Being a positive role model for your students

As a teacher, you represent an important force in the lives of your pupils. You might well be the adult that they spend the most time with on a daily basis. As such, you aren’t only in a position to teach a curriculum, you can also be a strong, positive role model for pupils as they develop into young adults.

Positive Attitude

We all have bad days, and lesson plans don’t always work out the way you had hoped. Being able to maintain a positive outlook when these hurdles do come up is important for being a positive role model for your pupils. By responding to setbacks in a positive manner, you encourage your pupils to do the same – demonstrating that while things don’t always go your way, you can still make a situation positive.

Honesty

Trust is a hugely important part of personal and professional relationships, by being trustworthy and reliable with your class, you will help to impart those values into them.  Try to stick to any agreements you make; if you say going to reward good class behaviour, make sure to follow through on it. Empty promises can steer pupils toward being distrustful, whilst keeping to your word will do exactly the opposite by encouraging honesty and reliability!  

Be Genuine

Letting some of your personal passions show will encourage pupils to pursue their own interests. Many children can feel very self-conscious about their interests and this can stifle their creativity. By letting even a small amount of your own personal interests show through, you can encourage pupils to embrace their own individuality and pursue their interests.

Show Respect

If you want kids to be respectful, then you need to show them that same level of respect. It may be cliché, but treat your pupils the way that you would want to be treated. If you are polite, show gratitude and understanding – then you will encourage the children to behave the same way.

Accept and admit when you’re wrong

There’s no shame in admitting that you’ve made a mistake. By seeing that even a teacher can be wrong, and that they’ll openly admit it pupils will learn to accept their mistakes – and that if needed, that it’s better to apologise and make amends than to pretend that the mistake never happened. 

With so much responsibility, teaching is more than just a job – Tradewind Recruitment helps thousands of teachers find their ideal teaching position, for more information contact us today!