Ask a Teacher: Can You Tell If a Student's Having a Bad Day?

Q: Can you tell if a student is having a really good or a really bad day? What if they're trying to hide it?

A: Yes and yes. My school runs on block scheduling. That means I see my students for 90 minutes a day, an average of 2.5 days every week, about 4 weeks every month. In one month, I will have seen my students for 15 hours. (Go ahead. Check the math teacher’s math.) In that amount of time, my students show me their good days, their bad days, and everything in between. In fact, I can guess my students’ moods just by their body language when they enter class.

It’s obvious when my students enter with especially good moods. I’ve seen them run in laughing, singing, and on one occasion dancing into my room. I can’t really blame them; I do all three every time I enter a math class. But it’s equally obvious when a student’s feeling bad—the defeated “let’s-get-this-over-with” droopy shoulders are a dead giveaway. If I know a student is having a bad day, do I do anything about it?

My response to this question has changed a bit since I started teaching. I remember in my first year as a teacher, I took things a little personally, and tried hard to console every student I assumed felt bad. As I continued teaching, I began developing an even deeper intuition for how my students felt—not just whether they had a good or bad day, but also whether they wanted to talk about it. So now, I take much more of a l’aissez faire approach: If a student needs to talk, I’m there, but I leave space if I feel that’s what they want.

That doesn’t mean I’ve lost all the habits from my first year. If it seems like my student is in a funk, I like slipping them a small post-it note during class with the simple question “What’s up?” That way, I can offer an ear without having to lose class time or drawing unwanted attention. I know, I know, it’s a little hypocritical to pass notes when I’ve banned it for my students, but it seems to help. It feels awesome when I see a student perk up and work hard after getting to vent after a quick scribble. And it's just as well. If I can’t keep my kids happy, it’s going to be a loooooong 15 hours.

Have you ever talked to a teacher about a personal problem?

Mr. Navidar is a high school teacher in Florida. He still drives the same car he had in high school. He has a hard time with goodbyes.

Got a question for an English, science, math, writing, special ed, sociology, or PE teacher, or a specific question for Mr. Navidar? Send it to contribute@sparknotes.com!

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