"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. " Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the most important things I learned this semester is about teacher voice. At the beginning of the semester I kept hearing about this "teacher voice" thing and was confused about what it meant for me as it translates into my teaching. Fortunately I was matched up with two teachers at Fort Collins High School with two very different "teacher voices". Although they were different, since every teacher should find their own voice, they were similar in the sense that they were communicating the same thing. This similarity that they both communicated was that they wanted the students to achieve. I one heard that students don't care what you know until they know that you care. This concept has helped me form my teacher voice more then anything because that is the message I want to communicate to my students. I believe that if the whole class knows that the teacher cares about their their success, then they are more likely to be on the same side as the teacher. This plays into a variety of issues like classroom management and disciplining, to the way I prepare my students for a test. Even to the way I relate to my students through my conversations with them in class. Using my former student lenses, I think that communicating this is the most important thing a teacher should do at the beginning of the year. I remember the teachers that I had who struggled with classroom management did not communicate this point very well and as a result, had students in their class who were not on their side. Taking off my student lenses and putting on my new teacher lenses, I realize that students will not always understand what truly looking out for their best interests means. This includes expectations for good behavior, that home work is turned in on time, and that they come to class prepared every day. I think that teachers take these issues too personally, and are not interested in developing, or more realistically realizing that students are not perfect when they come into the class, and need patience in this development. I think it is valuable to define more closely what kind of patience I am talking about. One definition I have heard is "long suffering". As an emerging teacher, I want to be prepared for this idea of "long suffering" when dealing with students who need this kind of commitment to their development.