Random Ramblings

I just read MS_Teacher’s blog describing the 13 things that her students do that annoy her. Very funny, if you can relate to a middle school teacher. But, then again, we are a different breed. I would swear that the kids get together and plot to do these things intermittently just to drive us nuts.

This is MS_Teacher’s blog:

Thirteen Things Ms_Teacher’s students’ do that are annoying!

1. Coming to school without a pen, pencil or paper on a daily basis. I can understand if you lost it and I am very sympathetic the first couple of times. After that, I figure you are just trying to annoy me.

2. Whine about the grade I “gave” you. Okay, first off the grade you are given, you earned. You put in 13% of effort, guess what, that’s what you get in return. Let’s see how long you stay employed doing only 13% of a job (politicians notwithstanding!)

3. Smacking lips and rolling eyes. Seriously, sometimes I think you must have a muscle spasm, you do it so much!

4. Complaining that “it’s too hard.” Okay, maybe my memory is fuzzy or something, but when I was in school, we actually expected to work. We didn’t expect the teacher to give us the answers three ways to Sunday and still not know what to put down.

5. Asking me if you can re-take a quiz or a test when you get an A-. My dear, talk to your fellow classmates who are thrilled when they barely pass with a D-. I’m sorry if it’s crushing to your type A personality, but really, there is nothing wrong with something less than an A+!

6. Acting shocked when I ask if you did the work you missed when you were absent. I seriously think that some students believe that school completely stops when they are not present. It’s like we are stuck in a time warp, waiting to move again when they grace us with their presence.

7. Complaining when I ask you to write a complete sentence with the proper capitalization and punctuation. Some students actually act as if this is the first time a teacher has ever asked for more than a one word answer.

8. Bitching and moaning when I take away an item you weren’t supposed to have in the first place. Now, I know that you may think you’ll die if you don’t have your cell phone, MP3 players or camera or perhaps think your teeth will fall out if you don’t have your grills, but seriously you’ll live!

9. Asking me what page we’re on after I’ve not only said the page number at least 3 times, but also posting it on the board in bright purple so that everyone can see it. I actually think that some students not only expect me to take out their book for them, but they also think I’ll actually do the work!

10. Asking me if you have to do the assignment just sounds, well, stupid. You don’t have to do anything, but please see #2.

11. Saying something like, “this is boring.” Y’know, I could have swore when I signed my teaching contract there was nothing that said I was here to entertain anyone. There are going to be days when I’m highly innovative and we do fun things so that you can understand a difficult concept. Then there are going to be other day where you actually have to apply what you know and work. And, believe it or not, some people do find learning and expanding their knowledge to be highly entertaining. Seriously!

12. Asking me if I give extra credit. Again, see #2, however in case you still don’t get it, “extra” means more. You can’t even do what’s expected, so why should I give you more? Lest anyone think I’m being cold-hearted about this, students that ask for extra credit are usually the ones who do 13% of the work.

13. Forgetting to write your name on your paper. This one I really, really do not understand and it annoys me to no end. For the most part, it’s the same student(s) time after time who “forget” to write their name on their paper. Usually prior to turning in their work, I remind students make sure their name is on their paper, and yet, papers are still turned in nameless.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 10:53 pm Filed under Blog and. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.