I have developed a bit of a reputation ...

... as the teacher who gets the "willful" kids. Willful, there's a word to conjure with. Dictionary.com gives the definition of willful as ~

Said or done on purpose; deliberate.

Obstinately bent on having one's own way.

My parents will probably tell you that I was willful - an only child, a first grandchild to both sets of grandparents - my first words were probably "mine" or "no!" I was verbally precocious (what do you mean no surprise there?) who asked "why?" and "why do we need to?" with amazing regularity. I always wanted to explore ~ usually where I wasn't supposed to be and ended up in bucket after bucket of hot water. I vividly remember being made to sit on a chair on my first day of school because I had wanted to go and look in the book corner and the teacher (Mrs Quick) said it wasn't time ... she's still teaching too, the old boot & is currently nephew #3's head teacher!

Anyway back to the subject, this reputation I have developed gets me down a bit, I don't want to be the teacher that children are sent to so they get "sorted out!" That gets the "difficult children" ~ I'd rather have the reputation as someone who teaches fabulous lessons, is kind to all children, a good listener somebody who is caring ... but wait, this "reputation" that I have is stuck on me by teachers and TAs who send children into my class year after year. Maybe I should instead be talking to the children in my class about my reputation - asking them if we have fun, if their lessons are interesting? Or the children who were in my class last year or before that? What would they say about me? How would they come into school if they were worried about me sorting them out? Would they come back to "visit" on the playground for a hug or a high-five in passing in the corridors if all I ever did was sort them out? Anyway, do I really want to "sort out that obstinacy" that makes a child stay on task / persevere with an activity / find out about or do something that might be a little difficult for them? NO!

This is a bit of a garbled post but what it really boils down to is :: I guess I have to stop worrying about what other adults (staff and parents) in school think of me the teacher ~ ok, realistically there are times/people who's opinions do count BUT in all reality the only day to day opinions I care about are the little ones.

Question ~ so, does the real you match up to your reputation?