Episode 19_ What Does A Professional Educator Look Like? Part Two.

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In today’s episode, I finish up asking some of my education students the big question: “what does a professional educator look like?” 

As you recall, I had my students, in their first ever education class, consider the dispositions necessary to be a professional educator. Then, in groups, they created posters, with stick figures embellished to show how these dispositions might look in an ideal teacher.

Remember, for many of these students, this poster presentation was their first time talking about education in front of others. I’m thankful they agreed to allow me to record this for the podcast at the time.

So, from those who had recently left school…what does a professional educator look like?

As we navigate having to teach, learn, and parent in multiple modalities caused by a global pandemic, I can’t but help to notice how often these students pointed out that teachers needed to be flexible, organized, and caring. Even in the beforetimes, and, if you are listening to this in the future, after the pandemic is over, you would agree that these are key dispositions for all educators to possess.

My colleagues in the Edjacent collaborative are focusing on issues of professionalism, and the many expectations thrust upon teachers as a result of systemic, personal, societal, or administrative pressures influencing the profession. As many of us will attest, there is no “one answer” to the question of what a professional educator looks like.  The word “professional” is a term often used to place pressure on educators, when in reality the field has been slowly and systematically deprofessionalized. How the next generation of teachers embrace their status will be key. 

This is definitely a topic that we will revisit in the future…

 

But until then,

That was Episode 19 of the Teachers Teatime Podcast.

This podcast is a proud member of Edjacent, a design collaborative made up of educators who dream of a better world for our students and their teachers. We create, write, talk, teach and learn about the things that matter most in education. To find out more, point your browser to www.edjacent.org. That’s w w w dot e d j a c e n t dot o r g.

For me, it’s the stories of teachers, students, and school communities that matter. As such, this podcast is only possible with the help and support of its listeners. Please leave positive reviews wherever you are able. If you are an ITunes or Spotify subscriber, leaving a good review can really help our visibility.  Also, please don’t keep this podcast to yourself. Tell your friends to subscribe and listen too.  

One thing we all have in common is that we’ve been to school. So, if you would like to contribute to the pod in any way, if you have a story to share, long, short, tragic, or comic, if you have comments to make about the podcast, or just want to say “hi”, you can send an email to TeachersTeaTimePod@gmail.com. I love to read what you have to say.

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You can find suggestions for topics, copies of the show notes, and you can download previous episodes of the podcast at www.teachersteatimepod.com

The podcast artwork was created by Phaedra.

Opening and closing music is by Bryan Boyko.

It’s been my pleasure to be your host today.

Thank you for listening.

This podcast is available in iTunes. Subscribe with this URL: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-teatimeteachings-podcast/id1497468044

For other podcatchers, subscribe with this one: https://feed.podbean.com/teatimeteaching/feed.xml