101 Ways To Make Students Hate Your Class Classroom Management by Joel Wagner - July 20, 20161 We’ve all had our share of students whose purpose in life seems to be making our own life miserable. If you haven’t, well you’re in luck. Here is a list of ways to make students hate your class. 101 Ways To Make Students Hate Your Class Be boring Be mean Be inconsiderate Be confrontational Be negative Be consistently sarcastic Be impatient Be satisfied with good enough Argue with students Yell at students Threaten students Pick favorites Don’t learn names Misspell names Don’t try to pronounce names correctly Discourage students Focus on insecurities Compare students unfavorably with their siblings Compare students with other students Don’t allow students to use the restroom in obvious emergencies Haphazardly allow a “revolving door restroom policy” Makes lots of rules Make unnecessary rules Inconsistently enforce rules Ignore obvious misbehaviors Selectively criticize minor mishebaviors Assign detention daily Don’t set clear expectations Create an antagonistic learning environment Embrace stereotypes Share your opinions often Prejudge students based on what other teachers tell you Assign frivolous classwork Assign frivolous homework Don’t give feedback on grades Ignore district grading policies Set hard deadlines that leave no room for error Don’t allow makeup work Make a habit of not counting homework Input grades irregularly Miss school a lot Go back on your word Don’t care about students Compare yourself to other teachers Criticize other teachers Criticize administrators Don’t answer emails Don’t return phone calls Remain in  your classroom all day Gossip with other teachers in the hallway Spend instructional time on returning emails or phone calls Eat during class Don’t prepare for technology breakdowns Use outdated technology React rather than respond Lecture frequently Show videos frequently Use one instructional method exclusively Ignore looks of confusion on the faces of students Don’t check for understanding Give pop quizzes regularly Avoid asking questions your students can answer Force uninterested students to participate in class Make test questions ridiculously hard Make tests with 50 or more problems Make tests with 4 or less problems Ignore real-world implications of your subject matter Make frequent allusions to musicians, TV shows, or movies that were popular 30 years ago Make frequent allusions to musicians, TV shows, or movies that were popular 3 years ago Try to be trendy Type loudly while students are working Talk loudly while students are working Sing, whistle, or make other noises to yourself Say “umm” regularly Use “library voice” all the time Use “teacher voice” all the time Ask personal questions Single students out in front of others Have private conversations publicly Call parents on speaker phone during class Take things personally Talk about your personal life frequently Be secretive about your personal life Arrive to work late Leave work early Take mobile devices away from students Violate staff mobile device policies Blame students Blame parents Blame administrators Complain without offering solutions Teach the same material every year Go through the motions Don’t push yourself to grow Set low expectations for yourself Set low expectations for your students Frequently remind students how long you have been teaching Count down the days until the weekend Count down the days until Christmas break Count down the days until the summer Count down the days until retirement What do you think? Leave a comment with some more ways you have accidentally found to make students hate your class. Joel WagnerJoel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.