Mentor Manager THE TEACHER AND THE WORLD OF EDUCATION

- increased knowledge and understanding of classroom practice, and increased teaching skills - easier collaboration with pupils and the potential to develop a shared commitment to the desired improvements

6. Mentor

6.1 A mentor is one who guides and supports trainees to ease them through difficult transitions; it is about smoothing the way, enabling, reassuring as well as directing, managing and instructing. HeShe should be able to unblock the ways to change by building self confidence, self esteem and a readiness to act as well as to engage in ongoing constructive interpersonal relationships. 6.2 Individual engaged in a one-to-one teachinglearning relationship in which the mentor serves as a fundamentally important model with respect to values, beliefs, philosophies and attitudes as well as a source of more specific information. 6.3 Mentoring implies a close relationship within which the model may be a role model, consultant, advisor, source of wisdom –even a sort of protector. 6.4 Mentoring is defined as a nurturing process in which a more skilled or more experienced person, serving as a role model, teachers, sponsors, encourages, counsels and befriends a less skilled or less experienced person for the purpose of promoting the latter’s professional andor personal development. Mentoring functions are carried out within the context of an ongoing, caring relationship between the mentor and the protégé 6.5 Mentoring is used to describe a combination of coaching, counseling and assessment where a classroom teacher in a school is delegated responsibility for assisting newly qualified teachers in their professional development 6.6 A mentor tries to develop individual’s strengths to maximize their professional and personal potential and also that of students who come under their care within a classroom situation.

7. Manager

7.1 The teacher structure the learning environment. In this role, all decisions and actions required to maintain order in the classroom, such as laying down rules and procedures for learning activities. 7.2 Teacher must manage a classroom environment. Teachers are environmental engineers who organize the classroom space to fit their goals and to maximize learning. The way the physical space of the classroom is organized can either help or hinder learning. 28 7.3 It involves modeling a positive attitude towards the curriculum and towards school and learning in general. Teachers who reveal a caring attitude towards learning and the learning environment help to instill and reinforce similar attitudes in their students. 7.4 Teachers are required to manage and process great amounts of clerical work. There are papers to be read and graded, tests to be scored, marks to be entered, attendance records and files to be maintained, notes and letters to be written etc. 29

CHAPTER 5: THE TEACHER AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS