generation.

When teachers teach and learners learn we build upon the knowledge passed on to us by untold generations.

In terms of words of advice from me tonight…

As you go out there experiment with new ideas and tactics. Try new things and new approaches.

Reflect back on your practices and think of ways you can improve on what you are doing.

You will not improve without thinking on how things were done in the past, worse yet you may repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

"Only those who do nothing make no mistakes."

Do not be afraid to imagine and explore different views and perspectives.

Maybe this is best illustrated by a story…

I’ve worked a lot in assistive technology, experimenting with technologies that can help people with disabilities.

For example a couple, a husband and wife, who were blind, took our technology course.

Our Teaching Assistants came together and worked hard to help out with things like providing Braille printouts of classroom materials making sure a program named JAWS was installed on computers in the lab. JAWS would speak any text going to the computer screen out-loud on the computer’s internal speaker.

The semester went well and at the end our Teaching Assistants were invited over to their home for a celebration.

The Teaching Assistants reported back they had a grand time.

One Teaching Assistant told me however there was something that was a little strange. The couple had computers but no monitors, there were no computer screens on their computers.

They didn’t need them, everything was spoken through the little speaker inside the computer.

In the end the couple said they felt a little sad and a little sorry for all of our screen dependencies.

Class of 2005 our future will soon be sitting in your classrooms.

Families, friends and faculty let’s give a round of applause in recognition that with these teachers the future of education is in good hands!

And as always, Go Hawks!