Your Teaching Persona

February 25th, 2009 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Teaching Strategies

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Last month I read a blog post from the Teaching Professor Blog by Maryellen Weimer, a retired professor of Teaching and Learning at Penn State. She wrote about a piece of advice established professors give new faculty members: Just be yourself.

When I was a new teacher, I heard that one, too. I agree with Professor Weimer: when I was new I didn’t have a teaching self. I had to invent one.

Did I want to be easy going like Ms. Gibbs next door? Did I want to be stern like Mr. Rose across the hall? Did I want a quirky personality like Mrs. Postula?

None of these seemed to fit right and I found myself bouncing between stern and easy going. I didn’t know who I wanted to be or how to create that person.

The day that my teaching persona clicked for me was the day I stopped looking at myself and started looking at my students. It seems obvious now, but as a new teacher, I was so concerned about my lesson plans, my rules, my procedures, and my classes that I didn’t think as much about my students.

I think the epiphany came one challenging seventh period with my junior English students. It was the end of the day in late spring and we were all hot and sweaty. We had air conditioning in the room, but the unit sounded like an aircraft engine and the noise drowned out discussion. I know I was watching the clock and I’m sure my students were, too.

I was asking the class questions about whatever short story we were reading and I called on Chris in the back of the room. Chris always looked to liven things up and I worked hard on damage control. I don’t remember the question I asked Chris, but I do remember that his answer knocked me off my feet. I expected a standard answer, but Chris gave me depth.

Chris shook my preconceived notions about him that I’d held on to all year. I looked at him not as my trouble maker, but as a kid with deep thoughts. He didn’t give me the answer I was expecting, he gave me something better. I stopped anticipating the right answer to my questions about setting and plot and listened to the students instead. The focus shifted from me and my ideas about English 11 and onto the students and their ideas.

As Weimer wrote: “The wisest advice I think for creating this teaching persona is to remember that although it’s about you, it really isn’t about you.”

She’s right. I shifted my class from being teacher-centered to student-centered. Once I did that, my persona was easy. I wasn’t the enforcer, the lecturer, the grader, or the gate keeper. I was the guide.

Tags: Classroom Management

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