High School Teacher Shares 36 Moments That Left Her Speechless

“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.”

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.”

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.

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’.”

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.