According to homeroom 305, a teacher should…

3.31.11 By Kati Delahanty

I am in the middle of a debate unit with one of my classes, and my students are collecting anecdotal data on their different debate topics. One student (who is crafting arguments about the quality of education in this country) created a survey for his peers to fill out during today’s do now. To complete the survey, the students had to finish sentence starters.
Their responses are hugely informative, insightful, urgent, and some are even a little hilarious…

Here are a few of their responses:

Teachers should always…

be patient.
be prepared.
give notes in class.
push students to work harder every day.
make sure that no child is left misunderstood.
let students leave early.
hear and actually take what we say into consideration.
let us leave our hats on.
smile.

Teachers should never…

attend to one student and not another.
give up on any student who is willing to learn.
do drugs.
laugh at their own jokes.
make a student feel like less of a person.
take our phones away.
let students give up.

Teachers are…

good role models.
very intelligent.
caregivers.
okay, but at certain times they can be a pain in the donkey.
great in their own way.
like helping hands.
mind openers.

Teachers aren’t…

working for fun.
our parents.
perfect.
that bad.
babysitters.
the enemy.

A teacher’s job, above all else, is to…

make sure every student learns.
teach me even when I make it impossible.
lead you to a successful life.
Get you ready to pass the MCAS.
make you pass whether you want to or not.
Make sure we have a good life after high school.

I wish all my teachers…

were super models.
were persistent about our work.
would see the real me.
were strict.
were fashionable and wore name brands.
could understand my life outside of school so that they could understand me.

I wish I could tell my teachers that…

I have a lot going on in my life, but I’m still here and that means something.
they are very funny when they act a little weird.
I am trying to do better.
It’s not the quantity of the work but the skills involved that make me learn better.
sometimes they go overboard.
I appreciate them.
I’m not here just to be here. I am here to make something of myself.
I’m full of surprises.

I loved reading their responses because it reminded me how much they care about us, how much they expect from us, and how desperately they want us to teach them!