My mother used to say "Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres". Translated, it means tell me who you associate with and I'll tell you who you are. My mother would say this in cases where she felt I was being associated with the wrong crowd in fear that I would pick up their bad habits. While reading the article, "Discourse Communities and Communities of Practice: Membership, Conflict, and Diversity," by Ann Johns, it is more than evident that there is a strong correlation between being successful in a professional field and associating oneself with people with shared interests.
We can all think back and tie this idea of discourse communities to some point in our lives. For example, the cliques or social groups we formed in high school influenced how we eventually came to identify ourselves. More relevantly, SDSU has clubs, labs, organizations, and separate departments that facilitate working with other students that share your particular interests and major. As a math major, my place of comfort is the Math & Stat Learning Center because I encounter other students who share the same professional interests and goals as me.
On my path to becoming a math teacher, I have found it to be helpful to communicate with the head of the math department at SDSU as well as math teachers at Mission Bay High School. Within minutes of evaluating my degree, I was already being offered the opportunity to teach a class of incoming freshman. That goes to show what associating yourself with the right people can generate great opportunities to grow in your particular career. In my particular case, my sense of self is strengthened when I speak to math teachers at my current job. I get the reassurance that I am on the correct path and I receive valuable advice based on their experiences. My current position requires me to form strong bonds and tight relationships to students in order to assist them in pursuing their educational goals. Although I planned to employ this same approach to teaching, my mentors have advised me not to invest so much in my students. After working at arc for four years, letting go of those interpersonal skills with prove to be the most difficult in assuming the identity of a math teacher.
As a math teacher, or any teacher in general, authority is reached in a variety of ways. The amount of education attained by an individual holds great weight in the authority he possesses. Even though getting bachelor's degree is sufficient enough to work as a teacher, earning a master's degree makes a huge difference in salary, employability, and authority in the teaching community. Another way teachers gain authority is time. Depending on the school, teaching for a minimum of five years constitutes achieving tenure. Tenure is a form of contract that protects the teacher from getting fired, unless there is substantial proof of incompetence. Aside from those cases, gaining authority can also be associated with personal awards and high class test scores.
