Hate is a strong word – but without a doubt, every teacher ever will agree that there are some things that we just hate.

Yellow Felt Tips

Yellow felt tips. They sound innocent enough but in reality, they’re designed to bring you nothing but misery. Letting your students use one is an exercise in futility because the instant the tip of the pen meets any other colour on the page, it suddenly becomes a ‘muddy brown/black’ instead of a nice vibrant yellow.

The instant someone invents a yellow felt tip that doesn’t do this, the teaching community alone will make that person an overnight millionaire.

False Fridays

Waking up on a Friday morning is an excellent feeling. Just a few more hours between you and the weekend. There’s a spring in your step as you get ready, think about your timetable for the day and arrive at school with the world’s biggest grin. Your form come and go, wishing them a good weekend as they leave, and then reality hits you.

Where’s my Friday period 1 class? It’s been 5 minutes. Is there an extended assembly? Maybe a mock exam? Okay. It’s been ten minutes now. I’m going to ask someone if there’s something I don’t know about.

Of course, your buddy doesn’t know where to look when they break the news. It’s Thursday morning. But it is your PPA time. Every cloud, I suppose.

IT Equipment

Broad, I know, but please stick with me on this one. Computers are great as a general rule but whenever it comes to using IT in the classroom, disaster will always strike. From tablets with no battery to a projector system that is no use the instant sunlight breaks the clouds, IT has it out for teachers and that’s why it makes it way onto this list. Don’t even get me started on having to recalibrate the smart board.

Whole-School Detention

If there’s one thing to be said about detention, it’s the fact that teachers and students alike hate the fact that they’re stuck in a room with people who really don’t want to be there. This is doubly true for teachers. Not only is sitting through pro-longed whole-school detention utterly boring, but you also have to be acutely aware of even the slightest behaviour infraction thus leaving you with marking and planning that is begging for an extra hour of your time. Ew.

Losing Equipment

Losing equipment is the worst. Imagine a situation for a moment:

“We had 15 glue sticks at the beginning of the lesson, everyone. Four of them now have missing lids. No one is going anywhere until we find them. Look under the chairs, in the cupboards and in your bags. We need to find those lids.”

Blood boiling yet? Imagine this situation…

“Five of you have taken pens from the pen station at the beginning of the lesson. I’ve only got three and a half back. They’ve all been chewed, two have leaked and the ‘half’ I have back is the wrong end. Please don’t eat my pens.”

Yep. Losing equipment is the worst.

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