A Teacher has multiple roles to play. In a college of Education a Teacher becomes a Role Model. She must be exemplary.Her behavior must reflect the best human values.Students must look up to her, but how does one become a Role Model ?
'As a Teacher I have learnt that the first thing one must adopt is a confident smile and wear it all the time'
Secondly to shake hands with the students (girls for girls) or perhaps give a slight hug. Distance can be reduced comfortably with regard'
Thirdly to ask and inquire welfare and well being 'How are you, dear"
After this ' an appreciative remark 'Hmm looking nice , smart as ever, fine and fresh' 'and after an exchange of friendly 'Hello' a Farewell remark of 'Take care' 'See you soon' Work hard' 'Don't stress yourself' Have a nice day'
This will develop a rapport and you will begin an unforgettable journey of sharing knowledge interests and learning time.
Being a Teacher requires an attitude of forgiveness humour love tenderness and confidence.
It requires a Herculean effort of reading preparing and bringing enough of information to make learning easy and fun for the student.
More on this topic soon.
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U're right, always i've said that if u want to be a teacher u have to be an actor and to play so many roles in the class, also the most important thing is to be very closed with ur students , joking, smiling forever , playing games ...etc to feel really confident .
A Teacher has to take on multiple roles depending on the profile of students. In public speaking, we always talk about audience analysis being the most critical aspect which a speaker has to get right. A speaker has to know the profile of people he is going to address. If he goes wrong here his speech will turn out to be a disaster even if he carries the reputation of being a great orator.
A teacher's profession is a gift from God. There are certain mandatory qualities any teacher needs to have. Honesty, discipline, excellent knowledge, dedication, calm and composed temperament, being firm without being dominant, impartial attitude, respect for each and every student, patience, innovativeness and an excellent sense of humour.
The bottomline is whether you are able to gain the trust of your students.
I have a slight problem with the word "dear". To English people this is an informal ,patronising figure of speech often used with little children and old people. As long as your students know how informal this is then they will be able to choose the correct time to use it themselves in the UK.
I am also wary of offering personal comments to students which point to their clothes, hairstyle or any other personal attribute. It could set that student apart from the others unless you personally compliment every single member of the class. Again, in the UK, British students find such comments patronising. Of course, British students are necessarily good role models for other nations.
Hi to all,
You have made useful points to think about what we as teachers should take into consideration during the whole class! Frankly, in my opinion being a role model teacher is not at all an easy job and I don't think that anybody can find counter-arguments to this statement.
However, not all smiles that teachers give out to students in the classroom are sincere ones...just stop for a moment and think about a teacher who you remember was smiling in the classroom, but even then you didn't like her/his smile because you thought it was not an honest one from the bottom of the heart. So my advice is when smiling, at least make it sincere, because believe me, students of any age can make the difference. Giving out smiles to everything and everyone in the classroom is a complete turn-off!
I would also like to add another point, but the following remark is not about the content of your comment, rather the pronoun choice. I'll quote what you wrote: "In a college of Education a Teacher becomes a role model. She must be exemplary. Her behavior must reflect the best human values. Students must look up to her, but how does one become a Role Model?"
In order to highlight the mistakes I think were made I put the pronouns in bold and italic writing. By using the English pronouns she and her, don't you think that your statement sounds discriminatory against teachers who are the male sex? I have been researching this issue of gender in grammar, and this is just another example of how people's perception that teachers should only be female in real life finds its way in the English grammar. Honestly, by reading the previous statement, even though I am female, I still strongly oppose this prejudiced use of the noun teacher, so why not maybe use he/she and his/her....just a suggestion (there are other ways of avoiding this, but I'll leave that for another time!).
No hard feelings!
Aneta, Macedonia
I find it interesting that you felt the need to pick out anjumdar's pronoun usage. I didn't find it discriminatory at all as I understood it to be her expression of herself in the situation.
Are we becoming so politically 'correct' that we forget to use our common sense- some texts will be written from either a male or female point of view and we should accept this rather than trying to neutralise every piece of media we use, just in case someone feels left out.
I have always been told and have told my own learners to write from their own experience, as it will lend some authenticity to their writing. I believe anjumdar did nothing wrong, she was writing as 'herself'.
Dear Buggie, Thanks for your most supportive comment. In my country and I am sure many other Asian and European countries many females take up this profession because of its noble and respectable nature. In Asia it is easier to work and earn money as majority of female teachers support their families. Many women do not marry for the sake of their younger sisters and elderly ailing mothers.
The other point of discussion is - to write about ones own experiences - this is the Reflective Action research Approach which I try to follow. Teachers whether male or female must work hard and GUIDE the learners towards the right true and honest way of life - when I find the towering expanding unmeasurable presence of wrong doings I wonder - what have the TEACHERS been doing?