Parents that are uninterested in their child’s progress, and also the parents that think their kid isn’t being “challenged”. The other thing, thank goodness it is seldom, is helping them after a bathroom accident or getting puked or sneezed/coughed on! Yuck!

It’s definitely dealing with the parents. So many parents now seem to think that they have created flawless offspring. If the children do not behave, it is because the parents do not expect them to behave. Then, if you speak to the parents about the child not behaving they act as if you, the teacher, have mortally wounded both them and the child. I wish people would just be more realistic about the fact that if they are raising their children to behave like primates, then consequences will result. The only other thing is the whining. If a child is seriously hurt or something, I am perfectly okay with a violent reaction to the pain, but these kids who whine because they are allowed to do it at home find out very quickly that they will not be doing it with me.

There are 2 things about teaching I dislike. First, the mountains of paperwork that has to be done. I could easily spend 2-3 hours every other day just filling out forms, requisitions, lesson plans, etc.

As for actually teaching the kids, the main problem I have is that they’re unable to work independently. Even if there is a list on the board of work to complete, they still ask me what to do when they finish an assignment.

All of the above! Plus 12 year old children talking to you like they are adults one minute and crying to you like they are in preschool the next minute. Plus elementary students playing during dismissal and missing their busses. You have to find a way for them to get home. Also getting 30 minutes to get 26 kindergartners through a lunch line, waiting for them to decide what to eat, typing in their lunch numbers, keeping them from throwing food and fighting over a seat while trying to eat your lunch. I have many more things. Let me know if you would like to hear them.

Trying to figure out how to differentiate reading and other subjects to a 1st through 6th grade span of 25 minds.

they need a lot of care. like zipping zippers, opening their lunch stuff, blowing their nose, they cant go anywhere on their own, they do a lot of tattling…………sigh. sorry, i like the bell to ring and i can say, C-YA! call me lazy or uncaring, which would be untrue, but i prefer the upper grades, jr high and up.

Multiple attention spans.

Parents who think their little angel can do no wrong.