I am not so naive to think that the teachers at my school wouldn't have any irrational pre-conceived notions about me and my teaching style, but I don't have much patience for people that judge me as a teacher just because I'm young. Today was absolutely fine...I had many conversations with other teachers (in Romanian even!!) and developed an outline to base my syllabus on. One such conversation topic was even the importance of history, which I love to talk about!! Not a bad days work. Anyway, just before I'm about to say la revedere and servus to everyone...the dreaded classroom management discussion comes up.
A few teachers informed me they are worried about my discipline in the classroom because "American teachers are all fun and games." Excuse me??! Learning is fun and students should be given a chance to experience that. Obviously this is still fresh in my mind even though I have a 1/2 hour walk home...I knew this would be a challenge so why was I shocked to hear it? I will not be the quintessential Romanian teacher (strict and not fun--okay that's a generalization and I apologize, but seriously!)...until I prove myself, which I will, the other teachers are welcome to question my abilities. But the next time they decide to say it to my face they better have an argument based on justified concerns! I love teaching, and it's very important to me. AHH!! I'm rambling now just because I'm a little offended. I'm sorry.
My class is undoubtedly going to be different than anything my school has ever experienced, but that doesn't mean I am any less effective than they are! Maybe I can even begin to break down some of their outdated teaching techniques, ideologies, and epistemologies! I'm proud of the teacher education I received...but even more so I know that my supervisors and mentors during student teaching wouldn't have passed me if I couldn't handle a classroom!
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