Biologist

We had a visit from Dr. Webber, a scientist from Loyola University.  He is specifically a Biologist that studies body systems and how the body works.  He also teaches classes to medical students at Loyola.  He has been in his job for 44 years!

When Dr. Webber was a boy, he liked to take things apart and learn how the pieces went together.  This was his beginning of learning.  He told us he speaks a different language: MATH!  He was also always fascinated by science and continues to love it today.

Dr. Webber went to college and graduate school.  He also travels a lot.  He loves to go to new places and learn as much as possible.  He's been to over 25 different countries!

He sets his own schedule when he is working in the lab, and has a set weekly schedule for his classes.  Dr. Webber works with technology such as computers and lasers.  He uses it to record some of his lectures too so the students can see them from home as well.

The most inspiring thing about his position is that he can share what he discovers with other people.  He thinks it is better to work on a team so you can help others more.  He really doesn't have anything that is bad about his job.  He says sometimes he is so involved, he loses track of time and works longer than expected.  The most favorite part of his job is working with the students and teaching them.

Dr. Webber brought some cool science tools for us to see.  He brought some real bones (hand and foot), a skull, and a plastic brain that his students use to learn.  It was really cool to see!  We loved learning about being a biologist from Dr. Webber!

By: Our Third Grade Class

General Contractor

Our presenter was Mr. Marth.  He is a General Contractor and the owner of RMD Construction.  His company was opened 7 years ago and it is a family business. 

Mr. Marth went to college for construction management for 4 years.  His father was a builder so he grew up learning the job.  He had a lot of experience so he opened his own business. 

Mr. Marth’s job is like a coach.  He is in charge of all the people that do the different parts of the project like the electricians, plumbers, framers, etc.  He is the leader or coach and checks that everyone is doing the right thing throughout the process.  He also makes sure everyone gets paid.  He works closely with his customers to find out what they are looking for in their project.  He listens to them, draws up what they want, sends it to an architect to make blueprints, and then works with the city to make sure all the requirements are met.

Mr. Marth does work with technology.  His days can be long or short depending on the project he is working on.  The best part of his job is working with the homeowners.  The worst and scariest part of his job is when someone has an accident.

Mr. Marth brought a set of real blueprints for us to see in class.  We loved learning from Mr. Marth!

NASA Astronaut

 We had a real NASA astronaut Skype with the whole third grade.  His name was Daniel Tani.  His job is so interesting!  He flew in space!

Mr. Tani earned a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984 and a Masters Degree in 1988.

His first job was an engineer.  He worked with some people from NASA and found out he could apply to be an astronaut.  He was accepted and became an Astronaut candidate in 1996 with NASA.  He went through two years of training and was then picked to go on his first expedition.

Mr. Tani went into space on two missions.  The first was when he lived at the International Space Station for 4 months with two other people.  The second was three years later when he was a part of the Space Shuttle Endeavor and was there for two weeks.   He was in space for 132 days.

Mr. Tani talked about how it is to live in space.  He liked the food, he loved looking out the window, and he really enjoyed floating all over!

Mr. Tani now works with the rocket ships and no longer will go into space.  He wants to stay on Earth for his family. 

His visit was amazing and gave us a lot of information!

Victoria, Isabella and Saja

Web/App Designer

 Our presenter today was Ms. Tea Palella.  She called us through Skype and talked to us about her job as a Web/App Designer.  She is also a Teacher for college students and she races motorcycles! 

As a Web Designer, she makes web pages and software for libraries and schools.  She experiments with all different kinds of technology for her job so she can make sure she is doing the best job.

Ms. Palella went to DeVry to earn her Bachelor’s Degree and graduated in two years.  She then received her Master’s Degree in Computer Science.

She can work from home, and works about 8-10 hours a day.  She does not need to travel for her job because she is connected through technology to many places.  She may travel if she need to attend a conference.

For her teaching job, she teaches classes in Computer Science and how to create web pages and applications.  She teaches at a private college and has about 30 students in each class.

She chose her career because she loves technology and likes to play with it to learn new things.  She said that if you “work hard”, you can “play hard.”  We thought her job was a cool one!

Fouzaan and Avery

Fireman

We were lucky to have Firemen and Paramedics come to our school to tell us about their job.  They came from the Tri-State Fire Department.

There were about eight men that came to talk with us.  They began with a talk about fire safety with smoke detectors, escape routes, and what to do in your house. 

Most firemen go through about two years of college and then they have to become certified, which is about 6-12 weeks of classes.  For a paramedic, more schooling is needed.

The day for a firemen begins with drills so they can keep practicing in case of a fire.  They also make sure all the equipment is clean and in order.  Firemen do not travel much for their job unless they go somewhere to learn more or do training.

The best part of their job is when they save someone’s life.  The worse part of their job is losing someone.  The scariest is when they have to go into a burning building with barely any fresh air.

We had so much fun seeing them.  We were able to see the trucks and ambulance!  We are thankful for their visit!

Casey, Nico, and Matthew

P.E. Teacher/Olympic Torch Experience

We were able to Skype with Jon Tait, a Physical Education teacher from the U.K.  He was chosen to carry the Olympic Torch for the 2012 Summer Olympics. 

His mom nominated him to carry the torch.  He was a good P.E. teacher and a good member of his community in the United Kingdom.  He was really thankful that he was chosen for this honor.

Mr. Tait practiced and trained before the day came for him to take the torch and pass it onto the next person.  He wanted to make sure he wouldn’t drop it!  He ran for about a mile, but wished he didn’t go so fast.  He wishes he could carry the torch again.  It was the proudest moment of his life!

Mr. Tait showed us the torch.  He still has it and always will.  It just can’t be lit anymore.  The torch is not made out of real gold because then it would be too expensive to make and too heavy to hold.  It is triangular in shape to represent the Olympic values and motto.  The Values are respect, excellence, and friendship, and the motto is Faster, Higher, Stronger.

We were able to talk with his eight year old son, Robbie, as well.  It was neat to hear his son and how proud he was of his dad.

Mr. Tait showed us how we can make a difference no matter who we are or what our job is.  He is an inspiration and it was fun to learn about his experience!

Kyle, Sophie, and Stephanie

Chief Risk Officer

 We had a Chief Risk Officer come to our class to talk to us about her career.  Her name is Nicole Pallela.  Ms. Pallela has a job that many people don’t know much about.   She has the ability to stop people from breaking the laws when using credit cards. 

For this job, a college degree in business is valuable.  It also makes it much easier to do with an understanding of law.  She had a lot of on-the-job training and moving up in the company.

Ms. Pallela’s job is to approve credit card transactions or decline them.  She also is involved in taking the money from the credit card or bank and giving it to the merchant or store.  She makes sure people don’t steal credit cards or use them incorrectly. 

She travels a lot for her job.  She goes to visit different customers or trade shows.  She just spent some time in Hawaii!

Ms. Pallela loves the challenge of her job and she likes that she’s always learning new things.  The best part of her job is helping people and catching the bad guys.  The scariest is when she can’t do anything to help her customers.

The Chief Risk Officer helps our lives in so many ways.  She protects us from criminals.

Victoria, Saja, and Matthew

Salesman

We met with Mr. Jerry Neiman.  He talked to us in our class about sales because he is a salesman.  He is retired, but worked for Xerox for 20 years.

Mr. Neimann went to high school and then to college for 4 years.  After that, he joined the army.  Finally, he began his career.

As a salesman, he did not have a weekly schedule.  He says that the more time you dedicate to your job, the better salesman you will be because sales does not always happen.  He can work from home and does travel within his area.

In order to be a successful salesman, Mr. Neimann says you need a smile, you need to be a people person, and you have to be creative and crisp or clear.  The job of a salesman has changed because now most of the sales are done on the Internet.

The best part of his job is getting a sale!  The worst part is NOT getting the sale because that is his whole job.

Mr. Neimann says “Nothing happens until there’s a sale.”  It was fun learning about being a salesman from Mr. Neimann.

William and Chase

Research Assistant at UIC Department of Mathematics

We were lucky to meet Dr. Troy.  He is a Research Assistant at UIC in the Department of Mathematics.  He has a PhD in math and gets paid to study and travel.  His area is Data Science.

Dr. Troy when to Gower School for 7 years!  After high school, he went to UIC and is still there now for his job.

Before he became a Research Assistant, he was in a traveling band.    When he grew up, he loved math.  He didn’t take the classes right away, but missed them and decided math was the best!

Dr. Troy is now traveling a lot. In a few weeks, he is going to China to present his research! He goes to places all over Chicago with his computer to work on math and statistics.  He looks at numbers and tries to come up with conclusions.

Dr. Troy is currently working on a project with DNA.  He showed us the math that he does and wants to be able to use DNA to find out what is wrong with people who are sick with just a tiny drop of blood.

He taught us math, but it was college math!  It was fun to listen to him!

Easton and Jibriel

Physical Therapist

 Another presenter we had was Mrs. Axelrod.  She is a Physical Therapist.

Mrs. Axelrod went to college for 4 years and then to Physical Therapy school for 3 years.  She had to take the Board exam and she renews her certificate every 3 years.  Her degree is in Physical Therapy.

She decided to choose this job while she was in college.  She chose this job when she was 22 years old.    She wanted this job because she loves helping people.

Mrs. Axelrod’s responsibilities are helping people with functional tasks like walking, bending, stretching, and reaching.  She works with the same patients about twice a week.  She works on balance, strength, and range of motion.  Her days are about 8 hours long and she works 3 days a week. Some Physical Therapists work full time.

The best part of her job is helping people.  The worst part is the paperwork she has to do.  The scariest is when someone falls because it could be bad for the patient.

Mrs. Axelrod brought some of her tools with to our class.  She brought a foam roller to show how it helps with balance.  She also brought her stethoscope because sometimes she has to check her patients’ heart rates to see how they respond to exercise. 

Mrs. Axelrod has the best job ever!

Chloe and JT

Dance Teacher/Business Owner

 We had Ms. Shannon Labus come to present to us.  She is a Dance Teacher and a Business  Owner.  She works at Wings Dance Studio.

For her education, Mrs. Labus received her Bachelor of Arts degree. She took classes in dance, theatre, music, and child development.  She is still working on her certification and training today. 

A typical day for her consists of writing lesson plans for her classes, taking care of office responsibilities, checking tuition, making sure policies are up to date, and most importantly, teaching her students!  Her days are about 8-10 hours long, and her weekly schedule depends on her class and office schedule.    She uses technology every day for communication online.  She also uses programs to edit her music for classes.

The best part of her job is all of it!  She really loves that she can see her students every year so she watches them grow up and has a part in teaching them independence.  The worst part is when her students are not listening in class.  The scariest part happened when she took a big leap to open her own company.

It was fun learning about being a dance teacher!  Mrs. Labus told us it was the best job in the world!

Isabella and Maria

Doctor of Internal Medicine

One of our presenters was Dr. Brown.  Dr. Brown works at Good Samartian Hospital and treats adult and overnight patients.  She is an Internal Medicine Doctor.

Dr. Brown works only with adults. She works 10 to 11 hours a day and 16-17 days a month.  Sometimes she works days, nights, and weekends.  She does not travel for her job unless she has to go to meetings or conferences.  She can work from home by taking calls from the hospital to help her patients.  The scariest thing about her job is when people are so sick that she is unable to help them.  

She decided this was the job for her when she was 8 years old. She helps patients with medicine. She went to college for four years, and then four years of medical school, and finally, three years of residency.  Dr. Brown needs to understand how healthy a person functions, and then figure out what made the person sick.  Her dad was a doctor so she spent a lot of time in the hospital with him when she was little.

The best part of her job is helping people. She wants people to feel better.  We enjoyed learning from Dr. Brown!       

                                                                   

Isabella, Chloe, Easton, and Chase