Communicate With Your Teacher Effectively (and Painlessly)

Talking to your teacher may seem like an obvious feat, but is it always such an easy thing to do?

Think for a moment about all of the different instances where students want and need to talk to their teachers: to ask for extra help, to obtain make-up assignments, to clarify a concept or skill, to dispute a grade, to advocate for themselves...the list goes on and on.

Communicating with your teachers (or any authority figure for that matter) isn't just important for students while they are in school- it's an extremely valuable life skill.  Not only do we ask students to talk to their teachers all the time, but we expect them to do so. Communicating with higher-ups isn't always a natural skill, though, and most students benefit from being explicitly taught how to communicate effectively.

In this class, students will learn three of the most prominent ways to effectively communicate with their teachers: 1. in person during class, 2. in person outside of class, and 3. through email/message. Students will be provided with thorough explanations and examples of how to approach their teachers through these means, as well as practice various scenarios of “communicating with a teacher” themselves. This class is geared to not only teach students how to approach their teachers for a multitude of reasons, but also to touch on appropriate communication norms to ask for help, advocate for themselves, etc. 

All in all, this class will be jam-packed with information in a highly interactive way, with the majority of the work happening in the here-and-now of the class session. By the time this class is over, students should be comfortable with approaching their teachers in a variety of ways, as well as have an increased ability to successfully communicate their needs.