Teachers: 10 Reasons your students are tuning you out

I will admit, I am not the best “classroom student”. I don’t have great attention span and as a result, I spend most of my time observing the rest of the class. As a prelude to the list, please know that I have had a lot of great teachers. I’ve just had a lot more bad ones.

1. You cover exactly what was in the reading

There’s no additional insights or elaboration or focus on the more difficult principles. Prudence please.

2. You lost credibility or trust somewhere along the line

You showed disregard for things important to my generation or lack of concern for us as individuals.

3. You read directly from your Powerpoints

…that are copied from the textbook anyways. You don’t save your students any time by going to class. Let’s face it, most students are out to get the information that will be on the tests in the quickest way possible.

4. You lecture, lecture, lecture and then expect students to APPLY on the tests

We can read ourselves, spend time in the classroom teaching us how to apply the knowledge. There is a huge disconnect on this principle.

5. You take forever to explain simple concepts

This is especially detrimental if most of your students have laptops or cell phones.

6. You treat your students like children

Why do you force your students to put away their cell phones? Why do you force students to put away laptops? I understand that there are some scary things going on in classrooms, but they’re happening despite the restrictions. Maybe instead of banning cell phones and laptops, you might want to try to incorporate it into the classroom experience.

7. You embarrass people that answer questions

Without babying the students you need to treat every student with respect. When a student raises his/her hand it could be the first time in a year that they’ve done it. If they have a positive experience, you could literally change their life.

8. You are openly lazy

This drives me crazy. Why in the world are you a teacher if you hate your job? It’s not like teachers make a load of cash.

9. You refuse to use technology

You’re teaching to a generation of students that can access more information more quickly than any other generation. Don’t tell students that you don’t want to figure out how to use the internet or that you don’t answer email. You’re putting yourself into a category you don’t want to be in.

10. You expect students to achieve “academic nirvana” while in your class

“This class should be your life for the next 16 weeks.” How do you expect a student to react to this statement? “Oh great! I’ve always wanted a tyrannical control freak as a teacher!” Sure, there are classes that should require a large amount of effort, but don’t expect your students to always have those “a-ha” moments where they reach “academic nirvana”.