Maybe as a cohort we could list one thing each of us loved that a teacher did and one thing a teacher did that we hated. That way we can all start tossing ideas around for what we can do to make coming to our classrooms more meaningful. If someone else lists something that you were going to use try and think of something else! Just copy and paste the template below and let us know what you loved and loathed!

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Josh loved: I used to love it when my teachers would question my answers. They wouldn't take the standard "Lennie killed Curley's wife" for the summary of the 5th part of Steinbeck's Of Mice & Men. Good teachers always challenged me to explain my answer by asking further questions and challenging me to redraw the text for the class with the Who, What, Where, Why, When, How questions. A one line answer was rarely good enough for good teachers who expected more out of me. Even if I didn't have an answer for them I still respected them for pushing me.

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Josh loathed: I hated coming to class and reading what was due that day. Often times going through it at home once was boring enough and to come to class and hear the teacher reexplain the plot, the characters etc. really sucked. What was the motivation in reading if I was just going to hear it all again in a few hours? There simply wasn't a reason.

Sam loved:  One teacher would write a quote on the board each day. When we came into class, everyone took out their personal journals and responded to the quote.  We wrote for about five minutes each day, and afterwards, we would share our responses with a neighbor.  Every week or two, the teacher would collect the journals and respond to our reactions.  It really was exciting to have this ongoing dialogue with our teacher, and I firmly believe in the power of a few compliments.  I still have that journal today. 

Sam loathed:  Hmm.. what didn't I like? Do we really have to do this part? Ha.  This is going to take awhile...  (insert Jepeordy theme song)      ...ah!  I remember.  One thing I couldn't stand was summer reading. I mean, I loved reading when I was younger, but I liked to choose my own books.  For 11th and 12th grades, we were required to read over the summer and the first day of school, we took a test to check our comprehension.  I thought that was utterly uber super bogus, braah!  Summers were dedicated to fishing, skating, and girls...there simply wasn't room for school work.  If summer reading is required, I would suggest making a list of possible options, rather than requiring a specific book.  On the first day of school, it would be cool to simply have a discussion with the students about what books they read and how it all went.  This would be a better start to the year than an exam.

PS.  Pizza hut should bring back those pan pizzas for reading.  'Member those?

Molly Loved: singing "imagine" to her English class, debating, thinking about existentialism, talking about female agency in texts, creating skits, performing in front of the class, writing anything, reading Hemingway, playing this compound word game that my teacher made up, games in general, anything competitive, full class discussions.

Molly Loathed:counting words in a journalism class, using metaphors to describe a transformative experience, not getting to read the part of Juliet (ever)...my teacher always gave it to the same girl because he thought she had the best reading voice...unfair!, debating, reading Margret Atwood.

Jen Loved: This is completely an English major response, but... I had a teacher in high school that would write a "word of the day" on the board. It would be a crazy, unheard of word that was virtually useless in most conversations. He would make it a point to use it as least once during the class, then at the end tell us what it meant. We'd find ways to use it throughout the day- in lunch, passing time, and after school whenever we saw someone from the class. By the end of the school year, us kids in Mr. King's class had developed a language very few outside our nerdy clique could decifer.

Jen Loathed: I was completely turned off by worksheets. I understand, from the bottom of my heart, how worksheets stiffle creativity and motivation. My freshman English teacher killed half the rainforest my first year in high school. We would be assigned reading and a packet of worksheets, all due by Friday. The week of class time was to be spent finishing this assignment. Myself and two of my best friends were in the same freshman English class. We would take turns with worksheet duty- each week one of us would be responsible for completing the sheets, then calling the other two on Thursday and giving the answers. Somewhere deep inside me, I feel guilty for doing this. But more towards the top of me lies the unwavering satisfaction in knowing I beat the system, got an A, and saved numerous minutes of my precious life avoiding those wretched pieces of paper. After this freshman English class, I joined the debate team, burnt the worksheets, and never looked back!

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