You dream about summer for months and then it finally arrives. Hours of blissful sleep unburdened by late night grading and early morning alarms seem within your grasp until … the teacher nightmares begin.
The closer we get to going back to school, the more our teacher duties start creeping into both our waking and sleeping hours. We asked teachers to spill the scary (and hilarious) things keeping them up at night.
Somebody was watching me …
“It was the first day and I couldn’t find anything I had printed, I didn’t sharpen a single pencil, and I was late. As I got to my classroom my kids we’re are over the place and the new assistant principal was in my doorway watching it all!” — Mary M.
She was evil …
“I had a dream that they put another teacher in my room with me temporarily and she kept trying to take over and do the opposite of what I asked of her. She was letting the students run around!” — Melissa S.
I couldn’t speak …
“I dreamed that it was the first day and I had laryngitis and couldn’t talk! To make matters worse, I lost my class! I couldn’t find them anywhere! When I finally found them, the paras and other teachers all had them in my room doing a lesson. They all gave me ugly looks and acted mad that I wasn’t there!” — Mary C.
I lost the children …
“Last night I dreamed that I had lost my whole class in transition to somewhere and I couldn’t find them. Woke up in a panic, heart racing.” — Michelle D.
I was lost …
“I got bumped to a school I had never heard of. Administration never sent me the letter so I showed up at my old school and then frantically had to find my new location as the minutes ticked by. I got lost, was late, and hated the new building.” — Jamie S.
I was alone …
“Didn’t know anyone on my team. Apparently had not shown up for anything till the first day of school so they had piled all the schedules and paperwork on a table. I had no idea what time to switch. I had nothing for the kids to do. It was awful.” —Karen O.
They had me surrounded …
“I got transferred to the high school and had to teach 267 kids in the auditorium with a chalkboard … French I!” — Alexandra W.
They were onto me …
“I once dreamed that everyone at my school had microchips implanted in their arms except for me, and I had to hide the fact that I wasn’t chipped.” — Racheal K.
There was nothing I could do …
“It was the first day of school and I hadn’t unpacked a thing. Boxes and stacked up furniture were everywhere but my second graders still had to be taught!” — Diana B.
My number was up …
“I was reassigned to an elementary school to teach first grade (instead of high school), and I started crying when the students were asking about specials and hot lunch lines and I didn’t know any of the answers. Then the principal came in and fired me and told me my husband was coming to get me because I was a terrible teacher.” — Ange H.
It was … math!
“I dreamed that I had to teach math! This from a drama and reading teacher.” — Brittany N.
Sweet dreams, teachers!
