I view my professional identity as manifested through the ways in which I engage with my profession, including my roles and responsibilities as a teacher, as well as the people I interact with within that role. It is coloured by my experiences, influenced by my environment, and driven by my goals and aspirations.
Imagine a mason jar. Like the art project where you paint a mason jar with a variety of colours and fill it with light to create a lantern – that is how I imagine my professional identity. The glass is coloured with my values, beliefs, and experiences. Like my identity, the colours are vibrant and alive, they are each distinct and recognizable yet the edges blend softly into each other creating new beautiful colours, new perspectives. Inside is a never-ending collection of knowledge I have gathered, experiences I have had, responsibilities I have taken, and commitments I have made through becoming a teacher. Each one of these things shines through the colours and projects a light. A light that I hope will not only guide me through my professional journey, but that will be recognized by my students and colleagues and contribute to a collective goal of illuminating the lives of those that we meet along the way.
What the Future Holds
As I look into the future, there is so much I want to accomplish. Here is a glimpse at what I plan for the next few years of my professional career and what you can look forward to reading about on my blog.
Inquiry: I most certainly will continue into my research on classroom management. Classroom management will always be a hot topic and one that is of interest to teachers at all levels of teaching, so the better we can understand how to approach it, the more effective our practice will become. The first year of this inquiry journey has been very much research focused. As you may have noticed, in the Annotated Bibliography page, you can find a collection of articles and websites that focus on different strategies and resources for effective classroom management. Each entry includes a brief summary and my own critical reflection on the reading, for your ease of browsing to find information that may be the most relevant to you. The next portion of my inquiry, however, will be centred around my practice and reflection. As I leave behind the student life and step into life as a teacher, I will put my research to the test. Through trial and error and much reflection I plan to continue exploring the many dimensions of classroom management and sharing tips and resources in my Links to Practice page!
