My five minute soap box

I'm going to use this post to have an I'm an Idealistic College Student and This Is How I Think These Things Should Be moment.

One of the assignments I have in connection to this field experience is to interview two of my students.  We weren't given questions, only the very broad guideline that it should be 10-15 minutes long and that we'd have to write a reflection on it.  I gave fairly basic questions, but the answers I got were anything but simple.

Two of my questions involved the students' opinions about the school: "Do you feel that your teachers care about/support you?"  and "If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be?"  And these questions led to comments indicating that many teachers these students have play favorites, don't seem to care about the education of their students (isn't that kind of the point??), blow students off, yell past the point of being constructive, and don't fairly enforce school rules.

One student's response was that she'd change the disciplinary system.  When I asked her to explain, she said that students tend to get away with big things (like being caught with drugs and being punished with a day of suspension) and little things being blown out of proportion.  She also alluded to the fact that students with money tend to have their disciplinary problems go away a lot more easily.  This is ridiculous to me; what are we teaching these students?  Basically that being responsible for your actions is something of the past, and that if you have a little money or are buddies with administration then consequences don't matter.

The other student named the way some teachers treat students as his change.  He told me that he hates his English class, not because of the content, but because the teacher doesn't seem to care and likes to yell and "get in students' faces" all the time.  He told me that he's had teachers tell him they were too busy or didn't have time to help him when he asked a question.  He then told me that his Spanish teacher (my mentor teacher) would stop grading or whatever she was doing to just have conversations with him in Spanish after school if he asked, and he spoke about this like it was the most monumental and amazing thing in the world.

This made me so sad.  A teacher taking time to talk to a student or answer a question should be the norn, not the exception.  I know that sometimes grading or meetings take priority, but the students should never feel like they are being blown off or ignored.  To me that's one of the main principles of teaching: investing our time in the education and betterment of our students.

And this is a good school.  Excellent ratings over the last several years, not hurting for money, with a very good variety of classes and extracurricular activities for the students.  Which makes me wonder how schools that aren't as well off are faring?

Make class worthwhile

I am generally one of those students who always does homework, studies like crazy, pays attention, and doesn't skip class unless I'm pretty sick/it's one of those awful days when the alarm clock doesn't go off.  But today I broke one of my personal unwritten rules and skipped my class, and I don't feel bad for two reasons: 1, because it's a non-mandatory recuperation class for a day the instructor didn't show up.  And 2, I decided that it would be a better use of my time to instead work on my final essays/projects/presentations.  Based on the class this instructor gave yesterday (where he spent 45 minutes talking to himself before leaving the room as we took a 20 question quiz that meant nothing), I knew that going today would have been a waste of my time.  And then I wondered what he would say if he knew that's the reason I wasn't there today.

Over the course of the last 3 months I've spent at this Argentine university, this instructor has indirectly taught me a lot about what kind of teacher I don't want to be (there are other posts coming on those topics...) and now I get to add one more lesson to the list: making students feel like they should be there.

First let me begin by saying that I have no illusions.  I want to teach middle school Spanish, and I know that my students won't be bounding into my room every single day with a huge smile, excited to begin that day's class with attentive eagerness.  Of course I would love for it to be that way, but I know things happen.  Students have bad days, they get cranky, or it's beautiful outside and they'd rather be out playing soccer instead of listening to me talk about verbs.  But I never want a student to feel that being in my class is a waste of their time.  Ever.  To me that's one of the biggest slaps in the face a teacher can get.

I want my classes to be worthwhile.  Even on the days that I don't have games or songs or any of that other "fun" stuff planned, I want the students to feel like they're learning, or at least like they should be there.  It just amazes me how comfortable this instructor is with not only wasting our time, but really his own as well.