Authentic

I think authenticity is a hard thing to explain.  It's about showing your personality and some people just so happen to have fake ones.  However, I think that's something that must be overcome when teaching kids.  Kids are the most observant people on this planet.  They know when you don't care about the work you're giving them.  They know when you're just there to earn the money not to help them become better people.


I've had a fair share of teachers who were clearly fake.  The worst teacher I ever had was my 8th grade Algebra teacher...she was horrid and to this day the 100 kids in that class still hate her.  She wasn't a hard grader and the work wasn't necessarily hard, but she was just not in it for the kids.  Now, i get there's not a lot of money in teaching, that would be why most teachers love their students, they're authentic! I can't give you a motive for why she was the way she was, but she just was ok.  So, if you're going to teach math you should maybe be able to add 2+2, ya?  Ya, she couldn't. FAILURE.  Anyway the worst part was she played off that she was like the smartest person in the school.  Always made us wonder if she was shunned in high school and that's why she desperately wanted to please all of us.  But yeah, she was an idiot and fake and she gave me a C because I corrected her numerous times in class (NOT COOL!).


Anyway, point is we all noticed and I can tell you that none of us learned anything from her that year.  Kids are only willing to put the effort into it if the teacher does the same.  Like busy work...ya know I always just handed it back into the teacher blank (the teachers thought I was rude, but spunky).  I think the most important thing about authenticity is that they try.  In every aspect of the classroom...to gain respect, to be themselves, etc.  My best teachers from high school were the ones I generally believed wanted me to do well, not just because they were funny.

Alright, end of rant. Bye!