10 Things To Know Before Falling In Love With A Teacher
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If there’s a cute teacher that you seem to be falling for, you should know these facts about the teaching profession to know just what you are getting into. Sure, teachers are known to be caring and nurturing, but that’s not the entire story or a full picture of their personality. So, before you proceed any further, here are 10 things you need to know before you completely fall in love with a teacher.
1. Don’t Expect Them To Be The Decision Makers
Teachers are forever making decisions at work. It can be amongst themselves on who has to take the free period at the rowdiest class 10 section, making alternate plans for the lecture when the chemistry equipment fails, or even deciding punishments for those who didn’t bring their homework, they are a busy bunch. And that means that when they get home, they just want you to pick what’s for dinner, put on a particular channel and just let them put their feet up.
2. They’re Not Crass, Just Unwinding
Teachers have a moral responsibility to be PG-13 at work, all the time. Professionalism in the work sphere is one thing, sure, but when you’re around a bunch of kids all day being professional takes a whole new meaning. So if you see them letting their hair down, pouring themselves a drink and using profanities to explain why the new study plan won’t work, they’re just reminding themselves that they’re adults, nothing more.
3. Teachers Are Teachers Everywhere
You cannot simply expect a teacher to leave the most critical part of their persona at work, so if you see them scolding mischievous children at the grocery store or at the mall, know that this is who they are, and it doesn’t matter to them if the parents are present. Think of it as them doing some other teacher a favor.
4. If You Act Like A Child, You Will Be Treated As One
Teachers deal with warring children, spoilt children, entitled children, wicked children, crying children and all of the other variations that exist on a daily basis. They’re good at it. So if you act petulant and your behavior resembles that of a schoolchild, expect to be treated like one, and yes, it involves being reprimanded.
5. Teachers Consistently Have Their Hands Full
And no, we’re not talking about their crazy busy schedules. Teachers have to carry to and from class an assortment of paperwork, books, last night’s test sheets, their laptop, their lunch bag and of course, new chemistry lab equipment that they rushed out to pick up. Don’t judge them, just offer a hand.
6. There Are Always Papers To Be Graded And Lessons To Be Prepared
Contrary to popular opinion, teachers don’t spend any free periods lounging in the plush staff room. Instead, they have so much pending work to finish off, whether it’s grading all of their students papers – most teachers handle more than just one class – or preparing the lesson plan for tomorrow’s lesson. And of course, this work spills over to after school hours, hence the lugging around of a lot of work, literally.
7. There Will Be Acronyms
Talk to any teacher about their day, and they’ll start off with a slew of acronyms that you will not understand. The UGC has amended it’s ACRHEM program after all, now it covers within it all of the qualified NET and JRF persons… the point is, they’re not trying to drive you away, they’re just so wrapped up in it all that they forget you’re a lay person. And that’s okay, you don’t have to understand, just listen and nod.
8. Teachers Really Care About Their Students
This involves actually being peeved if they don’t do as well as the teacher had hoped, but also spending money on them. Whether it’s buying a box of crayons for the activity period, or treating them to lunch when they all perform spectacularly on their test, or picking up a particularly interesting showpiece for class. Don’t question it, but speak up if you have something to offer.
9. Their Hands Are Covered In Smudges
It could be black and blue markers, it could be little dots and dashes of ballpoint or even regular good old chalk. The point is, they’re aware of this and in fact, if they’re not particularly battle worn that day, they couldn’t cover all of their syllabus.
10. They Earn Their Summer Vacation
Teachers are very sensitive to even the slightest of ribbing as far as their summer vacations are concerned. To them, it is not only entirely deserved, but also a chance to brush up their skills so that the classes they take next semester are even more kick ass. You have been warned.
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