Gladly Would I Teach

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During the final week of the semester, I sat in my classroom after class and talked to two of my students. We laughed about things that had happened during our class and plans we had for the holidays. Amid our discussion, Cortney stated, “I want to ask you a personal question.”

Like any good teacher, I always brace myself when students say that because I never know what they will ask, and, too often, their personal questions pertain to what I think about another student, information I would never disclose to students.

“Sure, ask me whatever you want to know,”  I responded.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Cortney added. “It’s just something that has bothered us all semester, and no one would ever ask you.”

Intrigued, I encouraged Cortney to ask her question.

“We just want to know why you always pour your tea into a paper cup and then put that cup inside a real cup.”

I’ve taught these students for 18 weeks, and their most pressing concern is how I drink my tea?!!

I explained that I put the cup inside another cup so I don’t have to wash the cup or worry about it getting too hot for me to hold or tipping over on my desk.   I started the practice when I used Styrofoam cups in the past that often leaked after a few hours of use.

“Oh,” Cortney responded. “I thought about the cleaning part, but then we wondered if you were just OCD or something.”

I suppose we can never see ourselves as our students see us. I consider myself easy going and approachable, someone students would have no trouble asking such a “personal” question, but I guess I’m wrong.

“We just want to know why you always pour your tea into a paper cup and then put that cup inside a real cup.”

Now, I wonder what I can do with my tea next semester to drive another class crazy!

On a recent online discussion forum for my AP English classes, students described teacher traits that frustrated them. Listed in order of most frustrating to frustrating, here are the top characteristics or teacher traits that trouble my high school seniors.

• Negative views of teaching or their jobs
  Students repeatedly expressed the idea that teachers who hate their jobs should find other jobs. (Please see Sunday’s post for more about this student frustration: Teachers Who Hate Teaching

• Busy Work and Lack of Variety in Class Activities
  Students are disturbed by assignments that do not build their skills or knowledge. I wonder if the work they abhor is truly “busy work” or if teachers just need to do a better job of explaining the purpose of assignments to students.

• Arrogance
  Students are exasperated by teachers who belittle, disparage or demean them. Instead of supporting them, students feel that some teachers treat them with condescension.

• Lack of knowledge
  Teachers who teach straight from textbooks frustrate students because they often are unable to answer student questions in greater detail than what is provided in the textbook, nor do they apply lessons to the real world or to examples outside the textbook.

• No Interest in students
  According to students, some teachers make little effort to get to know their students, know little about what students do outside of class, and, unbelievably, some teachers make little effort to even learn the names of their students.

• Reluctance to answer student questions
  In some classes students are rebuked for asking questions. According to students, some teachers belittle students and state they should already know the answer to a question or the teacher cannot answer questions with clarity. This appears to be a by-product of two other frustrations: teacher arrogance and/or teachers’ lack of knowledge.
• Apathy
  Students reported that some teachers do not care about their students, their classes, or the activities within a class. Students very quickly determined that if the teacher didn’t care about the class, they shouldn’t care either.

Also mentioned: frustration over lack of good work ethic in some teachers (slow in grading or teachers make few marks on papers so students don’t know what to do to improve) and frustration with teachers who show favoritism

Even though students had no trouble explaining teacher traits that frustrated them, almost all students prefaced their statements by expressing their respect for teachers and underscoring that most of their teachers have been well-prepared, caring, knowledgeable, and often inspirational.

Please see yesterday’s post for Teacher Traits Students Appreciate