How Your Students See You
I was so frustrated with all of my failure this year. I honestly felt like I peaked two years ago, and it was all going to be downhill from there. There were no more competition trophies to put in the display case, no more FLANC awards to be won. I just didn’t have the energy to pull off any more shipments to Colombia or festivals. Sure, the enthusiasm for the Sister Cities exchange with Peru is at an all time high, but only a handful of kids can participate each year. Plus my plans to engage my colleagues across the county with Sister Cities and communication-based instruction just, well, fizzled.
To say nothing of the three sick days I have had to take because, dammit, depression is a sickness.
Most of the time, I do not actively survey students for feedback on how things are going. There were the pitiful posters for the dog show event that I had a straight-up English come-to-Jesus talk* with my Spanish II’s to find out where I went wrong and what we really wanted to show at the Parks and Rec event to represent our school (most groups made them look better before the big day…or in the car on the way to the show, at least).
I do usually give an end-of-course survey, though, about the activities and assessments and projects (that I can remember, at least), with a little, “What do you want Sra. to know?” at the end. Honestly I’m mostly fishing, hoping something hit that I didn’t know about, but overall, it’s almost always exactly what I anticipated they’d say.
This year, though, La Maestra Loca, Annabelle Allen, shared a survey that really demonstrated “The POWER of Positivity!” So I decided to save myself a little trouble and make a copy of the survey that she told her kids that “every language teacher in the Nation was giving” and fill in my own class activities (I actually forgot Puedos for the first round, if you can believe it.)
So I confirmed a few things that I already suspected:
- Sr. Wooly is by far the most popular activity in class (a close third for most useful).
- One-Word Image and Mascota Especial were the next most popular activities.
I don’t know if it’s the way the survey is structured, making students think first about their teacher and their relationship with her, but the rest had me exactly like Mme. Farabaugh:
Used a survey inspired by @lamaestraloca and recommended by @SraSpanglish … I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING. pic.twitter.com/8SaRuRyoHk— Wendy Farabaugh (@MmeFarab) May 23, 2018
First, I was overwhelmed that 100% of responses said they thought I enjoyed what I did. I mean, yeah, Srta. Allen, it’s pretty obvious she does like every minute of every day. And sure, some of my kids hinted they needed a “maybe” option, but I did not know that’s how they all saw me.
It’s certainly not how I thought I looked, especially around those three sick days.
When they had to explain how they knew I enjoyed it, their responses surprised me even more.
(For the record, I don’t get paid for my Twitter–but I am open to the possibility! Also I know exactly who that is because I told her I was tweeting silly things her classmate said under #niñanerd)
Here I thought I was just a grump sitting at the computer with a headache more than I should instead of getting out and mingling PIRATE style like I knew I was supposed to. But instead of seeing how I’ve been feeling about myself, all they see is how I feel about them:
Not only that, but almost all of them said they would tell another teacher to use my style/method:
Sure, there were some “eh” responses, and a few people who thought they were being asked to teach, but WOW did that change how I was seeing how they saw me.
Also, there were a few of the tearjerkers under “Is there anything else you want your teacher to know!?”
Esta mi favorito memoria porque mi maestra explicar que esta bien a ser no totalmente perfecto dodo el dia. Es un bueno cosa a aprender.
It was something I had not actually learned myself until I read that, to tell you the truth. I’d said it, to them, but I hadn’t felt it.
Until then.
Social worker: what makes you keep going? Student: If it weren’t for Miss Eryka, I wouldn’t be here. @MrPStrunk @SraSpanglish @MrsRChambers @MrShakedown @MsSrtaCarrillo— Eryka Desrosiers (@DesrosiersEryka) May 23, 2018
I didn’t share that memory because I wouldn’t say it was my favorite exactly.
But it sure was some excellent medicine.
*I learned about these after living in the South for 10 years. It’s basically a lecture on getting your act together. Colorful, right?
