To ask teachers what your pet peeves are?

[Collettegirl]

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

yup
no homework until year 10
then at school like a prep

I'm a TA. I don't want to change nappies and would find another job if I was expected to. School is not a nursery.

Children who start school in nappies (when there is no medical reason), parents complaining about unnamed lost property, parents not returning reading books or reading at home with their children but then moaning about reading, obvious use of games consoles/tablets to babysit.

Being interrupted mid flow so they can ask me a question about the task--the task I'm in the process of explaining, if they'd shut up and listen.

When they talk to each other and ignore me all through my explaining the task and then hands go up with "so what are we doing?"

Of course, I'm lucky enough to be able to get away with telling them "well if you had shut up talking for three minutes you would have heard the instructions so now you're stuck asking the people around you. God helps those that help themselves--I help people who listen to me."

I'd love parents to be a fly on the wall. They would be mortified.

This is so true. We had an incident on the bus when a parent absolutely refused to believe that her daughter could have had any involvement at all. When the bus company provided CCTV footage, she was so mortified I actually felt sorry for her. She said that it was watching a child she'd never seen before.

Parents who don't read with their children.
Parents who do their children's homework.
Parents who give their children a lunchbox full of sugar.
Wet play.
Assembly.
RE.
National Testing.
Homework for primary school children.
Ridiculous marking schemes in KS1.

Oops. Formatting fail. That was supposed to be an em-dash, not strikeout!!

When you explain what today's class is going to cover, the learning objectives, and which materials and apps on the computer the students need (it was an IT class), then as soon as you've finished, a hand goes up and a student says "so what do we need to do?"
This was FE as well. I even tried getting the attention of the main culprits first and saying "Jemima, Colin, I'm explaining WHAT WE ARE DOING TODAY now so you need to pay attention."

The most serious peeve I had with FE was that teachers were judged on their results, with no taking into account of previous student attainment levels. Courses where not enough students passed were canned. This led to students being passed when they hardly ever showed up and failed to submit any decent work, and even when they had been violent and disruptive.

Any attempt at making things fairer for the students who did make an effort and produced good work, by making sure that at least grading reflected that, led to investigations into why the teacher's marks weren't high enough, and accusations that they weren't teaching properly if students weren't achieving. It was a really poisonous atmosphere.

If not in their contract, TAs cannot be forced to change nappies but the school has an obligation to do it.

oh kids who make shit up and tell their parents " she looked at my phone then threw it in the bin and hit me(!)'
I have started telling the kids off for this afterwards because it wastes my time and stops me helping other kids learn

@faithinthesound I'd absolutely love you teaching my kids. I'm constantly telling them to stop chatting and pay attention .

Oh, two more!

Parents who think jumpers are the responsibility of the teacher.
Trying to get glue sticks out of the school stationery cupboard guarded by the school secretary is like trying to get to the Philosopher's Stone.

When children refer to you as 'Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssss' 😡

And when you've caught little Jonny picking his nose, hands down his pants, asked him to wash his hands. He doesn't do it but then he wants to hold your hand/touch your face when he wants to talk to you. 🤢

Yup, former EY teacher.

Children who struggle to learn to tell the time, have an X -box but not a watch.

all kids call teachers miss

OR mum obv

Parents who talk to you as if you're the hired help. This week I was told 'What I want you to do now is find my daughter's shoes because they're brand new and cost me a lot of money.' Had to gently point out that I actually had more pressing things to do at that moment.

Laughing at defensive parents on this thread. Nobody cares about your situation, that's not what the thread is about.

We had one years ago that called everyone 'miss', even his male teacher and the headmaster.

Not a peeve though. He was a really sweet kid.

Yes Poodle, boys who sit there with their hands down their pants while you address the class, and then don't understand why you don't want them touching you or the stuff on your desk.

College administrators who jealously guard access to the photocopier, leading to teachers being bollocked by the SMT for not providing class handouts.

"Oh my days!!!!"

all kids call teachers miss

Nope. Miss is banned where I teach. It's Miss or Mrs Surname.

We weren't allowed to call our teachers Miss when I was in school either. It was Mrs/Miss Surname or Ma'am.

"Why do we have to do this".
"Why can't we do so and so"
Coming in from break and complaining about trivial things.

Child: "Miss can I go to the toilet"
Me: "You should have gone at break"
Child: "I forgot Miss"
Me: "Tough"
Child "But Mi". By now I'm losing patience and tell them if they ask again they will lose some golden time.

When you are mid flow explaining something important to a class and a child gets up, wanders across the room, walking directly in front of you to sharpen a pencil in the bin/ get a glue stick/ get a drink of water from their bag...Hasn’t happened often but always make a point of stopping, watching them and keep them back at the end of class for wasting my time.

Then you buy velcro shoes and coats with buttons.

Clearly you haven't had to endure the sound of 30 children repeatedly opening and closing their velcro shoes.

anxious that is unusual IME

We do provide equipment. Still annoying when children return from break and 3 or 4 have suddenly lost their pencil.

To be fair I'm 57 and between writing something down and then doing something else I often can't find my pen/pencil too - even though it's only been a matter of minutes sometimes