Track 6: Make Yourself - Incubus (My Choice to Make Myself)

if you let them make you, they'll make you paper-mache
at a distance you're strong, until the wind comes
then you'll crumble and blow away

you should make amends with you
if only for better health
but if you really want to live
why not try and make yourself? (Boyd et al, 1999)

What did I need to do to break out of my monotonous modus operandi? How did I start to feel like my real self instead of an impostor? The impostor phenomenon rears its ugly head when individuals present idealised images in an attempt to meet the demands of their social
world resulting in an alienation from the self (Wilson, 2006). So I needed to stop depending on others' evaluation, accept and meet my own inner needs thus decreasing my tendency to present facades in order to win affirmations (Wilson, 2006). 

I needed to make myself. I no longer wanted to be motivated by fear. I wanted to learn for the sake of learning. 

My worst lesson during my professional experience was a PE lesson on "Running" with year 1 students. I was under-prepared with only a whistle and a piece of paper outlining the activities I needed to direct the students to do, along with the minutes allocated for each activity.

I tried my best to keep the students engaged by participating in the activities myself but one by one students started to drop like flies poisoned by insecticide, they just didn't want to participate in the games. I kept going with the lesson, teaching the few students who were still participating.


I focused so much on Element 5 of the standards (as evinced by my reminder about rules on the lesson sheet); worried that the students' behaviours would be difficult to manage because we were outside the classroom, that I didn't think about other more important elements, such as 2: differentiating my teaching strategies to suit individual students, 3: giving students timely oral feedback and 4: communicating effectively to all students (NSW, Institute of Teachers, 2006). 


So when I received my observation sheets from my cooperating teacher at the end of the lesson, I realised what I'd forgotten to do - to give feedback to students encouraging them to participate in the lesson.

I really do believe that feedback is one of the most powerful influences on student learning, and it can impact student learning in a negative or positive way.  For feedback to be effective, teachers need to consider the timing, approach and at what level to provide appropriate feedback (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). 
Teachers need to empathise with their students, address the three questions:
Where am I going? How am I going?  and Where to next? when providing feedback and develop ways for students to ask these self-regulating questions of themselves (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). 


So I guess this whole process of mapping my development as a teacher was a way for me to answer these three questions about myself, an effective approach in teaching the learner how to achieve self-regulating feedback.



So where to next?
As a teacher, I would never want my students to be motivated by fear, or to be always hungry for rewards. I would like to follow some of  Kohn's suggestions on how to respond to students when they do something impressive: to say a simple, evaluation-free statement or to ask the student questions about what they liked about their learning experience (Kohn, 2001). 

It will take a lot of practice and conscious mental effort to change the way I communicate to my students, but " the good news is that you don’t have to evaluate in order to encourage" (Kohn, 2001).

Reference List
Boyd, B., Einziger, M., Katunich, A., Kilmore, C., & Pasillas, J. (1999). Make yourself. [Recorded by Incubus]. On Make yourself. [Online video] New York: Epic records

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research. 77(1), 81-112

Kohn, A. (2001). Five reasons to stop saying "good job!". Young children. Retrieved November 3, 2010 from http://www.alfiekohn.org/parenting/gj.htm

New South Wales Institute of Teachers. (2006). NSW Professional Teaching Standards. Retrieved November 1, 2010 from http://www.nswteachers.nsw.edu.au/IgnitionSuite/uploads/docs/Professional%20Teaching%20Standards.pdf

 Wilson, C. (2006). An  explorationg of the impostor phenomenon in high-achieving professionals in recovery from chemical dependency. Retrieved November 3, 2010 from http://www.christinewilsoncounselling.com/articles/impostor_phemomemon.pdf