I’ve got a question for you. Maybe it’s a bit deep for a Monday in the back end of Term 3, but I’m going to ask it anyway.
What kind of teacher do you aspire to be?
If you could be more like any type of teacher, what would that look like? Is it the More Organised Teacher, the Less Stressed Teacher, the One Who Has Great Relationships With All The Kids Teacher? Or perhaps the Teacher Who Leads Their Team, or Mentors Other Teachers Teacher.
Now I’m going to ask a sneaky second question. Picture the teacher you want to be in your mind, and ask yourself, how far away from that version of yourself are you currently? What’s the gap between your goal and the current you? Visualise in your mind a continuum with your goal at one end, and imagine placing a dot that marks your current self on that continuum. Ponder that, without judgement, just for a minute. And now, just for fun, I want you to imagine you already are that teacher in your imagination.
Observe the feelings that come up for you. Notice what’s different. Encompass that future identity.
If it felt good to imagine your future identity, I’m going to be super presumptuous and ask a final brazen question – what are you doing about it?
Let me assure you that I am not asking what big, bold steps you are taking to become a new and improved you. I want to get you thinking about what small tweaks, what little habits you are embedding to bring yourself closer to the teacher you want to be?
We know a lot these days about breaking and making habits, thanks in large part to the work of James Clear and BJ Fogg, and fortunately, a lot of myths have been debunked along the way. Knowing I don’t need to rely on sheer willpower to make changes in my life is truly refreshing (I suck at willpower). As is knowing there isn’t a magical number of days that I need to perform a habit to make it stick. (I could never seem to make it to day 21 without getting bored or missing a day!)
One of the most useful framings from Clears’ work that has helped me align my practice as a teacher with my values is to understand how habits shape your identity, and vice versa. Clear suggests that there is a two-step process to making changes in our lives;
- Decide the person you want to be
- Prove it to yourself with small wins.
Let’s take an example. Suppose you want to be a teacher who build and maintains more effective relationships with all their students. Consider, what would that type of teacher do on a daily basis? Perhaps they would greet all their students at the door each morning. They would likely set firm but fair expectations, they would be intentional with their words, and they would approach negative behaviours with curiosity and so on.
If you take the opportunity to constantly ask yourself, what would a teacher with great student relationships do, your habits will arise from your desired identity, rather than the other way around. You start to become a teacher who prioritises relationships through your actions.
A really useful thing to remember is that when we are building habits to become a better version of ourselves, we won’t always get it right. Perhaps in the heat of the moment, we don’t respond to a student in the way a teacher with awesome relationships may do. And that’s okay. This isn’t the equivalent of breaking the diet by eating the chocolate cake at recess and saying, “Stuff it, I’ll start the diet again next week!”
Instead, we reflect – not for judgment, but for adjustment – and we get another opportunity to try again.
And every small win is a step in the direction along that continuum, as we close the gap between current and future self. There’s the thrill of progress, without the guilt of feeling like you’ve fallen short. I reckon that might be something I can commit to!
Check out other articles Kirsty has written here.