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Taking off the Mask with Frank McCourt

Humanizing a human, what a strange concept, but one of the major ones I took away from today's assigned videos. 

Through the first passthrough of these interviews, I'll be honest I thought I had all the answers. Frank McCourt handing us the answer to being a perfect educator on our second day of teaching school, wow. However, after discussing with my peers, and having my second coffee of the day, I realized I am left with more questions than answers. 

Should I have students call me by my first name instead of "Ms. Reny"? Frank breaks society's constructs, I should too!!!

How do we build bridges and relationships with students, yet still be able to maintain authority when it is required? "Hey students I've stole, and lied, and cheat, but I need you to not cheat on your tests!"

How will I have enough time to incorporate thought provoking lessons in the classroom, while still delivering the required curriculum so that my students don't "fail" in all of their future classes? I could just show my students math memes all day... that would get them excited. 

Although I ask these questions, and am excited to hopefully learn the answers through this program, I do have one answer and overarching lesson learned from these interviews, which is to be my authentic self. (Which I hope I demonstrated in this exit response). If I want students to be honest with me, I need to be honest with them. If I want them to be comfortable with mistakes and humility, I need to be comfortable with mistake and humility. I think for me, this is at the core of being an effective educator. I think that throughout this program, when I'm in a classroom, the best thing that I can do for my students, and for me, is to just be myself. 

After all, "we are all only human"! 

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