How Teaching Gets Less Scary
In my class on positive psychology, we discussed the idea of viewing ourselves as learners. Before I went to bed that night, I lay there thinking — teaching can be scary. You’re in front of a crowd all the time, you’re trying to explain often complex material, and the air conditioner is probably dysfunctional, so you’re probably sweating. It can be a little scary to wake up every morning and face that crowd. At least, it was for me.
Two ideas helped teaching get less scary and help me sink into it:
- I Stopped Viewing Myself as a Teacher
Students are still under debate whether teachers are allowed to make mistakes. My students told me last year that they don’t. When I countered and said that I did, they said, “Well, that’s you, Ms. Cecilia. You’re different.” (To say high schoolers can put all sorts of things into just a few words is an understatement. But I love them).
The next day, I woke up and made a resolution to myself. I was not going to be a “teacher” today. I was going to be a learner. I taught my classes — all the way from little, squirmy kinders to big, squirmy middle schoolers — and I thought “What am I learning about this student right now? What am I learning about this group and how they learn? What did I learn about how this strategy works for these students?”
