Authenticity

Authenticity is what makes or breaks every classroom. I believe that authenticity cannot be faked and children are the most capable human beings of telling if someone is faking it or not. If you're authentic and mean what you say whole-heartedly, your class will be a fun place. I think that the best teachers are those that are authentically enthusiastic. When you have a teacher that cares about what they're teaching and shows it, children respond the best. All of my favorite classes and teachers were ones where the teacher was real. If they were true to who they were and even if I didn't agree with who they were, if they were consistent and believable I enjoyed the class and learned a lot. I think kids are much more likely to participate and listen when their teacher is authentic.

Authenticity should be the easiest part of teaching. If people don't know how to be themselves in public, nothing will ever be real and passionate. If people choose to just play the part of a teacher, they will be a lot less successful than people who really want to be a teacher. To me, teaching is something that should never be faked. You should want to be a teacher and if you want to be a teacher, your authenticity will be there.

Then again, you may be inauthentic in some situations versus others. I think this can be a good thing. For instance, if a child is misbehaving and even though you think what they're doing is funny, you still need to follow through with guidelines and rules for them. I think that this kind of faking is acceptable. Classroom management can sometimes be inauthentic but only because there should be rules and regulations set down that you must follow through with. If you follow through with these rules and regulations despite the situation, you are in a sense, following through with your authenticity. I say this because when you put the rules into place you were doing so because you thought at the time they were important and necessary and you should have set those rules down with your most clear intentions of doing the best you could. Therefore, when you perhaps fake your personal opinion in order to follow through with a previously set authenticity, then it's okay.

Like everything, there is always a situation that prevents true authenticity from occurring. There is always a devil's advocate. However, with authenticity, if you are true to yourself in the broadest ways and are meaningful in your approach to teaching, that is the first step to becoming the best teacher you can be.