Teaching Identities.

Each teacher takes on a different identity, and plays a different role in your life. As we read in the article, some teachers we may be compatible with their teaching identity, some we just don’t ever seem to understand. I can say that I have had teachers form all end of the spectrum.

            In elementary school, second grade to be specific, I had a teacher who would literally yell at us on the top of her lungs. From day one, she had struck fear into our minds. The class of 8 year olds stayed fairly on task, if you ask me but it was not a learning environment that I would wish on anyone. We as young students were more focused on whether or not we were going to get in trouble for doing something a normal 8 year old would do. I don’t think this teacher had the identity of “scary” teacher just to be mean, but I feel like she was very old fashioned and felt there was no other way to control a classroom than to yell when we acted up.    

            On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have had many inspirational teachers that have given me the confidence in not only school subject matters, but also life itself. I plan on obtaining a double credential, a multiple subject and a single subject concentrating in history. If I find myself with the little ones in elementary school, I want my teaching identity to be a cheerleader. At a young age, I think it is essential that you are making it clear to your students that you are there for them no matter what, supporting them. Young children are already hard to keep attention for long spans of time, so if you keep them engaged and show them you care; I believe they will be most successful.

            If I find myself in a high school classroom, the teaching identity I hope to be is a mentor. High school is the time to buckle down before students leave to the real world for college. There is so much more than teaching a student what year the US won it’s independence, or what the Pythagorean theorem is. Teachers at a high school lever should be making their students aware of the real world and what lies ahead. I was a great student who was engaged all four years of high school, but the one teacher inspired me the most was not a great academic teacher, instead he was a coach that helped me feel more prepared than ever before I graduated high school. Teaching identities go all across the board from one end of the spectrum to the other, it’s all how you use that identity to you advantage.