Teacher asks students to fill questionnaire on substitute teacher's class and they went all out

It is quite common for teachers to hand out tasks for students when they are absent, but to give out a questionnaire to check how their day is going is quite unusual. A teacher, who is also a TikTok user, @fairyniceofyou, shared a now-deleted video of what the responses of her students were, and it gave her some interesting insights about them. She says in the video, "I'm going to read their responses because they had me laughing." One student responded, "The sub is very snippy and rude and takes her job way too seriously. I miss you." Another student wrote, "I walked in on time and she said I was late when the second bell never rang yet. I respectfully told her 'no' because it was true and she called me rude. Overall my day is going pretty good."

The student added, "The class is on good behavior but the sub was just a little cranky." One more student complained about the sub. "She left the door unlocked and people from other classes looking for you walked in and walked right out after they saw the sub." According to a different student's response, the discipline administrator called Miss Blank and “started telling people to go take off their shoes if they had Crocs on,” further writing, “It was so stupid lol.”

Mandie mentioned that out of 250 kids, only 26 submitted their responses. "But what I learned is that this method gives quiet students a way to communicate," she says in the video. "Almost all the responses that I got are from students that never talk in class," she added. Experts say this kind of outreach works for quiet students who do not engage vocally in class. A 2020 study published in The Journal of the Learning Sciences found that when teachers provide alternative formats, such as written reflections, low-pressure surveys, or individualized prompts, those quiet students are more likely to express themselves. It emphasized that successful engagement starts when teachers recognize subtle cues, like facial expressions, body language, or participation in nonverbal ways, and respond with inclusive strategies that lower the social stakes.

The video went viral with more than 2.2 million views and is captioned, "Sharing the 9th grade with you all." Many on the platform appreciated the teacher for the relationship she built with the children. @sfj07118 commented, "You can tell the safe relationship you have built with these learners for them to respond so freely without judgment." @shoemafia_kels commented, "The teacher that rolls around on that knee thing came in .. I don't know what for," took me out." @tojislovebot commented, "This is great because I always had subs who were so weird and then told our teacher that we were behaving poorly, and then we would get in trouble!!" @brittany.michele commented, "I love this so much. I wish my teachers did this when I was in school. I hope my kids' teachers do this."

Many people admired the teacher for her incredible idea to use Google Forms with quiet students. @regananddanielle commented, "As a quiet student, can confirm I would indeed be the one to fill out the survey." @just_mckinley commented, "Yup, as a kid that didn’t really talk in class I 100% would’ve filled this out." @jacobrogotzke commented, "Thank you for doing this. Sincerely, one of the quiet kids." @bailey.shayne commented, "My professor use to do these every Friday as the warm-up, and it really helped easily communicate with him without having to do it during class time."

You can follow @fairyniceofyou on TikTok for more lifestyle content.

This article originally appeared 2 years ago.