Having a public persona in the education world is a tricky thing. You either want to have a great, established one, or not at all. Teachers in the opposite direction, aren’t teachers for long.  Having a public persona in a high school is tricky.  Students judge you based on what they hear from other students, and let their preconceived notions factor into how they react in class. The teachers with good public persona’s aren’t always the nicest ones. I think the qualities students admire most are respect, fairness, and being genuine in caring about their lives.  I took a poll among my students, and most said they would rather have a fair and hard teacher, than an easy but biased teacher. I’ve also found it doesn’t matter how old you are. Respect is respect. If you show it to them, and treat them as adults, they forgive your faults, and accept you as the teacher you want to be for them. It’s nice to have a good public persona in school. It can alleviate a lot of problems like under-enrollment, issues with administration, and general report with the parents.  With the development of sites like Rate My Teacher, and Rate my Professor students actually have the power to rate teachers on specific criteria. It ranks from “Easiness”, “Coolness”, “Strict/Mean” and “Hotness.” I’ve heard of students not taking certain classes because of things their friends have said or reviews they’ve read online. On college campuses, professors have it the same. Students would make their entire schedules around the classes that were taught by professors who were recommended by peers or online.  The education public persona is a dangerous and tricky thing.

-Maria-

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