myself to the bathroom. As I walked by our work, I thought about how delicious the sunflower seeds were, and my stomach started to rumble. GRRRRR. We still had about an hour until lunch. On my way back from using the bathroom, I pulled the small, scrumptious sunflower seeds off several students’ art pieces. A few minutes later, another kindergarten teacher came around the bend with her class and exclaimed, “They’re ruined! You ate your friend’s art!” And I thought, or potentially vocalized because kindergarten Emma would, “Ruined?! They’re just seedless sunflowers now. Some were starting to fall off anyway.” She escorted me back into my classroom with a belly full of sunflower seeds. From that day on, I grew and grew and grew into the subtle troublemaker I am today. As a child, I definitely pushed the buttons of my teachers - especially in elementary school. I was a very curious, high-energy individual who was not the biggest fan of school or, perhaps, didn’t quite see the point of it all.

Fast forward to now, not understanding the point of school is a perspective that I can empathize with when my kindergarten students ask me some very random and very real questions throughout our school days together. One student in particular regularly asks me the same two questions: Why are we in school? Why do we have to come to school everyday? I love how curious she is!

However, I still hesitate to come to a conclusion and answer for her that I feel will genuinely answer the question as to how school serves her. I loved questioning authority as a child, and I honestly love hearing my student’s reactions to us transitioning from morning meetings to phonics or phonics to math. 6-year-olds will be shamelessly honest if they do not wish to learn about a certain subject. At my placement, however, their reactions - positive or negative - are often met with “suck it up” or a statement to that effect from adults in the classroom. Suppose an authority figure does not empathize or appreciate a person or group’s feelings towards something. Are they really an authority figure you want to follow or listen to for prolonged periods? Upon landing on my focus question, I wanted to dive a little deeper into the role of an authority figure and its inverse: questioning the authority.

To the right, I define, in my own words, two key terms within my question: authority and authority figure. Upon hearing the words authority figure, I think of negative connotations and get a bad taste in my mouth. I see that role as a person who stands as a figure of what the current world values. Whether I agree with what is valued or not is a separate question. The world we live in is the world we live in. As a child, and what I see in many of my students, the questioning of authority in the present shapes what is valued by a leader of the future. If the new generations do not question those in power now, how will they learn what was effective and what traits or values need to be revised or removed altogether? Because I believe in the evolution of what is valued in this world, and as a future authority figure to a very young generation, I don’t want their future to be the same as the present. I want it to advance. Therefore, I have to

Authority

(n.) the power to control and enforce rules or norms among a group of people

Authority Figure

(n.) a person who embodies the values of the institution they work for and the current world, regardless of their personal views

(n.) a person whose goal is to have others emulate their actions by holding their authority over the group

give them opportunities to question me and my place as the authority figure in the classroom so they may feel more comfortable being the troublemakers, leaders, and trailblazers of the future.

On the other hand, I have to prepare students for the world they are growing up in. Thus, I cannot abandon all order and authority in the classroom. Doing so would disadvantage their ability to be authority figures in the future. It is a delicate balance, if balance is even the right word, of molding students into people that fit what is valued by authority presently yet still malleable enough that when their time comes to be leaders of the future, they can break cycles and alter the world’s values - hopefully - for the greater good of society. Therefore, I’m faced with the question below as I reflect and round out my time at the University of Pennsylvania and begin looking into the future:

How can I become an authority figure who encourages the questioning of authority?

The three sections of my portfolio are Teaching Students, Students Teaching, and Student Teaching. Within each section, I will break down how authority presents itself in the classroom as well as the effects it has on the students and their learning: Who is asking the questions? What is being taught? How does relationship-building affect the presence of authority? Ultimately, I would like to come to a somewhat more precise understanding of how to share authority in the classroom with my students because I want them to learn from me just as much as I want to learn from them!

Kindergarten Troublemaker

Every week, Ms. Robinson’s class would spend Friday afternoon creating new art projects to be hung on the class bulletin board. One week, we did an art project with sunflowers and sunflower seeds in our kindergarten class. During the activity, we were allowed to eat some of the small, scrumptious sunflower seeds and glue the rest onto our projects. One day, after the projects were hung up in the hall, I excused