Question for high school students: What is the one thing you wish your teacher understood?

Question

I have been teaching high school English for the last seven years. The first few years, I felt like I was really in touch with my students. Now, as I get older, I am finding it harder and harder to understand where they are coming from.

So, I am posing this question to all of the high school students out there: What is the one thing you wish your high school teachers understood? It could be something that frustrates you, or just something you think would be good for us to know.

I really plan to take your responses to heart, so thanks in advance for your thoughtfulness!

Answer 1

Im just a Freshman so I really dont know what to say,

other than maybe just try to understand where the students are coming from

We're still young and growing, we make mistakes

don't take it out on us

Answer 2

One thing that I wish my teachers understood is the workload high school students have, which gets progressively heavier with each grade. Year after year, teachers have ignored the fact that school breaks, such as Christmas break, winter break, and spring break, are called "breaks" for a reason. Of course, I understand that teachers would like to use this time off from school to their advantage by giving their students some work to do, but what is not understandable is why they feel that it is fair to pile on tons of work so that the students can't even enjoy their breaks! What is so important for teachers to understand is that they are not the only ones distributing work over school breaks, and to cut their students some slack when the holidays and other break times come around.

Answer 3

homework doesn't help us at all. we just cheat off the smart kids.

find fun ways to teach us

Answer 4

as a former high school student, first off im hear to get my two points.

also, that students have lives, problems, and other things to.

Answer 5

busy work is stupid and we'll just copy if you assign it.

assign work that will help us learn- don't treat us like idiots- be honest.  

Answer 6

most kids here are just going to say stupid things like " hw is retarted dont give it to us blablabla" i dont  like but most of the time it does help

one thing teachers dont seem to understadn is that most kids attention spend is very smalll so by making thing interesting it realy realy does help .  ok let me give u an example everybody is comptetive to make things into comp like in team u divided the class and ask question student wont want to look stupid if they dont no the answer and they will want to win so there attention will be focus on the game and they will be learning in the same time .   it would be like a jeoperdy and they get a prize like an extra credit A

good luck  

Answer 7

my hatred of grammer and my constant need for physical attention

Answer 8

well i want my teacher to understand that when i get an A on something, i don't want her to say out loud because it'll make me feel like a nerd. when i get in trouble i wish she wouldn't tell me i have detention in front of the whole class. it's really embarrassing. when she teaches the class she shouldn't be cracking jokes because as we get older we think it's lame. the teacher does not need to spell a word out loud because we are not grade schoolers. some teachers wear too much perfume that it stinks so much during the period (make up also). i really dislike it when she favors a student. when i get a bad grade on a test don't say,"i think you need some improvement." people will think i'm stupid. do not say out loud,"i need to see you after class" because everybody will say,"oooooohhhhh, you're in trouble...." i wish my teacher would stop talking about her personal life. we don't care what happens in her life, unless it's and injury she got then it's ok. some of my teachers dress up like a barbie doll. that really lowers some of the girls' self esteem. and it really bugs me when my teacher gives us a load of homework on friday.

there's a lot more i could think of, but just think of how you felt about your teachers in high school. hope i helped!

Answer 9

NUMBER ONE THING TO KNOW: You are NOT are only teacher, we have 5 other teachers each giving us homework in amounts that suggest they think that we only have that class to worry about. I wish every teacher knew that. (I'm in the International Academy, for the record, and it sucks)

Answer 10

We like it when our teachers tell us right off the bat they hate the rules we do. We also like it when you're lenient with punishment instead going full out. I also like it when my teachers are comfortable with talking to me about normal stuff instead of just being like NO FOCUS ON SCHOOL.

Answer 11

well in my opinion I think high school teachers are less caring then middle school teachers or elementary..It was really easy to get close to my teachers from kindergarden through 8th grade..but after that it's really tough..they just don't want to have anything to do with you..they just want to do their job and get out of there..it's just really rude..just try to be caring and understanding to students that deserve it because we have our own problems as much as older people do..and I just think you should take in consideration that school gets a lot harder every year for students and teachers should cut them some slack...every year the school system improves and it's hard for the students to keep up.

Answer 12

i'm dyslexic as well and being able to bring home things a head of time to work on is always a little bit easy to finsh on time. if your school does wordly wise i get a shorter list then the rest take that with the class then take the rest of the list when i sign up for it

Answer 13

PLEASE READ THIS:

I think you should realize how hard it is being a teenager period nowadays. In 24 hours everyday I have to go to 8hrs. of school, 2hrs, of dance practice get 9 hrs. of sleep, study for all the stupid pre-ap  and ap classes i'm taking, go to the stupid studentcouncill meeting, babysit my little brother because my mom decided NOW was the proper time for her to go back to college, and try to figure out if I should take take tampons to school tomorroww because I'm not sure I'm gonna start my period or not!! (Breath) Not to mention the fact that doesn't really help that every other girl in school seems to be against mw, while every boy at school criticizinging every outfit I wear to school. So... it's not easy, it's really cool that YOU seem to care enough to post this question but i really doubt if any of the other teachers at school care at all... so there is your answer.

Answer 14

Seeing as I am a sophmore in highschool I guess ill give it a try. Well I dont really hate any teachers...yet but I knwo some teachers that arent really well with the times. So I guess I wish some teachers understood the current "teenager" events/trends/things going on. Honestly I dont know if everyone likes it but taking a break and doing something " kind - of - offtopic" once in a while spruces things up. Times really have changed in seven years, and even I would say for the worse. I dont know if this helped, but your welcome.

Answer 15

i really dislike it when my english teacher can only explain things in one way. i'm dyslexic so sometimes I need to see things differently than other people. also if you can try and be able to reach after school for your students to ask questions for 10 mins or somethin after school

Answer 16

it would be nice if they understood how much times have changed we all grew up with tech. and that school has gotten way harder and its not easy

and that all students learn in different styles so what may be easy to most might be hard to some because of the teaching style

Answer 17

I know that if you ever do drama in the class,

you should amke it an option, make an alternative assignment or something because I hate doing things in front of a bunch of people. I'm pretty sure it's the same way for other shy people, and it doesn't help to force them to do drama stuff if they hate it.

Answer 18

I'm in 10th grade. i wish my teachers would realize that us students see them as teachers. they will always be the people who give us work and make us complete assignments. when they try to act like our friends it drives us crazy. maybe they were cool and popular in there time, but not now. also i wish my teachers would realize we have lives outside of school. sometimes the reasons we have for not doing our homework is true. some students lie about this but others (like myself) tell the honest truth. we have our bad days. cut us some slack sometimes. i am a straight a student.  

Answer 19

The fact that we have other classes besides theirs. What i mean is dont load us with homework and projects when we have another class doing the same thing. What i had a problem with was having 3 projects assigned, all due around the same time. Maybe if teachers talked to eachother so they knew how much the students had on their plate, it could lessen pressure. Thank you for actually caring, and not saying "manage your time better."