Learning challenge: I wish my teacher knew...

I loved reading this article. I think it's a great way for teachers of all grade levels to get to know what's going on in their students' lives that the students wouldn't normally share with them.

My senior year English teacher did this in her non-AP classes and received many responses about students in poverty, with mental health problems, and family problems. She told us that she didn't do that exercise with her AP students because she assumed we didn't have those types of problems. We quickly informed her that she was very, very wrong.

She was shocked by some of the responses. One student said they wished our teacher knew that they were often behind on their homework because they had to work two jobs to help support their family. Another said they had attempted to die by suicide the year before, while another student said they went to their family for help with an eating disorder and were met with laughs from their parents. One student said their dad was physically abusive but their mom was afraid that if she left him, she wouldn't be able to take care of her family financially.

My teacher said she learned a very important lesson that day — just because someone is in an advanced placement class does not necessarily mean they don't face any of the struggles other students do.

The "I wish my teacher knew..." exercise gives students a chance to tell their
teachers important things about their lives anonymously. My English teacher
was surprised by many of the response she got when she did this exercise.
Source: New York Times

The exercise made me, and many of the other students I talked to, feel like our teacher cared about us and was invested in our lives — that she saw us as people, not just kids who cease to exist outside the walls of our high school.

I was concerned by one aspect of this exercise, however — some of the students' answers would normally warrant a response from teachers, who are mandatory reporters, but because the answers were anonymous, it would be extremely difficult to intervene. Maybe teachers could add a disclaimer when giving students the cards that if any students wanted any help regarding their answers, the teacher would be available to listen and potentially do something to help the problem.

I don't want to ignore the answers from students that are wholesome, though. Happy responses also give teachers a chance to get to know their students a bit better, and maybe even incorporate things into future lessons.

Overall, I think this is a very worthwhile exercise. I'm definitely going to suggest it to my sister, who is a third grade teacher.

Not all the anonymous response were about problems students faced — many
elicited smiles, too! Source: New York Times