The Heart Of A Teacher

THE HEART OF A TEACHER
By Paula Fox

The child arrives like a mystery box… with puzzle pieces inside some of the pieces are broken or missing… and others just seem to hide

But the HEART of a teacher can sort them out… and help the child to see the potential for greatness he has within… a picture of what he can be

Her goal isn’t just to teach knowledge… by filling the box with more parts it’s putting the pieces together… to create a work of art.

The process is painfully slow at times… some need more help than others each child is a work in progress… with assorted shapes and colors

First she creates a classroom… where the child can feel safe in school where he never feels threatened or afraid to try… and kindness is always the rule

She knows that a child can achieve much more when he feels secure inside when he’s valued and loved…and believes in himself
…and he has a sense of pride

She models and teaches good character… and respect for one another how to focus on strengths…not weaknesses and how to encourage each other

She gives the child the freedom he needs… to make choices on his own so he learns to become more responsible… and is able to stand alone

He’s taught to be strong and think for himself… as his soul and spirit heal and the puzzle that’s taking shape inside… has a much more positive feel

The child discovers the joy that comes… from learning something new… and his vision grows as he begins to see all the things he can do

A picture is formed as more pieces fit… an image of the child within with greater strength and confidence… and a belief that he can win!

All because a hero was there… in the HEART of a teacher who cared enabling the child to become much more… than he ever imagined…or dared

A teacher with a HEART for her children… knows what teaching is all about she may not have all the answers… but on this…she has no doubt

When asked which subjects she loved to teach, she answered this way and smiled…
“It’s not the subjects that matter…
It’s all about teaching the CHILD.”

This excerpt from the Heart of a Teacher by Paula J. Fox captures the essence of teaching – the life-changing work teachers do every day, making a difference in the lives of their students.

Great teachers touch the lives of those who will change the world someday. Passionate about their profession, teachers help children to see the potential for greatness they have within—helping them to be the best they can be.

But what is the heart of a teacher? Passion, desire, and drive combined to form an intense intrinsic motivation to act. That is the foremost quality of a good teacher. The heart of a teacher is what matters—for with it, everything else can be taught.

This “heart” that good teachers possess moves them to continually put students first. This naturally leads these teachers to attend whatever professional developments, listen to whatever advice, and employ whatever strategies necessary for the benefit of their students.
Teachers who possess heart take heed to counsel and advice. They embrace new teaching models, such as co-teaching and technology in the classroom. They self-evaluate, study, research, observe, and adjust, all without prodding from department heads and administration. They are thirsty for information and seek to not only hone their skills, but to share them with others. Students cannot help but benefit from these teachers who are open, resourceful, and ready to learn.

If at times, the students and subjects accounted for all the complexities of teaching, they all have the standard ways of coping would do—keep up with their fields as best they can, and learn enough techniques to stay ahead of the student psyche. But there is another reason for these complexities: they teach who they are.

Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse. As they teach, they project the condition of their soul onto their students, their subject, and their way of being together. The entanglements they experience in the classroom are often no more or less than the convolutions of their inner life. Viewed from this angle, teaching holds a mirror to the soul. If they willing to look in that mirror, and not run from what they see, they have a chance to gain self-knowledge—and knowing themselves is as crucial to good teaching as knowing their students and their subject.

Good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they teach from an integral and undivided self; they manifest in their own lives, and evoke in their students, a "capacity for connectedness." They are able to weave a complex web of connections between themselves, their subjects, and their students, so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves.

The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts meaning heart in its ancient sense, the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self.

The claim that good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher might sound like a truism, and a pious one at that: good teaching comes from good people. But by "identity" and "integrity" they do not mean only their noble features, or the good deeds they do, or the brave faces they wear to conceal their confusions and complexities. Identity and integrity have as much to do with their shadows and limits, their wounds and fears, as with their strengths and potentials.

As good teachers weave the fabric that joins them with students and subjects, the heart is the loom on which the threads are tied: the tension is held, the shuttle flies, and the fabric is stretched tight. Small wonder, then, that teaching tugs at the heart, opens the heart, even breaks the heart—and the more one loves teaching, the more heartbreaking it can be.

Unlike many professions, teaching is always done at the dangerous intersection of personal and public life. A good therapist must work in a personal way, but never publicly: the therapist who reveals as much as a client's name is derelict. A good trial lawyer must work in a public forum, but unswayed by personal opinion: the lawyer who allows his or her feelings about a client's guilt to weaken the client's defense is guilty of malpractice.

But a good teacher must stand where personal ' and public meet, dealing with the thundering flow of traffic at an intersection where "weaving a web of connectedness" feels more like crossing a freeway on foot. As they try to connect themselves and their subjects with their students, they make themselves, as well as their subjects, vulnerable to indifference, judgment, ridicule.

Teaching may not be a lucrative position. It cannot guarantee financial security. It even means investing their personal time, energy and resources. Sometimes, it means disappointments, heartaches and pains...but touching the hearts of people and opening the minds of students can give joy and contentment which money could not buy...these are the moments...the very reasons why our teachers teach...these are the moments they live for.

Today is the day to salute and commend our great teachers for they are all great artists and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

Let me just leave this Scriptural message to our great teachers:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

I AM PROUD I AM A TEACHER! 