Teaching the Teacher by Lauren

Teaching the Teacher by Lauren - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

Every class seems to always be the same. You walk in and sit in your desk waiting to begin the lecture of the day. The teacher knows your name and sometimes your face, but never really knows anything about you. It’s hard to learn the correct way when all you hear from them is, “blah, blah, blahh...” and all they know about you is where you are seated in their classroom. Sometimes, it would be more beneficial if the teacher had a different way of getting the message across.

I know when I walk in to a classroom, the first thing I enjoy seeing is the teacher smiling at me and greeting me by name with a nice hug. It gives the feeling of security and knowing that you’re in a safe place with a kind person who cares about you individually. This simple gesture alone can change the way the whole period goes. Without it, what could have been a pleasant time is now a boring, dragging nightmare to everyone involved.

Once you have completed the initial smile and greet with each student, it is very welcomed to ask how your students are doing today, even if you’re only doing it as a group question. It still gives that sense of feeling like you genuinely care for them all. Instead of divulging into the common droning lecture they hear every day, try planning something different, like a learning activity or group projects. Yes, these methods of learning can quickly get off track and sometimes hectic; just simply inform your students that if they enjoy doing things such as this they need to stay on track and focus.

Teaching classes like this more times then you teach by standing at the board and talking on and on for 45 minutes, it will surprise you the amount of grades that shoot up from borderline C’s to A’s and B’s. All because when you sit where the student sits, it’s hard to stare at one place for long periods of time while staying seated and not falling asleep. Being up where the teacher is a little easier just because 1.) You are standing and 2.) While you are speaking to your class your eyes have the ability to pass over the class and you are not subject to staring at one spot for that long.

These may not seem like crazy, out there teaching techniques, but that’s just it. You do not need to be a teacher that throws pies if a student answers wrong, because we all know school means seriousness and learning anyway. We just want you to make it a little more bearable on our side of the deal, so that we aren't fighting within ourselves while still trying to listen to those forever long lectures.