Best of Week: Asking for Student Input

This week has been one of the most stressful, overwhelming, and difficult weeks of Academy. My peers and I have collectively felt extremely frustrated and hopeless. However, several moments this week have been fantastic. The best of this week was when Mr. Allen asked us when we wanted to have our English in-class writing assignment. He gave us the option of either Monday or Tuesday and asked the class to decide. I told everyone to raise their hands so we could vote on what day worked best. 28 students voted for Tuesday, and therefore that is when our King Lear in-class writing assignment will take place.

Although this may seem like a small deal, to me it was extremely significant. Aside from being a kind gesture on his part, it was meaningful to me and occurred at the perfect time. I was feeling so aggravated the entire week because of the immense homework load in one of my classes that came completely out of the blue. I was caught off-guard and thus felt extremely irritated by the busy work that I was being given and the crazy amount of quizzes. Myself as well as other students approached the teacher to try to better understand what was going on, but we were ignored. The entire situation was and remains extremely disheartening.

What made this week a little more bearable was being given the option of when to have our English writing assignment. By asking for student input I felt not only relieved of unneeded stress but also important. By being able to express when would be more convenient for me to have this assignment I felt like I mattered. I know teachers often tell students that their input and ideas matter, but sometimes it becomes far too hard to believe. 

This entire week I felt that not only my input didn't matter but that my teacher didn't even care about how ridiculously stressed out the entire class was. Although that specific teacher still makes me feel that they do not care, I know that at least one of my teachers really does. This was very comforting and although I'll still have to do the in-class writing assignment it is great to know that I had a say in when this would take place and that my thoughts and feelings matter.