We Love Grading Teachers!

             Ever since I started school, I’ve had at least one bad teacher a year. For Kindergarten and 1st grade in China, both of my English teachers were monsters, yelling and giving time-outs every other minute at the smallest sounds that we made. Through elementary school, my even number grade teachers were awesome, while the odd number teachers were not satisfactory at all. For example, my 5th grade teacher gossiped for at least an hour everyday about the opening premieres of the Hunger Games, Twilight, and  about another dozen movies. In 7th grade, my English teacher was very unproductive throughout the school year. Although some people loved her, I have to confess, I think that free days every week and around 40 total assignments for this class at the end of the year didn’t seem to meet my standards of a good teacher. If these kinds of teachers get to criticize our work, then I, along with many other students, believe we have the right to criticize their work, too.

All of the teachers in my education experience had small faults that could have been easily changed. If we had been given the chance to critique our teachers, it would have been so easy for them to recognize their mistakes and correct them. In making changes to their old teaching technique, their original experience and knowledge would be allowed to resurface, giving the future classes a better learning experience. This will lead to a better foundation and better overall test scores. Future students will have teachers who are constantly improving and who will provide more productive educational experiences year after year.

Teachers need to be professional about their jobs, and they need to match the standard criteria to stay in their positions. So schools need an efficient system of evaluating teachers’ performances. Yes, the principal, vice principal, and superintendent come occasionally and judge the teachers’ classes for about 10 minutes, but they usually don’t see the whole picture. We students do. We are in their classes every day and understand their teaching style. Overall, I think that students’ evaluations of teachers will be much more effective than administrative ones.

Some protesting teachers will definitely counter with, “What if the students just hate me for no reason and comment on me very unfairly?”  I suggest that the teachers look through their evaluations carefully and take note of the points that the students raise. You might find our comments very helpful, making you a better and more productive teacher.

             Please consider allowing us students to evaluate our teachers at the end of each grade cycle. We can help them grow professionally, like they have helped us improve throughout the year. Help us support this cause!