I Wish My Teacher Knew. Excerpts From Students Who Wish Educators Knew Their Struggles.

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I Wish My Teacher Knew:

• That my dad works two jobs and I don’t see him much.
• That I love my family.
• That my family and I live in a shelter.
• That my mom got diagnosed with cancer this week and I’ve been without a home 3 different times this year alone.
• That I am smarter than she thinks I am.
• That my little brother gets scared and I get worried about getting up every night.
• That I love animals and I would do anything for my animals. I would love to work at the MSPCA so I could help animals get adopted.
• That my mom and dad are divorced and that I am the middle child of 7 kids. 5 out of that 7 or boys.
• That I want to learn more about history.
• That I don’t have friend to play with me.
• That sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom is not around a lot.
• That people say that she is terrible behind her back, but she is not!!
• That I love school.
• I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework.
• I wish my teacher knew that sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom isn’t around a lot.
• I wish my teacher knew how much I miss my dad because he got deported to Mexico when I was 3 years old and I haven’t seen him in six years.
• #IWishMyTeacherKnew that I worry because mom is getting sick… :( #IWishMyTeacherKnew that I think I have depression… so real to her.
• #IWishMyTeacherKnew that I want her to notice me.
• I haven’t seen my real mom in over two years and that makes me sad (3rd grade boy).
• I wish my teacher knew that we don’t always have enough money for dinner.
• I wish my teacher knew that I don’t know who my Dad is.
• I wish my teacher knew that I only have one pair of socks.
• I wish my teacher knew that I wanted to be a girl, and that every day sitting and learning as a boy was slightly traumatic.
• That my dad treats my brother better than me. He buys him everything and gets me nothing. He says he loves me but its hard to believe him. Just wanted you to know.
• That there is a lot of trouble in her class.
• That I don’t do well under pressure. So I forget everything when I take a test or other things.
• That I don’t like it when she notices that other students are on task but when I’m on task she doesn’t notice me.
• That it is very hard for me to express my feelings and emotions towards people.
• That I have trouble with long division.
• That its very hard for me to stay asleep at night.
• That I don’t get extra homework and study help at my house.

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Barriers For Learning

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I wish my teacher knew that I was taking drugs and abusing my body in order to escape from my problems. I wish my teacher knew who I really was. However, none of them ever did. Instead, I got a 4.0 GPA, an IB diploma, and then went to MIT. There were no teachers there to talk to, and I was kicked out my senior year for being a drug addict.
8 years later, I live full time as a woman, I have a degree from CU, and I am poor but not super poor. I wonder what great things I could have done if my teacher in middle and high school only knew what was bothering me. All she saw was an overachieving, smart, and dedicated boy who was a Colorado Debate Champion and an Eagle Scout. I hid behind my over achievement, and that was a huge mistake.
With the increased understanding of how ACes (Adverse Childhood Experiences) impact people their whole lives, this is important for teachers to do. Still I worry about the expectations for teachers. If a student opens up about the challenges in their lives, do the classroom teachers have the bandwidth to deal with it appropriately while supporting a whole classroom full of kids? Are there enough counselors to support students? Will the administration be able to support teachers? This is a beautiful thing to do but it raises many questions.