What Would You Choose?

In School’s out Friday from Lucacept - intercepting the Web, jennylu shows a video where women have a choice of walking through 2 doors labeled Beautiful or Average. It is interesting to watch the women and see them choosing a door. Some talk about how it made them feel.

This made me think about teachers and what labels we would use for them. I could imagine what our students would give teachers!  I came up with a lot more questions and no answers.

Here are some that labels that came to mind:

Effective or Adequate,

Inspiring or Educating,

Strict or Easy-going

Motivator or Teacher,

Creative or Common,

Outstanding or Average.

Given the choice of 2 doors with these labels, which one would you choose? Which one do students perceive you as?

As a beginning teacher, I would definitely have a hard time labeling myself with the more positive label. As I gained more experience and saw other teachers in their classrooms, I had an easier time seeing myself in a more positive light. Some things I could see me as needing to do better but striving to be the best.

Are some teachers more critical of themselves than they really are? I think teachers are very modest and don’t like to toot their own horns. They feel it is wrong to think that they are doing great jobs but I think we need to start allowing ourselves to be proud of what we are doing. Just like it isn’t wrong for those women to believe that they are beautiful, teachers should not feel bad about doing a great job!

Do students see teachers the same way that teachers see themselves?  Of course not! Most students resent a teacher who is hard on them even if that teacher is effective. Some teachers are great “friends” to students but many times students don’t seem to respect these teachers.

Do we build up teachers to where they are confident in their own teaching abilities or do we tear down their abilities? When teachers get evaluated, there are usually notes taken about the weaknesses that the teachers show and need to improve. There are so many hoops to jump that it is impossible to think you can show everything that is required in one lesson but that is uaually how teachers are evaluated.

What other labels would you come up with? How would you answer the questions?