From The Worst Teacher You've Ever Had

I wanted to get back into blogging after my long hiatus. However, a vengeful student, for some reason, found the need to seek out this blog and post a negative comment. It set me back. I didn't know from where it came, just that a past student chose to use my family's blog as a soundboard due to my seemingly ill teaching methods. Everyone teaches differently; everyone learns differently. I try to suit the majority of the students the best way I know how.

I have no idea if this anonymous student will ever return to this blog and see if his or her comment posted. However, out of soul cleansing for myself, I will respond.

Dear Student,

I'm sorry I'm the worst teacher you've ever had. It was never my intention to make you feel like you had wasted nine months of your life by sitting in my classroom for 45 minutes a day. No one is perfect. Yet, I feel you will have worse teachers than me. You'll have teachers who didn't care as much as I did; teachers who did not spend hours grading papers; teachers who checked out after the first quarter of school and never checked in again; teachers who take more time off than time on; teachers who waited until five minutes before class to plan their lessons; and teachers complaining more than trying. I'm not saying I've never done these things. I do have bad days. But on the whole, I love my job and feel it was what God created me to do, aside from being a wife and mother.

Please keep in mind that teachers have a monumental job to do. They must persuade students who don't want to learn to pick up their books and delve into grammar. They must be a counselor to the student who just got bullied by the another student sitting two seats away. They must differentiate lesson plans for the 5 IEP students in their class of 30. They must constantly prove to parents that they have the child's best interest in mind when they assign a research paper. They must constantly prove to the 14-year-old student that they are qualified to teach them geometric equations.

This constant proof comes after 13 years of general education, 4 years of undergraduate work, 2-4 years of graduate work, and countless hours of professional development classes attended after an 8 hour work day with minimal breaks. It's justifying a C grade earned by a student who did D work. It's holding tutoring and office hours for students who need extra help. It's barely getting a bathroom or lunch break. It's breaking up fights among best friends. It's juggling the new rules, laws, and guidelines that administrators and county and state lawmakers implement to make schools fairer, safer, stricter, and smarter.

And then, when it's time to go home and hopefully leave the work day behind (marking no parent or principal email), teachers deal with their own children, spouses, parents, siblings, and pets - all with drama of their own.

Please be patient with teachers. I would argue: don't waste your time in that class with a "bad" teacher by shutting down. Learn all you can from your situation at hand, even if it's a life lesson. And, if you really think they are all that bad, offer constructive criticism on which they can improve instead of blanketing them with an egregious statement.

Sincerely,
The Worst Teacher You've Ever Had