The “mean” teacher…..

I have now been officially a teacher for almost three years and in these three years in the educational setting I have learned a thing or two (or maybe a million!) about teaching and all that is required to impact students. When I was just a beginning teacher starting out on my path I thought that a good teacher was the “mean” teacher. I didn’t really know what went into managing 25+ students at the same time and my college career didn’t fully prepare me for the things that I would need to know to successfully make all my students fall in line with what I wanted them to do. Sure college gave me ideas on what rules and procedures to put into place, like, giving students numbers, or clearly posting the expectations and practicing them at the beginning of the year….blah, blah, blah! Yes, these things are beneficial and I’ve used many of the tools I’ve learned over the years successfully in the classroom, but what school didn’t prepare me for is actually getting students to do what you ask. Now this is an issue I will deal with until the day I hang up my teacher hat and retire, but I feel I have a better understanding of what it takes now than I have in the past. Back to the original intent, THE MEAN TEACHER...when I first started out I thought I had to be MEAN. I thought the way to get students to listen and obey was to be firm and strict and make them follow along. You can ask my mother about my first year of teaching and how I was the “drill sergeant” teacher. Now I wasn’t all mean, I am not that type of person and it never sat well with me. I didn’t get into teaching to make students cry (which is what I have witnessed over the years). I didn’t get into teaching to have the “perfect” class either. I went into teaching to make an impact. I have learned that in order to be the best teacher you must be YOU. Seems like an easy lesson, right? What I mean by that is something I may attempt to do in my class may not work in another class, BUT students are smart. They are smarter than most of us give them credit for and if you head into the class trying to be something you are not, the students will see that. Of course there are times when you must bust out the “teacher voice” or the “teacher look.” I am not saying that teaching is all about roses and lavender, many days it feels like a war zone that I am a casualty of, but I never try to be someone else. I love my students, I want the best for them, and because of that I need to be the teacher that listens, I need to be the teacher that accepts them, I need to be the teacher that loves them. Because my goal is to make them believe in themselves and their ability to be a success I cannot be the “mean” one. It isn’t my personality anyway. I don’t have the perfect class, I am not that teacher that says, “do this” and my students scramble around because they fear me and maybe I should be like that, but I’m not. I have the class that is a bit chatty, but they feel comfortable asking me questions, I have the class that respects me, but makes mistakes and when they make a mistake they can tell me. I have the class that will work HARD for me because they love me (ok maybe not all of them love me, but at least 75% do=) I am sure as the years go on and I learn more and more about myself and about students I will have that class that is “perfect” but if they ever fear me or fear making a mistake in my room I think have failed them. Learning is scary, but I must inspire them to venture into the unknown.