Ian Landy – Personal Reflection
I enjoyed the presentation that Ian Landy did for the Education 431 class for several reasons, but mostly because his presentation got me thinking about learning and education and how we as educators present ourselves, to our students and to the world around us. I began to think about the face that I am putting forward as an educator in training, is it too curated, am I being authentic to who I am and want to be as an educator? I think this was important because if I am asking my students to be open and vulnerable, sharing their knowledge and learning, should I not also be modeling that vulnerability in my teaching practice.
By being authentic and vulnerable as a teacher and learner, I am modeling to my students how to be the same. I cannot expect my students to be open and vulnerable if I am not the same, I feel it would be hypocritical to ask my students to be something that I am not willing to be myself. This is of course just my opinion, and may not be shared by others, but regardless I wonder how teachers and educators the world over can expect of students’ things they are not wanting to do themselves.
It goes further than just being vulnerable and authentic and gets to how you as an educator expect students to be in the classroom. I personally cannot sit and not move for more than a few minutes without feeling tired or having the urge to get up and walk around. How then can I expect my students to sit in little rows and not move for over an hour? It makes no sense to me. Recently someone said that ‘you teach who you are,’ and it struck me hard, in a good way. I must be authentic to who I am as a person within my teaching practice. I am the person that believes that literature is important and loves Shakespeare, but I am also the person who feels that having a conversation can be a better way to share knowledge and learning than writing a paper.
If I am to be authentic to the learning that I am taking part in, then I need to look at what I consider to be important and reflect those things in my practice; is it the accomplishments that have been made or artifacts of learning? I would like to strike a balance between the two, reflecting on the journey with artifacts and the accomplishments together.