Many students have low attention spans, but only the best teachers know how to fight this. For example, language teacher Ms. Morales, said,”95% of my students do their work in my class. They like my class because I use many digital resources including power points, photos, documentaries, game pages, apps, audio books, and more techniques that attract students’ attention and interest.”

Drama teacher Ms. Cote said, “To make the drama class more enjoyable for my students, we work on vocal exercises, drama and improvisation games, and we perform in class to help with stage fright and to gain confidence.”

Many teachers prepare themselves each day to give their students a great education, but do students take the class seriously? Financial Algebra teacher Ms. Rodriguez told me, “Mathematics is a challenging course for many students. I hope students will appreciate the importance of the subject, but unfortunately that is not the case for many students nowadays. They do realize it after high school. We teach about banking, lending, FICO scores and many other aspects that are extremely useful to contribute to a healthy financial life. Although many students show a true appreciation, others don’t take the subject seriously enough.”

One big problem that students have in class is that they don’t put the necessary effort to develop their skills and learn. Math teacher Mr. Jara said, “Some students lack basic skills, but the most relevant challenge is the self-imposed barrier of not wanting to try. Consistent effort is more important than lack of skills. I think that my students know that I am here to help them overcome any obstacles in math. Help is offered during and after class. I try to make the class as enjoyable as possible.”

Indeed, teachers are here to help their students be successful in life, to teach them about the world,  and also to develop different skills such as carpentry, health science, criminal justice. Sometimes we students ask ourselves, why is this teacher so strict with us? The truth is that they want to help us and many times we don’t put effort to learn and understand what they are teaching us.

They want us to learn and appreciate what we have, because although we are in the XXI century, there are still many countries where young people do not have the education that we have. We need to be more thankful with the education that we are fortunate to receive from our teachers. What is happening is that we are not grateful, we prefer to be on our phones, to chill in the classes, to talk with our friends, instead of paying attention to what our teachers with so much love and dedication teach us.

It may seem like teaching ungrateful and unprepared students is not a fun job, but that is not how all teachers see it   Algebra 2 teacher Mr. B said, “I don’t see it as a job. It’s something that I enjoy and try to have fun with. I used to be a terrible student, but once I changed my attitude towards it, everything changed. I want to help my students be the best they can be.”