Who are you? It’s sometimes very difficult to separate ourselves from this honourable profession that seems to consume our entire being. Even the students tend not to see us as humans who have families and lives, but just as teachers, that essential appendix of schools.
I remember relating an example in class using an interaction with my children and one of my students yelled out in surprise. “Ma, so you have children”. Of course, I just smiled, but it made me realise that sometimes, they don’t really see us as anything other than the species called teachers. This otherness transcends, not just the students, but many times the parents. That’s one reason why I dislike being addressed as ‘Teacher Rasheedat’, as if that’s all I could be. I love teaching. I love my profession. I willingly do it. But that’s not all. I am all sorts of things. I’m a mother. I’m a daughter. I’m a human being. I’m a citizen of the world. Lots of times, we as teachers fail to realise that we’re an important part of the world, but our world is not only with teaching.
Sometimes we feel we need to be superhuman, because we have these young minds, looking up to us, expecting us to mould them. The world is expecting us to produce future leaders, but hey, we really can’t do it alone. The pressure, the expectations, high stakes, guilt, doubt and anxiety is enough fodder for the nightmare. Will I last? Will I break? Can I do it?
Outsiders may not see it, but I feel the term ‘teacher-tired’ should be a certified condition. There is a popular saying that teachers are the only ones that lose sleep over other people’s children. The struggle is real and if our brains were analysed it would be filled with thoughts on observations, lesson plans, assessments, grading, resources and students who are struggling, hyper, ill, bored or abused.
Did you notice that few of these involve the actual act of teaching? We’re easily consumed by the profession or do you know teachers that have a social life. (I’m sure there a few exceptions).
We need to look into and understand the various roles we play in life. We should be able to have self awareness, know who we really are, understand our own needs and achieve balance. We shouldn’t give all of it to the school system. It’s important to leave something for yourself, for your family, you owe it to yourself to accept that you’re a human being and it’s okay to be you.
Self awareness is a key component of emotional intelligence. We assume we know ourselves but sometimes an individual’s self concept is actually more of who they wish they are, than who they really are. Skills within this component include identifying your emotions and triggers, accurate self-perception, recognising strengths and weaknesses, and self esteem.
Reflection is important to achieve self awareness for as we grow, we are sometimes affected by our surroundings and change in character, values and behaviour. Personally for a long time I identified as a ‘talker’ but I discovered that many of my friends and acquaintances saw me as a quiet and reserved individual. I had to do some deep introspection into which category I really fit into and whether I wanted to change peoples’ perception or take ownership and be comfortable with who I am- A generally reserved individual who gets passionate and animated while teaching. Regular reflection can be done by journaling your thoughts, feelings, achievements or challenges in a digital or physical journal regularly preferably daily but could be weekly.
Mindfulness and Meditation are also excellent tools to improve self awareness as they help us become better able to focus on specific aspects on our lives, get in touch with our spirituality and achieve calmness and tranquillity that increase our creativity and ability to explore new experiences and become better versions of ourselves.
Rasheedat Sadiq