From Acting Like a Teacher to Thinking Like a Teacher

When I entered my first ever class, I don’t remember having to psyche myself up repeating to myself, “I am a teacher, I am a teacher, I am a teacher…” I knew how my teachers in high school were and I definitely did not want to act or look like them. I entered that class with a lot of naturalness maybe because my objective there was very clear in my mind: that I am responsible over these kids’ education and their future. If I went inside that classroom with money in my head, I am quite sure that I will act like a teacher and not think like a teacher. Yes, I was into theater before but teaching in real life is never acted but you do act a lot if you are the literature teacher if you want to give the students some ideas on how the story is portrayed. To think like a teacher, one must have the objectives clear in one’s mind. The teachers do not have a script to follow when they enter the classroom because the students are not part of the script. They are the script writers and the teacher only edits their script and directs the play that they wrote. The teachers are not the actors of the play for they are not the star…they do not—should never!—take centerstage.

The teachers are not tyrants. They do not deal with mere machines. They deal with individuals with souls. She has to look at her students as persons so in this way, she learns to be flexible with her students and there are no rigid rules to follow for all the classes. If the teacher keeps this in mind, she will not end up acting like a teacher (who teacher is she imitating?) but to think like a fair and just teacher. She deals with her students knowing that they all have the same and deserving dignity.

But I can’t help falling into acting like a teacher sometimes because the uniform that we wear for teaching sort of puts a spell on me…it gives me a bit of dignity I guess that separates me from my students. Maybe the uniform just reminds to be responsible over them because it affirms my authority—more of responsibility due to profession—over them. Paralleled with my masteral subjects in the university, I have to change outlook when I am with my classmates because I start feeling more of a student again although keeping my students in mind. One time, I already felt like a schizo feeling like a student one day and a teacher in another. When I started being part time in Rosehill, I was in the middle of feeling like a student who teaches and a teacher who studies. But I tend to think that I am more of the latter. I am a teacher who studies to improve because I want to serve the others. I want to give them a kind of service that no other profession can offer.