Day 30 of my 30-Day Blogging Challenge for teachers from teachthought.com

Here is the link to the site with the 30-day challenge. 

http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/reflective-teaching-30-day-blogging-challenge-teachers/

Day 30

What would you do (as a teacher) if you weren’t afraid?

It's funny that this would be one of the questions. I was just reading an article I found on line (it was from 2 years ago, but still relevant) called, "Why Teachers are Afraid" and focused on some of the biggest fears that teachers seem to have in the education system today. 

In the article it states, "This isn't about teachers being afraid that they'll be knifed in class, or have their cars stolen in the bad neighborhoods where they teach. Nor are they worried that a disruptive student will threaten them, or that a disturbed gunman will invade their school. It's not about being berated by an angry parent, or accused of being unfair -- or something far worse -- by a student." I couldn't agree more with this. The inherent fear that we all have entering the classroom isn't the kids themselves; it is more of a fear of "rocking the boat," saying or doing the wrong thing, challenging kids to think outside the box and inadvertently offending someone.

In fact, many teachers believe that the message we are given is, "Don't rock the boat. Don't ask questions. Don't bring up the inconvenient truth, say, of a school policy implemented to meet a national mandate that contradicts current research or best practices."  As much as most schools and administrators would deny that they have a similar approach, I think that is just a natural feeling that is always going to exist between teachers and administrators. 

I am sorry if this is a bad analogy, but it is like the administrators are our parents and we are the kids playing in the sandbox. We are more than welcome to build, create and play with whomever we want, as long as we play within the rules. Every so often, if we break the rules we may have to have our hand slapped. 











Now, you can look at this in 2 different ways: 
1. Rules suck and we should be allowed to do and say whatever we want. 
Or
2. Rules are good. They keep order and keep us "safe." 

Honestly, I fall somewhere in the middle here. I cannot say that I have ever been afraid to try new things and experiment in my classroom. I have always been free to teach as I please and have pushed that freedom to the nth degree, but I also tend to follow and respect the rules more than most English Teachers on a regular basis. 

However, I think that has helped me as an educator especially in my relationships with my administration. Instead of being that teacher who is constantly challenging authority, I tended to be a rule follower most of the time, so when I do decide to speak up, people knew it is something that I feel passionately about.

Basically, I am going to teach the way that I want, and throw fear out the door in my classroom. I am going to continue to "do" and sort everything else out later.