Mumsnet users discuss phrases that teachers always say

[EllieMumsnet]

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With National Teacher Day coming up on the 8th May MNHQ would love to know the phrases you remember your teachers always saying….also if you are currently a teacher please share the phrases you most commonly use during your classes.

Do you have strong memory of one of your teachers always using the ‘I’m not angry just disappointed’ line? Perhaps whenever your teacher was annoyed at someone they would say ‘It’s your own time your wasting’? Or maybe as a teacher you’re becoming known for saying one phrase in particular?

Whatever phrases you remember your teachers always saying, comment on the thread below to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

My teacher always said there is no such thing as can’t you can only try your best ( not sure that makes sense really but I say the same thing to my children 🤣🤣🤣)

It's your future not mine

when we were all talking and having a laugh the teacher would always but in and say ‘would you like to share that with the rest of the class’
Not a chance in hell would I like to stand up and tell everyone about the bit of chewing gum stuck on the back of her skirt!🤦🏽‍♀️

Chairs have 4 legs for a reason, the last person that swung on a chair died!
Don't worry if you have a bad head, just put a wet paper towel on it

Listen with your ears not your mouth

I always remember my teacher loudly interrupting my daydream with a "I'm so glad that whatever is outside the window is more important than my lesson to you but kindly get back to work".

Oh Dear....I was naughty at school, I guess nowdays they call it ADHD, but i was just labelled as lovely but naughty, and the phrase i heard the most, was go and stand outside !

would you like to share with the class what you are chatting about? was a stock question from my English teacher. I was always being told off for talking in lesson.

Oh dear - the main one was always 'could do better' but one teacher always used to say 'open the doors for your teachers because they open many doors for you' - never forgot that ha ha

I remember being told to enjoy every moment of school as I would look back as an adult and realise these were the best days of my life, as a teacher I also tell my pupils this...and many come back years later and say they wish they had listened!

"It's your future..."

"That's a word to catch you out." Words with unusual spellings, such as "sugar".

"Only open your mouth to put food in."

"If you don't know what 'silence' means, look it up in a dictionary."

"Let's see your faces!" I never heard "eyes on me".

"You're the slave of the blackboard today." In a small reading group, one child would have the duty of rubbing out, but I was only the "slave" once because I kept playing with the board rubber. Having explained the word "pounce" to us, the teacher whisked it away from me, saying triumphantly "and I've just 'pounced' on Wanderings".

"Oh... I'm not sure how we say that word, we'll have to ask our teacher from New Zealand." We had some reading books from New Zealand which had the words "manuka" and "pohutukawa". Only one teacher knew for certain how to pronounce them! These days it would be ask Google.

"Death to anyone who hasn't done it."

Secondary school PE teacher (at full volume): "Don't cross the road, there's a bus coming!!" To pupils who were slow to react.

the bell is for me not you
stand in a strait line and wait for me to tell you all to come in
Please go to your assigned seat

Could do better if she would stop daydreaming _ still the same today!!

"I'm glad to see 'please', rather than 'I want'". Reading our letters to [santa].

While the class was a little hysterical: "It's not a daddy-long-legs, it's a crane fly."

"You're not peeping? You're not cheating? You're not looking?" Always said by one teacher when she blindfolded the first child for a game or science experiment. Subsequent children were asked "can you see?".

My Geography teacher used to say "Empty vessels make the most noise" Just before grabbing your shoulder OUCH .

My reports always said "Margo could try harder" - which was absolutely true!

I am a English teacher and find myself saying stuff my teachers said to me - “ I’m here all day you know !” Oh the dog ate your homework did it ?

"I've got my earthquake shoes on." Geography teacher, just before jumping off a table to demonstrate an earthquake measuring level 1 on the Richter scale. He then got ten of us to the same all at once to demonstrate level 2.

Eyes on the blackboard
The bell is for me not you

i actually cant remember anything that was said to me by my teachers, whether that means i didnt listen enough i dont know

It's your time you're wasting...I get paid regardless

her brain works too fast for her hand (awful handwriting)
there is no need to for the word got

Life is hard but very beautiful