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On being a teacher

© Marilyn Robb

On being a teacher.

Some things have happened recently to make me think more about the role of a teacher. My mind keeps turning over the phrase- anyone can teach someone something, but not everyone can be a classroom teacher. I like to think of the role of the teacher as comprised of different parts- teaching is twenty five percent providing information, forty percent guiding the students and thirty five percent getting along with the students. 1. Providing information simply means that- giving notes, lectures etc, where the teacher shares with the students information that he has read or that is in the text book or other literature.

2. Guiding the students- this includes : A. making students aware of the all the various sources of information available, e.g.i) printed matter such as books, newspapers, journals, articles, instruction leaflets, brochures, and even things like cereal boxes, road signs etc., ii) electronic media, e.g. radio, television, internet , movies, etc. ,iii)people, e.g experts and everyone else ( everyone has a story to tell and a lesson to teach or information to share) ,and iv) tours, visits and travel opportunities. B. Teaching the students how to use information. The teacher can help the students to decide on the purpose of the information ; how to gather information, through means such as by interviews, surveys, observations, making notes, memorizing, recording, and analysing and critical reading; how to sort information and use it, e.g. how to relate pieces of information to each other, how to derive meaningfulness from the information and how to apply the information to their lives or occupations.

3. Builiding a relationship with the students. If the teacher’s role involves providing information and guiding the students, then how the teacher feels about these students must be central to the role. Teachers also experience feelings in the classroom. These include feelings of ‘dislike’ for some students’ behaviour patterns, anger, frustration about the job and their role, anxiety and daily personal stress, fear of not doing a good job, incompetence, boredom, embarrassment, discrimination (based on intellectualism ,classism , racism, gender, etc.) The students bring their own feelings, including their own dislike of teacher and others in the classroom, fear of failure, threat of punishment, embarrassment, boredom, frustration (work too challenging or not challenging enough, pace too fast or too slow, not enough choice ) invalidation and incompetence. A teacher having to cope with any of these feelings either of his own or the students will have a hard time keeping his attention clear enough to fulfill 1 and 2. above. And it is known that at any moment in the classroom at least some of these feelings are running.