A new course this year at MMS is Student Voice. Each grade 8 class, once per cycle, meets with me to talk about current issues, issues important to grade 8s and to get students viewpoints on what’s happening at school. This past week I asked students the following questions.

These are all important things for every kid to think about, more importantly, for me to know about. The responses I got back were genuine and thoughtful. I thought I would share one that stood out. I very much appreciated the thoughts this student shared.

Andy

Grade 8 Student Voice

  1. I feel listened to when I get a chance to speak up in my classes and my thoughts and ideas are taken into consideration. I feel that teachers and peers show that by not immediately shutting down my answers, even if they are wrong, but walking me through it to help me learn from my mistakes, using kind words which most of the people I interact with at school do, ask me questions if I’m not making sense and sometimes it’s nice for people to just acknowledge that they’re listening. I like to hear ideas from other people because some of them I’d never of thought of by myself, but everyone thinks differently and it’s really cool to hear and see the thoughts of others. I usually do feel all of those things in this school, especially from teachers.
  2. I feel cared for when I see people do acts of kindness when they aren’t asked. Even if it’s not toward me it makes me feel good to know that my community is being taken care of. It makes me feel so good to do things for other people and I know it does for other people too. It’s really important to me that every child feels cared for at this school regardless of their home life and it makes me feel really, really good to see other people happy.
  3. I laugh when I can have a conversation with a teacher like they are any other person. When I can have a deeper conversation with them about more than just school and small talk. When they make jokes and make the lesson and work as fun as possible, while making sure we are still learning what we need to.
  4. I ran for student council this year for the first time and there I get to be a leader because Sam and I are the oldest ones there and people look up to us. Especially the younger ones of the council who one day want to be president, Sam and I have to be an example of what it is to be a good leader. And also to the rest of the school in the behaviour we show and the decisions we make.
  5. I feel the most safe when I come to school knowing that I have a good support system here. With the teachers that I trust and my close friends I know that if my day didn’t start off great, I can come to school and all of these people will make me feel better. There isn’t really I time when I feel unsafe at school, this is a bit of a safe place for me.

 

in: General