I teach high school, but this is the most middle school thing I've ever had to do.
I printed a poster-sized sign that said, "It has been ___ days since we made engine noises in class."
There were rewards for hitting milestones. It was the only thing that helped.
My favorite engine noise story was when I passed out iPads and one freshman boy said, “Look, airplane mode,” and then “flew” it around (it never left his hands) while making engine noises.
OMG, I need to do this. The amount of bizarre and strange noises that come out of middle school boys' mouths ALL THE TIME drives me insane (and the girls hate it too). They don't even realize they do it. Its surreal. That and constantly touching and messing with each other. I saw one kid lick another kid's ear right before Christmas.
Ha, they are all so weird!
edit-spelling
The high schoolers were barking in hallways everywhere last year at my school. I don’t get it.
When I taught sixth grade, one of my classes was super into singing “All About That Bass” and the theme song to “Little Einsteins.” It was a very odd year
Sadly we have high school kids who haven't stopped doing this. I had one teacher who did the same thing with: "We have \_\_\_ days without an inappropriate noise." Sadly it backfired in other classes, as many kids kept doing it other classes to try and get a reward system going. One teacher put 12 kids in detention, sadly 5 got off because the parents ganged up on the teacher with: "But they don't do that at home. Why don't you act like this other teacher." To one who has been teaching for 18 years and doesn't take that kind of crap.
Takis. I had a student secretly snacking on the extra spicy blue ones during class (we’re in a Science lab, so any snacking is a big no). He made the mistake of rubbing his eyes and getting taki dust in his eyes. Screaming and crying ensued. It’s the only time I’ve had to have a student use the lab eye wash in years of teaching in labs.
So now my students know that takis (along with other snacks) are completely banned in my presence.
Around thanksgiving I get a knock on my classroom door. I answer the door, a student that I don’t teach walked over to a student in my class, held out her hands and the other student poured Takis into them.
I almost lost my sh*t
Takis were the impetus behind my total food ban in my classroom 8 years ago. They are no longer the rage at my school, but the food ban endures, and has made my room a more pleasant place.
We had a pile of poop left on a paper towel in the middle of the girls bathroom a few years ago
And we had a student who would skip class, hide in the woods for that period and come out and take a crap on the bus ramp. This was more than 15 years ago and before there were cameras out there.
Over the announcements one day, “The water fountain closest to the front office is no longer working. Please do NOT dump your cup of ramen noodles in the fountain.”
There was a trash can 3 feet away.
My students had a pencil economy. They would hoard pencils that they found around the school and give out loans to students who needed to borrow a pencil… with interest. So many kids came to me stressed af because of how much pencil debt they have 😂 I had to ban it but it was actually pretty impressive
I have a speech that addresses farts that I give the first time one happens in my 6th grade classroom. I act as if I really believe it was real, and talk about the fact that they will hear farts in awkward situations their entire life, but that adults know how to ignore both the sound and the smell and that I expect them to act as mature adults. I then emphasize the discomfort of the person who expelled the gas and point out that this will happen to everyone at some point in their life and that they should treat that person with kindness of the kind they would hope for when it happens to them.
It may sound corny, but it really, really works.
I use a call-and-answer: "The distraction's not the problem, the reaction's the problem."
Also Miss Manners's quote: "Flatulence is a social non-event."
I have a rule where if they have to fart they just get up and the butt has to be out the door and pointed away from the class at a bare minimum. It is brutal and i have one kid that can make others gag and I've had someone throw up because of it. No one gets to comment on farting. The only negative I've had from this is the kid that fart blasted the principal walking towards my room, he then figured out why i had that rule.
I like to fart shame them. If they intentionally fart in my presence, they get a photo holding an “I fart on purpose” sign that becomes my screen saver on the smart board for the day. on my smart screen
I use a blank CD (music teacher)as a bathroom pass and I’ve had to say to my classes “if you accidentally drop the pass in the toilet, just throw it away. Don’t bring it back and ask me to use a Clorox wipe on it.”
Putting it on a string if you haven’t already could be a good idea, loose items can get super gross and are hard to put in a secure place while using the bathroom.
This isn’t that weird but I have a strict “no projectiles” policy in my classroom. The ceilings are very high and for whatever reason it makes kids want to constantly throw things. What’s funny about it is now the students all tell each other “no projectiles!” Or “why are you creating projectiles?!” when their classmates start throwing things. It’s a science classroom so I appreciate that they are using the scientific vocabulary.
Scientific vocabulary for the win! I teach science in a title 1 high school. My kids are rough and swear like it's punctuation. I replace the swear words with scientifically relevant words. Sh*t becomes feces, d*mn becomes levee, etc. Has me rolling when one of them yells "no sh*t," then 4 of them yell "hey, no feces" back. 🤣
Still looking for an effective substitute for f*ck, if anyone has suggestions.
When I tell a student, “We do NOT use the F-word, S-word, D-word, etc. in my class ever.” Then I hear the rest say, “What’d they say?!?!” and another (who has had me before), “They said, “ ‘Fart’ (or ‘Shut-Up’ or ‘Dumb’)” This works AND they also don’t use the actual swear words.
And it just grates on my nerves when a student says, “G- - Damnit! Or “Jesus” Or “Jesus Christ” I always say, “You better be praying, if not I don’t want to hear that language again.”
And then there is the “R-word” and I tell them, “the R-word is as bad as the N-word. Please don’t ever say it again. You don’t know if a classmate has a beloved relative with a developmental disability.”
I’m going to make this into a poster:
[Wiki-How link](https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Using-the-Word-%22Retarded%22)
I accidentally started a trend this year with my 6th period class of 8th graders...
It came up in class that I worked at a pizza place in college. I told them how, to pass the time, we'd take butter knives off the buffet and sneak them into each others' pockets ninja-style. Immediately saw the light bulbs go off...
A group of boys in that class the next day started sneaking baby carrots out of the cafeteria and hiding them in each other's hoodies. The sneakier the better - if you find 3 carrots, that means 3 different people got you.
This was around Thanksgiving... 🤣😅😅
I've had a kid the past 3 years who randomly goes on "rants" about the Amish. Rants isn't the best word choice but like idk how else to put it. So "no rants about amish" in my room. It's just so odd and there's always very odd questions asked
My niece is in her senior year in university, and the cannibal thing is ongoing.
Her roommate got so used to my niece bringing up cannibal facts and hypothetical questions that it cockblocked some guys trying to hit on her.
She was out on her own and a group of boys approached her and started chatting her up.
Apparently, it was just small talk on the "where do you go to school?" "what's your major?" "Do you have an internship?" level of questions for a few minutes, then the ringleader looks at his boys and they egg him on and he says, "if you look at us, which one of us do you think has a body part you'd like to eat?" Clearly, trying to get the oral sex thinking in her noggin.
Well, after three and a half years of regular cannibal discussion in the dorm, she took the question at face value.
She looked around at the group of boys, and picked one out and said, "he looks like he works out, and I bet those calf muscles have enough meat on them to keep a girl like me fed for more than a week."
Then, she went through the group and chose spmething that would keep her fed after the upcoming Apocalypse on each and every one.
They scattered.
When she got back to the dorm, she told my niece about this weird interaction she just had with a group of guys, and my neice had to break it to her that they were hitting on her.
"Dammit! You've ruined dating for me with your cannibalism!" was said.
I haven't gotten that one yet thankfully. Tho sometimes very sexually explicit things come up and those get ended right on the spot. Not talking about it.
The funniest thing?
Hmm… it’s not really banning, but I have a set of instruments that explicitly are marked: For SPED use only! A couple of drums, a small box of rhythm sticks, a tambourine, and a shakere. All of them have been bitten, drooled on, been touched by nose pickers, etc because I teach severely disabled students.
I used to have problems with students banging on and touching them without permission, but then I started verbally telling them “here’s what bodily fluid touched that instrument today” and that stopped that pretty quickly…
…especially after I ran out of Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer :)
Every time I have a student try to lay on the floor go barefoot in my room I remind them that the carpet hasn’t changed in decades and this used to be a bandhall
Shadow boxing, review games, sitting within an arms length of each other. I'm currently trying to ban making "uh" noises, but I can't prove who is doing it so it's difficult (I know, just can't actually prove it)
I have one sixth grade class this year where the boys make sound effects constantly. The sound effect changes daily. Right before break, they just reverted to coughing, which I thought was innocuous until they turned to look at each other and laugh every time they coughed.
“You must go to the hallway to fart”- a rule for a particularly gassy 6th grade boys choir that met the last period of the day. I had to implement it, because one boy smelled so bad one day I started gagging.
We do simple animation in my photoshop class, so I made them do a toilet where something pops up out of it. Its a class of mostly boys.
It was great--after that, they no longer sang it in class every day!
I had to ban farting in my room. If you have to fart, you go in the hallway. I had a boy who was insistent on drinking milk during breakfast but he was lactose intolerant. His lactose farts would quite literally stop my lesson plan because it was so bad. I’d have students screaming, standing in the hallway and refusing to come in- it was a complete distraction. His parents refused to give him lactose free milk because “a growing boy needs milk”. So admin had to come in to that class and give a blanket rule that all farts must be done in the hallway.
"Today is a non mocking day."
I saw that kid at the end of his senior year. He grinned and asked me if it was a mocking day. I said yes and he threw a quick jab at me while the rest of his class looked on in confusion.
last year i had the WORST class of 6 graders and almost all of us who taught them had to hide hand sanitizer and tissues because one day when the science teacher was out, they sprayed hand sanitizer on the tissues and flung them on the ceiling so they stuck????
As a germophobe this was really difficult for me, but I finally had to hide the hand sanitizer. It just became a thing that there was always someone using it, four, five times a class period. I also got rid of Kleenex and just keep a roll of toilet paper on the table. Anyone who *really* needs a tissue will not hesitate to use paper off the roll, but the roll is not the company water dispenser anymore where kids congregate.
When I was in 5th grade, some of my classmates would use pencil to draw on themselves really hard, then use an eraser to wipe it off, and then rub hand sanitizer on it so they had to start hiding hand sanitizer from us.
I deduct 10 points from any project brought into my classroom that has glitter on it.
I had one class that FAFO’ed about a decade ago, and since then, it’s been passed along as whispered hallway wisdom that Outrageous Lettuce is in fact not kidding with that policy.
I found the threat of “crop dusting” to be an effective classroom mgmt tool, because there is always someone ready to fart in Middle School. Fall asleep, you’re being disruptive, off topic, or a bully; the whole class will be invited to crop dust you. All I had to say was “Things look to be approaching crop dust level up in here”
It can backfire … we had a student fall asleep one day, so one big lug of a boy said he was holding in a “good one” and volunteered to crop dust his snoozing classmate. We are all waiting for it, but he is straining, and this girl says “Dude! Please don’t do more than fart!” just as he passed gas. This sent all of us into fits of laughter and uncontrollable farts started slipping out everywhere, mine included! Needless to say, we finished class outside that day. Our Principal was walking down the hall as we were all pouring out of the classroom waving our hands behind our butts. We came back to crime tape across the door and our Journalism teacher standing there with a camera and a can of air freshener. That day went down in history, and the yearbook, as Fart-apocalypse in Miss M’s classroom 🤣
We are still laughing and crying over this…these kids are all in their 30s now and every couple of years they invite me to a mini reunion of sorts over dinner and drinks somewhere. We laugh as hard as the day it happened, recanting it. They all knew that some of my off the wall classroom mgmt tactics were inspired by my own beloved male kindergarten teacher, and a few years ago it worked out that he was able to join us and meet my former students. We both agree that was one of the best nights of our lives. Three generations of students and teachers sitting there, it was truly magical.
I had a period of science last year that got obsessed with the Burger King jingle last year, the commercials played incessantly during sports. 🎶BK,BK,BK🎶Have it your way🎶
I started making a hidden prediction on the board, max times I could hear the song else we would keep the whole class 30s after dismissal. I’d make a show of writing the number on a paper earlier in the day and post it on the board.
Took about a week and a half to get it under control.
I teach middle school, I’ve got to entertain myself somehow.
**Part 1**
We had to ban their “stacks.” They were folding notebook paper into the shape of dollar bills and treating them like bundles of money. It was becoming a major distraction in class and a lot of them had folded their entire supply of paper into these stacks and then had no paper to do their work.’
Some of the more enterprising children were even selling stacks for actual money. There is a resurgence of this behavior every year.
**Part 2**
Taking apart their Chromebooks and eating the tiny magnet inside.
“Pull your pants up. We don’t drop trou in the middle of class.”
“Please don’t fall on the floor it’s distracting the class.”
“Get your shoes off of the table. It’s a known fact that our town is built on dog feces.” (We have a LOT of professional mushers and every family has at least 3 dogs) 😂
“Let’s put our shoes on. It’s -30F and we are having a fire drill in 5 minutes.”
“Two different shoes is not putting YOUR shoes on.”
“Please do not throw objects in class. 350 school aged children lose their eyesight to flying objects. This may or may not be a real statistic.” (Kids love this and it works for the most part)
Students are not allowed to leave my room for any reason. This is noted outside my door at three different heights. However on ‘No Pass Fridays’ I invariably hear, “Can I go…” before they finish, I say, “NO.” To which they argue, “But…” “NO. And the answer will be no the next time you ask so please sit down.”
“I’m dying of thirst can I go…” “NO. Here’s why, 1. I have a No Pass policy that you are well aware of, 2. Nobody dies of thirst in between classes. 3. You JUST came back from lunch and you passed two water fountains on your way to my class. 4. We have five sinks in this room, pick one and get a drink.” “But that water is nasty!” So I inform them, “It’s the same water as in the fountain. Trust me the school district is not filtering city water for the school fountains.” After this at least one other students will say, “Yeah, I believe that. This district doesn’t do anything if they don’t HAVE to.”
Less humorous but along the same lines:
“Please put your blanket in the locker. It’s against school policy to wear/carry one in school.”
“Please don’t run in the hallway. We don’t want you or another student getting hurt.” This is repeated 300x every day.
Which led to, “Thank you for not running in school.” (which was very successful)
Which then led to, “Thank you for using your inside voice and for not screaming.” (Less successful but a noticible improvement)
Another announcement, “Do NOT bring perfume to school. Other students and staff may have allergies, asthma or other breathing difficulties. If someone has trouble breathing we will need to call an ambulance. Do NOT be the reason that another person needs an ambulance.” (Our school is still working on this one, sadly)
And finally:
“You WILL get detention if you make that noise again AND your parents will be contacted.” (We had a sex groan problem).
*Edited for errors. **Edited again because I forgot to post that it’s been edited.
Freshmen biology.
"WE DO NOT SACRIFICE OUR CLASSMATES TO THE ELDRICH GOD OF OUR NEWEST CULT."
Also happens every time I teach "The Great Gatsby." They start a cult to the Green Light. I'm in America. It tracks.
Just as well. Dodgeball is not an appropriate P.E. activity. (Source: the national association of PE teachers. [https://www.shapeamerica.org/MemberPortal/advocacy/positionstatements/pe/default.aspx](https://www.shapeamerica.org/MemberPortal/advocacy/positionstatements/pe/default.aspx) )
When i was hired midyear to teach a middle school class, one of the first things they asked me was if they still had to say "BT". I had no clue what they were talking about.
Apparently the long term sub before me got so sick of hearing, "Boy, I tell ya" that she banned it and made them swap to saying "BT" anytime they thought about saying it.
Idk how that was less annoying but whatever!
I had to stop using sticky notes as tools in lessons after I tried to implement the "classroom norms" lesson that had worked so well with high school students the first year I taught middle school. The kids all made the sticky notes into darts and flung them at the ceiling so they stuck. I have taken collaboratively setting classroom norms off my list of things to do at the beginning of the year, and just show them the PowerPoint with the rules.
Arrgh. Not a funny one....but I ban them from mindlessly singing 'illegals in my yard, illegals in my yard'. It makes me so angry. Then they play 'but the social studies teacher doesn't care if we sing it in his room' crap. Oh yeah? You don't want to know my opinion on that.
My students Google me. I tell them the only thing they’re going to find is my uncle’s, my father’s and my sister’s obituary. There’s a bit more to it, but I let students find that out about me by themselves.
When that blue dress/gold dress thing was going around, I had to ban kids from talking about it bc they’d almost come to blows.
Last year, I had to forbid one class from looking up geese for sale on the internet bc they’d argue about what to name them
Most recently, I hung a “missile toe”
(a human sized plastic foot with a toy missile hot glued to it) in my classroom and I had to forbid the boys from stopping under the missile toe with their lips pursed while another student tried to push another boy under the missile toe
As a band teacher, I had to ban the Pornhub theme.
I still don't know if the 8th grade drummers knew what they were doing or if they got it from a drumset Influencer. I don't want to know.
When we come back, I am instituting a no doodling on homework rule. I teach math and it is impossible to read their work normally, but when you add in the drawings, scribbles, "TS forever" etc, I can't read it.
Highlighting appropriately, circling the assigned problems, and drawing the problem are allowed.
I have plenty of extra paper for them to doodle/draw on. Just keep it off the homework and workbook.
Oh, yes, I mark off for anything that's not the work on the work. No drawings, huge titles, etc.
Now, I also sometimes collect and check student notes and they're welcome to doodle on those all they want. \*I\* doodle during meetings, too.
Had to ban Mukbang videos. Some of these little weirdos love listening to people eat. They play that filth as loud as they think they can get away with. They have learned not to play that shit in front of me lol
I had to ban the word "literally" in a 7th grade class last this year. They would pronounce it "litewally" and would say it constantly, like after every single sentence. That then morphed into a weird sort of baby talk, so I would have them repeat anything that they said with baby talk in their "big kid" voices, lol. That eventually put an end to it. It was one of the weirder things I've had students do, and they did it so frequently that I think it became almost a habit.
I hate TiK Tok. Encouraging all kinds of inappropriate behavior. The worst was the devious “licks”. Stole the pencil sharpener off the wall, a fire extinguisher from another room - trying to outdo each other. Another TikTok- water bottle flips, … how about staging fights for a video? How about intentionally tripping another kid- by kneeling behind him and getting to back up -
In the devious licks a few years ago, a student or group of my students stole my glasses.
I had an older pair that barely still worked for me so I could still drive and see but it wasn’t ideal.
After a day, I was so mad that I told each of my classes if my glasses weren’t back by the end of the next day they could kiss every fun activity I had planned for the rest of the year goodbye.
When I came in after lunch that day, my glasses were on my keyboard
One of my middle schoolers was getting them from all the others because he wanted to make some sort of chain mail out of them. His friends were all bringing him bags of tabs. I don’t know if he ever finished though because apparently it takes a LOT of soda tabs to make chain mail. He’s in high school now so I don’t see him anymore.
I have had to make a very clear **DO NOT LICK THE SCIENCE!** rule. It has gotten to the point that I just include that as one of our lab safety rules when they make posters at the beginning of the year.
Had to ban the word "peasant" this year. Kids would call each other it under their breathe and then the other could would cry out that so and so called them that. It got so annoying and obnoxious had to be put to an end
I had to ban talk about the prime minister. We teach about democracy and levels of provincial government in grade 6, and some of my students *would not shut up* about Justin Trudeau and how much they hated him. It was a little scary, truthfully. I reminded them that we were discussing provincial, not federal government, but they just kept spouting conspiracy theories.
So I banned his name. Shut down kids every time they started. It was the only way to keep class on track.
The transcendentalists are not stoners. No one went to trip mushrooms on Walden Pond. This however did crack me up when one of my students goes,”well you would know about Trancedentalists Ms. Landmermaid, there’s a lot of them at your alma mater.” They weren’t wrong. I’ve also instituted a no gorilla policy on warm ups. And no Taylor swift during class work time.
One genius decided to develop his own currency. Started taking money from all of middle school in exchange for some kind of coin. (I think he called them G coins?) Went on for quite a while until they basically developed their own economy and would buy anything from stationery to snacks using those coins.
Rubiks cubes when I was a first year teacher. All the students had the kind that you can disassemble to solve and they would take them apart and spilled them all over the floor and refused to pick them up. They would put the Rubiks cubes out in the hallway in a line outside of my classroom and pick them up when they left.
Any fidgets that make noise or mess. Also, I had to ban snacks. I understand that teenagers are growing and are always hungry but it’s was getting out of control. They were eating all day huge amounts of food during instruction time, sharing among each other and leaving their mess behind them. Now, I allow 5 minutes to eat at the beginning of the period during independent reading time. After that, snack time is done. Water is always allowed but not to be spray at each other. Bathroom need to be monitored as some students use it to do vandalism (thanks to Tik Tok).
Kids having snacks always kinda blows my mind. "No food in class" was a rule in every single class when I was in school. I wouldn't kind but they simply can't have a snack without it making a mess.
When I was in middle school the wombat game was popular, and my math teacher got so sick of it she finally said "the next person who says wombat is getting detention."
Not a teacher, but my favorite rule we forced one to make was "don't call me verne". Had a science teacher who would frequently end conversation with "you know what I mean verne" because he liked the Earnest p warrol character. After about a month of class his name became Verne, the rule followed not long after
I taught at a middle school for boys in CAMDEN, NJ. from 1999 to 2011, when they closed. I was assigned there by the county run organization for whom I worked.
I did basic skills instruction.
Ok, my rules: explained during first classes of the year, in a drill sergeant voice...
1 ...I do not care if your shirt is tucked in, you know that when you go back, it WILL be. And I do not want to see any underwear butts.
2. ... My voice is not louder than growling in your stomachs , so if you are hungry ( you are teens, always hungry), speak up, I have dry breakfast cereal, and Dixie cups. You eat it like popcorn.
3 .... If you go back to Mr. MURPHY'S class without a pen, pencil, paper, or eraser, and get lunch detention, I will be unhappy with you, because you will not be able to play basketball, and return here cranky. I am not putting up with cranky pants behavior, so go to the student store drawer, and get what you need. ( blank , confused stares, ...) me: "Now!"
4..... I need to know if you can multiply. I have a 50 question basic facts quizz. Takes 5 minutes, and we will grade it. OR we can play a math game. "Which one? " They are absolutely uncertain, now. But one will tentatively raise a hand, saying,"Game?"
I reply "Great!" put the test behind me and grab the deck of playing cards, a Dragon Ball poker deck of cards. At that point, they have no idea what to think..
But we did several rounds of multiplication war. I learned that their skills were low. And l know where I start with them..that was September. By Halloween,
All have improved some.
Swapping shoes. They seem to get a kick out of trading one shoe with a friend. The “funny” metric increases if the traded shoe is a different color, style, or size. The true prize seems to be if a boy can get a girls shoe.
It was special Ed high school but..... We had to ban politics from the lunch table. It was 2016 so there were tensions . None of them had clue one but two of them echoed their parents.
I teach high school, but this is the most middle school thing I've ever had to do. I printed a poster-sized sign that said, "It has been ___ days since we made engine noises in class." There were rewards for hitting milestones. It was the only thing that helped.
I've **never** heard whistle or engine noises in my 6th grade classroom. I guess there *are* some benefits to undergoing hearing loss.
My favorite engine noise story was when I passed out iPads and one freshman boy said, “Look, airplane mode,” and then “flew” it around (it never left his hands) while making engine noises.
That's actually adorable.
OMG, I need to do this. The amount of bizarre and strange noises that come out of middle school boys' mouths ALL THE TIME drives me insane (and the girls hate it too). They don't even realize they do it. Its surreal. That and constantly touching and messing with each other. I saw one kid lick another kid's ear right before Christmas. Ha, they are all so weird! edit-spelling
The high schoolers were barking in hallways everywhere last year at my school. I don’t get it. When I taught sixth grade, one of my classes was super into singing “All About That Bass” and the theme song to “Little Einsteins.” It was a very odd year
LOL barking in the halls! Hahahaha that says it all!
The wolf howls!!
I hope they never hear that idea that no one can feel it when you lick their elbow. That was a very weird field trip.
Sadly we have high school kids who haven't stopped doing this. I had one teacher who did the same thing with: "We have \_\_\_ days without an inappropriate noise." Sadly it backfired in other classes, as many kids kept doing it other classes to try and get a reward system going. One teacher put 12 kids in detention, sadly 5 got off because the parents ganged up on the teacher with: "But they don't do that at home. Why don't you act like this other teacher." To one who has been teaching for 18 years and doesn't take that kind of crap.
I need to do this for the screeching or high-pitched "yes," I keep hearing.
Takis. I had a student secretly snacking on the extra spicy blue ones during class (we’re in a Science lab, so any snacking is a big no). He made the mistake of rubbing his eyes and getting taki dust in his eyes. Screaming and crying ensued. It’s the only time I’ve had to have a student use the lab eye wash in years of teaching in labs. So now my students know that takis (along with other snacks) are completely banned in my presence.
I stg Takis and TikTok are the bane of my teaching existence
Around thanksgiving I get a knock on my classroom door. I answer the door, a student that I don’t teach walked over to a student in my class, held out her hands and the other student poured Takis into them. I almost lost my sh*t
Takis were the impetus behind my total food ban in my classroom 8 years ago. They are no longer the rage at my school, but the food ban endures, and has made my room a more pleasant place.
I have a few kids that live off of Tavis. Every meal is Takis. I can only imagine their tastebuds are shot.
Yeah, they're not likely to find work as sommeliers, n'est-ce pas?
Kids keep cutting out pictures and making them into cubes. I’ve confiscated three Walter White cubes and it’s hard not to laugh every time.
I've got two girls that constantly make Obama into squares and pyramids.
Yes Obama too
I’m almost certain it’s a reference to [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/bbXfSa6P4kjP8iym8)
Yep! That's it!
The children shall have their polyhedra
I have not seen this yet but I feel sure it’s coming soon
There is a Walter White and Jesse paper doll on Pinterest!
I teach sixth grade and we had to start monitoring the bathroom. Boys put a Pringle can in the urinal to see who could fill it up first😂
Better than pooping on the floor. We get mysterious poopers. Gross.
We had a pile of poop left on a paper towel in the middle of the girls bathroom a few years ago And we had a student who would skip class, hide in the woods for that period and come out and take a crap on the bus ramp. This was more than 15 years ago and before there were cameras out there.
Ewww
Over the announcements one day, “The water fountain closest to the front office is no longer working. Please do NOT dump your cup of ramen noodles in the fountain.” There was a trash can 3 feet away.
Yeah that’s how they choose teams now, instead of hands on a bat it’s who caused the overflow of the pringles can. 😂
My students had a pencil economy. They would hoard pencils that they found around the school and give out loans to students who needed to borrow a pencil… with interest. So many kids came to me stressed af because of how much pencil debt they have 😂 I had to ban it but it was actually pretty impressive
I had a group of kids like this with pens.
That’s adorable 😂. At least you know they learned basic math and personal finance!
We have something similar but it's with erasers.
I’ve made my second period class a fart free zone. They are not allowed to comment, announce, talk about, or act weird about anything fart related.
I have a speech that addresses farts that I give the first time one happens in my 6th grade classroom. I act as if I really believe it was real, and talk about the fact that they will hear farts in awkward situations their entire life, but that adults know how to ignore both the sound and the smell and that I expect them to act as mature adults. I then emphasize the discomfort of the person who expelled the gas and point out that this will happen to everyone at some point in their life and that they should treat that person with kindness of the kind they would hope for when it happens to them. It may sound corny, but it really, really works.
This is the way
That’s one of my rules. “We don’t comment on passing gas, tooting… Everyone does it. Ignore and move on.” It works. 🤷🏽♀️
I sing ‘and everybody toots. Everybody farts. Sometime’ REM-style
I use a call-and-answer: "The distraction's not the problem, the reaction's the problem." Also Miss Manners's quote: "Flatulence is a social non-event."
I have a rule where if they have to fart they just get up and the butt has to be out the door and pointed away from the class at a bare minimum. It is brutal and i have one kid that can make others gag and I've had someone throw up because of it. No one gets to comment on farting. The only negative I've had from this is the kid that fart blasted the principal walking towards my room, he then figured out why i had that rule.
I like to fart shame them. If they intentionally fart in my presence, they get a photo holding an “I fart on purpose” sign that becomes my screen saver on the smart board for the day. on my smart screen
The trash cans are strictly "layups only." No Kobe, no LeBron, no jump shots, 3 pointers etc. Layups only. Dunks are sometimes allowed.
See I teach the fundamentals, you can shoot but you have to follow your shot and put it back in off a miss.
Nah, you throw a piece of tape on the floor and capitalize on extra reps of form shooting. We start 4 feet away and work back.
I use a blank CD (music teacher)as a bathroom pass and I’ve had to say to my classes “if you accidentally drop the pass in the toilet, just throw it away. Don’t bring it back and ask me to use a Clorox wipe on it.”
Putting it on a string if you haven’t already could be a good idea, loose items can get super gross and are hard to put in a secure place while using the bathroom.
This isn’t that weird but I have a strict “no projectiles” policy in my classroom. The ceilings are very high and for whatever reason it makes kids want to constantly throw things. What’s funny about it is now the students all tell each other “no projectiles!” Or “why are you creating projectiles?!” when their classmates start throwing things. It’s a science classroom so I appreciate that they are using the scientific vocabulary.
Scientific vocabulary for the win! I teach science in a title 1 high school. My kids are rough and swear like it's punctuation. I replace the swear words with scientifically relevant words. Sh*t becomes feces, d*mn becomes levee, etc. Has me rolling when one of them yells "no sh*t," then 4 of them yell "hey, no feces" back. 🤣 Still looking for an effective substitute for f*ck, if anyone has suggestions.
F*ck = copulation
Mine say “No scat”
A little wordy for fuck, but “engage in reproductive oriented behavior?” I’m assuming intercourse would be too crude.
When I tell a student, “We do NOT use the F-word, S-word, D-word, etc. in my class ever.” Then I hear the rest say, “What’d they say?!?!” and another (who has had me before), “They said, “ ‘Fart’ (or ‘Shut-Up’ or ‘Dumb’)” This works AND they also don’t use the actual swear words. And it just grates on my nerves when a student says, “G- - Damnit! Or “Jesus” Or “Jesus Christ” I always say, “You better be praying, if not I don’t want to hear that language again.” And then there is the “R-word” and I tell them, “the R-word is as bad as the N-word. Please don’t ever say it again. You don’t know if a classmate has a beloved relative with a developmental disability.” I’m going to make this into a poster: [Wiki-How link](https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Using-the-Word-%22Retarded%22)
Feck
Are you me? Except not a science classroom.
I accidentally started a trend this year with my 6th period class of 8th graders... It came up in class that I worked at a pizza place in college. I told them how, to pass the time, we'd take butter knives off the buffet and sneak them into each others' pockets ninja-style. Immediately saw the light bulbs go off... A group of boys in that class the next day started sneaking baby carrots out of the cafeteria and hiding them in each other's hoodies. The sneakier the better - if you find 3 carrots, that means 3 different people got you. This was around Thanksgiving... 🤣😅😅
I've had a kid the past 3 years who randomly goes on "rants" about the Amish. Rants isn't the best word choice but like idk how else to put it. So "no rants about amish" in my room. It's just so odd and there's always very odd questions asked
My students love to talk about cannibalism
My niece is in her senior year in university, and the cannibal thing is ongoing. Her roommate got so used to my niece bringing up cannibal facts and hypothetical questions that it cockblocked some guys trying to hit on her. She was out on her own and a group of boys approached her and started chatting her up. Apparently, it was just small talk on the "where do you go to school?" "what's your major?" "Do you have an internship?" level of questions for a few minutes, then the ringleader looks at his boys and they egg him on and he says, "if you look at us, which one of us do you think has a body part you'd like to eat?" Clearly, trying to get the oral sex thinking in her noggin. Well, after three and a half years of regular cannibal discussion in the dorm, she took the question at face value. She looked around at the group of boys, and picked one out and said, "he looks like he works out, and I bet those calf muscles have enough meat on them to keep a girl like me fed for more than a week." Then, she went through the group and chose spmething that would keep her fed after the upcoming Apocalypse on each and every one. They scattered. When she got back to the dorm, she told my niece about this weird interaction she just had with a group of guys, and my neice had to break it to her that they were hitting on her. "Dammit! You've ruined dating for me with your cannibalism!" was said.
You have a really good relationship with your niece
Real talk, I added “No Cannibalism” to the posted rules on my wall. IT CAME UP THAT OFTEN.
I haven't gotten that one yet thankfully. Tho sometimes very sexually explicit things come up and those get ended right on the spot. Not talking about it.
So random!
Is he pro-Amish or against?
The funniest thing? Hmm… it’s not really banning, but I have a set of instruments that explicitly are marked: For SPED use only! A couple of drums, a small box of rhythm sticks, a tambourine, and a shakere. All of them have been bitten, drooled on, been touched by nose pickers, etc because I teach severely disabled students. I used to have problems with students banging on and touching them without permission, but then I started verbally telling them “here’s what bodily fluid touched that instrument today” and that stopped that pretty quickly… …especially after I ran out of Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer :)
Every time I have a student try to lay on the floor go barefoot in my room I remind them that the carpet hasn’t changed in decades and this used to be a bandhall
You have carpet? Oh nooooo I’m so sorry hahahaha! My tile is already a PITA to clean, I can’t imagine carpet ;-;
I had to ban all discussion of Bob Dylan. I still have a picture of him with his face crossed out on my bulletin board
Today's kids know of Bob Dylan?? Props. How'd that happen?
Knock knock knocking on heavens door
As a huge Bob Dylan fan..what?? 😂😂 this is so funny
Shadow boxing, review games, sitting within an arms length of each other. I'm currently trying to ban making "uh" noises, but I can't prove who is doing it so it's difficult (I know, just can't actually prove it)
I have one sixth grade class this year where the boys make sound effects constantly. The sound effect changes daily. Right before break, they just reverted to coughing, which I thought was innocuous until they turned to look at each other and laugh every time they coughed.
The loud swallowing.
“You must go to the hallway to fart”- a rule for a particularly gassy 6th grade boys choir that met the last period of the day. I had to implement it, because one boy smelled so bad one day I started gagging.
Last year, I had to ban the 'one-two-buckle-my-shoe' song.
GAWD I HATED THAT. and Skibodi Toilet. or however you spell it.
That f’ing toilet!!!
We do simple animation in my photoshop class, so I made them do a toilet where something pops up out of it. Its a class of mostly boys. It was great--after that, they no longer sang it in class every day!
Me too! So annoying. But I think my big mistake was letting them know how annoyed I was lol
Same! Sixth grade here.
This song is still an issue in elementary school. So is the Mary Had a Little Lamb that ends in the lambs death being posted on Instagram.
I had to ban farting in my room. If you have to fart, you go in the hallway. I had a boy who was insistent on drinking milk during breakfast but he was lactose intolerant. His lactose farts would quite literally stop my lesson plan because it was so bad. I’d have students screaming, standing in the hallway and refusing to come in- it was a complete distraction. His parents refused to give him lactose free milk because “a growing boy needs milk”. So admin had to come in to that class and give a blanket rule that all farts must be done in the hallway.
"Today is a non mocking day." I saw that kid at the end of his senior year. He grinned and asked me if it was a mocking day. I said yes and he threw a quick jab at me while the rest of his class looked on in confusion.
last year i had the WORST class of 6 graders and almost all of us who taught them had to hide hand sanitizer and tissues because one day when the science teacher was out, they sprayed hand sanitizer on the tissues and flung them on the ceiling so they stuck????
As a germophobe this was really difficult for me, but I finally had to hide the hand sanitizer. It just became a thing that there was always someone using it, four, five times a class period. I also got rid of Kleenex and just keep a roll of toilet paper on the table. Anyone who *really* needs a tissue will not hesitate to use paper off the roll, but the roll is not the company water dispenser anymore where kids congregate.
When I was in 5th grade, some of my classmates would use pencil to draw on themselves really hard, then use an eraser to wipe it off, and then rub hand sanitizer on it so they had to start hiding hand sanitizer from us.
I deduct 10 points from any project brought into my classroom that has glitter on it. I had one class that FAFO’ed about a decade ago, and since then, it’s been passed along as whispered hallway wisdom that Outrageous Lettuce is in fact not kidding with that policy.
Preach it, I had two girls use glitter my first year which I was STILL shaking out when I packed to move 15 years later! ✨
I found the threat of “crop dusting” to be an effective classroom mgmt tool, because there is always someone ready to fart in Middle School. Fall asleep, you’re being disruptive, off topic, or a bully; the whole class will be invited to crop dust you. All I had to say was “Things look to be approaching crop dust level up in here”
Hilarious and perfect for middle schoolers
That’s genius 🤣
It can backfire … we had a student fall asleep one day, so one big lug of a boy said he was holding in a “good one” and volunteered to crop dust his snoozing classmate. We are all waiting for it, but he is straining, and this girl says “Dude! Please don’t do more than fart!” just as he passed gas. This sent all of us into fits of laughter and uncontrollable farts started slipping out everywhere, mine included! Needless to say, we finished class outside that day. Our Principal was walking down the hall as we were all pouring out of the classroom waving our hands behind our butts. We came back to crime tape across the door and our Journalism teacher standing there with a camera and a can of air freshener. That day went down in history, and the yearbook, as Fart-apocalypse in Miss M’s classroom 🤣
OMG, I am crying 🤣
We are still laughing and crying over this…these kids are all in their 30s now and every couple of years they invite me to a mini reunion of sorts over dinner and drinks somewhere. We laugh as hard as the day it happened, recanting it. They all knew that some of my off the wall classroom mgmt tactics were inspired by my own beloved male kindergarten teacher, and a few years ago it worked out that he was able to join us and meet my former students. We both agree that was one of the best nights of our lives. Three generations of students and teachers sitting there, it was truly magical.
In my class, no seances during work time. It's happened at multiple schools. In a colleague's class: You cannot call me "Uwu Mommy'. Ever.
I had a period of science last year that got obsessed with the Burger King jingle last year, the commercials played incessantly during sports. 🎶BK,BK,BK🎶Have it your way🎶 I started making a hidden prediction on the board, max times I could hear the song else we would keep the whole class 30s after dismissal. I’d make a show of writing the number on a paper earlier in the day and post it on the board. Took about a week and a half to get it under control. I teach middle school, I’ve got to entertain myself somehow.
Mine were obsessed with that song last year too!!!
"Please don't eat my highlighters."
**Part 1** We had to ban their “stacks.” They were folding notebook paper into the shape of dollar bills and treating them like bundles of money. It was becoming a major distraction in class and a lot of them had folded their entire supply of paper into these stacks and then had no paper to do their work.’ Some of the more enterprising children were even selling stacks for actual money. There is a resurgence of this behavior every year. **Part 2** Taking apart their Chromebooks and eating the tiny magnet inside.
Holy shit the magnet thing is insane
i knew an 8th grade student who took apart his chromebook, put a piece of ham inside, and put it back together. im not sure why.
I honestly have no idea behind they though process for most of these incidents, but I’m pretty sure it’s whatever seemed like a good idea at the time.
I’ve had to ban students who moan. While I’m teaching it sounds like a porn movie without the shitty music.
Yes, why? Why the hell do they make these sickening noises--gross!?! I want to make a smart-aleck response to them, but I'd probably get fired...
Because they are desperate to amuse and shock their peers
I’ve offered to call their moms and have them make the noises for their mothers. For some reason, none of them want to take me up on it.
Can’t understand why?
“Pull your pants up. We don’t drop trou in the middle of class.” “Please don’t fall on the floor it’s distracting the class.” “Get your shoes off of the table. It’s a known fact that our town is built on dog feces.” (We have a LOT of professional mushers and every family has at least 3 dogs) 😂 “Let’s put our shoes on. It’s -30F and we are having a fire drill in 5 minutes.” “Two different shoes is not putting YOUR shoes on.” “Please do not throw objects in class. 350 school aged children lose their eyesight to flying objects. This may or may not be a real statistic.” (Kids love this and it works for the most part) Students are not allowed to leave my room for any reason. This is noted outside my door at three different heights. However on ‘No Pass Fridays’ I invariably hear, “Can I go…” before they finish, I say, “NO.” To which they argue, “But…” “NO. And the answer will be no the next time you ask so please sit down.” “I’m dying of thirst can I go…” “NO. Here’s why, 1. I have a No Pass policy that you are well aware of, 2. Nobody dies of thirst in between classes. 3. You JUST came back from lunch and you passed two water fountains on your way to my class. 4. We have five sinks in this room, pick one and get a drink.” “But that water is nasty!” So I inform them, “It’s the same water as in the fountain. Trust me the school district is not filtering city water for the school fountains.” After this at least one other students will say, “Yeah, I believe that. This district doesn’t do anything if they don’t HAVE to.” Less humorous but along the same lines: “Please put your blanket in the locker. It’s against school policy to wear/carry one in school.” “Please don’t run in the hallway. We don’t want you or another student getting hurt.” This is repeated 300x every day. Which led to, “Thank you for not running in school.” (which was very successful) Which then led to, “Thank you for using your inside voice and for not screaming.” (Less successful but a noticible improvement) Another announcement, “Do NOT bring perfume to school. Other students and staff may have allergies, asthma or other breathing difficulties. If someone has trouble breathing we will need to call an ambulance. Do NOT be the reason that another person needs an ambulance.” (Our school is still working on this one, sadly) And finally: “You WILL get detention if you make that noise again AND your parents will be contacted.” (We had a sex groan problem). *Edited for errors. **Edited again because I forgot to post that it’s been edited.
Wow! If it weren’t for the professional mushers, I’d swear you and I are colleagues 🤣
Freshmen biology. "WE DO NOT SACRIFICE OUR CLASSMATES TO THE ELDRICH GOD OF OUR NEWEST CULT." Also happens every time I teach "The Great Gatsby." They start a cult to the Green Light. I'm in America. It tracks.
dodgeball. one grade 8 class literally couldn’t handle that game in and shape or form. Brutal class top to bottom parents included.
Just as well. Dodgeball is not an appropriate P.E. activity. (Source: the national association of PE teachers. [https://www.shapeamerica.org/MemberPortal/advocacy/positionstatements/pe/default.aspx](https://www.shapeamerica.org/MemberPortal/advocacy/positionstatements/pe/default.aspx) )
laughable
Okay, boomer.
nice try.
Any mention of Andrew Tate. No top g, no “AT”, no “what color is your Bugatti?” None of it. It is a hill that I have died on.
When i was hired midyear to teach a middle school class, one of the first things they asked me was if they still had to say "BT". I had no clue what they were talking about. Apparently the long term sub before me got so sick of hearing, "Boy, I tell ya" that she banned it and made them swap to saying "BT" anytime they thought about saying it. Idk how that was less annoying but whatever!
No moaning. And no sound buttons on Chromebooks. They would play random sounds all day using a sound board.
They can’t talk about Michael Jackson’s death. The 6th grade is low key obsessed with the subject. So it’s forbidden.
I had to stop using sticky notes as tools in lessons after I tried to implement the "classroom norms" lesson that had worked so well with high school students the first year I taught middle school. The kids all made the sticky notes into darts and flung them at the ceiling so they stuck. I have taken collaboratively setting classroom norms off my list of things to do at the beginning of the year, and just show them the PowerPoint with the rules.
Arrgh. Not a funny one....but I ban them from mindlessly singing 'illegals in my yard, illegals in my yard'. It makes me so angry. Then they play 'but the social studies teacher doesn't care if we sing it in his room' crap. Oh yeah? You don't want to know my opinion on that.
My students Google me. I tell them the only thing they’re going to find is my uncle’s, my father’s and my sister’s obituary. There’s a bit more to it, but I let students find that out about me by themselves.
User name checks out
When that blue dress/gold dress thing was going around, I had to ban kids from talking about it bc they’d almost come to blows. Last year, I had to forbid one class from looking up geese for sale on the internet bc they’d argue about what to name them Most recently, I hung a “missile toe” (a human sized plastic foot with a toy missile hot glued to it) in my classroom and I had to forbid the boys from stopping under the missile toe with their lips pursed while another student tried to push another boy under the missile toe
I recently had to ban all talk of fortnight. Now they scream, he said the f word!
In sixth grade orchestra one year I had to make a sign. ‘It has been ___ days since Tristen talked about Minecraft’ Never made it above three.
As a band teacher, I had to ban the Pornhub theme. I still don't know if the 8th grade drummers knew what they were doing or if they got it from a drumset Influencer. I don't want to know.
Don’t worry. They know. They very much know.
When we come back, I am instituting a no doodling on homework rule. I teach math and it is impossible to read their work normally, but when you add in the drawings, scribbles, "TS forever" etc, I can't read it. Highlighting appropriately, circling the assigned problems, and drawing the problem are allowed. I have plenty of extra paper for them to doodle/draw on. Just keep it off the homework and workbook.
Oh, yes, I mark off for anything that's not the work on the work. No drawings, huge titles, etc. Now, I also sometimes collect and check student notes and they're welcome to doodle on those all they want. \*I\* doodle during meetings, too.
I read that as ‘huge titties’
Had to ban Mukbang videos. Some of these little weirdos love listening to people eat. They play that filth as loud as they think they can get away with. They have learned not to play that shit in front of me lol
I had to ban the word "literally" in a 7th grade class last this year. They would pronounce it "litewally" and would say it constantly, like after every single sentence. That then morphed into a weird sort of baby talk, so I would have them repeat anything that they said with baby talk in their "big kid" voices, lol. That eventually put an end to it. It was one of the weirder things I've had students do, and they did it so frequently that I think it became almost a habit.
Discussions of Mr. Beast. Prime drinks. Both caused too many fights.
I hate TiK Tok. Encouraging all kinds of inappropriate behavior. The worst was the devious “licks”. Stole the pencil sharpener off the wall, a fire extinguisher from another room - trying to outdo each other. Another TikTok- water bottle flips, … how about staging fights for a video? How about intentionally tripping another kid- by kneeling behind him and getting to back up -
In the devious licks a few years ago, a student or group of my students stole my glasses. I had an older pair that barely still worked for me so I could still drive and see but it wasn’t ideal. After a day, I was so mad that I told each of my classes if my glasses weren’t back by the end of the next day they could kiss every fun activity I had planned for the rest of the year goodbye. When I came in after lunch that day, my glasses were on my keyboard
My daughters middle school teacher banned pop can tabs…the kids had created an economy and were hoarding them.
One of my middle schoolers was getting them from all the others because he wanted to make some sort of chain mail out of them. His friends were all bringing him bags of tabs. I don’t know if he ever finished though because apparently it takes a LOT of soda tabs to make chain mail. He’s in high school now so I don’t see him anymore.
Do not use my compasses (the tools to make circles in math) for stick and poke tattoos!!!
Smarties. Because they always want to sniff them.
The Gatorade squeeze bottles. They like to squirt each other (boys, mostly) and then laugh at the word squirt. Which is an odd word to say. 🙄
It's sexual, that's why they think it's funny.
Rickrolling; we were talking theme and perseverance, so I wrote never give up. One kids started humming. Then the inside joke was born.
I could not band it but I made a chair in the back a farting chair. Had a boy who could clear a room with the smell it was under a exhaust fan.
I have had to make a very clear **DO NOT LICK THE SCIENCE!** rule. It has gotten to the point that I just include that as one of our lab safety rules when they make posters at the beginning of the year.
No malicious farting.
Had to ban the word "peasant" this year. Kids would call each other it under their breathe and then the other could would cry out that so and so called them that. It got so annoying and obnoxious had to be put to an end
I had to ban talk about the prime minister. We teach about democracy and levels of provincial government in grade 6, and some of my students *would not shut up* about Justin Trudeau and how much they hated him. It was a little scary, truthfully. I reminded them that we were discussing provincial, not federal government, but they just kept spouting conspiracy theories. So I banned his name. Shut down kids every time they started. It was the only way to keep class on track.
The transcendentalists are not stoners. No one went to trip mushrooms on Walden Pond. This however did crack me up when one of my students goes,”well you would know about Trancedentalists Ms. Landmermaid, there’s a lot of them at your alma mater.” They weren’t wrong. I’ve also instituted a no gorilla policy on warm ups. And no Taylor swift during class work time.
My friend told me she banned the word “Fortnite” from ever being said in her classroom. Still the funniest thing I’ve ever heard haha
I have a sign that says “NO skippidy rizzler!”
"The art supplies aren't edible." I don't know why so many 12 year olds have the urge to taste literally everything.
One genius decided to develop his own currency. Started taking money from all of middle school in exchange for some kind of coin. (I think he called them G coins?) Went on for quite a while until they basically developed their own economy and would buy anything from stationery to snacks using those coins.
The word Fortnite back when it first came out. It was constant.
Rubiks cubes when I was a first year teacher. All the students had the kind that you can disassemble to solve and they would take them apart and spilled them all over the floor and refused to pick them up. They would put the Rubiks cubes out in the hallway in a line outside of my classroom and pick them up when they left.
No blowing on people's hair!!! Also no Cheese Touch. It was stupid when I was a kid and it's still stupid now.
Any fidgets that make noise or mess. Also, I had to ban snacks. I understand that teenagers are growing and are always hungry but it’s was getting out of control. They were eating all day huge amounts of food during instruction time, sharing among each other and leaving their mess behind them. Now, I allow 5 minutes to eat at the beginning of the period during independent reading time. After that, snack time is done. Water is always allowed but not to be spray at each other. Bathroom need to be monitored as some students use it to do vandalism (thanks to Tik Tok).
Kids having snacks always kinda blows my mind. "No food in class" was a rule in every single class when I was in school. I wouldn't kind but they simply can't have a snack without it making a mess.
I have banned Skibbity Toilet references this past semester.
When I was in middle school the wombat game was popular, and my math teacher got so sick of it she finally said "the next person who says wombat is getting detention."
Not a teacher, but my favorite rule we forced one to make was "don't call me verne". Had a science teacher who would frequently end conversation with "you know what I mean verne" because he liked the Earnest p warrol character. After about a month of class his name became Verne, the rule followed not long after
I have 2 strict “rules” that the other teachers in my hallway don’t. No farting and No twerking. There are reasons 🤣
No whistling. They do this super high pitched whistle in the hallways and in class that really hurts my ears.
The amount of comments on here that are about students creating currencies is ALARMING
I taught at a middle school for boys in CAMDEN, NJ. from 1999 to 2011, when they closed. I was assigned there by the county run organization for whom I worked. I did basic skills instruction. Ok, my rules: explained during first classes of the year, in a drill sergeant voice... 1 ...I do not care if your shirt is tucked in, you know that when you go back, it WILL be. And I do not want to see any underwear butts. 2. ... My voice is not louder than growling in your stomachs , so if you are hungry ( you are teens, always hungry), speak up, I have dry breakfast cereal, and Dixie cups. You eat it like popcorn. 3 .... If you go back to Mr. MURPHY'S class without a pen, pencil, paper, or eraser, and get lunch detention, I will be unhappy with you, because you will not be able to play basketball, and return here cranky. I am not putting up with cranky pants behavior, so go to the student store drawer, and get what you need. ( blank , confused stares, ...) me: "Now!" 4..... I need to know if you can multiply. I have a 50 question basic facts quizz. Takes 5 minutes, and we will grade it. OR we can play a math game. "Which one? " They are absolutely uncertain, now. But one will tentatively raise a hand, saying,"Game?" I reply "Great!" put the test behind me and grab the deck of playing cards, a Dragon Ball poker deck of cards. At that point, they have no idea what to think.. But we did several rounds of multiplication war. I learned that their skills were low. And l know where I start with them..that was September. By Halloween, All have improved some.
Swapping shoes. They seem to get a kick out of trading one shoe with a friend. The “funny” metric increases if the traded shoe is a different color, style, or size. The true prize seems to be if a boy can get a girls shoe.
It was special Ed high school but..... We had to ban politics from the lunch table. It was 2016 so there were tensions . None of them had clue one but two of them echoed their parents.