It's interesting that you jump from what the kids said to
thinking you're the easy teacher. Why?
On the whole, I'd say first - we have this prevailing fear in
society now of not being 'rigorous' enough. It's kind of
crazy and I think that bit of craziness took hold of you for
a moment.
Because nothing the kids said suggests that you're 'easy' or
that they like you because you're 'easy'.
Worksheets are boring - in fact, five of them would be
stultifying. The kids are saying that Ms. X is boring
and 'they don't do that much in class.' Remember what it was
like to sit through a class when you didn't do much? Remember
how boring those classes were??

Nothing in what the kids said suggested they thought they
were not being challenged enough - this is an inherent fear
we have in modern education as so much criticism is directed
at education these days. And - kids don't like teachers
because they're easy. Nothing is further from the truth and
it's a sad mistake to think of kids that way. Unless you
teach in a very troubled school - and there are troubled
schools - your kids will like to learn though they hate
worksheets. Learning is an empowering feeling - kids like it.
Kids thrive on challenge when it is truly challenge and it's
not just long hours of busy work.

You're misinterpreting their remarks. I think it's great to
take students' opinions into account - some teachers will
tell you otherwise but I think it's great. Do kids have to be
tired from work to be considered to have been challenged?
Challenge is a thing of the mind not of the worksheets.

Your class must be a double block for you to accomplish so
much in it. Three worksheets every class? And to compare
English to math is to compare apples to oranges.

If they were not challenged enough, they'd let you know. Your
class sounds fine to me and you should enjoy it more and
worry about it much less.

> >
> We do one worksheet, or other assignment, for each subject
> I have (reading, English, spelling). On top of that, we
> usually do at least 40 minutes of reading. During that
> time, we discuss what we are reading. I have a list of
> higher-level thinking questions that I ask, and we talk
> about our responses. Students are also required to read on
> their own for about 20 minutes. They do a "bell ringer"
> grammar activity and write in their journals. About every
> other week, we have a complex writing assignment.
>
> Okay, so are they just not challenged enough? I am using
> 6th grade curriculum, so I think it should be on their
> level??!!!
>
> Am I putting too much weight in their remarks? Being a
> beginning teacher really stinks. It's like all I do is
> second guess myself. This is my second year teaching, and
> my first year teaching these subjects.
>
> Thanks for helping - this is really bugging me.
>
> BethAnn
>

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