Though I have been working as a teacher for seven years, there are things I still struggling to get right. Tomorrow I start a new job in a new school and I have plans on making this a new start, both personally and professionally. If that’s going to happen I need to be self-critic and that’s something I am rather good at. The first problem I always seem to not get right, is how to combine my personality with my professionalism. I know that sounds weird and it does, especially to me. I like being me and I like being me and a teacher. But out of experience that is not always a good combination. Sometimes it gives me more problem than it helps me. But I have to weigh pros and cons depending on how I want to be recognized by my students and colleagues. I have always wanted to keep my personality and the openness, enthusiasm and humor and wit but by doing that I have noticed a decline in authority. My students like me and enjoy being in my classroom, but they see me as the “cool teacher” rather than the “old, wise and serious teacher”. I also ask myself whether it’s important to be the “old, wise and serious teacher” or if I can just stay the popular “cool teacher”. Both types of teacher have pros and cons, I’d say.

Authority is important if you want to be a good teacher. Or, perhaps if I rephrase that: if you want to be a good teacher in the eyes of others not working in schools. People who have little insight in today’s Swedish schools would claim that we experience a decline in authority in Swedish schools and that’s the reason why our youngsters aren’t performing as well as they did 15-20 years ago. I don’t believe in that at all. It has nothing to do with authority at all - it all comes down to the teacher’s ability to adjust him- or herself to the present. Many school administrators I have talked to say that young teachers of today are often more conservative in their teacher roles than 10 years ago, which kind of worries me. Conservatism doesn’t work in a high-tech and ever-changing world, especially in institutions where we put little effort in being up to date and modernized.  It can therefor be that authority is what we need the least in our schools today, while teachers who are enthusiastic, young at heart, inspiring and full of qualities such as empathy, respect to each and every human being and keepers of democratic and human values. Authority might just be the least important thing to discuss in our schools today. So, should I be worried when my students don’t seem to see me as an authority in my classroom? Perhaps not, but it would make my job much easier. In that perspective I should work on my authority, but I am just too afraid of that resulting in me having to abandon my personality and I know that my personality also is what makes me a likable adult and teacher alike.

The other thing I need to work on is organization, being more organized. That is so not me. I am probably the least organized person you will ever come across, and that has a couple of reasons: a medical one with me being a little bit ADD according to a medical examination. Now, I cannot blame my lack of organization totally on a vague diagnosis, but it surely explains some things about my person. But still I wonder how important organization really is. I former colleague of mine told me once that “organization doesn’t make you a better teacher, it is what you teach, how you connect with your students and how the students see you that matters.” According to him my less organized day at work shouldn’t worry me. Instead I should enjoy being the liked and popular teacher that I am. There are more organized teachers out there who experience hell every time he or she step inside a classroom. I am not one of those, thank god. So, here we are, two things that puzzles me: authority and organization. Both could surely make my teacher days easier, but at what cost, I wonder. I have met teachers who never smile, who never laugh with the students, who are dull, harsh and unsympathetic in their teacher roles. Good teacher, yeah probably, but are they enjoying it? All I know is that I wouldn’t. My personality is too important to me and if I enjoy something, I want everyone to know that I do. It would therefor be more or less impossible to me to go into a classroom without smiling, simply because I enjoy being there.

But I need to work on that organization thing, for myself and my students. It wouldn’t hurt. And I hope I can be both me and organized at the same time without losing that smile. To end this long deep philosophical post I want to share a little video I made a couple of years ago with a class. It may be a bit, well, exaggerated, but still the important message is there: it’s darn fun being a teacher!

Jazzper on Teaching from Jazzper on Vimeo.

A little video I made with help from my students. No students were harmed in the process…

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