Teaching Tip: Be Your Own Teacher

I was surprised by the number of teacher who've told me to "Be your own teacher." It sounds great. But what does it mean??? Be genuine in your interactions and don't apologize for yourself.

For example, one of my sponsor teachers is a successful poet (at least by the Canadian standard), so she spends approximately 6-8 weeks on this subject, and manages to incorporate it into every novel or play study as well. I found this prospect intimidating because poetry isn't what interests me about English. Her response to my concern: "just don't." Teach what your passionate about. End of story.

Many other teachers have given me similar advise about achieving control in the classroom. As the teacher, you are responsible for creating a safe, productive classroom atmosphere, but the way you achieve this learning community is left to your discretion. Teenagers and children have an innate ability to sniff out what Holden Caulfield calls "phonies." If you're faking, you're wasting their time. For this reason, it has generally been recommended to me that the best method of establishing a productive classroom environment is to be genuine. Hopefully you are in the teaching profession because you care for and respect students, and if this is the underlying feeling in your class, students are more likely to respect you, to seek out your approval, and to want to participate positively in your classroom community. If you are very orderly, it might work for you to keep a very orderly classroom; if you are very relaxed, it might work for you to have a more co-operative classroom. If you try to crack down hard on rules you don't believe in, student's won't respect you--equally if you let students do things you don't believe in, they won't respect you either. The main point here is to make a person to person connection with students first, then both learning and order will come naturally.

Remember, there are lots of test going on in the first 3 weeks of term, and it's you who's being tested.