From a student's point of view...

I was thinking the other day, I have published loads of blog posts about helping teachers, laying out your classroom, getting students involved; but here's the thing, I have never written one from a student's perspective!

So, I reckoned with myself, teachers are there to help students and that means that the students are the priority. Now, you won't be a very good teacher, or very good at anything for that matter, if you don't understand your priority fully, so here it is. A blog from a pupil's perspective...

First of all, the teacher can't be too patronising. It will just make the student feel awkward and degraded. Treat the student like they're in year eleven not eleven years old! You'll come across like you're trying too hard and you're a new teacher who hasn't quite gotten into the swing of things yet. Now, most students will take advantage of this. Which brings me nicely onto my next point...

If it's your first day, don't act scared. I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous; a teacher being intimidated by a class of secondary school kids. But if you're constantly being bombarded with difficult questions, smart Alec remarks and challenging students, it can be slightly overwhelming. Especially on your first day. I've seen it many a time, where teachers back down a little and almost come across as panicked and out of control .It's almost like we can smell fear so don't act scared or intimidated, just keep calm, cool and in control.

Punishments and rewards. It is a fact that every student hates it when  a teacher feels the need to exploit the pile of detention forms in his/her drawer, just to show who's boss. Teachers, don't overdo the detentions, it will just make the students annoyed and the more opinionated, sassy ones of us will just misbehave more! Likewise, don't award merits/ achievement/ house points like they're some kind of golden prize which will really help us. Granted, the year sevens actually care about them for the first few months, but finally they too catch on and realise that really they're not that special. Now, I'm not saying for one minute, don't give out merits; but please, for your sake and ours, don't act like they are the best thing that could happen to you throughout your secondary school life because believe me your the only one who's dressing up for that role play. 

I am positively sure that I am sounding like a petty, picky, challenging student who has this idea of a perfect teacher in their mind and expects every teacher who reads this blog to follow my golden list of advice. That is not the case, no one's perfect and most teachers are doing an excellent job anyway, but these are just a few things that every student is sure to think during some point of their lives, so I hope you liked this blog and I'll write again soon!