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.
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?”
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?”
“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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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’.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
I was introducing ‘Lord Of The Flies’ and I was so excited. I had green streamers up. I was playing Welcome to the Jungle. 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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
A little kindergartener came up and got like real, real close to me and said, “I like the smell of you.”
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.”
When we finished reading Lord Of The Flies, 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.”
