For the first few years of my teaching career I kept a keen eye on all the teachers around me and tried to be like them.
I saw what they taught, I saw how they behaviour managed, I followed the way they marked. In sum, I copied them. In everything.
And that’s not a bad thing to have done.
It did, however, have a down side: I was never being the teacher I was made to be. It’s always beneficial to see what everyone else is up to, how everyone is doing things but it is not useful to copy someone else.
Just as our students are all different, so are we. What works for one person won’t work for another, or at least won’t work as well. The most important thing we can do is find who we are in the classroom.
When a new colleague arrived during my third year of teaching, I was so jealous of her! She was vivacious and her lessons were so pacey and exciting that I felt I couldn’t keep up. I’m methodical, logical, organised and sarcastic.
We’re not the same.
It took me time to make those personality traits work for me but now I do! I really do and they have advantages too. My students trust me and buy into the work we’re doing because of these characteristics. They know where they stand with me and behaviour management is easy.
My colleague makes her personality work for her too. Her students love her, love the subject and get excited with her each lesson.
I guess that’s what we need to do:
- Consider what you’re like in general;
- Think about what this does and should look like in the classroom;
- Watch others and then make their approach/attitudes/methods our own.
Make it your own.
If we do that, we really stand a chance of being the teachers we were made to be.