“Am I a teacher 24 hours a day?” I believe that the simplest answer to this question is yes. As a teacher in Saskatchewan you must, “act at all times in a way that maintains the honour and dignity of the individual teacher and teaching profession” (STF Code of Professional Ethics). I think that teachers are held to a much higher professional standard than other professions. From a young age, we are taught to trust our teachers. Parents send their children to school with full trust in the teachers to look after, care for, and educate their kids. The STF states that “Teachers have a responsibility to act at all times in a manner that is worthy of the public trust and consistent with the teaching profession’s expectations.” I think that this means, teachers always have to remember their role as an educator. The things that they do in their personal lives can affect how people see them in their profession. This could be things such as, watching the things they post on social media, the way they dress, and the things that they say in public. Once you become a teacher, you are a teacher all the time. There are many things as a teacher, that you bring home with you at the end of the day. Teaching is not a 9-3:30 profession.
I think as a student in the Faculty of Education, we now need to take more consideration into the things that we say and do. We need to start to think of ourselves as future educators and begin holding ourselves to the same standard that teachers are held to. This could include social media posts, things that are said in a public setting, and the way we dress on campus. We represent the future of educations and I think that we need to present ourselves in such a way that parents would have no doubts about trusting us with their children’s education.