If a teacher wants to be a role model in a classroom, she/he should know what her/his viewers want her/him to be. Here your viewers are the children in the classroom. What is affecting their view upon the teacher? What they are looking at the teacher apart from learning? They have come to learn. They know learning is required to enrich themselves. But what will make them happy learners?
A happy learning is always a requirement of a happy future. So, learning today is closely connected with the future. If there is no future perception, there is no current learning. Therefore, every teacher as a role model in a classroom builds a futuristic requirement for today’s learning. If the futuristic requirement is lost, the urge to learn may not be good enough. The futuristic requirement of learning shall not be damaged by a forced learning requirement or the requirement of an unknown dream or challenges of an unknown competition. These things should not influence the viewers’ mind while they are learning. The above is more related to their subject learning.
There are certain things that a teacher should know. The very first question is: Can a comment about me or a criticism about me by a colleague be my reality tomorrow? This is a big problem for many children also.
For instance, when I was a student, I decided that what my friends, my classmates viewed about me shall not become a reality for me tomorrow. I believed that I should have the confidence to be more concerned about what I can really be rather than what people say about me. That’s called confidence building in oneself. A child should be free to think that he/she is not and not second to anyone. And, must hold to his/her freedom of thoughts to use it the way he/she wants it for his/her own future.
Who should bring in this thought into the student? Along with learning, along with teaching, project works, assignments, and club activities, the teacher should know that each child has his/her own individuality. The teacher should realize that each child needs to be fearless, have freedom, is able to express his/her views without being concerned of others’ perspectives. In doing so, the teacher helps in liberating the child.
A second mind factor that a teacher needs to follow very closely is that many children when they are in the classroom, the mindset will be: ‘I should go unnoticed – by the teacher and by my friends – when I am tested in a learning environment.’
Why should a child have this feeling? Even today, many people I know, when they are asked to come in front they wish to remain unnoticed. In a public function if ask somebody to speak they refuse to. Be it family functions or public functions, people usually prefer to be listeners rather than speakers. This huge drawback is a result of the ineffective learning process.
Children should come out of the mind fear of becoming noticed. They usually want to be unnoticed when results are announced or when they have to face an audience. They are very worried of being dejected or that others will predict their future.
As a child, even I was afraid to come in front of others and get noticed on a scoring. I was very scared to speak or to perform an act in front of others. I didn’t want to cut a sorry figure. I just wanted to hide.
Mr. Brown had this problem. However, later, he became a great motivational speaker. His initial problem was the criticism by friends. And it was one of his teachers who gave him the courage to overcome that problem. Similarly, Bill Gates also always wanted to be unnoticed till he found a librarian in his life who brought him out of that mind fear. Teachers do wonders like these.
Many teachers have helped children to become great artists, great craftsmen, and great businessmen like Bill Gates. What this small problem of their mind can be removed with the help of the teachers, the child can be brought out of his/her shell.
A major factor that makes a child go into the shell is the threatening environment in a school which is called bullying. When a child is afraid of bullying then he/she is in fear. Such an environment around the child threatens his/her brilliance, his/her thoughts, his/her ability to respond, and to react. Therefore, the core duty of teachers, and a very critical responsibility, is to stop threats of bullying from the classrooms.
To gain all these, whether it is a mathematics teacher, a science teacher, a history teacher, or a political teacher; along with learning, the teacher needs to bring in a behaviour pattern.
The teacher’s behaviour pattern influences students in a big way because teachers are the ideal role models. The way teachers respect, the way they accept, the way they greet, the way they challenge, and the way they can compromise with anger influences students.
This is also the very crux of our life. Within family circles, when two people speak, for instance – husband and wife- they shout at each other and even break things.
The anger has to go. But, from where has it come? It has come from a dispute of accepting each other. It is a behaviour matter. Maybe the other person does not match your thoughts at the moment. The actions of the person do not suit him/her at the moment.
But there is something called patience. If the teacher is an epitome of patience, students will be an ocean of patience. If patience is learnt, then it allows people to bear up when experiencing problems, think about it in a calm and relaxed state of mind just like allowing things to cool before touching it.
This is a simple behavioural pattern that a teacher should know when in a classroom. The teacher needs to transfer the value to the children that when one highly disagrees – be very quiet, be patient, be questioning but never be angry; because, the last thing one needs to show is one’s impatience and anger since at that point one becomes a loser.
Similarly, the teacher needs to display the ability to keep quiet. Sometimes the ability to keep quiet is the biggest weapon you can have. When people around you press you to speak out something, and if you know that what you speak cannot match with the people around you, silence is the best thing. Patience and silence are big weapons that everyone should practice in their day to day life and that originates from the teacher’s behaviour model in a classroom.
A child’s mind is like a stage in which the child has to perform. This stage should be free from the negative impacts of criticisms and bullying. It should be built using positive aspects such as fearlessness, confidence and good behaviour. If these positive practices are implemented in the classrooms, such schools will be blessed to have the best teachers.
