TT0306: Student Advice for Teachers

Teacher Tribes

It’s one thing to get advice from other teachers, but how often do you ask your students for advice? So often, we forget to listen to some of the most important voices that we have in our school buildings - our students. Especially at the high school level, kids know what makes a good teacher. They may not always be able to verbalize what they need and ask for it, but you can believe that they are talking to each other about it.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit in with a group of girls at my school while they talked about some of their frustrations with school and their teachers. As they spoke, I listened and took notes. This week, we had a chance to revisit those notes, and they were able to turn their frustrations into advice. Here you will find some of the main concerns that they had and their thoughts on how you can address them.

Productive Classwork - Amala and Gabrielle

Every child has a different learning style and pace. As a school unit, every teacher should try their absolute best and beyond to accompany their needs. Some students are auditory, some are kinesthetic, and others are visual learners. In every type of learning group they have different paces. The students, as well as the teachers, can get frustrated for not understanding a lesson or each other. No student wants to be talked to like they are lower than everyone else in the class, which teachers unknowingly do.

Patience is required in order to prevent frustration from becoming present. If both the teacher and student are patient with one another, things will be easier and smoother for the two. A way to give both the student and teacher a break from each other and different perspective on a subject is to have peer to peer help. The different perspective may allow the student to understand. A different tactics is to have a red, yellow and green zone. The different zones allow each student to work at a good pace for them and have people at the same level to work with. In order to find these groups after a formative a teacher can group the students based on the similar test scores.

Staying on topic of a subject is a big thing as well. If not done, students can become confused and frustrated. Be mindful of the transition of a topic and allow students to know that you are approaching a new one. This can help prevent a misunderstanding among students and also teachers who don’t realize they’ve done so.

Time Management - La’Chunti

Set appropriate timelines for projects/activities. Sometimes students need an exact time to turn a project in or it needs to be assigned closer to the day it’s due. Students can forget about the project and not do it and the work can get lost.

Be aware of other loads/responsibilities. Some teachers give too much homework and it is due the next class. We feel like they don’t take our other homework into consideration.

Teach time management. A big problem with getting work done is procrastination. We say we’re going to get work done, but we keep postponing the time. Teacher should be able to help us get into shape. They should do things to help us get used to turning things on time.

Student Relationships and Grading - Tabitha

Don’t let feelings towards students influence grading. Most teachers give their students grades based off how the student behavior is towards them. The student could do their work in the class and it can be completed and correct, but since the child is disrespectful towards the teacher, they get a grade that they didn't deserve. Compared to the student who didn't complete their work and is never disrespectful to the teacher. The student attitude and the way the teacher feels towards the student should not influence the way the teacher grades the student.

Be open to feedback/corrections from students. Teachers should be willing to accept feedback from the students if they're not understanding what's going on. For one, it's the teacher's job to make sure the students understand what's being taught.There are teachers that get frustrated with the students having feedback. It's your lesson that's being taught, so you should be willing to hear and respond to any feedback or correction pertaining to what you are teaching. This way, the students can have a clear understanding on what they are trying to learn. Once a student asks a question or has feedback and they see that you're frustrated when answering it, they are going to become a student who doesn't talk during class, doesn't ask questions when lost ,etc. Admit when you don’t know something.

Keeping Students Engaged - Asia, Riley, and Journey

Engage. Don’t just tell students what to do and then sit down and do work, go around and talk to students and explain and give clarifications and ask questions.

Re-explain multiple ways. If a student is not understanding don’t just repeat yourself, explain it in a different way. Even if it is not easy, please try, because repeating it over and over does not help anything.

Make connections clear between transitions. Make sure that you make it clear that this statement has nothing to do with the topic and make sure that you cut the conversation off when people begin to ask questions that have nothing to do with the topic and get it back on track.

Vary activities in blocks. Because of the 104 minute block periods, it is sometimes difficult to to pay attention for that long, therefore we should have breaks have time to rejuvenate and collect our thoughts.

Are these the kinds of things you're hearing from students? Have you taken the time to listen? Let us know!

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