Hi, my name is Kaitlyn. I am a sophomore and I am interested in a career in criminology or medicine. I want to talk with you about the importance of positive relationships between students and teachers and how this impacts academic success. In my high school experience, I have had both positive and negative encounters with teachers. I want to talk about this because relationships with our teachers impact how students do in school. When I have had positive relationships with my teachers, it helps with my school experience, I have a more positive attitude in class, and it helps me get the most out of school. I have been much more academically successful with teachers who create positive relationships.
Last year, as a freshman, I had a difficult time with my World History class and a rough time with my teacher. There were a few things that he did that had a negative impact on me. He enforced rules in a rigid way. He would often write me up for being two seconds late to class, even though my class before his was across the school. I told him many, many times, that it was impossible for me to make it across the school in time for class and even my mom tried to talk to him about it. It felt like he just wasn’t interested in hearing my side of what was going on. As a student, I always try to be nice to my teachers, and I continued to try in this class, but my teacher responded in ways that felt mean. He seemed unreasonable, he called me out publicly for small things in class and I felt targeted. His teaching style also wasn’t a match for me. Mostly, he read presentations to us, gave assignments but didn’t really explain what to do or help us, and would give us graded assignments to finish in class. If we didn’t complete the work, we would be given an automatic zero. While I was taking this class, I was also playing volleyball and there were times when I would get home late and be unable to finish homework assignments. My relationship with this teacher fell apart. The zeros snowballed and eventually I fell so far behind and just couldn’t keep up. I felt so disrespected, and this made it hard for me to give him respect. I felt stressed and it made it even harder to do my work. At the end of the year, I failed the class. Failing the class was scary for me. I worried about how my mom would react, how this would impact my GPA and my future plans for getting into college.
At the beginning of this school year, I was placed in a World History class with a different teacher and with other students who needed to repeat. After a few weeks of the class, my teacher came to me and said he would work with my counselor to move me into the honors class. I actually really enjoy my history class now. My teacher is really kind to me. She Iistens to me, is respectful, she comes to me whenever I need help and she also regularly checks in on me. The way she treats me makes me want to engage in class and participate. I am motivated to pay attention; I want to raise my hand to answer questions. She also sometimes tells my other teachers about how great I’m doing and that makes me feel more confident in myself and hyped up! I feel proud of myself and appreciated and like she knows that I am capable of being in an honors class.
I would like to ask that when teachers are evaluated, students be given opportunities to provide their teachers with feedback so teachers can improve and so that being able to build positive relationships with students is considered as part of their evaluation. All students learn better when they feel safe with their teachers and this has been especially true for me. I ask you to support the Safe and Supportive Schools line item so that all students can have a better learning environment and have more positive relationships with teachers so that we can achieve our dreams.
