Advice for Teachers by Davis Bradberry

I honestly haven’t had many experiences with teachers outside of the norm. I’ve had great teachers, I think. Some students complain about teaching styles or the teachers grading methods but I honestly don’t have much to complain about. No matter how hard or unfair they seem, it’s only a matter of how motivated you are to succeed in the class. In class, I personally prefer lots of group projects and taking lots of notes. I’ve learned that in classes like that I feel more motivated and more relaxed. I don’t have a problem with strict teachers or teachers that give a lot a leeway. I think the classroom should be what the teacher makes it and the student should adapt. Adapting to your surroundings prepares you more for life after school. I hear too many students complaining about teachers who won’t let them text during class or they don’t allow food in the room. Getting upset over such trivial things is immature and having the mentality that you should be able to do what you want can only cause your reaction to authority to become worse, later in life.

I’ll admit that I’ve had teachers that weren’t necessarily my favorite. Whether it be their actual teaching or spiting them because of the subject of the class, I’ve never acted back at something I didn’t agree with or fought with their authority.
Teachers are here for us. They definitely aren’t here for the attention and they certainly aren’t here for the pay, they teach because they feel that’s what they were meant to do. Once they spend their time getting a further education, taking teaching assistant jobs and starting their teaching career, I think they deserve the right to teach their class just about however they want to. Classes in public school could be much worse.

Teachers usually know when they have made a mistake and the good ones will own up to it. They also will make changes to things when they recognize that the majority of their students are having a problem and that’s exactly how a teacher should be. Just from listening to other students compile their list of changes they would have made, I feel that there may be too much about a teachers rules or their discipline methods.

This semester is the first semester that I have fully enjoyed all of my classes. I’m enjoying them so much, I think, because of my teachers. They all seem very down to earth and they make class fun. They also seem to enjoy class…until a student cusses them out because of a tardy.

In class there’s only so far a teacher can go, freedom wise, and most students don’t understand that a lot of the rules teachers enforce aren’t necessarily the teachers. We can’t ask a teacher to not enforce the rules that their boss makes them enforce. I had a class where a teacher was so influenced by what her students wanted and what rules they didn’t want, that she was fired after only two years and honestly, I don’t feel I learned a lot in that class.

So, my advice to teachers would be to continue doing your job the way administrators have trusted you to do it. You’ll have students who will comply and of course some who won’t. Regard your student’s advice when there is a legitimate issue that could better the student, but only when the student is holding up their end of the bargain by trying their best with what you have already given them.