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The role of a teacher, in any classroom, is one that encompasses a variety of micro and macro responsibilities and in essence is ever evolving, based on the needs of the environment. The roles of a teacher can range from being a facilitator, providing assessment and evaluation of students, management and organization of the classroom, planning the arch of a lesson or even being a learner! It may seem strange to define one of the roles of being a teacher as one of a leaner but, to be honest, teaching and learning go hand in hand – a continuous process that is constantly adapting. It is important that a teacher takes the time to look at things from the student’s perspective before engaging or teaching the students; meaning that the teacher becomes the learner. Keeping this perspective in mind, the teacher is then able to better plan and facilitate the transfer of knowledge to his or her students. In order to effectively transfer knowledge to students in a way that would be most beneficial, a teacher, as a facilitator, is a responsible to support and direct in the process of learning for students as individuals. While the teacher can provide students with essentially all the information and or knowledge that is required, it rests in the hands and minds of the students to desire to take what is offered to them and, by their own initiative, become self-explorers and hence better learners. As a facilitator, the teacher holds the very important key to opening the door to this self-exploration and self-growth by providing a solid and welcoming foundation to the subject being taught, for example English as a foreign language. It is not enough for a teacher to simply provide the means to learning. As a teacher, it is important to give continuous, helpful and constructive, feedback to students, through assessment. Assessing is essentially an important means to further extract the developing knowledge of one’s students. It helps to encourage improvement and more growth in the overall learning process. Assessments can take varying forms. These forms may range from weekly quizzes, to verbal feedback during class activities, to simply giving students tasks to complete during a lesson. Assessment is not only beneficial to the students but also to the teacher; allowing him or her to plan more effectively for future lessons, making adjustments as reflected by the needs of the students. This effective planning leads to the very important role of being a manager. This role even begins outside of the classroom, as the teacher needs to take the time to make a plan of how to proceed in the classroom. How much time is given for each lesson and how to make best use of it, how many students and what is the age range and what topics need to be covered are just some of the few elements to be taken into consideration when thinking of the managerial role of a teacher. Once within the classroom, the teacher is also responsible for the overall classroom management, dealing with behavioral issues that might arise. The roles discussed above are just a few of the many roles that any teacher may take on on a day to day basis. What makes an effective teacher is one who can find the right balance of these many roles to best suit his or her students. It is something that takes time and practice but is certainly achievable.
