3.1 PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

2. Teachers' Counseling Responsibilities:

Teaching is one of the helping professions. It requires many personal contact's with young people in the classroom. Certain interpersonal-relationship skills are part of the repertoire of all successful teachers. Indeed, some have seen the interpersonal relations or counseling function of teaching as all but inseparable from the instructional function. Some understanding of the condition of youngsters is essential before the instructional program can be designed in such away that learning takes place.The existence of professional counselors in a building by no means relieves teachers from counseling responsibilities. In the first place, the ratio of learners to counselors is so high in most schools that counselors are formed to spent time working with the most difficult personal situations of youngsters. They simply cannot spend time counseling every learner in the building. Second because youngster to become very well acquainted with their teachers and to feel comfortable around them. Teachers tend to be sought out by youngsters when they. leave a problem that they wish to talk about. Teachers need to be prepared for approaches from learners about personal difficulties. Furthermore, they need to know when a problem is beyond their capacity to help and when to return youngster to a counselor or some other specialist for assistance.Good teacher counseling does not simply mean becoming a "friend" of the learner. Many beginning teachers confuse the roles of friendship and of counseling. A youngster asking for help about a problem is not asking for friendship, or at least he or she is not looking for a friend in the sense that a fellow learner is a friend. The objective of seeking help is to find help. Help is sought under the assumption that the teacher is a leadership figure capable of providing guidance that might help resolve a problem. The youngster looking for assistance from a teacher has different expec.ations than he or she would have in a relationship with most frier ds, when inexperienced teachers make the mistake of trying first to act as friends rather than leaders, the credibility of their advice is threatened. This can undermine the leamer-eacher relationship in other areas. As learner and teacher roles occome confused.

Many times, teachers do have a responsibility for consoling. The ways in which teaches talk to youngsters, and other things either support the building and nonverbal communication and other things eithier support the building of the sort of rapport necessary for free and open communication or tend to destroy it. Teachers need particularly to attend to the possible consequences of their actions for youngsters' self- images Youngster's self-perceptions have a great influence on their patterns of behavior. Self-images are learned through interactions with others. When the reactions of others are positive, self-images tend to be positive. When the reactions of others are negative, self-images tend to be negative. Teachers need to think about the impact heir reactions to individual youngsters might be having on earners perceptions of their own worth and dignity.

3. Teachers' Administrative and Supervisory Responsibilities:

Large numbers of teachers comment that the administrative and supervisory aspects of teaching are among the least enjoyable of their many roles. Many complain that so much time is spent on paperwork that more important work, such as preparing for lessons and working with individual youngsters, is neglected. Clearly the paperwork load of teachers has increased in recent years with the expansions of federal programs in the schools. Nearly all such programs require a good deal of careful record keeping.

Even without the special paperwork associated with programs underwritten by the federal government, teachers have a heavy administrative work load. Schedules must be developed. Learner records must be kept. Materials have to be ordered. Requests for films and other media have to be filed. Notes must be kept regarding committee work, school organizations, and teacher's professional groups. Though such tasks are sometimes not terribly rewarding for the teachers who must do them, they do seem to be necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of the school program. Many of these duties could be completed by clerks and other individuals but generally speaking monies have not been available for this purpose.

Among the most important of all teachers administrative responsibilities in maintaining accurate attendance records. In most states, school districts receive money from the state based on the number of youngsters in attendance. The districts clearly. have a heavy financial interest in seeing to it that they have dependable records to document the number of youngsters that have been claimed for purposes of securing state funds. The teacher's daily attendance record in many places is a vital link in this documentations chain. Serious errors could result in heavy financial losses for the district.