Williams Article Response

        When I read Williams' article, "Another opening, another show," I was really interested in his "70 different identities" that a teacher holds. He states, “We face problems as teachers when we try to either (a) perform an identity that is incomprehensible or inconsistent for our students or (b) inhabit an identity that we know our students believe a teacher should have but that doesn’t work for us.”I instantly started thinking of teachers I have had in the past that have demonstrated these qualities. When I think of identities teachers possess I think of when they try to be the students’ friend. When I was in high school I saw this come up a lot. There were many times when teachers, especially young ones, would really try and be a “cool” person the students could look up to. In a way I think this could be harmless but sometimes teachers just looked sort of tongue-tied trying to think of something funny to say. I think Williams puts it best, “I believe in being friendly to students, but I’m not convinced I can be their friend. Trying to perform that role does not make issues of power in student-teacher relationships disappear. A friend is not usually a person who has the power to grade, control behavior, and bring down institutional sanctions the way a teacher does.”This is also where a stand up comedian comes into play that Williams talks about.

         I have also had teachers that play more of a motivator role. I had a math teacher when I was in 8^th grade named Mr. Ballok. I can honestly say he is one of, if not the, best teacher I have had before I came to college. Mr. Ballok was very focused and strived for his students to do well. I remember getting B’s on his tests and him telling me to come into his classroom at lunch to work on math problems because he knew I could get those up to A’s. He encouraged all of his students in such a positive way that it really made us students want to do better. Having a teacher like Mr. Ballok was a huge benefit to me at that age. That one math class really changed the way I looked at learning, studying, and working hard. He opened our eyes to our full potential and I could never thank him enough for that. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago when I was in high school. I attended his funeral service with one of my good friends and who would have thought, but the whole town showed up. Many times when I am struggling on something in school, whether it be math or not, I think of him and how he would still be encouraging me and mentoring me if I needed him help. Just as he would be to any student that wanted some extra help.