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... " -- Henry Adams
Teachers Roles
From the time they are in first grade, some people know they want to be teachers someday. ... As the "Baby Boomers" retire and leave teaching in huge numbers in the next ten years, probably more than a million new teachers will be needed to replace them. ...
As I’ve learned in my Classroom Management course, teachers play traditional roles like lecturers, demonstrators, and listeners/counselors. ... Listening is crucial for assessment of learning (checking comprehension and appropriate challenge level), for collaboration between teachers and students (coaching instead of just judging), and for giving students a real sense of ownership of classroom activities as well as for allowing students to articulate and internalize the learning processes. Teachers who listen can turn around and provide very effective support structures to guide students on to the next level of challenge. ... Ironically, though, many teachers act as if empowering students means weakening themselves--their authority as both a classroom disciplinarian and a subject-matter authority. ...
Yes, teachers still play traditional roles; however, we also wear many other hats: friend, counselor, judge, mentor--hundreds of roles and different roles for different classes, students, and extra curricular duties. ... 3 states (regarding teacher roles): The teacher assumes different roles in the instructional process (instructor, facilitator, coach, audience) to accommodate content, purpose, and learner needs.
Below I list a few additional roles that teachers play.
TEACHER ROLES
organizer
designer and channeler of opportunities
nourisher of student curiosity
agent of accountability
monitor
sustained learner
standard bearer
evaluator
macro-manager
We are also a…. ...
Facilitator-Stimulates and monitors activities but does not control
Leader-Helps students construct their own meaning by modeling, mediating, explaining, redirecting, providing options
Co-learner/Investigator-Takes risks to explore areas outside his expertise; collaborates with other teachers
Most teachers spend their days closeted away in their classrooms, taking their marching orders from the central office. But the classroom door has opened to admit the first strains of reform, and some teachers are beginning to march to a different drummer.
After a decade in which teachers took the blame for the "rising tide of mediocrity in the nations schools, leaders of the reform movement are now looking to teachers to turn the tide. ... But today a growing number of teachers are breaking out of that mold. ... It is far too early to say whether teacher empowerment will ultimately improve schools, whether those teachers who acquire and exercise influence will be able and committed enough to make it work to the benefit of children, but there is the possibility. ... The idea of enabling teachers to play a greater role in schools harks back to philosopher John Dewey. In the early 1900s, the University of Chicago professor argued against reforming the curriculum without the participation of teachers, "who alone can make that course of study a living reality. As part of the progressive schools movement of that time, teachers were encouraged to gather and discuss their practice and to become students of teaching. ... In 1988, a national survey of teachers conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching concluded that the teaching force was more "dispirited and "less empowered than it had been five years earlier. Even today, finding ways to give teachers a stronger voice in schools remains the "greatest test of the school-reform movement, says Carnegie President Ernest Boyer. "To put it simply, as the expectations and the pressures on education build, teachers are feeling less and less confident and more and more alienated from their jobs, he says. ... We havent gotten to a situation where teachers have a sense of control.
Approximate Word count = 2958
Approximate Pages = 11.8
(250 words per page double spaced)
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