Teachers Professionalism as Role Models in school

Being a Role Model

The further I try to get to know what role model actually means, the more explanation I need to filter, in order to organize the information so that I can make my point. That is what learning is all about. In this essay, I am going to elaborate on my essay title which is teacher professionalism as role models in school and how far is the truth of the statement. Being a professional teacher is not just about how effective you deliver whatever is there in the syllabus, but also on how well you take care on your code of conduct. Should you be able to produce A scorers but at the same time with you showing negative attitudes and manner in classroom, you are not a good teacher, far off of being a good role model. The influence of a teacher is immense and no one knows when the influence becomes visible and where it sops.

There are a lot of ways on how being a role model is described. A role model is not a leader yet somehow it is what people look for in order to appoint a leader, to choose someone that can be taken as a role model. In the easiest way to define role model, role model is just simply a person who serves as an example of a positive behavior especially in specific fields. Sometimes we learn by imitation. We look around for somebody who is doing what we want to do in a way that we admire or at least accept. And then we take that person as an example to follow. In the 1950s, the sociologist Robert K. Merton was making a distinction between reference individuals, who serve as patterns for living, and role models, whom we imitate in specific roles. Nowadays role models can model whole lives as well as particular skills. We seek good role models to follow and criticize those who are bad role models. And we know that when we grow up, for better or worse, we can expect to be role models too. Same goes to teachers as well. As important as their most important task which is to teach, at the same time they need to be in their best behavior as well.

"When I was coaching, the one thought that I would try to get across to my players was that everything I do each day, everything I say, I must first think what effect it will have on everyone concerned." - Frank Layden

A role model in teaching is a person who assures, motivates, guides and inspires a student towards learning and life. Having a role model in life is important and it facilitates growth in helping students with disabilities to set high standards and high goals. It motivates them towards their academic ability.

Teacher Professionalism

Teacher professionalism has relevant significance in education in that it affects the role of the teacher and his or her pedagogy, which in return affects the student’s ability to learn effectively. Whatever a teacher says, how and why he or she says it will be the perfect mirror on how he or she defines himself in class. If there is any behavior that teachers execute in class, the students will judge that it is a permitted behavior. Teacher professionalism can be defined as the ability to reach students in a meaningful way, developing innovative approaches to mandated content while motivating, engaging, and inspiring young adult minds to prepare for ever-advancing technology. However, this definition does little to exemplify precisely how a professional teacher carries himself or herself. Due to the growing autonomy being given to educators, professionalism remains one of the most influential attributes of education today. Teacher professionalism contains three essential characteristics; competence, performance, and conduct, which reflect the educator’s goals, abilities, and standards, and directly impact the effectiveness of teaching through the development of these qualities.
A good natured teacher does not covers it all yet. A teacher is not simply great at teaching and conduct a good behavior in class. There are more qualities that a teacher should possess in order to be able to show a good role model to the students. Nowadays, schools are constantly becoming more relaxed and loose both in rules and in procedures. This has had both positive and negative effects on the educational systems. Teachers are losing authority, students are losing respect, and the professional life is intermingling with the personal life. In the past, the teacher would have full authority over his or her pupils. The students would have to show absolute respect for their teacher. If this was not shown, the student could be whipped or even beaten.

Mentioning to whip or even a simple strike to students is not like it used to be years ago. Those days, parents had asked teachers to do whatever they can to ensure the children obey teachers at school and behave accordingly but todays parents are all ready to go to court whenever the teacher is trying to instill some discipline into their children. If professionalism is what parents and students are asking from teachers, should teacher’s task is left to be handled by teachers at school. That is another point to be pondered but not in this essay as we are going to discuss how teacher’s professionalism at school can be monitored if parents are still let to get involve in disciplining matters?

In my 22 years of teaching, I've never had problems with problem students but this year a 10-year-old boy has challenged my profession. For the first time in my teaching life, I can't deal with this rude boy. ­ The moment he opens his mouth, he'll start uttering dirty words like . I had warned him several times, yet the words came out of his mouth naturally. ­ ­ According to my colleagues who taught him last year, his friends were all adults.
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­Since he was in year one, he had run away from school several times till last year. ­ The teachers in the school were always on the lookout to make sure he was in class. ­ He always(even until now) tells his mother that he doesn't want to go to school. ­ It has nothing to do with the teachers nor the school. ­ The teachers who taught him last year were trying their best in whatever ways to make him attend school. ­
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­Last week, after ­ explaining to ­ the class what nephews and nieces are, I asked who still could not understand the meaning, one of the boys put up his hand. ­ I asked him to come ­ forward so that I could explain to him. ­ He did not want to come out and asked the rude boy(sitting next to him). ­ The rude boy said that the teacher wanted to have children with him. ­ That moment I warned him to watch out what he said. ­ I could have slapped him there and then but I had to control myself. ­ If I were to slap him, it could become an issue and his family could sue me or I might be beaten up by his uncle whom I suspect was a gangster. ­ Last year a teacher slapped him for being very rude and it became an issue. ­ His uncle came to the school in anger and wanted to beat up the teacher. ­From his uncle's behaviour, we could guess how the boy got his behaviour. ­ Where he learned all those dirty words from? ­ None other than from his family members. ­ Yesterday he scolded one of the school's administrators "c*b**i", his mother was immediately called to the school. ­ I was in the office at that moment and I complained to his mother what his son had said to me in my class. ­ My school senior asked him where he learned the words from and he answered matter -of - factly that he learned from home. He said his mother used the words( in front of his mother). ­ We pretended we didn't hear as not to embarrass the mother. ­
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­I hope the mother will fill the transfer form and hand in tomorrow. ­ I would be happy to see him go to another school. ­ I've never felt this way in my entire teaching life. ­ Some might say that children are children. ­ Yes, it's true children are children but not this boy. ­ Last year I said the same thing when his class teacher slapped him but this year I experienced it myself and see for myself how rude the boy is

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How to be Professional

This is a true experience of Mr. Mavis Lee, told in his website; Klang Community eSpace forum- In the life of a teacher posted on 01-26-2010, 08:03 AM. This problem is not faced by Mr. Lee alone, many teachers out there are going through this and cannot deal with it. To maintain professionalism is not as easy is it sounds because this type of student is everywhere where he or she will challenge teacher’s patience and credibility. This is indeed a global problem where not many teachers or school are able to get cooperation from family. Let us look at how the boy’s family reacted towards the problem be it the boy’s uncle or the mother herself. The uncle had chosen to react aggressively on the people who had educated his nephew, without even considering discussing on what are the problems his nephew is having. The mother is worse. Her responsibility as a mother has been violated by how she raised her child. Using such inappropriate words in front of the young ones is not prohibited only to teachers but their parents as well. If that is how these young ones have been raised at home, they will come to school giving problems to teachers thus making teacher as professionals in school impossible. Parent’s involvement is essentially crucial to help make their child easier to be handled at school in order to enhance the process of teaching and learning. That is why this kind of neglecting parents need to be educated to interact with teachers. If they refuse to collaborate, then why should they become angry when their child creates problem at school. The responsibility is solely on teachers, which is exactly the perspective of most busy parents nowadays. In Teaching Today website, an article was written on how to get teacher-parents collaboration effective. In the article, the writer said to make every interaction count which means that the important is on the quality not the quantity. No matter how many PTA meetings being held a year but if there is no effective interaction between teachers and parents, then the interaction is not meaningful enough.

Recent research from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Laboratory for Student Success at Temple University has shown that it is the quality of teacher-parent interaction that contributes most to student achievement. The researchers recommend using the following strategies to improve interactions with parents:

1. Make It Positive
   Research has shown that teachers communicate with parents most often when the child misbehaves. It is important to also let parents know what their child is doing well. This actually helps parents be more responsive to those areas where their child needs work.
2. Make It Practical
   Give parents resources to understand the curriculum. Then be specific about where students are having trouble. Make specific suggestions about what parents can do to help their child overcome the difficulties they are having with schoolwork.
3. Make It Personal
   Although there is not a lot of time to write personal messages for every student in your class, collaboration between parents and teachers is raised when parents read something personal about their own child. Try to include personalized messages to parents whenever possible.

It is clear that parents and teachers have the same end goal in mind when it comes to their students. Armed with a few strategies and an understanding of what parents need, teachers can help parents become better partners in their children's education. To become a good teacher and finish the syllabus might be easy but to be a dedicated teacher where there are indeed a lot of other petty things matters might need more work and effort. It is surely not easy for teachers to cater to every need of all students they are teaching but to recognize where the extra effort should go indicates how professional you are in doing your job. Some teacher said, it is hard enough to deal with their kids, to get them to behave in class, why should we deal with their parents as well? Some answered, that’s the most remarkable thing with being a teacher, we get to scold the elder ones as well. Interaction is important, be it with the students or the parents, teacher need to survive the boiling point with straight face and that is one of the qualities to be professional. To notify every parent when their child performed at school might not be an easy task that can be smoothly executed every month after the monthly standardized test but a good teacher that watched the behavior of the students as well as their performance, the teacher should be able to notice who is making a good progress, who needs more attention or even who might be having personal problem inside or outside school.

Teaching Ethics

Before we proceed to competency in teaching, teaching performance and teacher’s conduct at school, we begin with teaching ethics first. Greek philosopher Plato's Republic is a classical example to answer questions like "What is the nature of the good life?" and "What kinds of societies promote the best lives?” Such questions fall within the range of the subject matter of ethics. In the article Code of Conduct and Practice for Registered Teachers, published on 2009, the Code makes a powerful positive statement about contemporary teaching. It was revised by The General Teaching Council for England, to show how teachers should encourage learning and how they work with colleagues, other professionals and parents. Instead of describing the unacceptable, it sets out a shared picture of teacher professionalism. The Code was built on evidence first and foremost from teachers themselves, but also from what parents, employers and other colleagues from the wider children’s workforce told the council are the essential characteristics of the teacher’s role. Teaching itself may look easy to some people but the need of Code shows that teaching need to abide the law no matter how tempting sometimes to go against it. It is unethical if a teacher does not have any code of conduct in teaching. In the website of the Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession, the standards represent a vision of professional practice. At the heart of a strong and effective teaching profession is a commitment to students and their learning. A good and professional teacher should be in their position of trust, demonstrate responsibility in their relationships with students, parents, guardians, colleagues, educational partners, other professionals, the environment and the public. The purposes of this Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession are:

• to inspire teachers to reflect and uphold the honor and dignity of the teaching profession
• to identify the ethical responsibilities and commitments in the teaching profession
• to guide ethical decisions and actions in the teaching profession
• to promote public trust and confidence in the teaching profession.

The Ethical Standards for the Teaching Profession are care, respect, trust and integrity. The ethical standard of Care includes qualities such as compassion, acceptance, interest and insight for developing students' potential. A teacher needs to be able to go deeper than what they just see in class. They need to monitor the behavior and use their observation for greater deeds. Professional teachers express their commitment to students' well-being and learning through positive influence, professional judgment and empathy in practice. Intrinsic to the ethical standard of Respect are trust and fair-mindedness. They also must honor human dignity, emotional wellness and cognitive development just like how they would like to be honored by others. In their professional practice, teachers model respect for spiritual and cultural values, social justice, confidentiality, freedom, democracy and the environment. The ethical standard of Trust embodies fairness, openness and honesty. Teachers' professional relationships with students, colleagues, parents, guardians and the public are based on trust. Honesty, reliability and moral action are embodied in the ethical standard of Integrity. Continual reflection assists teachers in exercising integrity in their professional commitments and responsibilities.

Teaching Competencies to become Role Model in School

Preparation

To begin, the characteristic of competence is essential in a teacher’s pursuit of excellence. A discussion on competence focuses on three important ideas: preparation, knowledge of subject area, and defined pedagogy. The first, preparation, prepares the professional for the adversity of the classroom. From language and cultural barriers to socio-economic differences, all educators face deterrents in the classroom that must be broken down by individualized techniques. “Decision making by well-trained professionals allows individual clients’ needs to be met more precisely and promotes continual refinement and improvement in overall practice” Darling Hammond (1988). Thus, by eliminating the obstacles, the teacher will be better prepared for classroom management and create an effective learning environment. Furthermore, by doing this, the professional teacher leads students by his or her example: one who is prepared for difficulties will be able to overcome them. Teachers whom are not prepared for difficulties will most likely to have problems in managing their classroom.

Strong Knowledge of the Subject Area

Along with preparation, a professional teacher with a strong knowledge of his or her subject area has the concern themselves to prepare innovative techniques to teach material rather than spending significant amounts of time studying the material. With the advantage of knowing one’s curriculum material well, the teacher will have more confidence in their teachings, having already what is there that is important in the correct flow to ensure the teaching will be well delivered. Thus, a professional is able to talk on their and even to dwell on the subject because of the strong knowledge of the subject matter.

Acquire a Defined Pedagogy

Most importantly, in teaching a teacher should have a defined pedagogy. A professional teacher who has a defined pedagogy has already journeyed through several trials to discover which pedagogical techniques are most effective. According to Lunenburg and Ornstein (2000), “Hiring teachers by subject and skill presumes that curricular priorities have been established, which means that decisions have been made about how much time will be devoted to each segment of the curriculum”. Although this may take years to fine-tune, a professional is willing to self-evaluate his or her pedagogy as he or she develops it, revise their instruction when deemed necessary, and apply one’s ideas to a practical situation. Furthermore, by acquiring a defined pedagogy, a professional creates more autonomy for him or herself, allowing for some release from the constraints constructed by the administration, school board, or parents. Usually, to acquire a defined pedagogy, teachers need to experiment and try-and-error a lot. Through experience, teachers will know which approach will be effective to what type of student therefore will make every lesson fun and efficient to the classroom.

Teacher’s Conduct

The final characteristic of teacher professionalism which is teacher’s conduct is as important as other characteristics mentioned. The method in which a teacher carries himself or herself is a reflection on his or her classroom, school, community, and educational system. Conduct is a representation of how well one takes care of himself or herself, from aesthetics to language and behavior. However, these are only the minor qualities of conduct because the concept of conduct actually evolves more than just that. Conduct includes one’s ability to initiate and maintain quality communication with all the parties involved in education: students, fellow teachers, school board, administration, and parents. It is through good communication by a professional teacher that makes understanding possible. A professional teacher will have the desire to choose the most effective communicative skills to achieve his or her working goals in which only the best teacher with a good conduct may accomplish it.

In conclusion, to be a role model in school as Professional Teacher does not come easy. One may not just flip their coin and wish they will turn out to be professional in just a blink of an eye. There are ways, for the teachers to become professional and to be put as a role model in school be it the easy ways or the hard ways. Some said doing more paperwork will help you climb the ladder faster but some said it should goes back to teaching where teaching and learning must be improved and at the best stake before appointed one teacher is professional in his career or not. Whatever the answers may be, as long as the intention is at best for the student and the coming generation, there should be no obstacle left but to acquire more and more experience. Those who work hard will always be paid in the end regardless of how others may say about teaching profession, only teachers know what comes out of effective teaching; self satisfaction.

Bibliography

1. Darling-Hammond, Linda. (1988) "Policy and Professionalism." in Lieberman, Ann., Ed. Building a Professional Culture in Schools. New York: Teachers College Press. (pp. 55-

2. http://www.answers.com/topic/school-teaching-ethics

3. http://www.gtce.org.uk/teachers/thecode/

4. http://www.oct.ca/standards/ethical_standards.aspx

5. Kelly P. Philip. (1995) TE 920. Teaching as A Profession? Retrieved from http://education.boisestate.edu/pkelly/webpages/920PPR.html

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