As soon as the school year was over I started work on next year, because that is what good teachers do, and I hope to be a good teacher. On the last day with students I give them a survey to complete. It keeps them busy for the last period of the year doing something productive and it gives me input on what to change for next year. Most of the feedback I get from these surveys is fairly predictable. “I would do better in this class if I tried harder.” “This class would be better if we didn’t have to write so much.” But this year I got some feedback that surprised me a little bit. Some of the students, just a few, reported that I am too busy to help them. They said that I was too busy with my SkillsUSA students to pay any attention to them. They said they asked for help and I ignored them.
It bothers me that some of my students thought that I was too busy for them. Obviously I can not help everyone all the time, I am limited to being in one place at a time. But I really do not want kids to believe that someone else is more important than they are. My room is generally a noisy place, to some it may seem chaotic. And I do have a hearing problem, but still, students should never feel they are being ignored. Not in my class anyway.
This summer it will be a priority to figure out a back channel for my class so that this problem does not occur again. As it is students have access to 2 email addresses for me. They also have my Google Voice number if they want to text me. But still somehow kids were not able to get through to me. I am thinking about a new Twitter account just for the class. Lets see how that works.
wmarkhall 