Which teachers are liked the most by eighth graders?

Since the eighth graders will soon be leaving in two months, some people might wonder what teachers are most liked by the eighth graders. I thought the best way to find out which teachers are liked the most was to ask 30 students (the average amount of students in a classroom) from different classes and ask what teacher was their favorite in the school. After asking the 30 students I totaled up all the votes, shown in this pie chart:

As you can see in the chart, the most voted teachers were as follows:

1. Ms. Alamilla with 23.1% of students choosing her
2. Ms. Montes (Thomas) with 19.2% of students choosing her
3. Mx. Ortiz with 15.4% of students choosing her

When students were asked why they voted for who they voted for, here are some of the things they said:

Ms. Alamilla: “I think that her teaching style is not too chill and not too strict and her class is interesting.”

Ms. Montes (Thomas): “Because she always greets us when we walk in and she gives us brain breaks and she’s really nice and patient.”

Mx. Ortiz: “She always compliments my hair and eyeliner when I do it and she’s really nice because she helps me to do work.”

Something I noticed is that all the students said that their main reason for choosing the teacher is because they are kind and nice. So I asked the three teachers why they think the students like them and what teaching methods they use to see if they had any similarities.

Ms. Alamilla: “I think because of students feeling comfortable in class and probably not feeling like super stressed out with how my classroom structure is like, my science class is pretty relaxed. I feel we do a lot of group work and collaborative work. So I would think that motivated students to vote for me.”

“I think a lot about what are the students going to be doing. So I try to give students work, like have them make the things, versus just hearing me talk or just taking notes from the slides, because I find that that doesn’t really engage anybody, and then it just makes it seem like all they got to do is sit and copy. So a lot of the times, even if it produces a lot of blank papers, which sometimes it does, I have students make something, like their ideas, and they’re like answers, no matter how incomplete or incorrect they are.”

Ms. Montes (Thomas): “I think I have a good way of connecting with kids and showing them that I understand them. And, you know, I don’t jump to the worst conclusion about kids when something happens. I try to be as fair as possible. So I think that helps a lot.”

“I’m a big fan of looking at multiple sources, especially primary sources and different perspectives, because I think it’s important to look at what everyone has to say about something before we make opinions and in history, that’s really important. And then I’m also big on Thinking Maps too. We always do thinking maps in my class, because I kind of wish I had Thinking Maps when I was in college. It would have been really helpful, and I plan on using them in grad school.”

“I’m good with people and making people feel comfortable. And I try to, from day one, make students know that it’s okay to make mistakes in my class, or if you’re having a bad day, it’s okay I get it. You know, you’re human. And I think maybe some teachers get overwhelmed with like, trying to focus on the lesson or something like that, and maybe they just forget sometimes that you guys are humans, you know, you guys are kids, so we got to understand that and be patient with you.”

Mx. Ortiz: “I don’t know. I feel like this year I have a pretty good relationship with, like most, if not all, my students. I love them all, um, and we, I don’t know, we have a lot of fun in class, and I get a lot of messages, like card saying that they really like that. I treat them like nicely. So I think that might be it, but I’m just nice to them.”

“I’m really not afraid to be, like, really silly and cringe. So I’ll just, like, make random little things. I’ll do like little dances while teaching. Try to really relate it to them. I really like to keep things moving really fast. So if we are talking about something yesterday, we were talking about, like, limits. And so I just asked them, what limits do you have that are placed on you as a kid? And, you know, like ideas started popping up. So just get them, like talking a lot. I think that that’s really fun too. It’s fun for me to, like, hear all the answers as well”

Some similarities I noticed from all of the teachers is that they try to make the learning environment comfortable for the students and also try to make their lessons fun and interesting. From what the students say about them, it seems like this teaching method is really effective.

In conclusion, most students preferred teachers that had teaching methods of making a welcoming learning environment, engaging with students, and letting students be themselves in the classroom.