What Kind of Teacher Am I Becoming?

Start with identity

Professional growth does not require becoming a generic version of someone else. Start with identity: What kind of teacher do I want students to experience? What strengths already feel genuinely mine? What am I learning to do differently?

Start with three words

Choose three words that describe the teacher you want to be. They should be usable, not decorative.

Look for evidence, not aspiration alone

Ask where those words already show up in your practice and where they do not yet. Growth becomes more useful when it connects identity to actual behavior.

Protect what is genuinely yours

Good teaching does not have one personality. Learn from other educators, use what works, change what needs changing, but keep enough of yourself in the room that students are actually getting you.

Becoming is allowed at every career stage

You can be experienced and still changing. You can be effective and still learning. Being unfinished is not the same as being inadequate.

Nicholas in Practice

After more than two decades in education, Nicholas still describes himself as learning, changing, and finding new ways to teach. The goal is not to arrive at a final version of yourself. It is to keep becoming intentionally.

The Teacher I’m Becoming reflection

• Three words for the teacher I want to be
• Evidence I already see
• One strength I want to protect
• One thing I am learning to do
• One small action this week

Final reflection: The teacher I am becoming is learning to…

Printable Tool

1-Page The Teacher I’m Becoming Reflection

Open Printable

Go Deeper on the Podcast

Becoming a Funky Teacher Is a Journey

Listen to the Episode

Sources & Credit

Nicholas’s identity/growth synthesis from the Be a Funky Teacher podcast and Reset Days 1–3. No outside framework added.