Teach English in Ninggu Zhen - Jinzhong Shi

The word ‘teacher’ is not just a common noun that identifies a profession. It is a comprehensive term to define an individual who is not just an ordinary human being. A teacher is a guide, a friend and a philosopher. The definition of a teacher alters at every stage in life. The line of work of an educator can be categorized into two categories. The term ‘non-formal teacher’ refers to the class of individuals who do not receive a formal training in education. Despite this, they are able to inculcate certain essential values into the society. Great personalities like M.K. Gandhi and Mother Teresa fall under this classification. The former taught the people of India, the meaning of the word ‘independence’, dignity of labour and power of peace and the latter enlightened the world to serve humanity in a selfless way. A vast majority of individuals across the globe seek inspiration from such figures. Formal teaching has three components that constitute- the teacher or educator, the taught or ‘educand’ and the curriculum. Out of these three, the teacher plays the most significant role in making the teaching process a grand success because the teacher is a real practitioner of the teaching learning process. The role and responsibilities of a teacher change from time to time. Today, the role of a teacher is not only to keep records and delivering lessons. A teacher has to play a role of a problem solver, an analyst and a researcher. The most important responsibility of him is to maintain a healthy relationship with pupils, their parents and the general public. To fulfil this purpose, parent teachers’ associations may be organized. This in turn, ensures a healthy two way communication between both units involved in the teaching-learning process. The teacher on the other hand, must have healthy and cordial relationships with all the coworkers irrespective of the organizational hierarchy. Exhibition of such skills will lead to the development of healthy interpersonal skills among students. When pupils first join school, they have their first formal encounter with a person whom they recognize as a teacher. During this stage, the mind of a child is like a piece of ‘soft clay’ which can be molded into any shape. Therefore, it is the onus of the mentor to give it a right shape by edifying basic life skills, giving direction to the developing emotions, making them aware about the surroundings and so on. Consequently, the initial stage is the most crucial aspect of the pupil-teacher relationship. As life proceeds further, the role of a teacher adapts into knowledge givers and profession trainers. Philosophers define a teacher as an artist who shapes raw material into a beautiful sculpture. This is not only a definition but also predicts the responsibility of a teacher as a modeler of minds. To nurture budding minds in an era of a large scale technological shift is a huge challenge. Technology has penetrated deep into every facet of life. The phenomena of education is also not an exception to this. A surge in the use of modern technology has slowly replaced conventional teaching methods. The gap between theoretical knowledge and practical implementation can now be narrowed down by the use of cutting edge technologies for instance e-learning, virtual reality, augmented reality and virtual classrooms etc. Therefore, teachers of today have to work hard to find such methods to establish relationship between theory and practice. These new challenges are transforming teacher into a learner. It is impossible to be a teacher and not being a learner. In conclusion, all teachers, whether trained or untrained, play a vital role in developing the character of a society. They lay the foundation of strong morals and principles on which our social and democratic values stand firm. The civilized world we know today has been made possible because of the tireless efforts attributing to various educators spanning over several periods of history.