My identity as a teacher has seen it’s shifts throughout this year, but it is certainly something very important to me as a teacher. Early on I was struggling to find a balance for myself. I really badly wanted to be accepted by the students and liked by them, but I also wanted to set boundaries and precedent quick that I am their teacher and need to be treated as such. Finding that balance of being friendly yet professional has been a rather fascinating roller coaster of ups and downs.

As the year kicked off I made it a goal to push myself out of my comfort zone and set boundaries quick. I took away a lot of students’ phones to hold the no phone expectation hard. I was hard on making sure students were on task and not talking when others were. I worked hard to set that bar for myself, but also did plenty to counteract that early on. On Wednesdays when I’d take over alone for the first couple times, I’d get nervous and let students slip with things that weren’t completely productive. I was worried by pushing expectations further I’d ruin a relationship with a student.

When I took over geometry fully, setting and sticking to those expectations was priority number one for me. I felt I needed to make sure students fully respected me as a teacher and nothing else in order to have a successful class. While the boundaries were set and students followed them, class morale went down. Students and I seemed to stop making connections, students seemed to enjoy class much less, and ultimately it was affecting my teaching and mindset. I learned from this that it’s important to try to have fun, engaging lessons and moments in the classroom, as it can help build morale and not only get you more invested, but your students as well.

A picture of some of my 8th graders after a hard-day’s work of math! I tried wearing one of their Minecraft glasses, and you truly can’t see anything through those…

As the year went on, I worked on finding that balance, but slowly again started tipping in the other direction. I would play ultimate frisbee after school with a group of my students frequently, which was a huge bonding experience that I thought would help increase in-class relations. However, it backfired a little. Students were starting to try and take advantage of me, treating me less professionally, and saying things that were not okay for a classroom setting. While it was great for building strong connections with the students, they were seeing me less as a teacher. It made class counterproductive for some students and led some to thinking they could take advantage of me.

I reinstated some of the boundaries following this, and started to find a groove as bit of a friendly figure that would ensure you were in line. I find that holding high expectations of students while allowing yourself to loosen up a tiny bit and feel like a real person creates the best mixture. Students respect you as a professional figure, but also respect you as a person when you show a little personality. Positive relations can make managing a classroom that much easier, as long as the expectation is still professional. As long as students know we’re in the classroom to learn and do some math, we can have fun in the process.