Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Reflections on Fictional Letters
The exercise pointed out to me that I really want my students to value my life experience that I bring to the classroom, as well as find me very competent, patient and engaging. My worst fear is that they look at me like I am crazy and feel I am not adding any value .... waisting their time or not appreciating them.
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It's good to recognize hopes and fears -- it reduces their power over us and lets us think and talk about them. I think I had similar worries when I started teaching high school in my 40s. What I found was that kids didn't necessarily differentiate between someone over 29 and someone over 39 (we all seemed old to them), and they did value the range of experience us older new teachers brought. We didn't tend to get so caught up in the petty rules of school, and saw the schooling experience in the context of years of other work, family, travel etc. No teacher can please everybody, but I think you will be well-received by just about all!
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