A class teacher is the kind of teacher that is entrusted with taking care of a class. This means the teacher is in charge of all those students regardless of whether the teacher teaches them or not.
However, teachers are usually handed students that they teach at least one subject. This helps them identify, interact and understand these students better, because that enables the teacher play his/her role effectively. Below are the roles of a class teacher;
1. Conducting class meetings
If you’ve been in the classroom for a long time, you probably know that conducting class meetings is very important. This is one of the key roles of a class teacher, because these meetings help you do the following;
- Making special announcements/ communication
- Gathering feedback from students
- Monitoring the attendance of students
- Appoint class leaders
Of course, meetings like these don’t have to be held every single day or students will get used and tired, but once a week will be ideal if you want results.
2. Identifying learners with special needs
On rare occasions, you encounter students with special needs, meaning they have to be treated specially. Some of these special needs include;
- Learning disabilities
- Physical impairments
- Sudden sicknesses
Once you identify learners with special needs, you can always find a solution – or if it’s too big for the school to solve, you can advise them to look for another school.
3. Guiding and counseling learners
Learners have to be guided, and teachers are like their parents at school. When students aren’t guided into the right path, they sometimes decline greatly or fail to realize their potential for a very long time. Students have to be given guidance and counseling on the following domains;
- Academics
- Sex education
- Conflict resolution
These days, so many parents don’t have enough time to sit down with their children and advise them on various issues. Therefore, a class teacher who gives them quality advice might be their only chance at success.
4. Making class register and roll calls
All students have to be identified and monitored. A class register helps you know the number and names of students who are part of your classroom.
A roll call helps you keep track of students who attend and who miss classes. This is important because it can help you eliminate undisciplined students before they can negatively influence others.
5. Supervising learners and classroom environment
In your classroom, no student will report you for stalking. The main purposes of supervision include;
- Finding out how students respond to other teachers
- To see if the learning environment is conducive for all learners
- Making sure that all the necessary equipment and teaching aids are around
Supervising can always look like a hectic but unnecessary job, because there’s no big reward for it, yet it’s fairly hectic. However, you just have to do it.
6. Preparing and making student reports on a termly basis
Every student does an exam during the term, and they always go back home with a report card at the end of the term. The report card includes things like;
- Termly performance
- Comparison with other students’ performance (usually in terms of positions) in some schools.
- Teacher’s comments
A report card is the only way teachers can be transparent with parents about their children’s performance in examinations and their conduct. Therefore, any class teacher should do the job because they’ve had the chance to observe their students fairly closely.
7. Ensuring sanitation of the classrooms
Classrooms have to be kept clean, and the school can’t hire janitors to do the cleaning (unless it’s one of the premium international schools). Therefore, class teachers have to do things like;
- Designing a sweeping roster for the class
- Monitoring to make sure that the roster is followed
- Punishing students that refuse to engage in cleaning activities
- Organizing days for general cleaning
Every student’s mind will always work well in a clean place – whether they know this or not. Therefore, you have to compel them to make sure of that.
8. Talking to the parents of the students
If there’s anyone in the school that should interact with parents and tell them about how and why their children perform the way they do, it’s the class teachers.
As a class teacher, you have to use your knowledge based on the observation and interaction with these students. From there, you’ll get to know the solutions to the problems encountered, and what to do about them.
9. Supervising other teachers of that specific class
When teachers enter the classroom, what do they do? How do they teach your students, and what’s the student learning curve? All these are questions you might ask yourself. The answer is in supervising the teachers.
I know this sounds sneaky and all, but your colleagues can take it if you don’t make it all look bossy and too controlling.
10. Appointing/ organizing election of class leaders
Students need leaders, precisely because you won’t be around all the time. Therefore, every class needs a class monitor to do things like;
- Ensuring order in the classroom
- Enforcing the timetable and cleaning roster
- Helping the teacher conduct roll calls
- Reporting notorious/ unruly students to the class teacher
It is the responsibility of the class teacher to nominate, appoint or conduct the class leader election process, so as to maintain order in the classroom at all times.
Conclusion;
Of course, there are so many times that the class teacher will fail to perform their duties effectively on some students. This is where other teachers with specific posts like the head of the disciplinary department, DOS and others come in. Therefore, every good class teacher does their best to see to it that higher authorities don’t have to intervene.