Authenticity

For me, this topic seems a bit harder to write about. It is important to be authentic, or genuine, with your students, but sometimes it is hard to know where to draw the line. One can never show too much respect, but one can share too much about their personal life. I think the most important thing about being authentic is letting your personality show. You can't let the material you are teaching completely cover up your personality. You can use your personality to show the students you genuinely care about what you are teaching. Therefore I feel if you're showing the students the uniqueness about you they will see you as being authentic. Also, I feel if you have a story that relates to the topic at hand it is good to share it with the class, as long as it is appropriate. Obviously, if it deals with some illegal activity or something the students should not be doing themselves, you should not tell it. The stories you tell must set a good example for the students.

Compassion

When I first looked at the topic for the week I immediately thought of Jonah: A Veggietales Movie. For those unfamiliar to it, it is a really cute (in my opinion) animated movie about the Biblical story of Jonah. Towards the end of the movie the characters talk about how God was compassionate towards Jonah by giving him a second chance even though he didn't deserve one. Dictionary.com added to my idea of compassion by saying it is "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering."

My third grade teacher was far from compassionate. At least, that's the image of her I still carry with me. The incident I remember most vividly from my third grade year was when I broke my arm. During recess I had let someone use my sled and somehow by the time the bell rang to go inside it was still at the bottom of the hill. In a hurry, I decided to run down the icy hill after my sled. Don't ask me why I didn't just slide down on my butt; I guess I wasn't smart enough to realize that would have been much safer. I'm sure you can see what's coming. I slipped and fell, but lucky for me my puny wrist caught my fall. I remember immediately crying and trying to find help. A classmate found an aid who took me to the office to get some ice for it. When I went back to my classroom we were handing out Friday Folder things and I was still in pain. I was still crying a little bit from it, but then my teacher basically told me to shut up and get over it. Fortunately, soothing my bitterness, I came back on Monday with a bright pink cast to rub in her face.

Although a specific time when a teacher showed great compassion doesn't come to mind, I definitely remember my teachers who showed compassion in higher regards than those who I feel did not. This goes to show that a negative experience can stick with one more vividly than perhaps several positive ones. This makes me realize I must be very careful when dealing with kids and always try to show compassion towards them. However, this does not mean that as a teacher one should always feel sorry for kids or let them get away with things, but it does mean as a teacher one should always be willing to listen and take time to form a rational response.

Respect

What comes to mind when I first think of the word respect (besides Arethra Franklin) is "common courtesy." I feel respect is a term for the appropriate way one should treat or act towards others. This involves demonstrating good manners, which unfortunately are really not all that common. According to one of several definitions from Dictionary.com respect means, "esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability."

This definition provides a good outlook of what respect should look like in a classroom. The students should hold their teachers in high esteem and respect their authority, while the teachers should have a sense of all students' worth and potential excellence.

This reflection brings two former teachers to my mind. The first was a history teacher that I feel did not respect his students. I cannot deny he was a very intelligent man and made class interesting. However, I personally did not like him as a teacher because he gave the impression that he got his jollies from making his students feel dumb. History has never been my strong suit, so I myself was a victim of his overdramatic outcries. I remember being very frustrated because of him and also felt sorry for my classmates who got the brunt of the bashing.

The second person that comes to my mind is the kind of teacher I aspire to be. My high school band director found the perfect balance of maintaining a great sense of humor and energy while also maintaining a very respectful environment. People loved him, but everyone also knew he was not one to mess with. This was because he respected the students and held everyone accountable to the same high standards. He did not make exceptions because he knew everyone was filled with potential. His criticisms could probably be seen as blunt, but they were honest and never said with the intention of belittling someone. He was also very encouraging and made one feel proud to be in band.

The most important step in establishing respect in a classroom is to make the expectations clear from the beginning. If a teacher lets the students slack off or be disrespectful on his/her first couple days, the teacher will have a very hard time, if even possible, re-establishing a respectful environment.