1. How can being a teacher lead to changes in one's identity?
When you become a teacher you become a role model, whether you choose to or not. You need to present a professional persona all of the time you are with your students. Often times your students will follow every move you make. You really can't present, do or say anything that you wouldn't want your students to repeat or do themselves. However, I really feel that censoring yourself doesn't have to mean changing your identity. In a position where what you do or say could change the course of a student's life, you have to be very careful, but I don't think you have to change the core of who you are. When you're honest with your students and open up to them, I feel like they'll open up to you. This doesn't mean telling them what you did on your weekend but it does mean letting your personality shine through, you can't expect your students to want to give of themselves unless you're putting yourself out there to them. There are so many ways to be yourself without being inappropriate that why would you have to sacrifice who you are in order to teach?