Teachin' Ain't Easy

Grab your raincoats and umbrellas, sound studio listeners! Tropical Storm Ida is right next door! But we all know it won't hit our lovely town of Gainesville, though we will feel some effects from it. Anyway, on to today's recording session! Today Obaratone is recording a piece on teacher leadership. Now what could teacher leadership mean to all of us? To me, it kind of sounds redundant. If someone is a teacher, aren't they automatically a leader? If someone's a leader, aren't they a teacher of sorts? For some reason or another, teachers are held in a much higher light than the rest of society. Anytime a teacher does something that may make headlines in a bad way, it's pretty horrendous. For example, we hear someone having sex with students. Ok, not that big of a deal. Still bad. Oh it was a teacher?? Armageddon! I think the main reason is that once people start working with other people's kids, the stakes are raised and the teacher better not do anything that could wrong a child. All true statements to believe in. We wouldn't want crazy people teaching our kids!

That's just teachers in general. When talking about teacher leadership, there actually is more going on. Teacher leadership means that teachers are going to infinity and beyond to be the best person they can in regards to teaching students. This may involve leading clubs, going to games and being a big supporter, after-school programs, school board committee, etc, etc. Basically not only teaching the content in the classroom, but living the model citizenship that we expect our students to live.

Dr. Betsy Rogers had an interesting interview about teacher leadership that you can see here. In it, she talks about going around the country to work with other teachers to make the teaching profession a better thing. She also talks about making teaching better to help the students in every way possible. Another resource I found was from the Teacher Leaders Network site. What I've linked is to their "About" section on why they do what they do. Basically, it's a site that brings many teacher leaders around the way country to weigh in on issues and spread ideas and suggestions to become a better teacher and a teacher leader.

So what does this have to do with moi? Why do you ask so many questions, studio listeners? Lucky for you, Obaratone is gracious with his responses. When I start teaching, I do want to be more than just a simple teacher. I want to be a role model for how students should act, not just in school but out of it as well. I want to help students with more than just content, but also on making it through school in general. What I don't see in my future, at least not as of right now, is joining every committee and group and advisory board and whatever else there is. I can see myself on maybe one or two, but teaching the students is first and foremost. I love being in the classroom and in front of the kids! I love that more than going to meetings. A lot more. I want to be a leader in their eyes in terms of being a good person and trying your best, not necessarily as a do-it-all brain with no outside life. But that's just me.

What about you dear listeners? Do you think that teachers should join all these committees to really gain their full potential as a leader or perhaps have a more balanced load? The choice is yours to respond (please respond!) Now it's time for Obaratone to join the committee of hunger and lead some food into my stomach.