Things I Miss From Being a Teacher But May Not Have Ever Actually Happened!

Things I Miss From Being a Teacher But May Not Have Ever Actually Happened!

by Mark Lyons

Image by Christelle PRIEUR from Pixabay

SammySocks Etc. Blog - Comments and Observations from Someone Who Is a Retired Educator and the Father of Sammy of SammySocks Etc. Visit us at www.sammysocksetc.com.

            I have been retired for about ten months now. I was a teacher. It was great. I enjoyed teaching. And, besides working with and helping kids, there are some other things I do miss. I am going to mention a few of them here. However, some of them may not even have happened. You decide which ones are true and which ones are made up.

1. A Definite, On-the-Calendar, Naptime – Faculty meetings were regularly scheduled events and as such, I could always rely on them for a good 30 – 45-minute nap.
2. Faculty Sing Alongs – I could always count on 15 – 20 staff members getting together after school in someone’s room to sing Show Tunes and Heavy Metal Ballads from the 70s and 80s.
3. Regular Exercise – My classroom was upstairs on the 2^nd floor. Going up and down the stairs was a constant source of exercise, especially after faculty meetings.
4. In-Service Days – These were always good because I could use the training sessions to catch up on planning and other paperwork. Also, In-Service Days were like the second cousins of faculty meetings, but longer, so naps were more plentiful and more spread out over the day.
5. Swap Your Lunch for Someone Else’s Day – Every two weeks we would gather in one of the science labs and eat lunch. You would swap the lunch you brought with someone else. You would eat theirs and they would eat yours. No take backs.
6. Chili Cook-Off Fridays – Grade level teams would compete on a Friday every other month to see who could make the best chili. The winning team got a week’s worth of lesson plans supplied by the other teams along with a bottle of antacids and some wet naps.
7. Faculty Meeting Snack Times – Self-explanatory.
8. Staff T-Shirts – I could always count on getting a staff t-shirt every year. It helped reduce the time spent on selecting what to wear at least one day each week.
9. Call-In-Sick Mondays – Groups of teachers would get together every couple of weeks to draw cards to see who got to call in sick the following Monday. High card won.
10. Meals Provided by the PTA – The PTA would serve breakfasts and lunches throughout the school year. Always, always good. Some people would sneak back for seconds, uh, or so I heard. Just saying.
11. Teacher Chair Races – Teachers would race their chairs on wheels from one end of the hallway to the other after school, usually on a Friday. Heats were run in several categories: single occupancy, double occupancy, propelled by the chair occupant, and propelled by a grade level team member. Bike helmets, knee and elbow pads, and gloves were worn for safety. Crashes were common due to the high amount of giggling on the part of the participants.
12. 1-on-1 Interaction with Fellow Staff Members – Support, cooperation, and problem solving were the norm.
13. Universal Screening – The scheduling, organizing, and flexibility shown by all concerned was amazing. The build up to and the anticipation of each Universal Screening event was always exciting to experience. I personally know of several instances where teachers actually counted down the days until it was their turn to have their class universally screened.
14. Can’t Find My Car Tuesdays – Several times during the school year, usually on a Tuesday, teachers would rifle through their grade level team members belongings, borrow their car keys, and secretly repark the other team member’s car somewhere on campus.
15. Mix Up the Stuff in Staff Members Mailboxes – Every once in a while, uh, someone would go through the mailboxes in the workroom and swap the stuff in the mailboxes with someone else’s mailbox stuff. I got some really cool laminated stuff all the time.