After a much needed hiatus, I started two new classes; Teacher Leadership & School Change and Designing Integrated Media Environments. For the leadership class I had to come up with a metaphor that describes my role as an educator. After much thought this is what I came up with…
The metaphor that I think best suits me is a woman who wears many hats. My main purpose is to be a teacher, and I wear that hat most of the time, but some days it is not the first, nor the most important hat I put on during the day. There are days when I start out with my Mother Hat because several of my students need a hug or a word of encouragement just to get the day started off right. Then I must quickly locate and put on my Chef Hat because three of my students didn't have breakfast before they left the house and their parents couldn't get them to school in time to get something to eat from the cafeteria, so I scramble to find something for them to eat. Many times throughout the course of any given day I put on my Nurse Hat because someone lost a tooth, got sick after lunch, or has a headache. I also have a Counselor Hat to wear when two best friends end up in a fight because one thought the other was talking about her behind her back. Occasionally I put on my Sports Cap during recess so I can shoot hoops and race against the boys or jump rope and play tag with the girls. There are many others that will go unmentioned here, but none more important than the others. Oftentimes the changing of the hats gets tiresome, but with being a teacher comes great responsibility and I will change my hats as many times as needed throughout the day to meet the many needs, academic or not, of my students.
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