Who We Really Are As Teachers

I loved the two voice poems that we opened the day with. It was great to hear the interaction of the voices and the interplay between the words and perspectives. I don't do enough reading aloud and performance in my own classroom. I think maybe because so much of my own reading history revolves around my own silent reading, that when I think of reading, that's my default mental image of what reading is, even though it really is so much more than that.

Following that same idea of our own histories affecting our current actions and beliefs, I like that Nicholas had us reflect on our teacher identities. What a very fitting demo to wrap up SI. I think sometimes I forget to step back and examine why I teach the way I do and why I approach things the way I do in my class. I forget to step back and remember that school is a Figured World and that perhaps some of my students don't see themselves as fitting into the School world. Maybe acknowledging that attending school and being a student is just one facet of their identities (if it is at all) would allow students to share their other identities with me. Just like how I'm not Teacher 24/7 but also Daughter and Sister and Friend and Yoga-Attempter, maybe I also need to remember that my students are also Athlete and Friend and Marching Band Member, etc. but that again, I can't fall prey to the idea that one word can sum of their identity. That they are the sum of their parts.

Nicholas's demo and the Julian Baggini Ted Talk video reminded me a little bit of this New Yorker book review I read about Thomas Nagel's "Mind and Cosmos," where he describes mental thoughts as being "as irreducibly real as her brain waves are, and different from them." Very confusing but also very intriguing as well.

But the activity we did where we listed our memories, desires, beliefs, and knowledge did serve to remind me again of the awesome power of teachers to hurt or inspire. I think SI has really served to remind me that teaching is so personal because learning is so personal. It IS really hard to learn when you don't feel like someone is listening or that they care about you. It IS really hard to learn when you feel like what you say doesn't matter. I've been really inspired to go back and make my classroom a place where it matters who students are and what they have to say. I love that we've been shown how we can rethink or reinforce our own identities as teachers and as writers. I love that I've been shown how a writing group can make me want to write and share my work. I love that I can see how teaching doesn't have to be an isolating endeavor. Writing celebrates who we are and what we have to say and teaching writing can be so joyful and so exciting and so new!