8 Thoughts Every Teacher Has at Faculty Meetings

Wait a minute …no snacks!?!?

Faculty Meeting Thoughts

As much as you try to psych yourself up for it, the faculty meeting can be rough sometimes. You’ve just been with students all day, you have papers to grade, and you really just want to go home. Here are thoughts we’ve all had at the faculty meeting. It’s nice to know you’re not alone.

1. I hope I have a good seat.

We all have people we want to sit beside. People who understand our meaningful glances, carefully timed sighs, and sometimes, our snarky comments scribbled on the agenda. Faculty meetings are bad enough without having to sit next to that weird science teacher who never talks to anybody.

2. Are there snacks?

Fair warning to the administration: If snacks were promised and there aren’t enough for everyone (or if the snacks aren’t good), things are gonna get ugly.

3. Wait, why does everybody have their laptops?

Well, of course you read that last-minute email from the principal! Well, you skimmed it. That counts, right? Still, there’s not much more uncomfortable than showing up to a faculty meeting then suddenly realizing that you’re one of the few teachers who didn’t bring what you were supposed to.

4. Who is that?

Someone stands up to make an announcement about the upcoming food drive or science fair, and you realize you’ve never seen them before. Is he a student teacher? Did we get a new social studies teacher? What’s going on?

5. How old is that student teacher?!

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The longer you teach, the younger the student teachers become. It’s shocking the first time you look at a new student teacher and think “I don’t think you’re legally able to drive, let alone teach! Holy crap! I’m old!”

6. Yeah, we all know who this reminder is really for.

That reminder about wearing jeans only on Fridays? It’s really only for Bob, the history teacher who wears jeans and a golf shirt every day. The reminder about our contracted school day ending at 3:30 p.m., so no one should be in the parking lot before then? That’s for Susan, who sneaks out the back door at 3:15 p.m. at least three times a week. Why do we all have to sit through these mini-lectures? Everybody knows who they’re for.

7. We’re never going to finish on time.

We got off to a late start because the principal wanted to use PowerPoint but couldn’t figure out how to get it to work, and that teacher asked five questions (just like she always does) about the changed schedule due state testing, even though it wasn’t all that complicated. Now it’s 15 minutes before the end of the meeting, and we’re only halfway through the agenda!

8. Is this what sitting in my class is like for students?

We secretly check our phones, write notes to our friends, zone out, doodle, and count down the minutes until we can leave the meeting. Is this what our students feel like when they’re in our classrooms?

Ok, so not all faculty meetings are terrible. Hopefully, you have attended more interesting, helpful meetings than boring, pointless ones.

Let us know in the comments below if we’ve missed any thoughts that you know we all have during faculty meetings!