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Revealed: Teachers’ funniest mishaps
September is finally here, and with the new term come those all-too-familiar, stomach-churning “back-to-school nerves”.
However, primary teacher Ed Finch headed to Twitter with a remedy for those anxiety-filled teachers.
He tweeted:
With the majority of teachers on my timeline heading back to class next week I know anxiety is running high. Let’s admit we aren’t all perfect ALL the time. It’s ok to get it a little but wrong sometimes. What’s one of your teaching disasters? Use the hashtag #TeachLikeAChumpion
— Ed Finch (@MrEFinch) August 31, 2019
And he then followed it up with one of his own, to give a flavour of the sort of disasters he was referring to:
I used to like making my smartboard recognise my scribbly handwriting and turn it into neat typed text. I did this once and the computer helpfully brought it up as ‘tits’. Panicking, I put my hand over the offending word. So had ‘tits’ projected on my hand as the deputy walked in
— Ed Finch (@MrEFinch) August 31, 2019
The idea owning up to teaching “disasters” caught on. Here are some of the best responses.
Teacher mishaps: caught in the act
Some of other teachers’ admissions followed a similar “caught in the act” theme:
Watching 'Shakespeare in love' with yr 7 class, suddenly cut to a sex scene I didn't know about. Class erupted, head walked in and I wanted to fall into a hole in the floor. #TeachLikeAChumpion
— tygertyger (@tygertyger18) September 1, 2019
Avoid Google
There were many teachers warning against searching for things on Google images in front of the class (we’ve all done it!):
Dress to distress
There were a surprising number of clothing malfunctions:
#TeachLikeAChumpian Teaching Year 5 Maths a few years back, moving around the class a little enthusiastically as ever, bending down to pick up an errant eraser or some other unnecessary item of classroom equipment THE TOO MANY FREE STAFFROOM BISCUITS TROUSERS SPLIT IN THE ARSE
— Toby Payne-Cook (@CREducATE) August 31, 2019
In honour of Ofsted...
Of course, there were the Ofsted-related admissions...
In ofsted feedback. My phone went off & couldn’t find it. The Killers ‘Coming outta my cage & I’ve been doing just fine’ blasting at full volume - couldn’t locate it anywhere. Bemused inspector. Me panicked. found it, opened door, lobbed it, sat down like nothing had happened 😬
— Emma Turner FCCT (@Emma_Turner75) September 1, 2019
School trip fun
And the school trip ones were inevitable...
#TeachLikeAChumpion 25 yrs ago, Infants on a steam-train trip - arrived at the station, which was run by volunteers, just in time for the train’s imminent departure. Children overly excited, jostling on the platform, so I blew my whistle - and the train promptly left without us.
— MrsEM (@Mrs___EM) August 31, 2019
Last year's class's favourite story of me - on a community trip on a snowy day, one of the students was cracking an icy puddle with her foot. I warned her she'd slip over and just as I did, her foot slipped. I ran over to help her, slipped and threw my Costa over myself. pic.twitter.com/D3IItJ63EG
— Frances (@FRTeaches) September 1, 2019
Never work with animals
And school pets made an appearance, too:
#teachlikeachumpion
— Ian Addison 🙋♂️ (@ianaddison) August 31, 2019
I've shared it before but one particular low-light was when the class goldfish died during an observation. "Mr A, why is Bubbles upside down? "
"I'm sure he'll be fine, let's keep going"
He wasn't and we removed him at lunchtime. The lesson didn't go well.
No one is perfect
Finch says: “The hashtag #teachlikeachumpion was coined by @MrBoothYr6. It is a funny thread, but hopefully the serious point comes through - a lot of teachers are anxious at the start of term and NQTs particularly so.
“The humour of #TeachLikeAChumpion serves to remind us all that we are, none of us, perfect, and that the most experienced and apparently proficient teacher has made mistakes and, however awful they seemed at the time, we can look back on them and laugh.
“The one big lesson from the mistakes that the teachers shared is always watch the video before the lesson!”
So we have two challenges: one, read the thread without crying with laughter, and two, add your own using the #teachlikeachumpion hashtag.
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