Students favor teachers who they can talk to easily outside of class and help them when learning at Severna Park High School.
Students tend to favor teachers they still have interactions with in their day to day school year. Junior Ryan Bonner said regarding Mrs. Greenlee, “She’s nice and her class was really fun and she helped me out a lot…” Mrs. Greenlee teaches Honors Biology, a science class. Despite not having her since freshman year, Bonner recalls that he liked her class regardless of not liking science in general.
“She made biology fun, I’m not really into sciences [but] she made it fun.” Bonner went on to explain how he still had occasional interactions with her such as greeting her in the hallway. Similar responses were given by another student when asked who their favorite teacher was throughout all of highschool.
Junior Maya Bear said regarding Mrs. Kohler, “Mrs. Kohler…because she’s very easy to talk to and I find her to be very personable.” Bear explained that she had the physical education teacher during her sophomore year but continues to go to her falcon block in order to talk about life or recent events.
“She’s very easy to talk to and I just find her to be very personable and I feel very comfortable going to her with any issue or excitement and any of that.”
Other students who’ve been attending SPHS for shorter spans of time, such as freshmen or sophomores, also appear to gravitate towards teachers who lend them a helping hand in the school environment.
“My favorite teacher is Mrs. Earhart, she teaches Yearbook, Honors English 11, Newspaper, and Journalism” sophomore Katarina Day said. Day has been a part of yearbook since her freshman year and said Mrs. Earhart had been “really accommodating and helpful.” Day said, “She’s a really personal and friendly person who cares about her students and their success, yet she’s also really fun and jokes around all of the time.”
A fellow sophomore, Molly Procida, believes her favorite teacher is Mrs. Colon, a business and leadership teacher. “She’s cool, really nice, and is always helping us,” similar to the other students who preferred helpful and kind natured teachers. Underclassmen had a mini trend of wishing for more organization and order within the classroom. “If I could change one thing about my yearbook class [I would] make it a bit more organized” Day admits, also stating that the atmosphere of too many new students in the class has made it somewhat overwhelming.
Similarly, Procida said she would change that fact that they are graded on if their phones are out in relation to order in class. “I would change how we are graded on if our phones are out.” Procida went on to say that there are better ways to discourage phone use and that it shouldn’t matter “as long as you’re paying attention and doing well in the class.”
Students often think of their teachers directly related to school, something most teenagers hate. Despite this, it’s been revealed that all grades prefer personable and helpful teachers, teachers that they can talk to about many things unrelated to school as well as remaining helpful when learning. While upperclassmen enjoy their classes as is, younger students wish for more organization, even in their favorite classes. This is related to order, rule enforcement, or simply how the class is set up. Whether that be loudness or the process of teaching itself.
