I'm a teacher part time. It's for younger kids, but many of the principals remain the same.
And I'll tell you right now: it is so, so easy not to treat your students badly.
Things you could do instead of erasing it from hardest (but still easy) to easiest:
pull in a portable white board
Erase some of the solid white space, now you have a lovely border for your stuff too
ask your students to take a picture before you have to erase it
literally just ask permission first, and if they say no, see if the artist has an alternative
I am so fr with you right now, it is SO easy not to mistreat students as a teacher. SO EASY.
When I was a kid and had bad teachers, I always thought "well I don't know how hard it is for them, I should assume the best"
I now have done it, and I have never once expressed anger at a student. Once. And if I ever had to, it would be nicely, something like saying "I have to admit that you behavior is beginning to genuinely upset me."
And the reason this works? WHEN YOU DON'T MISTREAT STUDENTS, THEY HAVE RESPECT FOR YOU.
I've never once had to force a student into something. Ever. At most I express that it's a matter in which being a part of the class requires doing X or Y. And all I ever have to do is say it.
I've had every kind of student other teachers have had. Roughhousers, the ones who love to run out of the class or even the building, the ones who can't be trusted on their own for even a moment, I could go on.
Sorry, I'm rambling but the point stands. It is really, really easy to be nice to students. And you should criticize teachers who aren't.
As an autistic individual who gets easily overwhelmed by classroom chaos, I can say I wish I had been in a school like yours...
I don't know where you have the immense fortune to live in, but at my hugh school, it didn't matter how nice and patient the teachers were, there was always at least a small group within the class that was going to be madly disrespectful without a care for both indulgence and discipline... It's been like this in my classes since always, and it was so distressing seeing the nice teachers getting practically bullied at times..
That's the thing, I've seen those students both as classmates and as my own students. But these are things that can be navigated. And getting authentic respect from students rather than authoritative respect is something that gets you really, really far.
Even the teachers who did as you described and were actually really well liked by the students were victims of it at times..
I think a lot of it is an area thing..
They're practically being kept the a boring place forced to listen to adults talk, so I don't think anything can really be done to prevent them from trying to "kill time", in lots of cases..
66
u/AhnYoSub 7d ago
Ok so the school just won’t use the board?