As a
student, I feel that I take on many roles including being respectful, being an
active participant, as well as being a motivated learner. A combination of
these roles has helped me to become the driven student I am today. Over the
course of the years, I have realized that teachers have played a role of a
guidance counselor. They have provided me with vigorous instructions on how to
become a better student, as well as a better person. A few identities that I can
imagine myself having or a few that I have already experienced would be that of
a gatekeeper, a coach, and a tour guide. There are benefits to being gatekeeper
such as knowing the password to unlocking the classroom door which allows for
understanding to what the students needs to know in order it open it. A
downside to this method is that with some students, once they cannot unlock the
door, they have the tendency to just walk away without giving it another try.
With being a coach it is beneficial that I would be supportive and would not
stop pushing the student to better themselves. However, a downside could be
that the student could feel discouraged at times, but that’s what the
encouragement is for. Tour guides, on the other hand, explain and demonstrate
everything in great detail, however a pitfall would be that students could get
distracted at times.
1. Bronwyn
T. Williams depicted some of the different types of identities that teachers demonstrate
in his journal, Another opening, another
show: Performing teaching identities in literacy classrooms. I found it
interesting how Williams pointed out that as a teacher, you may have many
identities, however, it is how well we are with being consistent with
incorporating all of identities according to the social expectations and our environment.
He comments how, “… we perform our identities based on a combination of the
social expectations of what a ‘“teacher”’ should be, along with the local
characteristics of culture and distinctive dynamics of the audience of students
in front of us”(537). Teachers should be
able to incorporate all of the identities in a way that is both effective for the
students, as well as the expectations that are held for a “good” teacher. Being
able to mold these two expectations together results in having a well-rounded
identity in the classroom.
2. When I was
in the fourth grade I had a teacher that all of the students wanted, however, a
teacher that all of the parents did not want their children to have. This was
because she was considered a “friendly” and “fun” teacher. Yes, these are two
characteristics that make a good teacher, but not when those are the only
things contributing to their teacher identity.
I remember my mom asking what I did each day in class, and I would
respond with answers that concerned my mom. Needless to say, after a couple of
the parents had meetings with the principal, my fourth grade teacher was no
longer a teacher. The moral of the story would be that even though it is good
to incorporate being friendly and fun as a part of your identity, there are boundaries
that need to be respected. As Bronwyn said, it leaves that student confused
when they receive their test back and earn a bad score because they thought
since they had an easy time with all the activities, they would get a good test
grade. In reality, however, they were not grasping the main point.
3. It also
is important to present yourself to your audience (your students) as someone
they admire and respect. As stated from Richard Rodriguez’s article Achievement of Desire, Richard “wanted
to be like my teachers, to possess
their knowledge, to assume their authority, their confidence, even to assume a
teacher’s persona” (604). This really stood out to me because it makes me
realize that as a teacher, I am not only an instructor, but a role model. Rodriquez yearned to be like his teachers,
which to me, is the greatest compliment. Choosing an identity that works well
with both will form a great teacher. Being
able to connect to students in a way that is helpful to them is key.
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