Who am I as a Teacher?

I do not know where I just thought this up from but when I think about who I am
as a teacher, I think about all of the different hats I put on that represent all of
the different roles I play as a teacher. Or, another way of looking at it is the
varied uniforms that I slip into as a teacher.

I think that I put on my coaching uniform first before I even decided to become a
teacher. Ever since I graduated from high school at South Delta Secondary, I
have been involved in coaching high school athletics. I began by coaching my
younger brother and his teammates on their basketball team. I always consider
myself to be self-taught as a basketball coach, although I have had a couple of
mentors along the way. In particular, Neil Murray, my brother’s head coach,
coached in a calm, patient, and controlled manner. He allowed the players to have
responsibility in the decision making during the course of the game. He did not
necessarily just give them plays that they must execute during the game. He
taught them the skills needed to succeed, but gave the players the opportunity to
decide how to use these skills. He prepared them to be informed, active
participants on the basketball court. I will never forget how Mr. Murray coached a
basketball team and it is this style that I strive towards as I continue to grow as a
coach of athletes as well as a coach of students in the classroom. Patience,
flexibility, openness, and preparation are all values that I would like to hold while
instilling them in my students.

Throughout the course of a school year, as a meet new students and encounter new
situations, I am always considering how I can be a mentor. I try to get to
understand my students on a personal level. I am interested in what they
experience in their lives outside school. What is their family like? What are their
cultural traditions? Do they participate in any extracurricular activities? At the
same time, I open up to them personally as well. How will a student trust you to
open up to them if you do not share your own experiences in life? I tell students
about what my life is like at home. I tell stories about my surfing trip during the
summer. I show photos of my summer vacation working of a cruise ship traveling to
Alaska. I tell them about my struggles and successes as a student in high school.
So, I am a mentor to them as I model how to become approachable and personable
human beings who can contribute to the classroom and school culture.

For the last four years of teaching, I have had a special opportunity to teach grade
8 students in Math and Science while also teaching grade 11 and 12 course in Social
Studies and Geography. In these four years I have seen timid, reclusive,
inexperience grade 8 students grow into confident, outgoing, responsible senior
students who are ready to make their next steps into the real world. As I watch
these students grow, I cannot help but consider myself a proud parent of these
students. Of course, with all of the successes, there are always bumps along the
road. Especially in our community where our students often do not have their
parents as involved in their education and their lives, I see myself lending parental
guidance to my “sons and daughters” at school.

I hope the young spirit that I carry myself with never runs out of gas as it allows
me to build a friendship with students that can last even outside of high school.
After class hours during lunch or after school, I constantly find myself engulfed in
conversations with students. During lunchtime hours, I make an effort to
participate in intramural sports at the school. The students always appreciate
competing against teachers almost as much as I enjoy competing against them. The
relationships I build with students have brought them back to volunteer at the
school after they have graduated.

Sometimes, students come to me for advice. A counselor I am often forced to be

as students come to me to talk about family problems at home. Students wonder
what opportunities are available to them after secondary education. They might
inquire about information necessary for applying to a job.

While I try on these uniforms and many, many more, I am also a teacher. I teach
students proper manners such as saying “please” and “thank you.” I teach them
how to organize their binders to maintain order in school and their lives. I teach
them how to be responsible by insisting they be on time to class as if it were their
job. I teach them the value of being lifelong learners who strive to soak up
knowledge and a multitude of skills to prepare them for life. I teach them subjects
like Math or Geography, but I also teach them ways to study for a test. I teach by
example by being involved in school to model the importance of students be active
and involved in school and their lives.

However, I would not be a teacher if I too did not take my own advice to be a
lifelong learner. I always aim to become a better teacher. Rarely am I satisfied
with the methods I use to teach curriculum or encourage appropriate behaviour to
the students. I really like the idea of teacher learning audits presented in
Brookfield (Ch. 4) as a way of monitoring how I aim to improve my teaching
practice. Here are a few of my responses to the Teacher Learning Audit in the
article:
 Compared with this time last year, I now know that I am capable of teaching
Social Studies 11 and Geography 12, two provincially examinable courses in
the same semester.
  Compared with this time last year, I am now able to teach Social Studies 11
to completion according to the IRP.
 Compared with this time last year, I could now teach a colleague how to make
a project using Moviemaker.
 The most important thing I’ve learned about my students in the past year is
the impact of positive comments to students.
 The most important thing I’ve learned about my teaching in the past year is
the need to be more prepared and organized.
 The most important thing I’ve learned about myself in the past year is a goal
to be far more patient and understanding of students’ circumstances.
 The assumptions I had about teaching and learning that have been most
confirmed for me in the past year are that parental support and involvement
are essential to student success.

Another aspect of the Brookfield reading that I was particularly interested in is

the role model profiles. I have always admired how one of my colleagues, Brent
Schieve, teaches his classes. I am always amazed by the interest the students
have to be in his classes, the success his students have in his courses, and the
rapport he has built with everyone in our school. Here is a Role Model Profile for
Brent Schieve:
Characteristics I admire;
 patience
 knowledge of subject area
 ability to find significance of subject matter
 positive attitude
 love for teaching
Actions that encapsulates why they are so admirable:
 ability to engage students
 confidence in teaching the subject