In the beginning Palmer states " teaching engages my soul as much as any work I know." This is such a powerful statement. How many people do you know that feels that their soul is engaged in their job? Most people have jobs to pay their bills, we get to enrich our souls and the souls of our students. That is a powerful and amazing job description! Teaching is a job of passion, love, and dedication that touches are souls. Palmer also states "good teaching cannot be reduced to technique:good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher."Our integrity as teachers is so important. We are moral educators and moral role models for our students. Students look up to their teachers for guidance, if a teacher does not have a strong sense of integrity a student can see through that. Palmer spoke of a teacher knowing their true personal identity. We bring our identity into our work, if we are not passionate about what we do the students will see through that and not be passionate for what we are teaching them. We have to realize the affect that we have as educators. It is so important we are aware of the power that we hold. I feel lucky everyday to be able to be a part of a child's life.
One of the topics that really stuck to me from this whole chapter was when Palmer spoke about courage. Although the average person may not look at a teacher as courageous those of us who are teachers or know a teacher knows the courage it takes to get up in front of a class day in and day out. Teachers put themselves out to be exposed to the world on a daily basis. A teacher has to have an open mind and an open heart when they are teaching. You put yourself in a very vulnerable position as an educator. "The courage to teach is the courage to keep one's heart open in those very moments when the heart is asked to hold more than it is able..." This to me explains perfectly what a teacher has to do everyday whether he/she is having a good or bad day and that takes a lot of courage. I know there has been days that I have been going through something in my personal life and may just want to hide form the world. The children in my class give me the courage to get up and go to work and be the best I can be for myself and them. Teaching is a vocation of love and courage and we are all so lucky to have had God put us on this path.
I like this quotation "teaching engages my soul as much as any work I know." It is quite true that today we look at job as profession and not as vocation. It is just a business to earn our living.Integrity of the teacher is a must in order to bring in change in the lives of the students.Courage is necessary in order to be an effective teacher. It helps us going in life.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about your the themes of morality and courage - I wonder if our vocation and desire to follow God and Jesus' help create the morality of our lives and by following their guidance and their presence in our lives help bring us courage. I am so grateful to be an educator that can rely on my faith and spirituality! Thank you to all in this class for sharing this with me!
ReplyDeleteHi Maureen, Beautiful what you wrote!!! I agree with you--a lot of people do not have a clue as to how much courage it takes to be a teacher. We couldn't do it really without God's strength right there with us. You are either called to be a a teacher or not. That passion has to be there, because it is that passion that motivates us to work on ourselves, to become better human beings for those we are responsible for. And yes, children make a difference in our lives; they give us strength to open our hearts!!!
ReplyDeleteWe are in the best company to help us and each other be all that God intended for us to be!
Maureen, I really liked the last sentence of your blog that teaching is a vocation of love and courage and we are all so lucky to have had God put us on this path. Teaching as a vocation demands many things from us we become public persons dealing with unique human personalities. It is a great feeling to experience teaching as joy of one's soul which gives fulfillment, satisfaction and meaning to one's life. To have such an experience we as teachers and educators need to build our identity suitable for this vocation. This as we know is sometimes difficult and ongoing process.
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