Squeaky Wheel

There are approximately 450 students at the school where I teach.  And I, at some point or another, will teach them all.  They are split into three grades of 150 students each, and I do two-week rotations through each grade.  Even though I’ve already been at it for six months now, I still only know a fraction of their names.  And when I feel like I start to get to know a student a little bit, it is another four weeks before I will see them in class again.  Now, if I was the only teacher in the classroom, or even the main teacher with an assistant, it wouldn’t work.  But I am the assistant; I am there to supplement and aid the main teacher.  It’s a weird place to be, and it has taken some time for me to even figure out what my goals at work should be since my goals cannot be the same as a normal teacher.  That being said, I do feel that my job is important and I make a significant contribution to my students.

But this isn’t a post about my goals as an assistant; I want to focus on that fraction of kids whose names I somehow remember.  Why do I remember them?  Why do they get my attention in class?  Why are there still students that I greet in the mornings that I do not remember ever seeing before in the school?  What does a student need to do to make sure he/she gets the attention he/she needs from the teacher? 

First of all memorable students (not surprisingly) are the trouble makers.  This makes sense.  Their names are the first ones to be learned, and their images get burned on your mind from all the stress they cause you.  But hey, I remember them.  I remember what they are good at and where they struggle.  During class I always have an eye devoted to them, mostly to make sure they aren’t getting into trouble, but along with that comes a greater attention to how they are doing academically and otherwise. 

The next group of memorable students are the brown-nosers.  These students are well behaved, active in class, and always ready to go above and beyond to prove to their teachers how happy and grateful they are to learn.  No one likes a brown-noser, but the thing is, it works.  You do get noticed, and remembered.  Maybe brown-noser is a harsh term, but it will have to suffice for what I am trying to get at.  These students make their teacher’s life easier and maybe even more rewarding.  And the teacher will remember that. 

The third group for me gets remembered because they remind me of something else in life, maybe they have a familiar face, maybe their mannerisms match those of someone else I know, who knows.  They don’t really have any control of this, but they stick out in some way, and usually this way is particular to me.  And they get noticed.  And since I remember them, I want to keep track on how they are doing.  Week after week I want to check in with them, and the only reason they got lucky enough was because of something interesting in their appearance.

And then there’s the rest of the kids – the ones that get forgotten, fall through the cracks, left behind, whatever you want to say.  It is hard for me to admit that kids like this exist for me, but when I consider that I will only spend three months out of the year teaching these 450 kids their existence is unavoidable.  In class I try to look at all the kids’ faces and see which ones I can immediately identify, if not by name then at least by “oh, that’s the one I sat next to at lunch last week.”  So many kids here fall into this category.  They don’t cause trouble, but they don’t particularly find any joy in learning English either.  They turn in their homework, repeat their exercises, and get lost amidst the trouble makers and the brown-nosers.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease, eh?  I do my best to watch out for all the wheels as much as I can, but the student that demands attention is the one that will get attention.  It isn’t fair to the other students.  And it isn’t fair to me, either.  I want to know all my students, but it looks like this might be as good as it will get.  In six more weeks the school year turns over, and 150 of those students I was trying to get to know will move on, and 150 new ones will come in and take their place.  Maybe I’ll be able to do better with the new batch.