What negative feedback have you received recently? \ stacker news ~AskSN

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What negative feedback have you received recently?

320 sats \ 12 comments \ @cryotosensei 17 Jul AskSN

I teach the weakest 20 fifth graders Science. They are quarrelsome and like to bicker with one another. Sometimes, I resort to shouting to keep them in order.

The teacher next door - incidentally my Reporting Officer - raised a concern about my shouting and how this might impact my mental well-being to my Co-Form Teacher. The latter then had a word with me about implementing strategies that would involve zero shouting. The next day, my Reporting Officer had a word with me as well. 😅

Look, I don’t think that yelling at kids to keep them hushed is an inappropriate classroom management strategy, but I acknowledge how my booming voice might interfere with your teaching. So, today, I took my class out of the classroom and let them learn Science through a dog-and-bone game. Out of sight, out of mind.

Honestly, I don’t know if the dog-and-bone game would help my students retain the concepts wrt the respiratory system better. But I guess the feedback forced me to try to explore alternative ways of teaching.

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24 sats \ 4 replies \ @SimpleStacker 17 Jul

I was criticized once for not being engaging enough while teaching (just lecturing without having much student involvement.)

I think it's a legitimate criticism. But it's not that I haven't tried. It's just that so often when I try to involve the students they don't reciprocate. So it's a two-way street. I don't think it's fair to always blame the teacher for everything.

30 sats \ 3 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 21h

What keeps you going in teaching all these years?

48 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 20h

Well, a couple of reasons.

For every teaching low, there is also a teaching high. I got to orange pill my class once (#899199), and will continue to do so going forward. I've helped a number of students achieve their goal of going to grad school, or get jobs in nice firms. Overall, our school is very good at moving students up the socioeconomic ladder since most come from underserved and minority backgrounds.

I have to remind myself not to take the lack of engagement personally. A lot of these students work part time or even full time jobs, or have family to take care of. (Like I said, many of the students come from underprivileged backgrounds). It's hard for them to muster the energy to take class seriously. It makes teaching hard, and it probably means they're not learning a lot.... but I guess getting that degree is still better for them than not getting it, even if they don't learn much. So I guess I'm just a step on that ladder... and can I blame them for using me that way? I get paid for it after all.

And lastly, I can't deny that it's just a fairly cushy job. It doesn't pay great, but I get a lot of free time that lets me pursue other interests.

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei OP 5h

I’m glad that you find meaning in what you do when you look at the totality of your job. Many teachers get jaded because they can’t reconcile the gap between their ideal world and the stark reality.

I also think some of the lessons we teach now will only resonate and sink in with them years after our time with them. Sowing seeds in our students’ minds is a common analogy used in this instance. I tend to think of it as me using a sledgehammer to break down some of their resistance - so that the next teacher who comes along will have an easier time getting through to them.

共勉之

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 5h

I'm more eloquent about it when I can pause to think about it.

The reality is I often feel very demoralized because of the students' low effort and lack of care. Students that are actually enthusiastic about learning are in the definite minority

45 sats \ 1 reply \ @optimism 17 Jul

Nothing noteworthy. Which means I'm not doing enough.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 17 Jul

Excellent framing of feedback. Sensei approves

24 sats \ 1 reply \ @unschooled 17 Jul

i wonder, wasnt there a better way for your colleagues to handle that?

your relationship to, and how you manage class, shouldn't be anyone else's business. its like you being a passenger in my car, the car whose odd clicks and sounds, and the fact that it pulls to the right a little bit on the highway and whose signal doesnt disengage on its own, ive spent hours getting to know, and you constantly tell me how i ought to drive.

now, if you don't like how i drive because you believe im endangering myself or others then you should talk to my face about it.

im more 'senior' than most of my colleagues so its rare that I face criticism. frank, direct and constructive criticism is something i wish i had more of.

11 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 21h

I feel the same way as you. I wish my Reporting Officer had spoken directly to me about this. I also don’t know why this aspect of our work culture persists. People tend to bring up what they don’t approve about his colleague’s behaviour to their direct superior or another colleague intimately linked with him. Maybe because we are a people generally adverse to ‘confrontation’?