Fire Breathing Dragons
I never realized how intimidating I might be to people younger than me until I stepped into a classroom. Some treated me as a wall flower, some as a challenge, and some as a monster to be avoided at all cost.
I'd never pictured myself as a potential fire breathing dragon up until that point.
When I was a kid, I never saw teachers as scary. Being an only child up until the age of 13 meant that the people that I hung out with as a kid were all adults. I had no true fear of authority, so I couldn't understand why other kids were so afraid to ask for help. I became the knight that could confront the fire breathing dragon while my fellow classmates cowered in their huts.I never thought of myself as one of these mysterious creatures. I'm not saying that all kids have a fear of authority, or even a fear of asking for help. I have just had to accept that there are some kids who only see me as a dragon, and not as a person that can help them. I am not the queen in my classroom to most of my kids. To most of my kids I am the dragon crouching atop my desk waiting for the unread traveler to be caught in my jaws of doom.
Relationships with kids are so much more than a classroom management tactic. Relationships, and paying attention to the way your are viewed as a teacher, can take you from a dragon, to a queen, and that makes all the difference.
0 comments