The Life of Bon: End of the Road

Monday, June 02, 2014

End of the Road



Today the students got their yearbooks.  Tomorrow they graduate.  Wednesday the faculty checks out.  Thursday I fly to Germany.  It is a whirlwind of a week.

Last Friday, on our last official day of class, I had the students fill out some surveys for my class.  Every year I tweak my class a little bit, and so I always ask the students for end of the year input.  I ask them to rank the books they did in order of their favorite to least favorite (Least favorites for the seniors: Hamlet and Frankenstein.  Least favorites for the juniors: The Crucible).  I ask them to tell me what assignments they liked best, which ones they thought were a waste of time or busy work, etc.  Then I ask for them to answer three additional questions:  1) What they liked best about the class 2) What they liked least about the class and 3) What they would say was the number one thing they learned in the class.

Of course, I got a lot of great responses- things that helped me to evaluate my teaching priorities and also helped to validate a lot of the things that I choose to teach. There are already things I know for sure I want to change next year as a result of their answers.

But of course, there's always the fair share of ridiculous answers.  I tell ya- these gems are too great to keep to myself.

What do you like about this teacher?
+ She let us eat in class. (One of the most important qualities in a teacher, you know.)
+ She got a little crazy as she got more pregnant.  It was hilarious.  (Referring to how I called everyone in that class the wrong name the last month.  Too many Emmas and Austins, people!)
+ She can be very understanding.  Other times, not so much.  (Ha!)
+ She never took my phone.
+ She's very wise and intelligent.  I thought she always had something wise to say. (Yes, I paid that kid to say that.)
+ Mrs. Larsen is a pregnant freaking stud.  (Can you a woman be a stud?  How about a pregnant stud?!)
+ She made a boring subject a tad bit more interesting.  (Well.  What can I say...)
+ She is really outgoing and I like her energy.  Especially for someone who is going to be having a baby- she is not angry all the time which is REALLY good.  (Makes you wonder what kind of pregnant people this student has encountered...)
+ She really fit in with the students.  But not by height though... (Is this a short joke?)
+ Usually when teachers get pregnant they turn into mean people.  But you didn't.  (Again, you gotta wonder...)

What things could have gone better?
+ Her understanding my feelings. (?!?... I'm not empathetic enough?)
+ The people that would play cards in class instead of listening and waste our time when the teacher had to stop teaching to tell them to put it away.  (I understand your pain, student.  This annoyed me too!)
+ I hated Death of a Salesman.  Didn't learn anything from that book except for that Willy was suicidal.

What is the most important thing you learned in this class?
+ Mrs. Larsen is funny when she says b****.  (I apologized to the class that day for being a b**** the day before.  Hey, you gotta apologize when apologies are due!)
+ Honestly, I've learned nothing in English for years.  (At least it's not just my class that he thinks is useless?)
+ That a seat change really changes your outlook.  (Really?  That's the most important thing you learned all year?!)
+Spelling and Puntuation.  (Oh, the irony.)
+ Mrs. Larsen taught us to really try to use protection.  (I honestly have no idea what this is referring to.  I racked my brain, and nothing is coming... I've concluded that all it means is that students want to hear what they want to hear.)
+ That my handwriting sucks (?!?)
+ Don't bite the hand that feeds you.  Mrs. Larsen is very generous and helpful until you burn her.
+ English.  (They certainly don't win awards for their details.)
+ I used my phone every period and only got caught once.  (Glad I could teach him something useful.)

31 comments:

  1. These are hilarious! I love it!
    As my students finish each novel, I have them write little reflections on the unit for the same reason you did these evaluations. My 7th graders' responses to Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl were hilarious! One boy mentioned how he didn't appreciate reading about Anne going through puberty because he didn't need to know that information. Poor boy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love that you have them fill out a survey. These answers are hilarious. I am the K-5 librarian so I hear some pretty funny things myself. Do you have them fill out a survey at the start of the school year?

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Spelling and Puntuation. (Oh, the irony.)

    I busted out laughing at that one. You gotta love 'em!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Me too... I was just coming down to comment on this one.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous7:18 AM

    This is my favorite one:

    Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Mrs. Larsen is very generous and helpful until you burn her.

    This kid gets it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bwahahahaha, these are hilarious! My favorites are all the pregnant comments.

    ReplyDelete
  7. People I work with "complimented" me at the end of my pregnancy that I "surprisingly handled pregnancy really well." I said thank you, but I'm not totally sure it was a compliment. What was I supposed to be like pregnant? Was there something about my personality that made them think I would handle it particularly poorly? But your students' comments made me feel like maybe it's not just me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think I understand the protection comment. I bet you a million dollars that seeing you pregnant scared the beejeezus out of that kid, and that's what that meant. These are good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is exactly what I was thinking! haha

      Delete
    2. That was my guess, too! Hahaha.

      Delete
    3. That was my first thought!

      Delete
    4. I totally thought that's what he meant, too. LOL

      Delete
  9. "English."

    Simple and too the point and made me actually laugh out loud.

    You stud, you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This had me cracking up, I could never be a teacher. More props to you!!!! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love all of the angry pregnant comments! Ha
    www.designsbykaty.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Omg this also makes me want to be a high school teacher!! I loved this post so much. Punctuation kid had me rolling!

    ReplyDelete
  13. OMG these are so funny!!!!! Kids are so brutally honest all the time! Loved this post!!!

    Brianna
    http://keepingupwiththekeens2428.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hahahaha I never wanted to teach older kids but somehow I think that it would be entertaining at times! The highest Ive applied for is 6th grade.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Haha this is the best. I really am wondering, did the kid really burn you or just a metaphor?

    ReplyDelete
  16. "Mrs. Larsen taught us to really try to use protection." Hahaha! Is that referring to your pregnancy?

    These are awesome. It looks like you did a great job as their teacher and they really liked you :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous2:16 PM

    Haha I love this. I'm totally going to have to do the same thing with my students in my classroom next year!

    ReplyDelete
  18. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Mrs. Larsen is very generous and helpful until you burn her." Hey, at least you've got one smart one!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Too funny!

    I think my favorite was that you taught your students to really try to use protection. Hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  20. That makes me so sad because The Crucible and Death Of A Salesman is my fave. They are both great. Now I'm starting to understand why my English teachers loved me...

    -Jackie
    http://ournashvillelife.com

    ReplyDelete
  21. Playing cards ? That's interesting. I wonder if you learn that by osmosis?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thank you for the laugh today

    ReplyDelete
  23. I give surveys every semester as well (we are required to as part of our portfolio assessment system) and when I handed them out this year, one of my kids asked, "If we all put 'strongly disagree' for everything, would you get fired?" with a serious twinkle in his eye. When I said "No, these are just for me to read and reflect on," he looked so disappointed. But when I got the surveys back, no one had checked "strongly disagree" for *anything.*

    ReplyDelete
  24. haha this post is great! your students are so funny! you sound like a really great teacher and I probably would have preferred you over some of the terrible teachers I had for English in Middle school and high school.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Some of the many reasons I love high school students...

    ReplyDelete
  26. I can't wait to start teaching every time I read one of your school posts! Your students crack me up.

    guesswhathollie.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete