Student Teacher Post-Survey Issued to Sumner Academy Students

Grades 8-12 | October 2022 | Mr. Spencer Pope

Please offer constructive criticism. In what way(s) can I (Mr. Pope) improve as a teacher?

“Keeping the class under control! Not feeling afraid to be in charge.”

“Confidence, you are capable, and you are good at what you do, so act like it. You would get into your
groove some days but other times I feel like it would be overwhelming. Be confident and when you establish
what you want, just continue to make sure the choir is following through the whole time.”

“Whenever you are warming up vocals with student, please try to be confident in what you will say next and
being less hesitant.”

“Be more confident in yourself!!! You are an amazing teacher, just be more confident in how you teach us! I
noticed you tended to second guess or question something you were doing when teaching the class as a
whole but rather when you were teaching us in sections it was a lot more personal, and I felt you taught much
better there. So just try to teach how you’d teach a small group!”

“When directing your own classroom be clearer when serious time is and when fun time is. Some classes
(that aren't as well behaved as Sumner's) might forget to respect "serious time" because of how much you
joke. I don't think it's such a big deal though with choir, like a science teacher would benefit more from this
advise.”

“Work on your conducting a little bit and signals to for each section to sing”

“I wish I could say there was something you could improve on but to be honest you were a great teacher.
You gave very solid advice and acted very professional. I would notice sometimes people in my chorale class
would talk over you but even then, you managed very well, stayed calm and proceeded to catch our attention.
I would say try and be harder on the student. I promise we appreciate a little bit of seriousness too, and it
makes us take things more seriously. And of course, just keep doing what you're doing:)”

“Your confidence, also playing the piano.”

“Maybe not making us stand a lot? Just kidding. But I don’t think you really need to improve in anything
unless someone else says otherwise.”

“I would suggest being a little more firm with students when needed. When people are not paying attention,
it is okay to raise your voice and take control because it is your classroom and you are the teacher so students
need to listen and respect you.”

“Honestly just make sure you keep the enthusiasm, it was really nice to have a teacher who can joke and
improve our singing at the same time.”

“I already think you’re an amazing teacher I just say be more confident in yourself. Mistakes are ok!”
Please offer words of affirmation. What did I (Mr. Pope) do well in/outside of the classroom?

“I really like that you got to learn every student so you could relate to us on personal levels. You showed
good understating of recognizing struggle & helping the class get past it.”

“You make students feel seen because you're good at showing individual attention in little ways. You don't
do this on purpose, it's a personality thing. This is probably why teens here is choir (including me) like you
so much. Also, you demonstrate stuff and demonstrate different parts (tenor, soprano, ect) which is helpful,
we would be lost without it.”

“It was so fun to have you in class. I loved building a friendship with you and becoming comfortable. It was
also nice to have someone who cared about my success in choir even though we’ve only known each other
for a couple months.”

“Your energy and overall mood is something I admired about your teaching. Especially when you tried sing
the higher notes just to assure us.”

“Connected with us students. Helped us better ourselves. Was very caring for us and made us feel great.”

“You are very charismatic and personable. You made everyone feel welcome and appreciated in the choir.
You were always open to suggestions and working on yourself.”

“You are amazing at connecting with students! In all my years in Sumner choirs never once have we had a
student teacher who truly connected with the students the way you did. The experience with you just felt
much more personal and meaningful as there wasn’t the weird parasocial disconnect that normally occurs.”

“You made an effort to make a personal connection with everyone and helped each section to the best of
your ability”

“Everything! You were so kind and a great teacher, the song you choose (sing to me) was so pretty. You’re
also really funny that you make us smile so hard and laugh.”

“You got along so great with the choir. You had all the right ideas and comments to make while rehearsing.
Inside the classroom you provided us with new warm ups and outside you chose to make connections with
your students and made sure we always had a good time. You brought the energy and we haven’t had this
cool of a student teacher in a long time. :)”

“You are very composed and you teach in ways that are helpful and easy to understand but at the same time
you are fun and being around you becomes one of the things that students look forward to when going to
class. This is an extremely important thing for me because school can be discouraging and difficult a lot of
times and when there is a teacher that both teaches well and is a friend to their students it really helps relieve
stress and brighten peoples' days. Also you are so talented and it is inspiring to see your devotion to music
and your passions. As they say, "you ate".”

“You were an amazing teacher. Very, taught me/us so much, and was very interactive with us. I like how you
introduced me to some fun vocal warmups, and how you taught us overall. Also, I liked how you used the
vocal warmups strategically to help us improve in our songs, and not just picking random vocal warmups
because you had to.”

“Kindness, humor, encouragement. You helped make me NOT afraid to sing louder, you helped me use my
voice.”