Start-of-Year Student Surveys

This year, perhaps more than any in the past, it will be important for me to get to know my students as quickly as possible. At the start of each year, I administer a survey to facilitate this process. Many of the questions that I ask are from start-of-year surveys shared by John Burk and Brian Frank. Each summer, I revisit the survey to add some questions and remove others. This summer, I created an additional assignment in Canvas where students submit an audio recording of themselves saying their name. My hearing isn’t the best, and I hope that having a recording to play over and over again will help me ensure that I pronounce every students’ name correctly.

I administer the survey as a Google Form, but that isn’t important. However, I think it is important that they can read my answers to the same survey questions (when relevant). I revise these answers each summer. This also facilitates the relationship building and provides students an incentive to complete the survey.

Below are the questions on the survey. For some, I’ve provided some context in italics.

  • student email addresses are automatically collected
  • What is your name?
  • In which class period are you?
    • I can look this up, but having the data in one place saves me time.
  • What do you preferred to be called? (nickname)
  • What is your GitHub user name?
    • This is only included in my software engineering class where students already have GitHub accounts.
  • What are your gender pronouns?
  • Do you have any brothers or sisters? If so, what are their names?
    • On occasion I don’t make the connection between siblings until I meet the parents at open house or conferences.
  • Are you responsible for caring for younger siblings on days when you are learning from home?
    • This is a new question this year. While I plan to have synchronous and asynchronous resources, I want to know which students have this responsibility.
  • What languages do you speak at home?
  • Did you attend another high school?
  • If so, which one?
  • Select all IT and computer science classes which you have taken.
  • Select all IT and computer science classes which you are currently taking at NNHS.
    • These two questions let me know which shared experiences we already have and will have throughout the year.
  • Select all math classes which you have taken.
  • Select all math classes which you are currently taking.
    • My computer science classes are not math heavy at all. However, I’m curious if there is a correlation between math background and success in my computer science classes.
  • I signed up for this class because…
    • A large number of choices are presented. These answers help the CTE department focus its recruiting efforts and measure their effectiveness.
  • What extracurricular school commitments do you have? (activities, athletics, clubs, etc.)
  • What commitments outside of school do you have? (activities, athletics, clubs, jobs, etc.)
  • The next several questions are answered on a Likert scale.
  • I can conveniently access a computer outside of school.
  • I can conveniently access the internet outside of school.
  • I like science, technology, engineering, or math.
  • I like stories about science, technology, engineering, or math.
  • I plan to pursue further studies in science, technology, engineering, or math. (for example, in college)
  • I plan to pursue further studies in a computing-related field. (for example, computer science, computer engineering, software engineering)
  • Which best describes you?
    • I proactively communicate with my teachers and feel comfortable in doing so. Expect to hear from me early and often.
    • I would like to proactively communicate with my teachers, but I sometimes feel uncomfortable taking the initiative to do so. I appreciate it when teachers reach out.
    • I only reach out to my teacher if things are not going well, and that suits me fine.
    • Communicating with teachers is something that can make me feel uncomfortable. I will hesitate to reach out even if things aren’t going well.
  • Explain why you picked this choice.
  • What should I know about your prior experience with computers?
  • What motivates you?
  • What are your goals for this year?
  • What can I do, as your teacher, to help you learn best?
  • If you are struggling in this class, what can I do to help you?
  • If you are struggling in this class, what will you do to help yourself?
  • What do you like most about yourself?
  • Tell me about something you’re good at UNRELATED to computers.
  • What do you think of when you hear the word computer science?
  • How do you think computer science might be useful for your future goals?
  • What’s the last idea that fascinated you?
  • Who is your favorite teacher and why?
    • The answers to this question gives me insight into what students’ value in a teacher. At times, I share these kind words with teachers that are mentioned, while keeping the student anonymous.
  • What are your hobbies?
  • What are your potential career interests?
  • Anything else I should know?
    • This is the most important question on the survey. Simply providing students an opportunity to share something else has been incredibly helpful. There is much that students are not comfortable in sharing at the start of the year, but some are.

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