English Teachers Fill Out Survey

Why you should not ask overworked English teachers to fill out a long survey about their writing training on the day grades are due, after they’ve lost 2 full weeks of teaching in 2 6 weeks’ periods.

Because we’re punchy. Because we’re frazzled. Because we just finished grading 170 essays. Because we also had to sit through a professional development faculty meeting during our planning period on this day and watch an art teacher explain how using art in the art class can help students be better artists. Because English teachers study word choice very carefully when they are feeling cynical.

And if you put us through a long survey of ticky boxes and blanks in which we’re asked to remember every little bit of writing training we’ve ever had, who taught it, and what we learned from it throughout our careers, then ask us something like this:

How would you describe your strategies for teaching writing?

You’re going to get a lot of this:

Me: Guerrilla tactics, ambush, bribery, and blackmail.

Colleague 1: I generally like to have the students write down words on paper, preferably with pen or pencil, although markers will work in a pinch.

Colleague 2: AWESOME! I use strategies that help students totally heart [she drew an actual heart] writing!