A teacher is someone who provides education to people, someone who teaches and instructs.
Yes I do this in my daily work but the role of a teacher has shifted somewhat throughout the years. A teacher is so much more than that person who simply stands in front to the class and instructs their students.
I have been teaching for the best part of 12 years and my definition of a teacher is ever evolving. The instructing is merely a small piece of the bigger picture.
I could be the smartest person in the world with the most subject knowledge ( I am not by the way!) and desire to get all my students to achieve 100% every time, every test, yet not be a good teacher.
One of the most significant things I have learnt about being a successful teacher is that you cannot truly do this with knowledge alone. I believe that successful teaching is reliant upon the work you put into building and developing the relationship you have with the students you are teaching.
And I don’t measure successful teaching necessarily on the grades that are achieved at the end of a project or exam. Success is personal and varies person-to-person, moment-to-moment, task-to-task.
How do we then build success? by building the relationship first and then the education will follow.
Building relationships plays in integral role in enhancing the learning opportunities for students. At IFS we are working tirelessly to build these relationship foundations that will last a lifetime within our mentor groups. I currently have 19 students in my mentor group and meet collectively once a week. In between this time I am making every effort to meet each student individually on a weekly basis.
There are endless benefits to students who engage in a mentoring program.
Students
• attend college more often
• know where to go for help
• have a more positive view of their futures
• feel more confident
• have some one to share things with
These benefits evolve over time and often can take as long as 12 months for relationships to develop and trust to be built. The one request that I have is that students must bring to our attention any issues, problems or concerns they have to us so we can put strategies in place to improve situations.
I want you as parents and students of IFS to know that I am motivated to work with each student to develop the support network that will enable them to feel safe, secure and valued and that I really do care about their future.
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