Today, our conversation turned to teacher self vs. real life self. "Oh my two selves are very, very distinct," one colleague said.
Another chimed in, "The lines between the two blur for me, for sure."
The pandemic definitely muddied the distinction between my work persona and real-life personality. Maybe it's because colleagues and students saw inside my home, watched me calm my dog, and even occasionally heard me shout upstairs to my husband, or saw him peek his head in my office to ask about lunch and see if I was "on camera".
Even in the before times, I have always been an over-sharer. My colleagues and students generally get to know a lot about my life whether they want to or not. I'm forever using my husband and dog as examples for text-to-self connections in reading classes, writing about them for ELA, or using my life experiences to explain why I think one way or another.
At lunch today, of course I said, "As you all probably know, I have trouble compartmentalizing my two selves since I'm such an oversharer!" Everyone laughed, but it made me think. How much of my home self is too much to bring to school, and vice versa? On the other side of the spectrum, my husband sometimes complains that I overuse teacher phrases at home, "What might we do here..." "Does that make sense?" even, "Can you please look up from your screen and show me you're listening?"
Is it important to keep these two selves separate, or is it okay that they're all swirled together as me?