For the love of caring

I believe it is through the love of wanting to help others that hopeful teachers get into education. I think teachers do have more influence power than they think they do. Although there are so many other factors outside of the school setting which can affect a student emotionally, teachers do have the opportunity to create a positive environment for students. In creating this environment is where I believe students can feel safe and are able to share their thoughts. I know this from my own experience as a student. When I'm able to share my ideas and feel like the questions I ask are important, is when I am able to process information that I am learning, in a more effective way.
I have noticed during my learning process that when my instructors teach with feelings and emotions, it makes me care about what they are teaching because they are passionate about the subject. Having faith and trust in my teacher means that I can feel safe expressing my own ideas about that subject. I came across one of my most memorable teachers during the time I was working on my undergraduate degree. She taught a class titled performance and healing. The course content was based on her own experiences while using performance as a way to deal with pain and loss.
I was a little hesitant at the beginning of this class because for our final projects we were going to have to do a performance for the whole class. Along with feelings of discomfort, I also thought that being able to be vulnerable and perform in front of my peers would be a difficult task. I knew it would take perseverance to talk about painful past experiences. However, throughout the quarter, my instructor was able to create an environment where my peers and I felt safe to express our feelings. We began most of our classes with a meditation session. This allowed the class to bond and to forget about outside forces. I knew that every time I was in that classroom environment, not only my teacher, but also my peers were able to share very painful emotional experiences. Sometimes during class discussions, the class as a whole would be in tears because of the deep discussions about our life experiences. We were able to create our own final presentations with only a few requirements from the instructor. I had noticed that almost every one of my peers went above and beyond in creating their own each individual final project. I as well had put a lot of caring and passion into my work because I felt that my instructor and peers cared about what I had to share.
My instructor was able to create an environment where I felt safe and was able to learn the subject on a deeper level. I often had thought about that type of environment I am going to create as a teacher. I have always seen my classroom with a tree in the corner where students would hang a leaf traced from their hands. I thought of the tree extending halfway throughout the room to inspire imaginative and creative thinking. I feel that the initial impression students should get when walking into a classroom is one that allows them to feel comfortable to share their ideas. As a future teacher, I want to make sure all my students' ideas are heard and respected.
There will always be those students that come into a classroom feeling uncomfortable with sharing as well as those that do feel comfortable sharing. I believe that in some instances, this can be a case where outside forces, such as home environments, is can affect how a student behaves in the classroom. This is why it is very important for teachers to make students feel comfortable enough to be able to speak freely without feeling like they are being judged. As the readings suggested, when children feel like they are not a success, they question their self respect and esteem. I agree that emotions are strongly tied along with teaching because in order to teach, we have to care about both, the audience and the subject we are teaching. When teachers care enough to understand their students, they are allowing students to open up; and therefore, students can learn on a deeper level.