Sharpening your pencil while the teacher is talking, students playing catch-up, headphones in during a lecture. What are all these? Pet peeves: something that a particular person finds especially annoying.
As teachers carry out their many responsibilities, such as creating assignments, handing out quizzes and grading, they are often met with disruptions. One society-wide pet peeve that resulted in a policy change was technology misuse. Students are no longer allowed to use PMD’s (Personal Mobile Devices) during class, according to MCPS rules set last summer.
Because pet peeves can be broad, teachers’ frustrations often fall into specific categories such as behavior, timing or responsibility, and general habits. Teachers can feel underappreciated for their effort and time. AP Literature and Honors English 10 teacher Keisha Lambert is frustrated when students don’t put in the same effort as she does. “My biggest pet peeve is when I put in effort, and students don’t read books or material,” Lambert said.
Teachers’ pet peeves often stem from a constant build up of student obliviousness. Two math teachers, JD Marchand and Catherine Ruback are both frustrated by a lack of student awareness. “When somebody misses a test or quiz and doesn’t bother to make it up, and try to play catch up.” Ruback said.
There are students who do not take quizzes and there are other students who ask questions before even letting the teacher start. “My pet peeve is when students ask if there is a retake or how many points is this,” Marchand said.
Students’ reluctance to pay attention to teachers and their lessons seems to be the root of many teachers’ pet peeves. Although student actions and lack of effort result in teachers’ pet peeves, it goes both ways. Teachers and students spend five day weeks together during the long school year. Teachers may experience pet peeves from students, however, students also acquire pet peeves from teachers and their teaching styles.
Teachers only have so much time in each period to get through their lessons. This can cause them to go through their notes too fast and overstimulate the students. Junior Adriana Colomo finds this challenging. “I dislike when my teachers go through the notes too fast and rush me as I am not able to capture all the information,” Colomo said.
For some students, their pet peeve is the idea of school itself. Students may get tired of too much work. Senior Krish Balkee, a highly driven student, gets tired of work from teachers, “When we repeatedly do lectures without any form of group activity or discussion it eventually gets boring and hard to pay attention to,” Balkee said.
Another pet peeve among students is when their freedom in school is taken away from them. For example, when students are not able to pick their seats or groups, which students may see as a disadvantage because they may not have as good of chemistry with other people. “I don’t like when teachers hand out seating charts and make us have assigned seats,” senior Olive Nze said
As students may agree with Balkee, there are other ways to get frustrated. Students being unable to understand communication is a common pet peeve. Sophomore Jack Sisco said, “My biggest pet peeve is when teachers talk too fast.”
