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40 Hour Workweek

Uncategorized   |   Oct 24, 2009

Amusement, irony, and sarcasm in classrooms across the blogosphere…

By Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Amusement, irony, and sarcasm in classrooms across the blogosphere…

By Angela Watson

Teaching kindergarten is planning for Halloween ‘academic games’ and changing 29 children into costumes for a 20 minute party, solely for the amusement of her principal.

Hobo Teacher laments a colleague’s use of “The Math Pimp” persona. I suggest announcing it over the P.A. system.

Mrs. Bluebird uncovers yet another reason to preview materials before passing them out to children…and it involves the male reproductive system.

Mrs. Chili writes a letter to her students’ parents about laziness and apathy, and receives a single response.

John Spencer creates a video debunking the danger of “Denim Day”. I would argue that certain teachers wearing certain jean styles could be, in fact, dangerous and may cause temporary blindness, but point taken.

The Bus Driver tries out some logical consequences for Puke Girl and Poop Boy.

Mystery Teacher poses for a school picture…and “the office” requests a re-take.

One of Tattle Teacher‘s students learns to shape up, or go back to Mexico and take care of the goats.

Sarah contemplates writing “See diploma. See resume.” in lieu of filling out tedious lesson plan forms.

Mister Teacher spends a thrilling afternoon uncovering the reasons why his ESL kids don’t understand elaborate word problems. Of course, if they couldn’t define ‘sum’ two weeks prior, the outlook wasn’t too bright.

Angela Watson

Founder and Writer

Angela created the first version of this site in 2003, when she was a classroom teacher herself. With 11 years of teaching experience and more than a decade of experience as an instructional coach, Angela oversees and contributes regularly to...
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Discussion


  1. I don't care for the direction in which this blog has been going. As a new teacher, it used to be so encouraging and an excellent resource. Lately, it's been apathetic and ingenuine.

    I hope this changes.

  2. It frustrates me when people post mean things anonymously.

    I like this blog and think it has great resources and I like the fact that you are willing to give an overview of what is on the internet. So, shame on the anonymous person who won't be courageous enough to criticize publicly.

    Keep up what your doing. There's people out there who are reading!

  3. There is a time in every teacher's career when you just totally get the stuff in this post. Don't worry if everyone is not there yet. Teaching has to have some humor, or we would melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. And for Anonymous person. I teach my students that if you can't put your name or face on your comment, you should keep it to yourself. Only cowards make comments like that.

  4. @John: Thanks, I feel better knowing that you won't be rocking skinny jeans. Do you promise the same about stonewash?

    @Anon: Thanks for your comment. The last few posts HAVE had less of an encouraging, positive, upbeat tone, if that's what you meant by apathetic. But ingenuine? I've never posted anything on this blog that wasn't from the heart. And I think it's for that reason that yours is the only negative comment I've ever gotten in the 5 years I've been writing education blogs. Every post is an expression of some part of my personality and perception of the realities of teaching. Some people prefer the upbeat side, some people like the snarkier side. But it's all ME, and I have to continue writing posts that reflect that.

    Grammatically Delicious Designs: Teaching definitely has to have some humor. Reading about the outrageous events happening to other bloggers sometimes keeps me sane! It's amazing what stuff teachers encounter in the course of an ordinary workday.

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