We teach who we are

Today at school we had some leadership professional development. In teaching professional development is more than encouraged, it's required to fulfill the registered teacher professional standards. Sometimes professional development is not helpful to every person, or not at that point in their week, or term. Sometimes it's excellent, relevant, and timely.

Prior to this afternoon's session, we were given a reading to do. As per normal for me, I left it to the very last minute. I was pleasantly surprised. It was the most useful and relevant professional reading that I have done. The reading was from an essay: THE HEART OF A TEACHER Identity and Integrity in Teaching, by Parker J. Palmer.

As I was reading it occurred to me that the ideas in this reading were not only of the utmost importance to my teaching in school, but also in dog training.

Here's a few gems that jumped out at me: 

• The tangles of teaching have three sources: 
• "First, the subjects we teach are as large and complex as life, so our knowledge of them is always flawed and partial."
• "Second, the students we teach are larger than life and even more complex."
• " ...we teach who we are. Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one’s inwardness, for better or worse"
•  We need to open a new frontier in our exploration of good teaching: the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher. 
• Good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they teach from an integral and undivided self; they manifest in their own lives, and evoke in their students, a “capacity for connectedness.”
• As good teachers weave the fabric that joins them with students and subjects, the heart is the loom on which the threads are tied, the tension is held, the shuttle flies, and the fabric is stretched tight. Small wonder, then, that teaching tugs at the heart, opens the heart, even breaks the heart–and the more one loves teaching, the more heartbreaking it can be. 

So my questions for you. Whoever you may be. Whether teaching you're first ever class at your dog training club, or teaching professionally in the industry.


How well do you know your subject? Are you confident in the best practice, science-proven training methodologies? How are you keeping up your and progressing your knowledge? Whilst in New Zealand dog training is not a professionally regulated industry, we as teachers have a moral and ethical obligation to keep up to date with current information. There are SO many excellent free or minimal cost resources available.

How well do you know your student? Both canine and human. You cannot teach anyone if you do not know them. Observe their behavior, Listen to the human half of the team. Learn to read the dog, especially when the human may not be able to.

You teach who you are. How confident are you in your own beliefs, values, procedures and techniques. Use your experience and be confident in your own training identity. Be open to learn from your students both canine and human.

And lastly, take care of your own heart. Great teachers truly care about their students. This is intensified when there is a canine companion attached to your student. It hurts when someone chooses not to listen to your advice, or follow your suggested training protocol. It hurts when you can see the fallout coming that will impact the dog. It hurts when they don't come back, when you know that they really need too. You will not continue to be a good teacher if you do not care, but you need to find a way to take care of yourself. Find friends, colleagues, or a mentor that you can talk to when you need to. Find a network of professionals whose values and beliefs align with your own that you can refer to. Be sure to take the time that you and your own dogs need, whether this be training time or a nice long walk.

https://biochem.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/labs/attie/publications/Heart_of_a_Teacher.pdf
http://www.couragerenewal.org/parker/