{"id":676,"date":"2013-03-02T15:30:52","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T15:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=676"},"modified":"2013-03-02T15:31:37","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T15:31:37","slug":"am-i-a-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/am-i-a-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I a teacher?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fam-i-a-teacher%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n<p>&#8220;Do you consider yourself a teacher?&#8221; This question was posed to me by a colleague standing in the door of my office earlier this week. My first thought was, &#8220;Um. Yes, don&#8217;t you? That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re here isn&#8217;t it? To teach biology?&#8221; I think I muttered some sort of intelligible reply, but the question left me deep in thought. Am I a teacher? What makes me qualified? I don&#8217;t have a degree in education. I have no formal training. I have a PhD in biomedical science. I am trained to be a scientist, not a teacher. My graduate school coursework taught me the inner workings of the cell. I learned how to critically evaluate scientific data and I worked long hours in the laboratory learning research techniques. I had three days of &#8220;training&#8221; during the first week of grad school on how to be a graduate teaching assistant and that is about it. My primary experience in the world of education has been as a student, although when you spend as long as I did in school you should be an expert.<\/p>\n<p>So what makes someone a teacher? Here is the definition of a teacher from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.m-w.com\">M-W.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>1: one that teaches; especially : one whose occupation is to instruct<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ok, so what does it mean to teach? (also from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.m-w.com\">M-W.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>1 a : to cause to know something &lt;taught them a trade&gt;<br \/>\nb: to cause to know how &lt;is teaching me to drive&gt;<br \/>\nc: to accustom to some action or attitude &lt;teach students to think for themselves&gt;<br \/>\nd: to cause to know the disagreeable consequences of some action &lt;I&#8217;ll teach you to come home late&gt;<br \/>\n2: to guide the studies of<br \/>\n3: to impart the knowledge of &lt;teach algebra&gt;<br \/>\n4 a: to instruct by precept, example, or experience<br \/>\nb: to make known and accepted &lt;experience teaches us our limitations&gt;<br \/>\n5: to conduct instruction regularly in &lt;teach school&gt;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"ssens\">When I think about the word teacher I think in terms of stereotypes. For me that means Catholic nuns and older, somewhat severe women like the ones that I encountered during elementary school. But really, everyone is a teacher. We can all fit within that definition. Every day have opportunities to share knowledge and instruct others.\u00a0 As a parent I can see this clearly as I teach my children simple things like picking up their toys and brushing their teeth. As a scientist, I feel like sometimes we can view the label of &#8220;teacher&#8221; with some disdain, like it is somehow less worthy than performing laboratory research. In reality, the opposite is true. Teaching is the MOST IMPORTANT job of a scientist. All of the scientific discoveries in the world are meaningless if we cannot convey that information to the general public. I see it every day in the misinformation on vaccines, global warming, evolution, etc that is perpetuated on the internet. We have not done a good job as scientist teachers. We must do better.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"ssens\">I get paid to impart knowledge to my students. But its more than that, teaching is my vocation. I feel like it is what I am meant to do. Yes, the students drive me nuts at times, but I love what I do. Teaching gives me a sense of purpose. I feel like I am making a contribution to this world by expanding my students&#8217; knowledge. That is enough to keep me motivated to spend so much time working on my classes, making videos, writing study guides, coming up with active lecture activities, etc. So yes I am a teacher.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"ssens\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2Fam-i-a-teacher%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Do you consider yourself a teacher?&#8221; This question was posed to me by a colleague standing in the door of my office earlier this week. My first thought was, &#8220;Um. Yes, don&#8217;t you? That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re here isn&#8217;t it? To teach biology?&#8221; I think I muttered some sort of intelligible [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}