Authenticity

I think that in teaching it is very difficult to define your limits for expressing authenticity. So many different situations will present themselves and you will have to judge the correct way to handle them and act in them. I think that most people want to be true to who they are and act the same way in all situations. Most people like the person they are and they want to show everyone else who that person is. I think this can be a difficult thing to deal with in teaching. It is hard to show students who you really are without crossing certain boundaries. I think that it is important in teaching to be able to judge what aspects of your life you need to leave out of teaching. For example, in my life my religion and my faith are extremely important to me but I don't think that means that I should go around telling me students what I believe. That is crossing the line and has to do with the whole separation between church and state as well. But also because of my strong faith and my beliefs I will act a certain way in a classroom. I will stress being kind to everyone and being respectful to teachers and peers. I think by being who I am without specifically saying what makes me who I am is okay. It is good to set a positive example for children but you always need to be aware of boundaries. Students can tell if a teacher is not being authentic if the teacher has different requirements for different students or different classes or if the teacher doesn't act the same way in the same situations. This can really hurt the students and their want to learn. If at a teacher is not acting the same way in every situation, the students aren't going to trust him or her and they won't respect that teacher. It is hard for a student to learn if his or her teacher isn't setting the same guidelines all the time and isn't being themself.