Mutliple Roles of a Teacher

A teacher plays mutliple roles and is much more than a "sage on the stage". This multi-role is necessitated by the need to create impactfule learning by connecting with the learners and engaging them in the tasks of learning. Its no longer the "monologue" that does the trick. Everything now has underwent a change, be it the the educational objectives, curriculum, leaner's requirements and so on. These roles are guided by the learner's requirements and needs. Some of the major roles a teacher could assume could be

• Counsellor - to help children recognise and deal with their issues so as to focus on the learning task
• Presenter - to cater to the large mass in the class and deliver the information/ knowledge in the most impactful way
• Communicator - to reach out to the audience and engage them in the task of learning
• Facilitator - to help learners guide their own learning.
• Trainer - to deliver the desired learning using various techniques, games, tools, etc.

Of course, the above list is incomplete and as teachers assume the above roles, they would feel the need to explore many more roles.

Teaching is no Fun

Teaching for sure is no fun, neither earlier nor now. Gone are the days when a teacher was just expected to teach and maybe to take attendance and check paper/ test sheets. A teacher is more like a "robot" now, an automated being which has been clocked to perform same set of duties day after day, year after year. The "passion" can exist only when the "fun" element is present in what you do. Any teacher from any system in India can vouch for this that a teacher is spending more time in "non-teaching" stuff than teaching. All those who joined teaching for passion cannot boast that they enjoy what they are doing because they are doing everything else plus teaching. When we talk about improving our education system, could we also give a thought to this aspect as well so that the passion remains intact and teaching not being like a regular chore for teachers.