Saturday, August 20, 2016

What THEY are saying!

Building relationships with my students is a #1 priority for me. As an Intervention Specialist, I am fortunate to get to have my students over multiple years. I thought I knew my students really well, but I was blown away the last two days getting to know my new freshman and the upperclassmen even better!


I started my first day with a large bag of M&Ms. We went around sharing highlights of summer, our goals and unknown fun facts!  It was a fun way for my groups to get to know one another.  


On day two I asked them to fill out a survey for me as I met 1:1 with the students. I was amazed with my student's openness and transparency about school.  Please keep in mind that these are all high school students who have some type of IEP.


Survey Takeaways we can all benefit from:


“When taking notes, it’s sometimes hard to keep up.  Once a teacher stared at me and told me to write faster - I was trying!”


“I want to succeed this year.  Graduation is close.”


“I wish teachers would talk with one another.  It’s hard when I have more than a couple of tests on one day.”


“I wish teachers would make class more interesting like they did in elementary school.  I need to move around.”


“I wish teachers knew how hard reading was for me.  I’m not like most high school students.”


“I want to prove to everyone that I CAN be successful at school this year.”


“I wish principals would enforce the dress code more.”


“I’m looking forward to getting on honor roll this year!”


“I sometimes feel like I am bothering teachers when I ask questions.  I wish teachers would try to explain things in different ways.”


“I wish school started a little later in the day.”


“The hardest part about school is getting back on track missing something or being absent.  As hard as you try it keeps getting harder and teachers just keep moving on.”


“I know it’s hard for me to stay focused, but I don’t like it when teachers say something to me about it in front of the whole class.”


“A great teacher is one you can always go to and ask questions to even if you’re not in their class.  You just trust them.”


“I like hands-on learning.  Why don’t we do more of that?”


“A great teacher will help me with my goal of getting good grades and being eligible for sports.”


“I wish teachers wouldn’t call on me in class, I’m shy.  I wish they would talk to me on my own.”


“I feel like we try to cram a lot of stuff in a period sometimes.  It makes it hard to focus when we do that.”


“I like the teachers that I have this year.  I’m excited!”


“I wish teachers knew I have really bad anxiety.”

AND…  just because I do teach high school… “The best part of school is all the cute girls!”

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