How my teachers must have felt all those years! As I have been teaching for a few years in Korea, I realize all of the little pet peeves my teachers must have had: students trying to finish homework in class, drawing on the desks, one-word/monosyllabic answers, playing with things in class, forgetting books/homework, passing notes...the list goes on and on.
Every time a student commits one of these infractions, I grit my teeth, administer the proper punishment, and silently offer a prayer to all of my former teachers for tolerating and instructing me. I also silently hope that I was never that bad of a student! (I'd like to think not, since I went through school as a fairly quiet child who rarely--if ever--forget her homework. And yes, you can put the geek/nerd comments away now, thanks. :-p)
The saying goes that you don't really know someone until you've walked a mile in his or her shoes. And I think now I can really understand what that means.
Fellow teachers: what's your biggest teaching pet peeve?
What? Nobody's responded?
ReplyDeleteMy biggest complaint is the idea of saying 'yes' to save face, whether you understand what you're being told or not. If you say yes, that means yes - not 'I'm saving face, but don't necessarily understand you'...
Thanks for your comment! I dislike the saving face and saying "yes" to avoid losing it. But it really irks me when I've just spent 10 minutes explaining something and come to find out the student never really understood it, despite saying yes.
ReplyDelete