Things I hate

Usually I write about things I like about teaching. Now for some that I hate.

1. The sound of the pencil sharpener. Oh. My. GOSH. There is nothing worse than trying to talk while there is this annoying grinding sound in the background. I started off the summer with a normal pencil sharpener in the back of the room. The kind you actually have to turn to make it work. This pencil sharpener is obviously quite old because all it succeeded in doing was chewing pencils to mere stubs before spitting them back at the students. So then I stole the blender-like electric sharpener from the teacher's lounge. Not much better...just because it does all the work for you doesn't mean it does the work any better, or any more quietly.

I think I'm going to invest in a bunch of hand held sharpeners...the silent ones. They're the kind I use during the school year, and they keep me sane...

2. The sound of drumming on desks. Nothing will make me threaten to cut your hands off faster than you sitting in my classroom and tapping or drumming beats. Even if they're good ones.

3. I swear I had one more to add to this list. I'm sure I'll remember it soon...