Real Teachers

As another school year comes to a close, I've been thinking about all of the awesome teachers I know and am so excited that they have a much needed and deserved summer break coming right around the corner. Then just the other day, I got this list from a teacher friend. I loved it and cracked up as I read it, because every last thing listed is true in the world of teaching, especially number #20!

To all of the real teachers out there, you are amazing and are affecting the future in more ways than you'll ever know! Hang in there, only a few more weeks! :-)


1. Real teachers grade papers in the car, during commercials, in faculty
lounges, and have been seen grading in church (choir practice & pageant
rehearsals).

2. Real teachers cheer when they hear April 1st does not fall on a school
day.

3. Real teachers drive older cars owned by credit unions.

4. Real teachers clutch a pencil while thinking and make notes in the
margins of books.

5. Real teachers can’t walk past a crowd of kids without straightening
up the line.

6. Real teachers have disjointed necks from writing on boards without
turning their backs on the class.

7. Real teachers are written up in medical journals for size and
elasticity of kidneys and bladders.

8. Real teachers have been timed gulping down a full lunch in 2 minutes,
18 seconds. Master teachers can eat faster than that.

9. Real teachers can predict exactly which parents will show up at Open
House.

10. Real teachers never teach the conjugations of lie and lay to eighth
graders.

11. Real teachers know it is better to seek forgiveness than to ask for
permission.

12. Real teachers know the shortest distant and the length of travel
time from their classroom to the office (and to the
bathroom!).

13. Real teachers can “sense” gum.

14. Real teachers know the difference between what must be graded, what
ought to be graded, and what probably
should never again see the light of day.

15. Real teachers are solely responsible for the destruction of the rain
forest.

16. Real teachers have their best conferences in the parking lot.

17. Real teachers buy Excedrin and Advil at COSTCO.

18. Real teachers will eat anything that is put in the workroom/teachers
lounge.

19. Real teachers know secretaries and custodians run the school.

20. Real teachers hear the heartbeat of crisis, always have time to
listen, know they teach students, not subjects,
and are absolutely non-expendable.