- When I was in kindergarten I wanted to be an astronaut.
Things change, but I still kind of wish I had followed that.
Pursued that astronaut life.
- I do not want to be an astronaut.
- Yeah, well that makes one of us.
(funky upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Vanessa.
- And I'm Mandy.
- My name's Ted.
- And I'm Ryan.
- And today we're answering...
- Anonymous questions from students.
- From students.
Middle school and high school,
dealing with teenagers,
there are a lot of questions about my personal life
that I had to steer away from.
- So, the type of questions I hope are not asked
are going to be about my personal life.
You don't need to know about me.
- You don't want them to get everything from you,
you wanna walk in and be a little mysterious.
- As a pre-school teacher I hope my children
are asking questions because then that means
that they're wondering about life
and that's just our bread and butter.
On the flip side of that,
they are very honest.
Teacher, why are your teeth yellow?
And I'm just like.
- I'm also not going to tell any of them
my social security number.
- I try to keep that private
but sometimes it slips out.
Did you always want to become a teacher
or did you change your mind later on in life?
- I started wanting to be a teacher
when I was in high school.
- I think a lot of the reason I became a teacher
was because I really like working with young people.
- I got the teacher bug also in high school.
I was doing some national honor society volunteering,
tutoring and I loved that.
- I still remember the names of the teachers
that were great.
You know, like shouts out to Mr. Tarquenio.
What's up, man?
Seventh grade.
Where you at?
I miss you.
People like that, they have a big lasting effect
on your life and you want to make that sort of impact.
- I had some great teachers that were really inspiring
but I also had some terrible teachers,
so there was almost a deep part of me that was like,
I can do this so much better than you.
I never saw those teachers again,
but they know.
- Do teachers ever ship students together?
Basically, mentally pairing them together romantically?
- I can tell sometimes when there was a crush,
either or both ways.
I don't think I ever looked at a classroom of students
and thought, oh, those two would be great,
I should sit them next to each other
and start the romance.
- Does not apply.
- Yeah, pre-schoolers probably not.
- Oh, you guys would be so cute together.
- In like 15 years.
- I have thought about that.
Like, oh, in the future, you guys might be a thing.
- When a student has unreadable handwriting,
do you really grade their essay
or do you give them a grade based off of past performance
and participation in class or something, question mark?
No, I do not give them a grade based
on past performance.
Most of my students are writing essays
on a computer anyway.
Now, if they have unreadable grammar,
that's a different story.
- I would try to set it aside and ask the student
to explain whatever it was they were trying to say.
- I'm working with one student
and she willingly admitted that she has
unreadable, completely illegible handwriting,
and I saw it and it's true.
But what I told her was like,
you just need to slow down and try to write bigger.
'Cause I had the exact same problem
when I was in elementary school.
- I fail my pre-schoolers all the time.
I can't read this.
What is this?
Why do teachers ask questions to the class
and then call on the students who don't
have their hands up?
- It's 'cause we're mean.
- If I notice that there's a student
that isn't really wanting to participate,
I may call on them just to engage them,
kind of bring them back to the group.
- You gotta make sure everyone's engaged
and paying attention and keep kids on their toes
and on top of their game.
It would be really boring if just the same two kids
who always answer the questions
are answering the questions.
- What are you opinions on the quiet kids?
(chuckling)
- They're my favorite students.
Zip it, sit down, that's it.
- It's tough to know a lot about the kids
that just sit there and they're quiet.
Even ones that do their work.
Those are the ones that you like,
hope that you catch them,
like they need to come in at lunch and ask a question
and you kinda figure out a little bit more about them.
It's important to know why they're quiet.
If it's something at home,
you wanna find out about that so you can
let the right people know
and get them help if they need it.
If they're just a quiet person
'cause they don't wanna talk or something like that,
that's fine too.
But it's important to find out the root cause.
- Do teachers know all the drama and tea
that goes on in the greater class they teach?
Do teachers talk bad about students to other teachers?
It's kinda hard for me to answer 'cause they're so young.
Little three year old drama.
I worked with summer camp before
and we know some of the cheesmik.
- The only time I knew of stuff going on
was when it impacted things in class.
So, whether someone was crying
or if there was a fight we would ask.
You know, why are you crying or whatever
and try to help them.
- I wouldn't say that we talk bad to one another,
it's more, hey, I heard this, what can we do
to help this child?
- I'm not proud to say it,
but in middle school and high school
there were kids that were jerks and so
we would say, oh my goodness, I have this kid this hour
and it's rough.
You know?
Like, we wouldn't say anything super mean spirited.
- We just need to vent.
- You just need to vent and sometimes, too,
it would be kind of like,
do you have any ideas how I can make this better or?
- Yeah, your teacher support team is just essential.
- I like this question a lot.
It says, are there ever times you don't know
what you're doing?
Yes.
The important thing isn't whether or not
you know what you're doing,
it's that you're projecting that air of confidence.
- You sometimes have your lesson plans,
things inevitably go off the rails.
Maybe the kids are not as far along
as you thought they were gonna be at that point
so you need to improvise.
It's part of being a teacher.
- Have you ever noticed if a kid has a problem,
like ADHD, depression, et cetera
before the parents or maybe even the kid?
- If yes, did you ever do anything about it?
Yes and yes.
- I definitely had experiences where
the kid wasn't getting the proper treatment
or care that they should.
- There's definitely been times where
so late in the process I've been like,
hey, this kid probably has an issue.
- Since I work with children at such a young age,
I've had to do this many a time.
We try to be as sensitive to the families as possible
but also really trying to get them to understand
that we have their childrens' best interest at heart.
- Do you guys genuinely like the know-it-all students
who over participate?
Somebody has a chip on their shoulder.
There's always that one student
who will raise their hand every time.
- Or they just say it without even
raising sometimes.
- Oh, boy.
We're gonna nip that in the bud.
Participation is always great
but it's important to make sure everybody's participating.
- If you're shouting out the answer
every single time I ask a question,
then no one else is gonna be able to try to participate
or figure it out.
Those are the kids where I'm like,
hey, I'm sure you know the answer,
I believe that you know the answer,
but let's give somebody else a chance.
How about somebody else does this one?
- I like how whoever wrote this is like,
I mean, come on guys, do you guys really like that person?
- Be honest. - Like they're expecting us
to be like, no, we don't, we hate them.
Nope, sorry.
- The one who wrote that is the know-it-all
in every class.
(funky upbeat music)
- I hope this was illuminating.
- I was pretty surprised by how serious the questions were.
- I thought there were going to be
so many embarrassing questions in here
and I was like, oh gosh, let's see what they have for us.
But I actually really enjoyed answering these questions.
- We are trying to help you and help you do your best.
- We genuinely care about you.
We want you to do well.
- If we're new, we're probably pretty nervous.
- It takes some getting used to
so be cool to your new teachers.
- You never know what battle someone's fighting,
so just remember to be kind.
- Yeah.
Don't make fun of other kids' shoes.
- You can make fun of the teacher's shoes.
- You can try.
My shoe game's on point.
- You have a good shoe game.
I shop at Marshall's so.
(funky upbeat music)