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Role of the teacherYes, we have all been there. Sitting in the classroom, pencils at the ready, nerves jangling at the thought of being completely out of our depth yet strangely excited about learning something new. And WHAMO. The teacher walks in, starts talking AT you and you feel it in your bones that this is not going to be a good experience. Hope fades away and you resign yourself that you will be spending hours doing something that you are not going to enjoy and probably won't understand at the end. My teacher from Hell was Mrs. Sweeney (AKA Sgt. Sweeney) for 6th grade geometry. I hated math ever since. And then there was Ms. Mallet. I loved her, I loved her class, and I ended up having a career in the subject that she taught. What is the role of the teacher in the classroom? The simple answer is that they are there to teach you something. I have had the conversation with my own son as this year he has a very strict teacher who is not exactly warm and fuzzy. She is not there to be your friend, she is their to give you knowledge. Period. But to be honest, it is not true. Or at least, it should not be true. Yes, the teacher is obviously there to teach you but I believe that the teacher is also there to inspire you, make you enthusiastic about the subject and instill confidence. If you can have fun doing it along the way it is even better. Before taking this course I knew there were good teachers and bad teachers. I kind of assumed that bad ones were bad because they were bored and/or burned out. I figured teaching was pretty easy and while I always held teachers in high regard (and feel that they are woefully underpaid in the majority of cases) I never gave much thought to the skills needed to actually teach other than a knowledge of the subject matter. So much for my assumptions. I have learned that teaching is an art, not a science. I now believe that I have the foundation to be not just a teacher, but a good teacher. Learning that you need to engage the students in the subject before launching into the crux of the material, while still keeping it fun is a stealth approach to learning that I find to be highly effective. Getting the students to actually use the material in the activate phase reinforces what they have learned. In the unit where we watched both a bad learning experience and a good learning experience really hit the nail on the head. Because the bottom line is that as teachers we want the students to LEARN. Or at least, we should. Again, what is the role of the teacher? Mentor, friend, disciplinarian, parent? Maybe yes. Maybe yes to some of the aspects yet not to others. Students are not cookie cut outs and we need to try to fulfill the need of each student. Pay attention to them. LISTEN to them. Be there for them. Encourage them. A small spark that you ignite in your student can lead to expanding their whole world. So bravo to all the Ms. Mallets in the world of teaching. I hope that I can inspire my students even on a small level to the way that she inspired me.
