Roles

I think one of the ongoing debates in education circles is the definition of the teacher's role in the classroom. Today's Thought sums up my thoughts on this debate fairly well. Today was my first day of teaching at my fall placement site, the School of Environmental Studies. As I taught my lessons, it somewhat hit me just how much as a teacher my goal is to inspire students. After teaching I looked back in my lesson plan to see that a vast majority of my lesson was made up of activities meant to get the brain juices flowing. Granted, this was through content-specific activities, but the overarching theme was toward encouraging students to think on their own.

I think this whole idea of roles is an important one, no matter what your profession is. What is your role? Is your role that of encourager, mentor, leader or visionary? Or is it of doer, worker-bee or manual labor? I think no matter what our situation is we can be part of the former category. I challenge you to think about how you can be a leader, encourager or mentor in your life. What is your role? Are you providing ready-made products? Or are you creating conditions for new inventions?