Middle school language teacher faces insult from annoying 8th grade student, gets revenge by making him teach the class: 'I turned to the class and told them [to] make it realistic'

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Jun 12, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

I don't know about you, but I didn't envy my teachers when I was at school. Even as a teenager, I could tell that most of them were overworked, underpaid, and forced to deal with often ungrateful children all day. It's fair to say it was never a profession that appealed to me. We've got to be thankful that this isn't the case for everybody, though, because we need those educators who valiantly step up to the plate and give our kids the knowledge they need to make their way in the world. 

This involves finding a way to deal with problem students, which one middle school language teacher experimented with not too long ago. When a persistently annoying eighth grader remarked that "teaching is really easy", he had the boy prove it by attempting to lead the class in explaining some grammar that they had just learned. It's fair to say that the student was soon eating his words, much to his teacher's amusement.

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    Cheezburger Image 10359463168
    via Taylor Flowe
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    Student said teaching is easy so I let him
    via InevitablePoem
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    Putting this in humor as this was some of the most fun I had with this class in a while. So, class of 8th graders, majority are really nice kids but there are just a few with behavioral problems that get on my nerves from time to time.
    via InevitablePoem
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    One of the annoying ones was being his usual self and then suddenly said 'man, teaching is really easy'. This was a class where I mostly had to coach them as we had done the theory the day before and now they were just going to be practising. I teach foreign languages.
    via InevitablePoem
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    I stopped, looked at him and handed him my marker. I then sat down in an absent student's chair at the front of the class and said 'be my guest. Go on, explain [grammar we just learnt] to us.' He got up with a smirk, ready to prove that teaching is, in fact, really easy.
    via InevitablePoem
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    Before he could begin, I turned to the class and told them: 'make it realistic' Oh, boy, did they make it realistic. They immediately proceeded to talk to their neighbour, or to just shout questions without raising their hands. The other kids who behave badly also did this, they had no mercy on their friend who soon started to become angry. He tried to put one of his friends in the hallway only to be met with a response (as that particular kid used to do to me when I put him in time out).
    via InevitablePoem
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    After not even five minutes, he gave up and handed me my marker back, saying: "I think you're a lot better at this than I am." I glt back up, calmed the class back down and asked him how he thought about it now. He said that he didn't realise just how bad they could be and how annoying having questions shouted at you really is when you're trying to explain something. He's been a lot better at raising his hand ever since.
    via InevitablePoem
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    Karsticles Schools and parents want to protect their egos, but these humbling moments are necessary for growth.
    via Karsticles
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    CrazyPieGuy Yes. People, especially kids, need to experience failure in a low stakes environment.
    via CrazyPieGuy
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    savemysoul72 I did this once with a really disruptive boy in my 8th grade Algebra class. I went and sat in his seat while he "taught." I made disruptive sounds just like he did. The class lost it.
    via savemysoul72
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    InevitablePoem Yeah, well, I admit I also yelled 'SIR I DON'T UNDERSTAND' a few times. Or just 'SIR, SIR, SIR!' until I got his attention which is exactly what he always did to me.
    via InevitablePoem
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    earthgarden out of these bad- Oh my students used to tell me all the time that they could never do my job, because they 'would slap the When I reminded them that they act just like the other kids too they kids'. say I KNOW MISS LOL I guess
    via earthgarden
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    I did a socratic seminar in each of my courses, and in the freshman class (Physical Science) I thought the kid that moderated, previously one of my big talkers, was going to hit someone, he got so frustrated when kids talked out of turn. He would yell at them 'Y'all are not gonna mess up my extra credit! Shut it!' and often looked to me to help. I reminded hime and all the kids I am just a fly on the wall, a Socratic Seminar is supposed to be student-led and a conversation amongst students. They
    via earthgarden
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    mndtrp One of the more eye-opening assignments I had in school was where a teacher broke a topic down into a handful of different sections, and then assigned those sections to several small groups of people. It was then our job to put together a lesson to teach our portion to the rest of the class. It showed me that teaching is hard, especially if you don't know what you're teaching in the first place. Handling keeping people's attention, passing along information, and having them retain it is d
    via mndtrp
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    unicacher I used to have a class economy and one of the big items they could buy was teacher for a day. They had to stay after school the day before and plan the lessons, teach the entire day, and then grade anything they assigned. Predictably, it started all roses. I was kind and played the good kid. If anything, I'd antagonize the slackers: "I have my pencil, where's yours? Here's my book; how'd you lose yours already?" Next day, that poor kid would ruthlessly defend me. "You GUYS, job is so h
    via unicacher
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    RyperiousPeoples We did that with the lunch monitors at our school, had 5th graders fill in for them and oh boy sis they get some perspective
    via RyperiousPeoples
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    InevitablePoem Ooh, love that as well! The amount of disrespect our maintenance staff members sometimes get is unreal and it really saddens me because they do so much for everyone. Issue with your locker? They fix it. They even fix the students' bikes and they're still ungrateful. If we know who did it, we also make them do a task around the school but unfortunately, the maintenance staff members don't exactly know each student by name, especially the afternoon/after school cleaning crew.
    via InevitablePoem
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    Disastrous-Ladder349 If this were me, I'd be handing that marker over and thinking "this better work..." because it could backfire. But this is perfect, love it. Justice.
    via Disastrous-Ladder349
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    InevitablePoem I knew I could trust the class to humble him. Some of these kids are relieved when he isn't there and I can imagine why.
    via InevitablePoem
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    Ryaninthesky I do this occasionally. I tell the kid we'll switch. I'll take notes for them and they can teach. It's fun and usually funny.
    via Ryaninthesky

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class school student teaching middle school petty revenge teacher reddit thread Reddit eighth grade
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