Ever wonder what teachers secretly find annoying? Turns out some are about tidiness. I talked to some teachers to find out their pet peeves in the classroom.
The first teacher I interviewed was Miss. Dunn, a history teacher, said, “Kids who ask ten thousand times, ‘Miss, what are we doing?’ after giving instructions and asking if they have any questions.” As Miss. Dunn’s response shows that repeating yourself after saying it so many times can be frustrating and make you feel unheard, even though Miss. Dunn and many other teachers give students a chance to ask questions. There’s always going to be somebody asking what they’re doing after.
Miss. Dunn also shared another one of her pet peeves, “Kids leaving trash after themselves, one time I had a kid leave an open milk carton, by the time I found it, it was rotten. Ever since I’ve been more strict about kids leaving trash,” she said. It’s easy for students to forget their trash, especially when they’re rushing and packing their things right before the bell rings, but it’s important to remember to throw it away, since every classroom has a trash and recycling bin.
Another teacher I interviewed was Mr. Mceachen, an art teacher whose pet peeve was students’ organizational skills.
Mceachen said, “Probably when people aren’t organized, I give them folders, and they lose things. I give them things to organize their stuff, but they don’t organize them.”
Students might lose their work because it’s hard to keep track of all the assignments for all their other classes. Mr. Mceachen’s art students often work on larger-sized papers, which students usually don’t like to carry around in their backpacks. To help them keep track of their work and so they don’t lose their things, Mr. Mceachen allows students to keep their artwork in a drawer labeled with their class period, and he also gives folders to whoever needs them.
Next, I interviewed Mr. Scott, an English teacher, who spoke about students’ attention spans.
“Cellphones and students not having an attention span, students aren’t okay with being bored because they’re so used to little snippets of information from their phones, when they get to reading or writing more than a paragraph, they don’t want to do it,” he said.
Phones can be distracting and affect attention spans. People get used to watching short videos, which are usually fifty seconds or less on social media. This makes it harder to concentrate and focus on longer tasks, like reading or watching a two-hour-long movie.
Ultimately, it was interesting to see what these three teachers from different subjects had as pet peeves. It shows how teachers from different subjects have similar problems, often about being organized and paying attention.
