So by the end of the book we finally see why it is entitled “Teach With Your Heart”: you need to teach with you heart, which means you have to be yourself and follow your own personality, your own limits, and your own beliefs so that you don’t lose yourself. It is important as an educator to not lose yourself in what you do and let everything else suffer. Erin lost her husband, her father before she realized that she had thrown herself too far into what she was doing and lost out on herself. Erin changed so many lives, and I’m not saying that isn’t so, but the point is that she was too involved and let her own life suffer. As I was reading this, I saw myself in Erin many times; I am very passionate about teaching and go out of my way when teaching during the summer to present my students with an amazing education, and sometimes it is at the expense of my doing anything else. Reading the story of Erin, I realized that I have to worry about myself too, and that although making a difference in a student’s life is very important--it is not necessary to save every child and yet not save yourself--you have to be able to set limits. Erin did not set appropriate limits, and lost herself in her work. Steve talked about the definition of ‘work’ and how Erin wasn’t working for money, but was doing work to help kids; I see the difference he is trying to make, and I agree with him, but I don’t think it really matters because no matter whether it is a job or service work you still have to set limits and think about your own well-being in the process of doing that work.
Our class discussion turned to Erin’s husband and whether or not we felt compassion for him. I have trouble picking a side on this: I feel sorry for him in that it is true Erin devoted her whole being to the students and had nothing left for him, but at the same time I can see myself in Erin (which I will talk about later) and feel as if he should have been less selfish and been more considerate of her. In class I mentioned a mirror philosophy I had developed, which was that people who devote themselves to teaching and sacrifice their lives to their work would feel more for Erin in the divorce, and people who do not and or have been ignored by people who have lost themselves in their work would feel more for the husband. I definitely have many times when teaching been so busy working to create plans for my students that I do push people away and spend more time by myself, so I admit that when I read this book I dismissed the husband as being selfish and hated him. Looking back I can see that my hate for him in fact speaks more to my own faults than it does his: he married Erin, expecting to be in a two sided marriage, but in fact was married to himself since Erin was not even there when she stood in front of him, her mind still in the classroom or on the students. So now I am sad for him, and sad for Erin that she had to lose one of the people she had outside of the classroom just to see that she was too involved and needed to step back--sadly, even after the divorce she didn’t get that message until the death of her father.
The death of Erin’s father jarred her to reality, and yet she still decided to stay at the conference and ‘work’ rather than fly back--partly because her stepmother told her that her father would have wanted her to, and partly because her coping strategy was not to finally stop working too much, but to work even more. This led the class to talk about coping strategies. Clearly Erin’s was to lose more of herself in her work. I feel as if I am the same way and would work harder, work more to forget about my pain rather than have to go home and face it, but I realize many of my classmates and others would not do this, but would instead stop working altogether or have some reaction intermediate between those two extremes. Everyone has different coping strategies; we can’t judge someone for how they cope based on how we would cope, because no one else deserves to be treated as if their way is less than ideal just because its opposite of what we believe. Some of my classmates were mad at Erin for losing herself even more, and I hope through my saying this they can forgive her. This ties back in with the idea of setting limits for yourself and following them: Megan mentioned during the discussion that teachers need to have balance in their lives, and that Erin never understood or managed an appropriate balance between her teaching life and her home life. I want to be a great teacher to my students, but unlike Erin I realize that I cannot be successful at this if my home life is failing; when I enter that classroom I need to be in top form so that I am both mentally and emotionally ready to teach them without anything weighing on my mind.
So the book is complete. Was Erin an attention whore as some of my classmates believe? I think Erin was a great teacher with great ideas who let the educational world sweep her off her feet and make her lose sight of her life. This happened first when she began to teach and changed the lives of her students, but forgot to care for her family and her husband, leaving them out in the cold while she worked herself to death. The second time was after she finished with the students and she let everyone talk her first into a college teacher preparation course, then a congresswoman, then a speaker. Erin was a great choice as an educational speaker, a great trainer of teachers with her bright, glowing success, but she forgot to make her decisions and was letting them be made for her I think. Erin went through a four year costly college degree to teach for four years, was this worth it? I feel as if perhaps it was not and Erin’s life moved too fast that she didn’t have time to fully enjoy it--I mean she did change the lives of 150 students, but what about the thousands who come after them? Were they really the only students in that school, in that community, in that state that deserved to be helped? What happens to the rest of the students when she leaves after only helping one set? These are tough questions, and although I sympathize with Erin and am proud of her and would probably have let the success carry me away too, I still feel as if she should have slowed down and stopped letting her success turn her from a regular person to an exalted entity. Was she a great teacher as Dr. Grace believes? The answer is yes she was, and nothing more needs to be said. Did the book have its desired effect in inspiring the reader? It did have the desired effect in inspiring me, and I would also say my peers as our discussions have led me to believe they respect and admire her methods as well. Some of the things I learned were: the importance of balance, having a support network, caring for and understanding the uniqueness of my students, teaching from my heart and being myself and mostly, being courageous and not letting failure or adversity get the best of me. If I want to be a great teacher for my students like Erin I have to be different, exciting, enthusiastic and creative…these are all traits that I have and intend to use in my teaching.
Our class discussion turned to Erin’s husband and whether or not we felt compassion for him. I have trouble picking a side on this: I feel sorry for him in that it is true Erin devoted her whole being to the students and had nothing left for him, but at the same time I can see myself in Erin (which I will talk about later) and feel as if he should have been less selfish and been more considerate of her. In class I mentioned a mirror philosophy I had developed, which was that people who devote themselves to teaching and sacrifice their lives to their work would feel more for Erin in the divorce, and people who do not and or have been ignored by people who have lost themselves in their work would feel more for the husband. I definitely have many times when teaching been so busy working to create plans for my students that I do push people away and spend more time by myself, so I admit that when I read this book I dismissed the husband as being selfish and hated him. Looking back I can see that my hate for him in fact speaks more to my own faults than it does his: he married Erin, expecting to be in a two sided marriage, but in fact was married to himself since Erin was not even there when she stood in front of him, her mind still in the classroom or on the students. So now I am sad for him, and sad for Erin that she had to lose one of the people she had outside of the classroom just to see that she was too involved and needed to step back--sadly, even after the divorce she didn’t get that message until the death of her father.
The death of Erin’s father jarred her to reality, and yet she still decided to stay at the conference and ‘work’ rather than fly back--partly because her stepmother told her that her father would have wanted her to, and partly because her coping strategy was not to finally stop working too much, but to work even more. This led the class to talk about coping strategies. Clearly Erin’s was to lose more of herself in her work. I feel as if I am the same way and would work harder, work more to forget about my pain rather than have to go home and face it, but I realize many of my classmates and others would not do this, but would instead stop working altogether or have some reaction intermediate between those two extremes. Everyone has different coping strategies; we can’t judge someone for how they cope based on how we would cope, because no one else deserves to be treated as if their way is less than ideal just because its opposite of what we believe. Some of my classmates were mad at Erin for losing herself even more, and I hope through my saying this they can forgive her. This ties back in with the idea of setting limits for yourself and following them: Megan mentioned during the discussion that teachers need to have balance in their lives, and that Erin never understood or managed an appropriate balance between her teaching life and her home life. I want to be a great teacher to my students, but unlike Erin I realize that I cannot be successful at this if my home life is failing; when I enter that classroom I need to be in top form so that I am both mentally and emotionally ready to teach them without anything weighing on my mind.
So the book is complete. Was Erin an attention whore as some of my classmates believe? I think Erin was a great teacher with great ideas who let the educational world sweep her off her feet and make her lose sight of her life. This happened first when she began to teach and changed the lives of her students, but forgot to care for her family and her husband, leaving them out in the cold while she worked herself to death. The second time was after she finished with the students and she let everyone talk her first into a college teacher preparation course, then a congresswoman, then a speaker. Erin was a great choice as an educational speaker, a great trainer of teachers with her bright, glowing success, but she forgot to make her decisions and was letting them be made for her I think. Erin went through a four year costly college degree to teach for four years, was this worth it? I feel as if perhaps it was not and Erin’s life moved too fast that she didn’t have time to fully enjoy it--I mean she did change the lives of 150 students, but what about the thousands who come after them? Were they really the only students in that school, in that community, in that state that deserved to be helped? What happens to the rest of the students when she leaves after only helping one set? These are tough questions, and although I sympathize with Erin and am proud of her and would probably have let the success carry me away too, I still feel as if she should have slowed down and stopped letting her success turn her from a regular person to an exalted entity. Was she a great teacher as Dr. Grace believes? The answer is yes she was, and nothing more needs to be said. Did the book have its desired effect in inspiring the reader? It did have the desired effect in inspiring me, and I would also say my peers as our discussions have led me to believe they respect and admire her methods as well. Some of the things I learned were: the importance of balance, having a support network, caring for and understanding the uniqueness of my students, teaching from my heart and being myself and mostly, being courageous and not letting failure or adversity get the best of me. If I want to be a great teacher for my students like Erin I have to be different, exciting, enthusiastic and creative…these are all traits that I have and intend to use in my teaching.
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