Using personal experiences when teaching.

We appear to agree that sharing personal experiences when teaching allows us to build trusting relationships with our students and encourage their engagement. Africano hit the nail on the head in his comment when he described being more “real” with his students and showing his care for them. A recent assignment I completed in my graduate course highlighted this exact same notion. In the assignment we were asked to describe an effective teacher that influenced our education. The professor that immediately came to my mind had done exactly what africano described. In learning of the struggles my professor went through to become an educator, I became instantly motivated and more engaged in her course. My graduate course text described it best when quoting Linda Gibson who described teaching as “an encounter with the self.” The text went further to describe how teachers who valued and shared their “autobiographies” with their students made them feel nurtured as individuals, valued and respected as people with unique strengths, talents, thoughts and opinions, and unified with their teacher as parts of the same whole. In my case, had I not learned of the parallels between my struggles and my professor’s struggles to complete college, I would not have the motivation to pursue a career in education.

In regards to which personal experiences are too personal to share, we seem to agree that there is a line of discretion. As most of you have said, it makes sense to only share personal experiences that you feel comfortable sharing. Appearing uncomfortable in front of students makes you not only unattractive, but also vulnerable to their immature criticisms. In his comment, Josh S. suggested a logical criterion for deciding what to share with students. Josh states, “All stories that are shared should create positive norms for the students.” With that said, sharing details about a pregnancy outside of marriage is ethical in my opinion as long as they are shared within a context that encourages the student to critically analyze and appropriately apply the scenario. If the students clearly do not have the maturity and morals to analyze and apply this scenario with a positive result, than these details should not be shared with these individuals.

One's own experiences are great ways to help students understand a lesson or assignment. The instructor must think of the grade level they are teaching before going on that journey. It will be hard for a student in the first grade to understand the concept or the comparison if the teacher is explaining the concept on a junior high level or even higher. The instructor should try using experiences from their past students at the given age or themselves at the given age.

Yes, Share yet be aware. After reading several posts I see that many teachers agree with using personal antedotes as part of their lessons. I must maintain that it is necessary to to be professional. I work to foster personal relationships with my students. The subjects I teach allow me to share experiences I have raising my two girls and several aspects of adult living. The students feel familiar yet I maintain they are to show respect and treat the classroom situation in a professional manner. I am also very diligent about being true to what I represent to my students. It is amazing the information you can find about someone. Unabashedly easedropping on my students I found that looking for information about their teachers on the internet is a common past time. So now I look at my potential "friends" on Facebook and ask do these people truely represent who I am and what I value.

Reading several posts I see that many teachers agree to share personal antedotes while teaching. I too think this is a wonderful practise. I have worked hard to develope relationship with my students. The classes I teach allow me to share my experiences raising my two daughters and what it is like being an adult. I do strive to maintain professional decorum in the classroom by insisting on respect and proper ettiquete from my students. I am very aware that my life needs to be transparent and true for my students. I usually see one or two everytime I am shopping. I often find myself asking would I do anything different if my students saw me? This is also true for my use of the internet. Students enjoy digging up info on their teachers any way they can. I have changed my facebook setting drastically and reflect on the choice of "friends" I have. Do they represent who I am and what I value? If not it is easier not to accept a new "friend" than it is to try and explain what was on my Facebook page.

I don't think that it is a bad thing to tell the students that you are pregnant. They will obviously find out sooner than later. I guess I am just old fashion in the sense that you should be married first?? But in the real world that is not the case more and more. I guess it is just a personal opinion with not being married and sharing the fact that they are expecting.

I think personal experiences are necessary in being a great teacher. Kids need to know how your personal experiences have helped you become what you are today. I think the only time it might cross a line is if your personal experiences would influence their family values. For example, if an unwed teacher were to get pregnant and then talked about it at school with her middle school students that might be crossing a line. Parents want to know that their family values are protected both at home and school and I believe that we as teachers need to make sure we do keep the students' family values in check with our personal experiences. I think personal experiences are great in teaching students so long as we keep our "stories" in check.

I think personal experiences can have a positive impact on our students. It helps the students recognize that we are regular people just like them. I recently went to Hawaii for my honeymoon and I had the opportunity to take a helicopter ride over a live volcano. When I returned back to school, I aired this video during a science lesson. My students thought this was amazing and they were captivated by it.

In reading what you wrote Andrea R., I feel that sometimes there is a line that you should not cross when teaching. Experiences that are inappropriate such as drug use, divorce, or religion (unless you work in a religious school. However, I feel sharing experiences from my own schooling or about the basics of my life really help my students understand that I am a real person too. They then come to see that I have a life outside of school and can associate with me. I do believe the more we open up to our children the more comfortable coming to us they will become. It also depends on the age group you work with. The younger they are, the more real you become. However older students may look at it as a way to "break" into your life. Just some thoughts to think about. Great question though!

Chelsea~
I agree completely, in sharing experiences. Especially since there are many children out there that will not get to participate in many worldly travels or trips that we would consider a norm. I work with children that have never even been to the zoo because they come from such low income families. Sharing these experiences lets them live a little.

Brandi~
I completely agree with how you have to be careful to not cross lines with family values. I stated this to Andrea in such a way that some topics are inappropriate. I would hope that most people would be able to determine what could cause issues with childrens' families verus what is ok. Your example is perfect. I also agree that it helps the children see that we are who we are because of what we have done. Great input!