Jose

Hello, I’m Jose, I’m a freshman. I want to discuss two things that many teachers in my school do which make the learning environment harder for students to engage in.

The first is that teachers only teach things that I feel do not connect to my future. Every year in school, it feels like the exact same thing. My Geometry class makes me feel like the day will be long, and the Biology class is always confusing because it’s new to me. Every day I ask myself, why do we have to learn this stuff? It’s so boring. I wish school was a place where I could come and connect what I learn to what I want to do in the future. The world has changed a lot, but classrooms haven’t changed at all.

The second thing that makes the learning environment difficult is not fully explaining what they are teaching. Something that has helped me is when teachers make sure their students fully understand what is happening instead of expecting us to already know. If you’re teaching me how to square a number, some teacher would just go “this is how you square numbers, I’ll give you a few examples, and you’re on your own.” They won’t teach you how to fully understand it. I know there’s going to be students that are like me who say, “wait, what if you’re trying to square it with three or four.” Even though that is not how squaring works, you can’t just say that doesn’t matter.

One of my classes however is different: my History classroom actually feels genuine. He teaches, gives us work, and when I have a question, he’s willing to go the full length trying to get me to understand more of what’s happening. He’s more down to earth, actually talks to his students, and doesn’t just drift off on his computer. If he hears an engaging conversation, he sort of talks with the students a little bit about it. Something about history teachers, specifically the male ones, is weird: they are always nice.

My idea for a solution is for teachers to be more genuine. Teachers need to be a person-first and not a worker. Almost like you are teaching a friend, and not a stranger. They need to make sure the students actually understand, and are engaged in what they are learning. For example, if I was teaching a friend about soccer, I would ask them what aspects they want to learn – how the game works, clubs, competitions, national stuff, and the history – and make sure they are motivated to learn. They should teach it different ways for students to actually want to learn. Teachers should start off slow, and after they get to know the student more.