Teacher Life: Memes

Here is the Bored Teachers article that this post is referencing.

#4 is my life as well.  They do have a million questions about the assignment (because they weren't listening) but those aren't important.  When your birthday is WAY more important!

#5  If you aren't putting out fire after fire are you even doing your job?

#8  This is always a challenging one.  One year I was teaching a 5/6 split class and when I asked the science head at the division for his recommendations on how to do it he said I had to teach all 8 units (4/grade) which would have been a huge undertaking with very little knowledge actually being retained and to be honest, likely quite boring.  In the end I split up the units and went with 2 from grade 5 and 2 from grade 6.  If I'm remembering correctly I even had my grade 6's choose our final unit (it was one from the grade 5 curriculum) because they would have (hopefully) learned it last year and so it was going to be a repeat.  No one ever came back to my classroom and told me I was doing it all wrong and I think the kids got a better science education this way than having to learn 8 units.

#9  This is a reason I do not like teaching ELA.  You have to read all their stories and try to make sense of them (and sometimes they are just SO boring).

#10  It's true.  Usually, the classes I sub in have wonderful kids that treat me well.  But, every so often, you get that one student who is just SO rude (and likely all because you suggested he do one page of math instead of two before drawing a picture).

#11 Thankfully I cannot relate to this one.  From what I hear, American teachers are way under paid and it is definitely not fair.  You are raising up the future generation of doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc and that is what they have decided is fair?  Hopefully at the end of the week you can afford more than a pack of gum.

#12  Maybe I was just way too detailed when I prepared for a sub but it did take a lot of effort!  I would stay at school later then I typically would, lay everything out on my front table for the day, and write a detailed sub plan for every class.  It always went very well (but I had pretty good classes)... I just like to be prepared (even when I'm not going to be there).  BUT, if you are really in a pinch hopefully your sub is more than capable of getting through a day where you have multiple periods of "read/write/draw" time written out.

#13  I experience this at least once a month.  Why oh why can't they go during the lunch hour!?!

#15  Yes!

#19  Yes, again!

#22 You know what I hated most of all about creating a seating chart?  My students insisting they needed a new one every month!  For some reason I obliged.  So there I would sit at the end of the day with all the desks drawn on a whiteboard scribbling in who would work well with who and who needed to be on the other side of the room from someone.... there was a lot of erasing!

#27  This is one of my biggest annoyances with being a teacher!  If you aren't going to listen the first time can you at least listen the 2nd time so I don't have to say it a 3rd time!?!

#33 One year I taught grade 4 and then the following year I would be teaching grade 5/6 (so some of those grade 4 students would continue to be my students the following year).  We would have meetings at the end of the year to decide which students everyone would be getting (so in my case I met with the other grade 5 teacher) and it wasn't necessarily the "problem" or "difficult" students we argued over but it was the sweet ones that we fought hard to have in our classrooms.

#39  Definitely!

#48  I'm not having you do the assignment as torture, I want to make sure you understand the material... go ahead and complain but the assignment will still be there when you are through.

#50 Because they are at home!  Are the rules the same at home?  Is your child expected to learn and work at home?  Is he/she with all of his/her very best friends at home?  Didn't think so.

#56  There was once a day that I think we had multiple fire drills in one period (and for reference one period is about 40 minutes).  It's not always the students that are doing the interrupting!

#62  Confession:  I would buy these pretty inexpensive gummies in bulk at Superstore and file them away in my filing cabinet.  I bought them for my students when they did something extra I asked them to do (like a few of them might stay late to tidy up the room or put art on the walls) but I allowed myself 5 at the end of every day.  Some days 5 turned into 10 which turned into 20.  Needless to say I made many a trip to the Superstore bulk candy section that year!

#79  I remember the time this happened to me. It was when I FINALLY started math groups and I finally heard what that little girl knew about math.  It was wonderful!

#91  Right?!?  They have loads of awesome ideas that sound oh so great but then when you try even just a little itty bitty thing that they suggested it goes nothing like it does in a room full of adults.  Ah well, at least you tried?