The one thing I especially found interesting from this week's reading was the importance of understanding yourself in the context of how you teach, etc. "Self-reflection" is all we hear about, but it really is an important part of bettering yourself as a teacher. In my student-teaching and my internship, self reflection has been very important. It helps me to understand how who I am as a person affects how I teach. Sometimes it could be my personality, or culture, or temperament. Understanding how these factors impact you while you teach is important. They can affect how you relate to kids, understand them, or interpret them. It's important to understand your own identity, and the influence it can have in the classroom.

This made me think of a professor I had at UConn. His opinions, ideas, and even his personality were very evident in how he taught the class. It was a geography class, but at least once every class, he would share his political thoughts, and opinions on many issues. Furthermore, he was very oppositional to other viewpoints, so several times throughout the class, there were debates between him and the students brave enough to oppose him.

His personality and opinions really impacted how he taught, and how I percieved him as a teacher. I personally didn't care for his teaching style. This is why I think it is so important to consider how we let our own identites imapct our teaching.