There are certain things that I think only a teacher might get. The little idiosyncrasies that we develop due to the nature of the job. I don’t know about you, but I can catch myself still in a teacher-mode in my personal life. My family and friends just roll their eyes or smile because the behavior is typical and somewhat amusing.
I wanted to capture some of the patterns in behavior that I have adopted and see if you can relate.
The Teacher Trot
The first one is the teacher trot. This is the fast-paced walk that you constantly find yourself in all day long, as you go from one place to another. It primarily comes from the fact that you have very little time scheduled for you during the workday and that includes using the restroom.
Transition Signals
I don’t do this one as much. I find that most of my elementary school colleagues use various catch phrases or response cues. For example, I was at a social gathering and the girl clapped a short rhythm with her hands and several people repeated it. Silence filled the room. 😊 I guess I have been known to give my family a friendly countdown to warn about a transition. It can be like herding cats to get us all out of the door on time for a restaurant. I might start announcing, “5 minutes until we leave”.
I have one friend who use to say, “Red Robin” and the instant response was always “Yum”.
Out-of-Control Dreams
This one is not the most positive. Hopefully once you realize that the dream meant you were feeling out of control or needed a pause in your crazy routine, you could find some humor in the dream. The first planning week before the students come is usually my trigger for having these out-of-control dreams. I would often dream that I came to school unprepared. I would find myself standing in front of the class with no ideas and no plan for the day. Panic would ensue as the students’ eyes seemed to be showing alarm that their teacher did not know what was going on. And then, of course, an administrator was sitting in the room to observe. Silly…
Connoisseur of School Supplies
Man, I am a sucker for school or office supplies. Like most of my teacher friends, I have a certain type of pen that I love to write and/or grade with, and they must come in a variety of colors. Staplers are not made the way they use to be, so I try to splurge on a good one to last me the entire year. I like to get colorful notebook paper to brighten my day and to differentiate from the kids’. Sound familiar?
It is not surprising that one of my favorite lines in a movie is from You’ve Got Mail when Tom Hanks says to Meg Ryan, “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
While most of this list might mostly adhere to a PK-12 teacher. I am curious what are some of your idiosyncrasies that you notice because of your profession.
See You Real Soon,
Erin
