Student Survey Reflection

This post references the student survey I posted about yesterday.

I was pleased that my students were honest for the most part.  Some decided to write silly answers, but that was to be expected.  Most responses were pretty standard, but a few really told me something about myself as a teacher and how I run the class.

One of the most telling prompts was "The best part about Ms. Beebe's class is ___________."  I learned that students like the notebooks, test corrections, and the class atmosphere.  I have a hard time motivating and engaging students in the math that we do.  I try to compensate by being enthusiastic and making class as fun as possible.  It's evident through the survey that I've been achieving my goal, but I need to work on finding ways to make the students enjoy the math as much as they enjoy me.

Another enlightening prompt was "Ms. Beebe is different from other teachers because ____________."  It worries me that students think their other teachers don't care about them passing or about them as people.  Many of the things they said that makes me different, I'm sure other teachers in our school also do.  Students just may not realize it.

My favorite prompt to read about was "I always felt ____________ in Ms. Beebe's class because ____________________."  From this prompt I learned that I've created the class atmosphere I've always wanted.  I'm ecstatic that my students feel happy, comfortable, welcomed, and protected.  This was one of my favorite prompts and will definitely be repeated in the future.

I was a little concerned about the "Ms. Beebe is the type of teacher who treats students like _____________________."  So many students said that I treat my students like they're my friends.  Everything I've been taught is that it is wrong for you to be on a friends level with your students because it can create classroom management problems.  I'm coming to realize that it is difficult to put that wall up with students that are only 10-13 years younger than you.  I'm easy for students to relate with, and friendly, and it comes naturally that they see me as being a friend to them.  I guess I should embrace it because it may not last as I get older.  I have to maintain focus on fostering mutual respect between my students and I to curb any possible classroom management issues.

One thing I noticed about the surveys is when reading them by class, I saw many similar responses by each class.  It really framed the experiences of the class and that each class was different based on the time of day and the students in the class.