To ask teachers what your pet peeves are?

[Collettegirl]

Personally mine are wet playtimes, and children who don't have a pen/pencil.

Greensleeves I do confiscate the shoes of serial velcro pullers. They have to change into their PE pumps.

My sons pe shoes have Velcro

GCSE re-sit kids fucking 18year olds turning up to mocks (and most lessons) without a bastard calculator despite being told every lesson since September that they need one (I offered to loan discreetly from my own pack if students needed to before I get told they might not be able to afford one)

Students who score 25/80 on the bastard mocks not going back over the paper and redoing questions I spent all weekend putting hints / tips on.

Primary year group colleagues who would spend the entire morning break relaxing in the staff room then pop into my room just as I had started the next lesson, expecting me to stop everything to explain the lesson plan and show them where to get resources etc. I don’t think I ever took a morning break, apart from a quick wee and glass of water. Always needed the time to make sure I knew what I was doing and had all the resources ready for the class coming in as well as make a start on the endless marking.

@ourkidmolly

Point is, it smells like bullshit. What's the school?

Wow, how rude. Why on earth would I make something like that up? Many previous posters have already said they've experienced it too. How utterly bizarre you are. I'm absolutely not naming the school as it would be extremely outing due to the fact that I was a pupil and a teacher there.

RE. waterbottles - it's school policy for all children to have a waterbottle. I don't give constant access, they only have access at breaks and lunch, however our school ditched communal cups so if a child doesn't have a water bottle, they don't have a drink. They must be taken home every day and brought back in the morning. For the two that don't have them, I bought, as well as a few spares. I keep them in school and put them in the dishwasher after class as if they went home I know they wouldn't come back. Unfortunately it's just a fact that I end up buying things like that, fruit, food to keep in the classroom just in case someone hasn't eaten that morning, spare socks and pants, a spare coat and hat etc. It's sad.

That’s sad anxious.. how thoughtful and kind.
My only peeve... still not sure if it’s a teachers peeve or a parents one.. but here goes... restricted access to toilet. Makes me cross, kids are all different, some can wait, some cant.

I've not bothered to trawl through all this thread, it was getting aggressive on page 1.
Meeting parents is often instructive, you can see why the children are like they are, the self-centred child has similar parents, such as the father who during a parents; evening meeting, walked to the side of the room to take a phone call then expected me to repeat everything I'd just said. It was allegedly an 'important work call' but when I said I was glad that they'd managed to arrange their golf he called me rude and lazy. I walked out of the room.
Not bothering to bring the most basic equipment to exams, I would supply the necessary but one piece at a time, I would walk to the front of the Hall to get a pen, then a pencil etc etc.

missiondecision
Agree.
I'd always much rather work in a common sense school on toilets.

The trick is then making sure that kids are taught not to take the mick qnd promote individual responsibility.

When parents take their kids out term time for holidays (fine - non of my business) but then come back and expect me to give up an hour after school to catch them up. Nope..sorry, I have my own children to see outside of the teaching day.

This..'miss, when am I ever going to need to use trigonometry/algebra/transformation in my life?' Well probably fucking never little johnny but the fact is it's on the syllabus and I have to teach it sooo

Pupils that remember their Iphone 8s/contour kits/lipgloss/earphones but can't remember a fucking pen.

Having to set homework. Every week. And then chase it up. And then mark it. Seriously, I just don't want to set it. Kids get nothing from it at all.

Parents who believe everything their kids tell them.. 'oh hi miss turnovers, x tells me that you have him a detention today, purely because he dropped his pen on the floor, can you tell me why this happened as I feel you're picking on him' oh, so he didn't tell you he threw his pen across the room at another pupil before telling me to fuck off when I told him to pick it up? Fantastic.

I don’t restrict access to the toilet, but a know a few teachers that do.
I just say ‘ok, you can go, but try to remember to go at break/ during the register next time.’
Then I let them go again next time they ask, because kids are kids. They have more important things to do at playtime than go for a wee.
Some kids do take the piss (ha), walking sloooooooowly down the corridor, but they get a little ticking off. They soon learn you don’t get away with it with Mrs Nuff.

@ourkudmolly

Ma'am was used to address female teachers in my school too. In the U.K., normal not private school. It wasn't that uncommon a few years ago

This happens at the state school I teach in today, and the state school my son attends, both in the UK.

The is a huge power imbalance between calling someone "Miss" and someone else "Sir", and fortunately some schools now recognise this.

I find with younger children "ask me again in 5 minutes" tends to weed out the piss takers. If they genuinely want the toilet they'll ask again. 9 times out of 10 the ones who don't need it will forget

Maybe younger children just can’t tell the time 😁

Shedmice with the really little ones likes reception and nursery I say in a little while. I don't really expect them to understand the concept of 5 minutes

Snotty sixth formers who think they can do it alone despite ALL their work making it painfully clear that they can't. Same sixth formers being all contrite at parents evening when this is pointed out, then going right back to the attitude afterwards. Fucking fine matey but you will fail if you keep this up AND THEY STILL DON'T CHANGE! Aaaargh!

MrsDesiree PREACH!

6th Formers Drive me round the bend. I actually had one opt out of lesson because ‘I don’t learn in class’. She had this wonderful tutor who had told her that she could do it alone

I had to point out that it was a terrible idea and that she might learn something in the lesson if she put her fucking phone away, stop talking constantly and do some sodding work, ever.

Any guesses how she got on with her exams?

I’m not sure little ones would understand what in a little while means either! I was being flippant and light hearted anyhow!

Attention seeking children. There's usually an underlying reason for it and I try really really hard to be patient, but a whole day of being tapped on the shoulder umpteen times, had work shoved in my face, kids following me around, interrupting constantly, making noises, shouting out Mrs Rainbow (usually pronounced wrongly) can take its toll. I occasionally growl 'sit DOWN NOW'. I'm not a shouty teacher but do have a good strong glare.
I'm training them out of it with lots of stickers and praise (year 1).

Exactly that Turnock about pens

I remember someone telling me that "Ma'am" for female teachers happens in Kent.

It is so easy to recognise the 'performance parents' On this post. If your child needs nappies at 4, that is a problem. If your child cannot dress at 4, this is also a problem. A teacher is allowed to be annoyed with this. your dear child is not exempt.

Also, it is understandable that if a child has some sort of disability, they are going to be slower, however, a teacher is still allowed to be annoyed when they have to dress and change said child (understandable or not).

I take my hat off to teachers, They help bring our children up. having two kids is hard enough, add another 20 and these things would annoy me too!

If a teacher is annoyed by a child with a genuine disability that teacher should look at alternative employment options user1985. Disability discrimination is not acceptable, no matter what the profession of the person doing the discriminating.

Well said Incy