Blog 3

What I wish other teachers would teach...

I wish my students understood what it means to earn a grade. I have many students who ask for "just a D" and don't realize having just a D means that they have learned 65% of the material. I realized at some point that teachers were handing out grades and not teaching students how to learn. I have students who can't write a comprehensive paragraph, let alone an essay, and they have an A in English. Then when I give them an F, because that is what they earned, there is a disconnect between how they earned each of these grades. It becomes what the teacher gave me, not what I earned.

How can I expect my students to take notes, do class work, and use these tools to study, if I am the only one of their teachers asking this of them? I have found that not only do my students lack study skills and learning strategies, but they also don't see the need for these skills. I wish my students weren't so resistant to do work because in other classes they are given busy work that is just for credit. I wish my students would learn the process and not just try to have any answer of his or her paper.

Most of the basic skills I wish my students knew, I believe, stems from elementary school, such as read, writing, adding, and subtracting. And I think much of the disrespect comes from the lack of a positive family structure. These are things I think we are all trying to correct, but at the same time, sometimes we are going against something that we found too late. But I think in middle school and high school if nothing else my students should be able to distinguish between quality in work and how to receive what they earn.

Many of the teachers at my school seem to give a student s grade just to make the problem go away, but this isn't doing the students or other teachers trying to instill the value of learning any favors. I don't want a kid in my Geometry class that didn't earn a passing grade in Algebra, or who is a 11th grader because they have passed 3 English classes, but can't formulate ideas on a proof.