Teachers Dish: On Experiences In The Classroom

As anyone who knows me will attest to – I ask a lot of questions. Not because I’m annoying (although that is definitely a part of it) but mainly because I’m curious – and typically very interested. I mean – how else do you come to learn about other people – than by asking them to share their experiences in life?

And so I put forth a request for teachers to share their stories – anonymously of course. For entertainment purposes, for curiosity’s sake – so I (as the writer) and you (as the reader) can temporarily bask in a few experiential snippets of the life of a teacher.

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As a result, some amazing people from the education field reached out and supplied me with the treasure I was after – their memorable classroom experiences.

What you are about to read are the experiences and memories that have stayed with them. Some are hilarious, some are heartwarming and a few are downright disturbing. Some show connections made; others compassion and sympathy discovered; and some depict the inevitable changes occurring within society.

Below are their stories – from real teachers, former teachers, college professors, a former teaching assistant, principals, a social worker and a former school aide. These are their most memorable classroom experiences – stories that for whatever reason stick out foremost in their minds; stories they recounted to me; stories that you may very well enjoy reading about.

Ms. Lippy* (Kindergarten teacher)

– Years ago, there was a little boy in my class. He would go around class and tell anyone who would listen that his father bought a tiki bar or that he got to help his father out at the tiki bar. One day, during show-and-tell, he told the class that he went with his father to the tiki bar to help paint it – but he was only allowed to go when it was closed – never open. I took the bait and asked him what exactly a tiki bar was – and he replied (very seriously): It’s a place where ladies dance around and show their tikis.

Ms. Johnson* (former secondary school English teacher)

– One of my colleagues used to assign his students a book to read. Afterward they had to present a creative art project to reflect the book in some way. It was very open-ended as he wanted his kids to be imaginative and think outside the box. One time, the student presented a beautifully iced, home-baked cake as representative of her book. To this day, I cannot remember the book in question – I wish I could – but it was about a family who was concerned more about the image they projected rather than the reality that existed. When the cake was sliced, the rest of the class saw that it was full of raw hamburger – so definitely not as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. The teacher was impressed and gave this student an A+ – but he had actually eaten a bit of the cake before the student revealed there was raw meat inside. Lesson learned – he never ate another class project again!

Ms. Vaughn* (former elementary school teacher)

– About ten years ago, I was teaching a Grade 2 class and we were taking part in our morning routine. The kids sat on the mat while I wrote a sentence up on the board (full of errors I was hoping they would catch). I noticed one little boy sitting on the mat masturbating. I casually took him aside and told him that while what he was doing was completely normal, it just wasn’t appropriate in the classroom during our morning routine. I also told him this was something he should discuss with his parents at home. I wanted to be sensitive to him – and not make him feel bad – but obviously the situation needed to be addressed.

Mr. Dunne* (former social worker for the board of education)

– I got a call from a teacher about one of her young pupils. She was a smart kid yet never completed her homework. The teacher was frustrated as when she questioned the girl about why her homework was never done, she wouldn’t answer. I talked to the girl myself – and after speaking to some of my colleagues who knew about this child (as well as her living situation), we figured out that her mother worked as a prostitute. Each evening, the girl would be confined to a dark closet while her mother turned tricks – so she was unable to get her homework done. We reached a simple solution in this case – that didn’t punish anyone but just solved the problem. I had her teacher stop giving her detentions (due to the incomplete homework) and instead keep her after school each day for about ten or fifteen minutes so she could get her homework done. Nothing more.

Ms. Watson* (former university teaching assistant)

– Twenty years ago, I was teaching a first year expository writing class to university students. On the first day of class, I recognized one of my students as someone I had just gotten into a car accident with a few days before – it had been my fault. As soon as she entered the classroom, I recognized her. I figured it would be best to be upfront about the situation and clear the air so I approached her before I began teaching. It turned out that she hadn’t recognized me at all! I could totally have let it go. It ended up being really awkward as other students were listening in. Plus, she didn’t laugh the situation off – she looked at me like was I a stupid idiot. Later on, I was worried that she’d be a bad student – how could I possibly give her a bad grade after driving into her? Luckily, she turned out to be a straight A student the entire semester. She never did like me though.

Ms. Mason* (secondary school English teacher)

– Years ago, when I first began teaching (more than 20 years ago), I was teaching an English class and gave a boy in my class a grade lower than he (and his father) liked. I began receiving harassing prank calls at all hours and a letter was even sent to my school complaining about my instruction as well as the kid’s mark. Thankfully, the admin team at my school was very supportive and shut it all down once they realized what was going on. The father was trying to intimidate me because he thought that I was too young to know what I was doing – plus he considered English to be a subjective class. The kicker is that this guy was a retired principal! As a side-note, the kid went on to flunk out of university.

Ms. Hughes* (elementary school teacher)

– When September 11th happened, I was teaching Grade 1 at the time. We were given advice from our board on how to help the children cope with the images they were seeing on tv. Specifically, they wanted us to address the fact that the images they were seeing on tv were repeating – many children believed that planes were continuously crashing into towers. I was working with another teacher in a team setting and together we sat the children down and spoke to them about what happened – particularly why it had happened. We chose our words carefully and tried to explain things in a way they’d understand. I can’t remember exactly what we said but it was something to the effect of: there were two groups of people angry with each other and one group wanted to hurt the other group so they chose to do this by crashing planes into buildings where people were working. Of course the other teacher and I were both very emotional and we had a difficult time getting through the conversation. The kids had so many questions and we tried our best to answer them all. The question I remember the most came from a little boy who rarely offered his ideas or asked any questions. He put his hand up and quietly asked: “If they were angry with each other, why didn’t they just use their words?” I immediately burst into tears as did my teaching partner. To hear this child speak simple words of wisdom – and apply what he had learned at school toward another outside conflict was truly inspiring. To this day, I still tear up when I think of this – I will never forget it.

Mr. Raditch* (former teacher and elementary school principal)

– Several years ago, a former student reached out to me on Facebook. Apparently, he had been a student in my Grade 3 and Grade 4 classes – forty years ago. He claimed I had hit him with my black board pointer – and that to this day, he had no idea why. As a teacher, I did use my pointer from time to time to provide swift and painful punishment – often to the unruliest of troublemakers in my class – but only on occasion. Eventually, I met with this former pupil – now a grown man – for a coffee. I didn’t recognize his name – but when I saw his face, I recollected a sweet and good-natured boy. Not a troublemaker whatsoever. I could offer him no reason as to why I would have punished him in this way – other than that I may have been having a bad day. I think about this once in a while, and feel real regret. I know it was a different time – but to have affected a person’s life in this way – it makes me feel terrible.

Dr. Moore* (university professor of political science)

– Over the years, I’ve seen some helicopter parenting – despite the fact that I am a university professor. I once had a mother phone me to ask about our Master’s degree program because she thought it would be a good decision for her son to get one. I refused to talk to her about it and said that it was up to her son to contact me – which he never did! Another time, a master’s student who was also my teaching assistant brought me a gift from her parents. She told me it was because her parents thought she was very high maintenance as well as overly dependent on me – and that I deserved a gift of appreciation.

Mr. Avery* (elementary school teacher)

– Many animals rely on the high speed at which they move for the element of surprise and stealth as a means of catching their next meal. I, however, have encountered a creature who instead had determined that an unsuspecting snack can be attained instead by moving incredibly slowly. I first encountered this creature in a Grade 4 class I was teaching. Toward the beginning of the lesson, I recognized that his hand was slowly and steadily rising toward his face. When my attention was directed at this student, the hand would not return to the desktop – but rather stop in mid-air, frozen and suspended somewhere between the desk surface and his face. As I continued with my instruction, I was amazed to see the index finger of his slowly moving hand begin to extend. Again – when my gaze fell firmly upon this student, his hand with erect index finger would halt its progress. I was intrigued to see where this hand’s journey would go and so I continued teaching. Pause number three in my teaching found the student’s finger now inserted up to the second knuckle within a nostril. It was at this time that I gave this spelunking student a subtle shake of my head – resulting in a quick removal of the gyrating digit – in search of a salty morsel I’m sure. From that time on, when I noticed the hand begin to rise – all it took was was a quick raise of an eyebrow for me to cease the picking progress of my sloth-like snacker.

Ms. Peele* (secondary school principal)

– I should have kept track of all my stories over the years as I could have written a book. But here are a few memorable ones: years ago, a group of kids ditched a field trip they were on in order to hop on the subway and go to a specific convenience store to buy a gadget that was popular at the time. When they eventually got back to school, I confiscated their gadgets and told them they would only be returned if their parents came to me to retrieve them – keep in mind, these were the same parents who had never once made it to a parent-teacher interview. Wouldn’t you know it – each and every parent showed up to collect their child’s confiscated gadget! It goes to show you about their priorities. There have also been many times that one of our students was hospitalized during school hours (for asthma attacks, serious falls, seizures etc.). I would accompany them to the hospital and oftentimes would be there for hours before a parent would show up. One time, a parent even yelled at me for taking their child to the hospital as it was an inconvenient interruption within their day! Another time, a student went door-to-door in his neighbourhood requesting donations for new basketball nets at our school. He was very professional – he had a clip board, an amazing sales pitch – but there was just one small hitch — he was fundraising for his own personal basketball nets!

Ms. Powell* (former elementary school aide)

– I have a couple of stories that have stuck with me all these years later. Looking back, they are pretty funny. There were two young brothers at the school I worked at, who were not dressed appropriately over the winter months. It turned out they only owned one winter coat and one pair of boots which they shared. One morning while class was in session, the door to one of the brother’s classroom was opened a crack and a shopping bag was tossed in (containing a second winter coat and pair of boots) and the teacher heard the mother’s voice yell out “Thank God for Bingo!” Another time, while on yard duty during lunch, I noticed a crowd of kids standing by a tree. When I approached to investigate, I saw a bunch of Grade 1 boys measuring their penises with a ruler. I left this in the hands of the teacher in charge who let the boys off with a warning that if it happened again, their parents would be called. Afterward, we all had a good laugh in the staffroom.

Ms. Keating* (former secondary school teacher)

– Once on April Fool’s Day, I went into my classroom after lunch to find all of the desks set up facing away from the front of the room. So a few kids had taken the time to arrange 32 desks in perfectly straight rows – but facing backwards. Another incident I can recall – which goes to show you how the relationship between teachers and kids has changed (by becoming a bit more informal and casual) – I was wearing a shirt that had a decorative zipper on the front of it. A female student approached me and asked: “Is that a pocket? Or does it just lead to your breasts?” A little blunt there!

Ms. Howe* (elementary school teacher)

 – Several years ago, there was this little girl in the Grade 2 class I was teaching. She was a perfectly sweet child who did well in school. Also, her parents seemed to both be educated, professional people. The situation was that whenever the little girl would talk – to me (her teacher), to other students, even once to the principal – she would constantly use the “eff” word! Not to be a brat – it was just the way she spoke! I explained to her that she couldn’t use that word at school – and she tried her best to break the habit – but occasionally would still slip up. When I had a parent-teacher interview with her mom and dad I mentioned the situation to them and their response was: “This is the way our daughter chooses to speak. We don’t believe in correcting her as it may impact her life negatively.” I was speechless. Eventually, the little girl managed to curb her cussing habit – and I’m happy to report that she’s soon off to high school and seems to be doing fine.

*All names have been changed

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