Reading Response to William's Article

I can imagine teachers playing many different roles.  I think one that is popular with older students is the stand up comedian.  Getting students to laugh while teaching them makes the experience more enjoyable and catches the student’s attention.  This could, however, back fire if the students don’t find the teacher funny.  I’m sure we have all had some really good teachers and some really bad teachers.  A teacher we may see as a “bad” teacher could be playing the role of the punisher.  I personally think that playing this role constantly can create a very negative environment for the students.  There are some times that students may need to be “punished” but this shouldn’t be the focus of our classroom.  We should create a positive environment for students to learn and allow them to enjoy learning.  A teacher may also play the role of an actor or actress.  I have seen teachers do this when they are teaching something like a certain history lesson.  Dressing up like the person the children are learning about or acting out something engages students.  It also shows how invested the teacher is in teaching his/her students.  They could also have the students act out a skit and the teacher would act as the director.  Many teachers play the role of a parent or role model.  Students look up to their teachers and trust them.  One teacher that comes to mind when I think about the roles teachers play is my third grade teacher.  She played the role of a musician.  Every morning we would start by singing while she played the guitar.  We sang songs such as the Star Spangled Banner, This Land is my Land, and other songs that went along with our history lessons.  Everybody loved this part of class and it made learning very enjoyable for us.  Whenever she could implement a song to help us learn she would.  There are many things such as this that we can implement in our classrooms everyday.  We may not even think about it as playing a different role, but just thinking of ways that can help enhance our students learning.  I never realized how many different roles teachers play until I read Williams article.  This article really opened my eyes to how many roles we can play as teachers and how it can help our students.  I also noticed that teachers can play both negative and positive roles.  I think it is very important that we keep our classrooms as positive as we possibly can and always try to implement the positive roles.  This is a great way to keep our students engaged and excited about learning.