No matter what school you teach at, what year groups you have, what subject you teach, there are some things that are true for every teacher… Content writer Amanda talks us through some universal truths.
Wind Affects Behaviour
Slight breeze or hurricane season, if it is windy, students seem to take on the characteristics of a tornado, boisterously wreaking destruction wherever they pass. This isn’t to say that this is the only weather condition that affects students. Rainy? Behaviour affected. Too hot? Behaviour affected. Too cold? Behaviour affected (and someone always points out their human rights are being affected because schools have to be a certain temperature or they should all be sent home…). Unless it is the optimal temperature and weather condition, expect things to be a bit chaotic!
There Will Always Be a Glue Stick without a Lid
It doesn’t matter if you hand out only one at a time, threaten them with every terrible punishment you can think of or beg them on your hands and knees, students will always lose at least one of the lids. Even the threat of being kept in at break time until it is found rarely works and then you end up with a dried up, crusty glue tip with inevitable hairs and miscellaneous grit and rubbish stuck to it. Cue skin crawl!
What Goes Around, Comes Around!
Every six or seven years, a new teaching trend will take every school up and down the country by storm. Remember lolly sticks or random name selectors? Remember the craze of independent learning and Solo Taxonomy? What about VAK learning styles? They may come back with different names, but all of these fads find their way back into the education cycle just like all of the 90s bands making a comeback! Stay in teaching long enough and you might even see them make the rounds a third or fourth time!
Students Will Always See You in the Strangest of Places
Supermarket shopping at 8pm one evening? One of your little lovelies will be waltzing past, eyeing up your trolley contents ready to report back (‘Miss Wallis was buying three bottles of wine!’). Flown four hours to another country? Guess who’ll be waiting by the pool? On a night out to let your hair down? Yep, you’ve guessed it! You’ve been student-spotted! Past and present students will pop up in the unlikeliest of places, but actually, the loveliest thing about it is that they will also remember you, want to tell you what they are up to and sometimes even thank you for teaching them. Makes you feel a bit warm and slushy inside, doesn’t it?
No Matter How Much You Moan You Know That It’s Still the Best Job in the World!
Late nights marking? Probably. Exhausted by the middle of the term? More than likely. Still feel that little spark of excitement when it finally clicks for a student? Definitely! Teaching is one of the hardest, most challenging, exciting, rewarding jobs in the world. The conversations you have with students, the jokes and banter that you hear and the incredible knowledge of the power of your influence is something that many jobs just can’t hold a candle to!
Did we miss anything? What other universal truths are there in the teaching profession? Let us know!
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