Whether they hate it or love it, one thing is clear—being a teacher is never dull, which is something most educators would likely agree with. According to one of them, at least—a high school English teacher named Andrea Michelle—few things have made her laugh as hard as teaching does.
Better known as Educator Andrea, she discusses the ups and downs of being a teacher in TikTok videos, many of which have gone viral and many of which have made her fellow netizens giggle, too. Today we want to shed light on some of the situations from Andrea’s day-to-day that have taken her aback, to put it mildly, and only proved time and again that there’s never a dull moment when it comes to teaching.
Scroll down to find them on the list below, where you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with Andrea, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions.
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“I've been sharing the funny parts of my classroom days online for a few years. I noticed there was a lot of content that focused on how hard teaching was or how drained teachers were—and that part is true. But what is also true is that I have never laughed in any other job like I've laughed in teaching,” Educator Andrea told Bored Panda in a recent interview.
“These kids are also so incredibly hilarious; who wouldn't love sitting in a room with the world's most unedited comedians?” she added. “I wanted to encourage future educators that they could find laughter in the classroom, and let other educators know that they weren't alone.”
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Even though typically quite amusing, Andrea’s videos cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a teacher, since—as with most things in life—teaching, too, entails challenges and difficult situations.
“We become de facto emotional support people for the students—and some of these kids are dealing with things that I am simply unprepared and untrained to help them with,” she shared with Bored Panda.
“I refer kids to parents, counselors, or others that are better trained than I, but I have learned about some of the invisible scars my students carry, and that's not something that goes away. You carry their stories with you and it can get very heavy.”
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Despite it being difficult sometimes, according to the educator, few things feel better than a student being comfortable enough to share bits of their lives with their teacher. “I am absolutely honored when students come to me for advice or simply to vent; it seems like such a small thing, but it's what demonstrates that we have the kind of safe relationship these kids need.
“Also, going to see students play sports and seeing them excel—it's so cool to see them in a context where they thrive,” Andrea added.
According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the student-teacher relationship is strongly linked with not only the former’s academic performance but with their level of happiness and sense of belonging in school as well.
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While teaching is something Educator Andrea very much enjoys now, it was never a dream of hers. “When I graduated high school, I had a 2.7 GPA. I was at school for the vibes, I didn't care about academia at all,” she shared.
“I wanted to be a morning radio host because they just got to show up and vibe; or that's always what I thought. I actually have a journal entry from when I was 18 and said I thought teaching might be fun, but I didn't want to be poor. Yet teaching found me anyways: I worked at a grocery store in college and they put me in charge of training the cashiers, mostly teenagers and I was like ‘Oh, oh no. I kind of love this. I am in trouble now’.”
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The teacher shared that while her content is frequently satirical and focused on some of the chaotic things educators deal with, the message she wants to spread is that teaching is one of the most profoundly and defiantly hopeful things people can do in this world.
“I love it. I love teaching my students, even if those six Chads from the internet think I should leave education. Never let a Chad win,” she said, referring to the few haters online that told her she should quit teaching.
“I have been pretty fortunate that most of my videos only get a few troll comments, which is the best someone can ask for, especially once you hit millions of views. If you think about it—a million people, and only six told me I was a garbage teacher and should quit? I mean, honestly, I'm winning. Those stats aren't bad,” Andrea told Bored Panda.
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Lord Of The Flies
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I had had a really tough day with one of my students that was just challenging, we'll say. And afterwards, you know, we had a heart to heart, and he said, "You know, miss, you are my favorite teacher." And before I could stop myself, I said, "Dear God, what is it like for the teachers that you don't like?"On Fridays, before students left for the weekend, I would tell them not to make a life, take a life, and not get arrested. And one day, one of my students looked at me and said, "You know what, miss? We love you, but you can't be infringing on our rights like that."I had one student tell another student to consume a satchel of Richards, which is impolite. But it also did lead to me recommending them for AP Language the next year because, I mean, you've got to encourage that kind of control of the English language.I once accidentally wore two different shoes to work. And after one of my students informed me that today's not the day I get to give life advice, another student informed me that if I was part of a gang, I would be called "Andy Two Shoes."I had a student pull out a loaf of bread, a jar of jelly, and a jar of peanut butter, and start making himself peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at 8:00 in the morning while I was teaching. And I said, "What are you doing?" And he said, "I'm making breakfast. Did you want some?" "Yes, please."One student said, "You are my biggest hater and my biggest supporter." Like. yeah, it's called teaching.A little kindergartener came up and got like real, real close to me and said, "I like the smell of you."This eighth grader laughed so hard at his own joke in class that he farted and then peed. He needed new pants.One of the girls in my class asked me where the male strip club was. And I said, "Even if I did know, would you want to know that I know?"One day I was walking between classes and I saw a group of boys huddled together, all had something between their fingers. And somebody had a lighter in the center. And I'm like, 'In the broadest of daylights, really?' So I went up and I said, "Hey, you guys," and they turned around, and every single one of them was holding a dry spaghetti noodle between their fingers.I was giving my students a little bit of context before we started reading 'Animal Farm'. So I put up a picture of Joseph Stalin and one of my students yelled, "Smash." And I explained that maybe we should not 'smash' evil dictators and she said, "It's okay, I'll still take that mustache ride."Two girls got into a full-on brawl in my class, like scratching and the hair pulling and all of that. Eventually they were returned to my classroom and I asked them like, "What happened?" She said, "Miss, she said my elbow looks like an uncrustable. I'm not about to let that stand."My students came back from a long weekend and I was like, "Guys, how was your weekend? Did you have fun? Don't tell me anything illegal." And one of my students raised his hand and said, "Yes, I had a great weekend. And I was only lightly arrested at the end of it."I got bangs last Christmas and when I came back from the break, one of my students looked at me, took a heavy sigh and said, "There it is, my 13th reason."A school student started their presentation by saying, "I'm the GOAT and that requires no explanation."In the middle of teaching, this kid just took a COVID test. He swabbed and he took it. And another kid looked at him and he goes, "Yo, I swear to God, if that test is positive, I'm breaking your jaw." And I just looked at him, I was like, "You better hope it's negative."I was asking some seniors if they remembered Romeo and Juliet, and one of the kids said, "Yeah, isn't that who died on the Titanic?" Yes.One of my students figured out how to make GIFs, so naturally, they created a GIF of their male friend twerking and embedded it into a slideshow before submitting it to me.I was observing my student teacher lecture and one of the kids kept interrupting and she finally was like, "Why are you talking?" And the kid looked her straight in the eyes and said, "Why are you talking?"One of my students was late to class and I didn't think anything of it. But then he came back in and he said, "Did you check your DMs on Instagram?" and I was like, "I'm instructing." And he said, "You should check," and I looked and he messaged me that he was taking a massive dump. And he also included an audio file. And I had to explain to him that at no point in time ever will I open an audio file from him that he sends from the bathroom. He swore up and down that it was just him explaining that he was going to be a little late to class. But we'll never know for sure.I was in the midst of explaining to my students what they should and should not share with me as an educator and authority figure, and a student brought out their vape and said, "What about this? Do you have to report me for that?" Yes.I was getting observed and the principal walked in the room and the principal sat down behind this girl. And this girl just turned and she looked at the principal. Then she looked at me and she looked at the principal. Then she looked at me. Then she started giving me this nod, like... And I was like, no, no, I'm not nodding back because I don't know exactly what the extent of your nod is that you want me to nod. I'm not agreeing to anything that you're about to do. And then she looked back at the principal, looked at me, looked at the principal, and ripped out a chunk of her hair, looked at the principal and went and just blew the hair in the direction of the principal.I tried to tell my students that smoking marij**na was probably not a great choice for their growing brains and bodies. And one of my students said, "Oh, yeah, well, but Egyptians smoked w**d and they built the pyramids." It's not the worst argument.My students were asking what I was going to be eating for lunch, and I told them I had a sandwich. They said, "Are you excited?" I said, "Not really, the bread's a little bit dry. You know, so, not great." And one of my students said, "Dry and crusty, just like your mom."One of my students came back from taking a fat dump in the bathroom. And I said, "Welcome back." And he said, "Do you want to see a picture?" I said, "I do not. Thank you. Why are you taking pictures of your dumps?" And he said, "For the group chat."I had a student that came up to me and asked if they [unalived] somebody but they had a signed note from the person they [unalived] saying it was okay, is that legal? I said, probably not in this state.A student that's not actually mine but he just hangs about, came and saw me right after he had left the biology classroom where he had given a fistful of his milkshake to a snail. Just bare knuckle, fistful into the enclosure. And I asked him why he did that and he said, "Well, because Gary wanted snackies." Gary died.I was trying to get them to give me examples of words that weren't swear words, but not really phrases or words that we would use in a classroom environment. One of my students said, "Well, blue waffle." And I said, "What's that?" They said "Google it." And I did.My students were constantly hitting on my student teacher, and I was telling them they need to stop that, and they said, "But miss, she's such a MILF."So I asked the students, "Are there any questions, anything you need?" And one of the students raised his hand and said, "Hold on, miss, one thing." And I said, "Yes?" He said, "Every war that has existed in our world also existed in the Cars universe."Two girls are in my class and one snapped the other one's boyfriend to see if he would be interested in dating her even though he's dating her friend, as like a loyalty test. And when he didn't respond, they both said that was toxic.When we finished reading , I served my students some pulled pork that I had made myself, and I was really excited to share it with them. And after they had eaten it, one of my students came up and said, "Wow, miss, I'm really impressed." And I was like, "Why?" And he said, "You just seem the type that wouldn't pepper your eggs because it gets too spicy. But this is good."I was introducing 'Lord Of The Flies' and I was so excited. I had green streamers up. I was playing . And I had this kind of like escape room scenario where I made the students kind of take control of the class and do this whole activity together. And it just descended into chaos. It was so cool and I'd worked so hard on it. Afterwards, I'm having them write a reflection. And one of the students said at the very end, "I thought we were going to do something fun today."My students were reading choice books, that means they get to choose what they read at the beginning of class. One of my students finished her reading time and said, "Man, this book is leaving me swampy," and I said, "What book are you reading?" She said, "Verity". I did not ask what swampy meant.My students were coming in and I said, "Guys, have a seat. We're gonna do a movie today." And one of my students said, "Oh, dead a*s?" I said, yep, dead... what...A group of really loud freshmen used to eat lunch in my classroom. And so one day when they came in, I was like, "Hey, guys, I really need you to pick up your trash today." And one of them looked at me and said, "What's your problem? Is it your time of the month?"
