Education
How does a teacher become a role model for her students?
How does a teacher become a role model for her students? Gitika Kishanchandani shares her insights, bringing in her 30-year+ experience as a teacher, educator and administrator.
How does a teacher become a role model for her students? Gitika Kishanchandani shares her insights drawing from her 30-year+ experience as a teacher, educator and administrator.
“A great teacher never strives to explain his vision. He simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself.” (R. Inman)
A teacher profoundly impacts the life of a child. Inspiring. Engaging. Facilitating. Empowering. Nurturing. Loving. Expected to have the ability to multi-task at six hours a day, five days of the week, a teacher still makes it a priority to lovingly foster the thoughts, skills and attitudes of a child’s eventual adult personality.
As a young adult, much of my perspectives on life, education and learning were transformed in the English class, thanks to my English teacher. If she spoke about punctuality, being fair-minded or living by one’s convictions, she exemplified these virtues through her life and actions. I realise now that though she was my role model, she wasn’t really trying to be one.
How then does a teacher become a role model? Just by being the way she should be – strong, loving, conscientious, understanding. To have the ability to wipe a tear, to praise, or to smile, on a really challenging day– that’s a role model !
Such behaviour will inspire students who watch and seek to emulate you. From preserving one’s integrity and dignity at all times while creating a firm but friendly haven for students, a teacher can make her students believe that great things, even impossible things, are possible if one walks the talk.
Through our words and actions.
Every single day.
In every possible way.
About the Author:
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Gitika Kishanchandani is a Co-founder at KA EduAssociates. Her teaching career spans over 30 years. She took to teaching with a natural flair and ability and has empowered close to ten thousand children over thirty years across curricula – ICSE and CIE. As the Founding Principal of a leading South Mumbai school, she guided teachers and students through the affiliation process and ensured that her vision of creating centres of academic excellence continues in her journey ahead as a Co-Founder. |
