Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Nantuo Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Chongqing? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
Role of the TeacherImagine going to the doctor to do a checkup. You arrive at the hospital and you take a seat in the waiting room. The doctor calls your name and you follow him to an empty room. The doctor then says: ?Please, make yourself feel at home. You have the machines over there and the needles, if you need them, are in that blue box. If you figure out that something is wrong with you, feel free to write a prescription to yourself. Have fun! Meanwhile, I?ll just sit and watch.? How would you feel? Would you have benefited from such a visit? As a patient you expect the doctor to be a doctor, not just a guide or an observer. The same is true for a teacher, it is very important that he realizes what being a teacher involves, otherwise the students will not benefit from the course at all. Identifying the role of the teacher Being a teacher involves knowing when to play certain other roles: a teacher is a counselor, a friend, an actor, a leader, a model person, etc. He genuinely cares for the students. He adapts his teaching to their needs and their level of understanding. He is aware of the students? individual abilities and circumstances. I like this quote: ?When we as teachers recognize that we are partners with our students in life?s long and complex journey, when we begin to treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve for simply being, then we are on the road to becoming worthy teachers. It is just that simple?and just that difficult.? (To Teach?The Journey of a Teacher.) Teachers need to put in to practice fine qualities that attract the students and establishes rapport with the students as well as between the class members. The teacher should be an example for the students. For example, treating students with dignity and respect is important as these are appealing qualities that draws the students closer to you as a teacher. Humility is defined this way: ?The quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people.? (http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/humility) An example of humility would be for a teacher to kneel down so that he/she comes to the same height as the child. The most important quality of a teacher, although so frequently used in songs and situations that its meaning has become somewhat blurred and fuzzy, is the quality of love. It includes everything else. Now, of course, the teacher also needs order in the classroom. He is not supposed to surrender his role as the one managing the class. He needs to be balanced. Unit 5 from this course puts it this way: ?The teacher must be flexible and change his/her role according to the activity and situation without being dominant or leaving the students uncertain.? Yes, the teacher must be flexible and balanced. What is the teacher?s goal? A magazine puts it this way: ?a good teacher makes his students feel comfortable so that they are eager to involve themselves in what they are learning and are happy to express themselves.? (Watchtower, 7/15/2009) Yes, his goal is not just to teach, but more importantly, to help the students to learn, motivating them to continue doing so.
