What Do Teachers Have to Say to Anonymous Student Questions?

Have you ever had the burning desire to yell at a teacher for something they’ve done or said? Do you wonder why teachers do the things they do?  Have you ever wanted to ask a teacher a question but were too embarrassed to go through with it?  To resolve the problem of embarrassment, fear, anger, and backlash, we gave every single Darien High School student the opportunity to ask their teachers questions…anonymously.

Since students didn’t have to face backlash for their questions, it was only fair we allowed teachers to keep their identities a secret in their responses if they wished to. The anonymity of it allows the full truth, on both sides, to come out.  There were many responses from students, not all questions could be used, but there were a few questions that seemed to be very popular among the student body.  The most burning questions on students’ minds were sent out to teachers and faculty; the responses were…interesting to say the least.

Student question 1: 

“What’s your most interesting teaching story?”

Teacher responses:

An anonymous teacher said, “I once had a ceiling tile fall on the head of one of my students!  I had to send her straight to the nurse!”

Ms. Claudia Gray in Tech Ed said, “a group of boys all decided to sign up for the second semester Accounting their senior year.  During hockey championships, it was difficult for them to focus but they would come in yelling “Mrs. G… Debits on the Left and Credits on the Right.”  There’s a lot more to accounting than that and it was a very long semester.  Thank goodness for internships! ( I have a great prom picture of this group that they posted in the Accounting Google Classroom)”.

Student question 2:

“Do you ever wish you chose another career? Was teaching always your dream?”

Teacher responses:

An anonymous DHS faculty member said, “Teaching is my second career. I don’t know if I’m going to stay in it forever, but it feels like a great fit for now. I love that I get to do something different every day, I love that it’s creative, and I love that I get to laugh at least once a day because teenagers are weird and hilarious. In other careers, you don’t get all three of those aspects at once”.

Another anonymous teacher responded, “I sometimes wish I could drive a deep-sea submarine and find new species at the bottom of the Marianas Trench”.

Student question 3: 

“Do you have favorite students? If so, are these the students that do well in the class? Why are they your favorite?”

Teacher responses:

“Yes, but I will only comment about my favorite students once they have graduated. They are my fav because they worked hard, made a personal connection, and cared about doing their best. They also were the same wonderful students in the classroom and in the hallway and outside of school,” said an anonymous teacher.

An anonymous teacher said, “I love the students who laugh at my jokes—and no, they are not always my strongest academic students. I love students who enjoy learning and who care about ideas—or if they don’t —they care enough to put their best foot forward to make the class a lively and engaging place for everybody.  What’s not to love about these students? These are the students who are not counting points, asking for more points, arguing about grades, etc”.

Another teacher said, “I know it’s self-centered, but students of any gender who remind me of myself (like maybe they need a little nudge) bring out the best in me”.

Student question 4: 

“Do you ‘ship’ students/create seating charts based on how you see students getting along, having chemistry?” 

Teacher responses:

One teacher just said, “absolutely” and another said, “no”.

An anonymous source commented, “Nope. You’d be amazed how much I DON’T want to know about my students’ interpersonal relationships”.

A teacher commented, “No seating charts, but love to set up prom dates”. 

Science teacher Ms. Shana McNamee said, “Yes! but only if the pair cannot be too distracted with each other to get the classwork done”.

Student question 5:

“Weirdest/craziest thing you’ve overheard a student say?”

Teacher responses:

Spanish teacher Mr. Jonathan Smith responded, “A student once said during a conversation about human values, ‘We here at DHS are too busy to think about gratitude, but maybe we will when we get older’. I nearly passed out”.

Teachers are people too (in case you weren’t already aware) and they have some interesting perspectives on things, next time don’t be so scared to ask them your questions in person.  I’m sure they would appreciate it a lot unless they would prefer to stay anonymous with their responses…then they would probably just ignore you and walk away. 

If you enjoyed this article, check out another article from the ‘From Students, For Students’ column linked below!