How Do I Improve My Character?

As a teacher for many years now, I am no longer focused on questions regarding what topics would I need to teach under the curriculum I have been assigned, or what tools should I be using to deliver the best approach so I can ensure effective teaching strategies. I am not even concerned anymore about putting on a “good show” in case my boss happens to drop in, wanting to watch me teach.

I think, for many of us who have been teaching for a long time, and who have realized that this job is more than just ‘work’, there comes a point where you start thinking of your students as your own children. As such, you would ask yourself, ‘so how do I prepare them for life? What do I do I do in class, so they will take whatever I teach within the four walls of the classroom, into the real world? How do I equip them so they become successful at what they wanted to be in the future

In one workshop on Character Education I attended in Singapore in March 2010, the presenter talked about the teachers’ influence as ‘having no end’. We impact our students in such a way that it can either scar them for life, or strengthen them for what’s in store in the future.

I’ve seen teachers teach so well in class. Yet, once outside the safe confines of the classroom, , where it really matters most, they talk badly about their students. They ridicule, they criticize, and yet, they have the gall to go back into class, and spew meaningless words and pretend they like their students. Such lies! And such hypocrisy.

I may not be the best teacher a student can have, but I do try my best to make my words, whether inside the class or not, to ring with truth. I will never, for example, ask a student to do something I myself, am not prepared to do, or have not even experienced.

It’s been hard to transition from being, simply, an English teacher to a teacher of Values! I thought, “Wow, I must become perfect!” But as I found out these last couple of years, you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to keep it real.

In my Grade 9 class this last quarter, I had my students working on a goal for their final project. They had to think of a character trait they’d like to acquire or get better at. The next 3 weeks, they have to keep a journal of their progress, and do a power point presentation towards the end of the 3-week period. One student, while working in class on this project, asked me, “So Miss Hedda, what IS your goal?”

I said, “To be better organized.” It wasn’t hard to look the student in the eye and tell him that, because just a few days prior, I worked on all of my students’ final projects’ guidelines, timelines and rubrics. It used to be hard for me to get organized for a whole months’ work of course work, but knowing ahead of time that I will require that much planning and work from my kids, I also pushed myself to do more than what I would require of them. And that paid off in the end.

By trying to live by the same guidelines I ask my own students to abide by, I have enough integrity to push them to challenge themselves and work on becoming people of better character. It’s not about perfection. It’s about doing the little things that really matter, on a daily basis.

For more information on this project I have designed for my Grade 9 Values class, click here. It contains guidelines, rubrics and prompts. And when this project is done, I will throw in some reflection on how the whole project went, especially on how it has benefited the students.

Tags: acquiring character traits, improving character, learning good character, service learning, teacher in thailand, teaching good character, values education

Category: Character Education, Lesson Plans