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A profession like teaching requires having great communication skills.  Teaching encompasses all kind of communication skills like reading, writing, speaking, listening, and proper execution.  A teacher not only requires communicating with the students but also with their parents for effective development of the students. Hence proper communication is a must to become an effective teacher.  It is in the hands of the teachers to develop and train the minds of the learners and instruct them with utmost care. This is not a one way process. The teacher needs to put in a combined effort along with other teachers, parents and school administrators to hone the future of the students.  All these efforts depend a lot on the communication skills that a teacher should possess. These skills will actually contribute not in the development of a better teacher but also for the children studying under the guidance of that teacher.

The teacher needs to strategize or shape her communication skills as per the age group she is interacting with. Like for when s/he is with her students s/he needs to be more caring in her delivery of speech whereas when interacting with the parents s/he needs to be an excellent communicator to be able to make the parents understand the situation or progress of the students.

We can divide the levels where the type of communication changes and is important when interacting with people of different age groups.

• While counselling students

While teaching an individual or groups, communication is mainly in the form of expressing and reception. Communication also plays a vital role when a teacher dons the hat of a counsellor. She should be a very good listener in order to guide her students towards the right direction.  A teacher can contribute significantly in school counselling. It is very important to understand for them what the student wants to communicate that will build their power of expression.  Alongside teaching she can help develop their social and emotional skills for the holistic development of the children. Communication may differ depending on the situation and the approach and therefore, teachers must take care what they say and how they say to the students.

• While communicating with the parents

Communicating with the parents is a challenging task.  Teachers need to be very careful while handling the emotions of the parents with their communication. With adept communication skills the teacher has to report about the students to the parents with detailed knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. Teachers cannot be defensive while complaining about any misbehaviour of the students to the parents. All the communications made regarding the progress of the students to the parents must be clear in order to make the parents realize to mark the educational development of their children. There can be many challenging situations when there can be agitated parents overlooking the flaws of their children. Such situation must be handled with tactful communication taking care of the emotion of the students.

To become a teacher counsellor is not only based on having good teaching skills but also effective communication skills. The schools are nowadays relying on teachers with better communication skills who can also play the role of a guide. School counselling courses are helping the aspiring teachers to adapt to the new requirements of a teacher as demanded by the schools. These courses are specially designed to train teachers to develop skills that will help acquire counselling skills along with innovative teaching ideas to cater to the varied needs of 21st century learners.  The school counselling techniques allow the teachers to help students in different ways going beyond teaching. Teachers who are good communicators can effectively and empathically put their observations into words. Using words such as “I understand; please tell me more” go a long way when it comes to counselling children.

Conclusion:

A teacher can only be an effective teacher when he/she is a good counsellor. To be able to understand the requirements of the digital generation students proper school counselling courses are necessary. Building a trusting relationship with the students is only possible through effective communication.