Appreciate Your Teacher

Picture this: In the future, your kids ask you about your high school experience. They ask you about homecoming, prom, football games, classes, and teachers. You don’t know how to tell them that all you really experienced was classes on Zoom. Kind of embarrassing, right?

Let’s face it. This pandemic has been hard on all of us. Not just students, but also teachers.

Imagine taking somewhere between four and five years to finally start a career path you have been longing for your whole life, only to see it completely changed during a pandemic. You could also ask yourself how hard it must be to adapt to a new setting after doing something for years. Of course, we as students have experienced this. All our lives we have attended in-person school, so changing to an online format was very difficult.

But have you ever wondered how it has affected the teachers?

Teaching a bunch of high school students in general is hard because they can get distracted very easily. Just imagine how much harder it is to teach over a computer screen and having no clue what your students are doing. For all the teachers know, their students could be sleeping, playing video games, eating, or being on their phones.

History teacher Stepanie Kelley has been a teacher for quite some time, so the transition from normal to online school was a new process and hard to manage. What she found most difficult: was “learning the technology and trying to keep students engaged and interested in this new format that was not in-person, as well as trying to keep interest in the subject,” she said.

Learning through a computer screen is something students have also had to adapt to, and it has not been without its challenges. “I think the most difficult part about switching to all virtual is not being in school and in a classroom environment to help you focus and do your work [as well as] not having the social aspect of school like talking to your friends,” said FCHS sophomore Ryan Taylor. He added, “I think the hardest part about learning virtually is you can’t get as much help from your teacher and not being able to focus on your work.”

Even though students are not physically present in the classroom, it is still important to pay attention during an online class. Kelley says that “students can show they are paying attention by adding comments to chat and/or using the ‘raising hand’ feature on Google meets to answer or ask questions, or have a camera on and be present.” By participating in class and showing they are understanding by doing these simple tasks, students can help both themselves and their teachers.

Showing appreciation to teachers in in-person and online settings is very different. Students who engage during class, either by showing their faces or by making comments in the chat box– or even just typing something nice before leaving class can make a difference to a teacher, while helping the student engage.

“When students participate or say ‘have a good day’ at the end of class, it makes me feel appreciated. Also, when they sign in early to a meeting to say hello or to show a pet or just share a bit about themselves, I feel appreciated,” said Kelley.

This pandemic has brought new challenges and has, in a way, brought many people closer together, so remember to show teachers respect even though you are not physically in the classroom. Teachers do a lot for students, and it’s important to recognize that the virtual environment is just as hard for teachers as it is for students.” As Taylor notes, “they’re going through crazy times just like us.”

So next time you have an online class, join a few minutes early and show off Mr. Whiskers to your teacher. You might just make their day.