A successful teacher doesn’t bring themselves into the classroom. They bring their teaching persona. This is especially important if you are working in secondary education or with freshmen in college. If students find a chink in your armor, they’ll eat you alive. What’s curious is that male high school teachers often suffer quite badly because they keep going into the classroom just as they are, without any padding between their vulnerable human self and students.
I had a student last year who was desperate to provoke me. What he didn’t know is that it’s impossible to provoke me because I’m not there. The persona is.
Every class the student went out of his way to inform me that he hadn’t brought the textbook and couldn’t write anything because he lacked both a pen and a notebook. When that failed to elicit any reaction, he faked falling asleep. Then he pretended to listen to music in his headphones. Then he took to walking around the classroom.
I was completely indifferent to these antics because I can’t feel hurt or disrespected in the classroom since I’m not there. I actually really liked the student because his Spanish was superb and I could always count on him to answer everything correctly and set the example for other students.
The important thing is that you can’t fake it. Faking is a mistake because students will figure it out immediately. And the most crucial thing ever: never make it about yourself. I don’t mean don’t share stories from your life. Of course do that because it’s a great strategy. But don’t make the interaction about your feelings or your real-life self.
I’m writing this because somebody I know who’s a school teacher was almost in tears today because, he says, students are bullying him. What he doesn’t get is that he brings his vulnerability, his self that can be bullied into the classroom, and that freaks students out. They realize that if an adult is terrified of bullying, then they definitely don’t stand a chance against fear of bullying. And they try to destroy him because the spectacle of his vulnerability hurts them.
What’s hard is leaving the ironclad, unreachable persona at work every day. Nobody wants to interact with a Teflon creature outside of the classroom.
Clarissa's Blog 
This is a great post; I missed it somehow?
I absolutely agree about the teaching persona. You need to be the adult in the classroom, always. It’s particularly important with younger undergrads, who are occasionally adults but, to be honest, are often better characterized as oversize toddlers. They need the teacher to provide the structure and, most importantly, always be in control of the class.
Straight out of college and before coming to the US, I taught part time at a high school for the gifted and talented. Teaching high school juniors and seniors, and very smart ones at that, when I was 22 was quite an experience. Talk about eating the teacher alive! Well, they certainly tried. I had a kid (one of the brightest in class) tear up his test and demonstratively walk out of class because he just would not accept me in the role of his physics teacher. He received an F on that test and thus as his midterm grade. I don’t think he believed I would give him an F; nobody at the special school got an F and I thought I’d face admin wrath; luckily, my colleagues supported me. The student came back groveling shortly thereafter (his parents were likely livid) and was a model student afterwards, he did not have a problem getting an A eventually (end of the year) after he stopped with the whole “cut off nose to spite the face” attitude.
This is one reason why we don’t unleash our junior faculty upon the undergrads, because they are not ready. Undergrads are quite unforgiving and just bury the newbie in student evaluations. It’s better to cut teaching teeth on smaller classes of interested grad students before encountering hundreds of undergrads who are ill-prepared and angry that they have to take the required course. (Of course, we can only do this because this is an R1; I know that folks teaching at PUIs/SLACs don’t have that luxury.)
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Oversize toddlers, ABSOLUTELY! It creeps me out all the time. Huge, bearded men and women with children who act like that – it’s so strange.
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I have always found this easy enough to do in situations where I have at least some time to myself during the day. But in this particular job, we have so many courses and have to be physically present for so many other things that, especially when I’m tired, I have to be my real self because if not, I cannot concentrate — I have to turn on dime, dig deep, etc. Also, teaching persona isn’t the one who writes so if I have it on 18 hours / day (sometimes it would be that much) I could not do research at all. This means students can get to me more than they should sometimes, yes. I have not yet figured out an answer other than having a little more time to myself each day — although administrative support as opposed to quasi-emnity would also help.
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Here’s the problem: the teaching persona has to be authoritative, calm and filled with self-respect. And if you are coming straight from an encounter or a meeting with administrators or state officials or from reading communications from them that remind you that they don’t value you for shit, you can’t build an authoritative, self-respecting persona out of that. At least, not after a significant effort.
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Right.
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I’m wondering how much this cuts by generation (actual age and whether anyone in the family attended college before) class, age, gender, race, whatever. Or if it’s equal opportunity petulance. As a student I personalized things much more when I was a freshman than now. Then again, I don’t remember actively ever rejecting a teacher’s authority or trying to provoke them childishly in the manner mentioned in this post at that age.
I might have imputed personal like or dislike but I didn’t think to do that kind of freakout because I chose the college and the major and the classwork (for the most part). I wonder how much of this is rebellion by proxy.
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I’m not seeing any difference by race and gender. And nobody comes from a wealthy family among our students.
Immigrants don’t do this kind of thing at all, that’s all I can say.
But yes, it’s petulance and some form of a childish rebellion when if you are smart you have to conceal it because it’s not cool you be smart and care about your studies.
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Since I don’t believe in keeping harsh realities from people I’m pretty up front about the fact that the me in class (or in office hours) is not the me in other places and times. They’re always shocked when I tell them that I’m normally very shy in social situations.
I do this partly because students where I work need to be able to do the same thing (they need to learn how to speak and behave in public situations, f ex having ambassadors visit us is not rare, we usualy get a couple a year).
Since language geeks are not known for having outgoing personalities the idea of certain kinds of public presentation often freaks them out in the begining. So I give them my technique (have a kind of shadow persona to your side and then when you need to you just step into its place).
Also, in Poland the real trouble makers never make it to universities so discipline is not really a problem unless you cannot establish an authortitative teacher persona at all (it does happen).
Of course for an introvert it’s kind of exhausting so after three or four 90 minute classes (the standard in Poland) I’m wiped out and have to retreat to my mind palace of solitude….
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I love this post. I’ve spent years encouraging our teaching assistants to develop a classroom persona. I never articulated the reason quite as well as you have here, but the ones who achieve a separate persona almost never have serious problems with their students and they are always happier and more successful in their teaching.
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