COMPETENCY AND ROLE OF A GOOD TEACHER

 

The Competent Teacher

“Competencies.” This word is increasingly being used in education circles today. It is a description of one’s ability, a measure of one’s performance. What are the competencies that matter among educators? And are these the same qualities that will be valued in the teachers of tomorrow?

A person’s competencies may be defined in terms of one’s knowledge, skills and behaviours. To understand the competencies required of a teacher, we must first define the job of a teacher.

The task of a teacher is closely tied to the nature of the classroom. Today’s classrooms call for teachers to “prepare virtually all students for higher order thinking and performance skills once reserved to only a few” (Darling-Hammond, 2006, p. 300).

Researchers and practitioners are becoming increasingly aware that the character of the 21st century classroom – and thus the demands on both students and teachers – is undergoing significant change.

The Role of an ESL Teacher: What DO They Actually Do

With the number of English learners constantly rising and permeating not only large urban areas but also spreading into suburbs and rural towns, there is a serious need for all involved in the education of those English learners to understand the role of an ESL/ELL teacher in their district. 

1. Meeting with mainstream teachers sometimes doesn’t go as planned because of the very lack of understanding of what we, the ESL/ELL teachers do. No, in a district with fewer numbers of students we do not see 100 children a day. But we might see 25 at different grade and language proficiency levels dispersed throughout 5 or 6 schools. Which is not an easy feat to achieve, either.
2. Sometimes because of the lack of knowledge on their colleagues part itinerant/district-wide ESL teachers (as well as those with a small team) feel defeated by the vast demands and little support. One of the teachers I recently spoke to even said: “I have one English learner in the mainstream classroom while the science/social studies/LA/math teachers have 30 native speakers. I feel guilty asking them to accommodate”.

These general assumptions reminded me yet again that there is still lack of information about the ESL/ELL world.  While the acronym ESL/ELL is no longer a mystery, what we do, unfortunately, is still often unclear. 

Therefore, it is my goal in this blog post to explain the roles of an ESL/ELL teacher and hopefully shed some light on this too frequently “mysterious” job that we do. 

Note: while this blog post is likely applicable to ESL teachers around the world, it is mostly geared towards those in the U.S. (which is where my expertise lies). 

Note 2: to be fair, ESL/ELL teachers, too, have assumptions and do not always step into their colleagues’ shoes. I hope that this article will be a bridge for continued discussion.