The Risk A Quality Teacher Wanabee Faces

When I first started to teach a veteran teacher admonished me, "Quit working so hard. It makes the rest of us look bad." I was shocked.

Not only do teachers who want to be quality teachers get criticized for working hard but also for caring too much. They are told that too much personal involvement is unprofessional. To give no heed to these criticisms is important, especially when working with the Hispanic population. Hispanics as a whole hold teachers in very high esteem and they tend to invite them to many of their special family events such as weddings, baptisms, birthday parties, confirmations, baby showers, quinceañeras, etc.

One of the ways teachers can combat the unpopularity they may face for what they belief and do is to intentionally befriend their critics. They can do this by asking their critics for their opinion or advice about something or ask them to lunch or dinner. But whatever these quality teacher wanabees choose to do it is extremely important not to let the critics' negativity rub off on them.