Students tell teachers what they want them to know

Students at Aurora constantly complain about their teachers. From homework to class time, students have an opinion; and it’s usually about what a teacher is doing wrong. Although there are so many complaints, a lot of these problems are not directly spoken to the teachers. Many teachers are unaware, or simply don’t know what the students want to make the class better. So what should the teachers know?

A survey was sent out this week asking the question, “What do you want your teachers to know to make your education better?” There were a large amount of responses, many voicing different problems students have witnessed throughout the school.

One student said, “I want them to know that not all students are the same. Ways that we learn best are not the same, and not all students know what other students know. It is important to elaborate on certain topics, and not assume we all know the same thing or how to do something.”

Another student expressed similar ideas about learning, “Teachers should understand that we want a say in our education. Different things work for different people...it could be really helpful to them if every once in a while if they asked our opinion on their classroom structure, teaching style, etc. This would create an open dialogue in the classroom where educators could better help their students, and where students could feel acknowledged.”

This has been a hard concept for many teachers to achieve with such large classes and limited time to learn materials. If not every student learns the same way, what is the best way for all of them to learn?

AP US History Teacher, Chris Radtke has a difficult time finding a balance in his class, “I have many students who want more technology used in the classroom. They want to use their ChromeBooks for as many things as possible. And other students beg me to get away from the ChromeBooks and use more paper and pen/pencil. So, as a teacher, how do you reconcile requests to use more technology AND less technology?”

In Monika Biro’s Honors Biology Class, students also contradicted themselves in their opinions of the class instruction. Some students liked the structured notes, others said there were too many. Some liked labs and study quizzes, others said the labs weren’t structured enough and there were too many study quizzes.

With all these conflicting points from students, teachers have a lot of issues making a class which best suits every student. Yet, students still want teachers to understand they all learn differently. Out of all the responses, the most popular response was about how the teacher needs to understand the students in one way or another. As much as the teacher understands the material, the teacher must understand the student and how they will learn best. This seems to be the biggest issue in the classroom, but also the hardest to solve.

The first step needs to be the teachers addressing the problem in their own classrooms and seeing what the students think. By knowing every opinion and how each person thinks the problem can be solved, there may be a solution that works for everyone. If teachers understand the students, maybe students will be better for it.