The Most Important Role of a Teacher

Teachers play numerous roles in their everyday life.  These roles include lecturer, caregiver, grader, entertainer, classroom manager, lesson planner, collaborator, housekeeper, cheerleader, protector, assessor, and researcher among many others.

Stepping into Mrs. Heaps' classroom, I have seen her perform a handful of these roles. The time when I move to Mrs. Heaps' class from Mrs. Brown's class, is the time when Mrs. Heaps shepherds her class into the room.  Next, she delivers a fantastically fun math lesson or helps personally coach a student through their writing exercise.  Meanwhile, she has to maintain control of the classroom environment.
I have also seen Mrs. Brown complete the majority of these tasks.  Generally, when I arrive at Mrs. Brown's class, the students are working in groups.  Mrs. Brown demonstrates her ability to assess the reading skills of the students and manage the class. After they finish their group work, Mrs. Brown assists the students in cleaning the room while providing words of praise to her students. However, these are only a list of the roles that I saw.  Many more of these roles go unseen.
The question remains, what is the most important role a teacher plays? This is a question that is certainly a matter of opinion. I personally believe that it is a combination of all the roles that make a teacher's job so important. The role of teaching/lecturing is certainly one of the more important roles, however, I feel the most important role a teacher plays is the role of caregiver. I feel it is important that students are given the confidence and love needed to see that they can succeed in life. With that said, it is vital that a teacher performs of all of the above mentioned roles.