As an English teacher, you know that your days are full of highs and lows, laughter, and frustrations. Whether you’re discussing the finer points of Shakespeare or deciphering the meaning behind emojis, a good sense of humor is essential to maintaining sanity in the classroom. With that being said, here are 15 memes that accurately sum up life as an English teacher:
1. The “I Moved from Shakespearean Drama to Classroom Drama” Meme
This meme showcases an ironic image of Shakespeare himself surrounded by speech bubbles and emojis as he laments having to teach modern slang terms like “bae” and “squad”.
2. The “Macbeth Curse” Meme
You’re not a true English teacher until you’ve experienced the fear of uttering the name “Macbeth” aloud in your classroom, causing chaos and catastrophe to follow suit.
3. The “Misplaced Modifier Mayhem” Meme
When your students unintentionally create hilarious sentences with misplaced modifiers, it sparks both amusement and frustration for any grammar-loving teacher.
4. The “Punctuation Struggle is Real” Meme
This meme uses exasperated facial expressions to capture the pain experienced when students struggle with punctuation rules and the Oxford comma debate.
5. The “To Grade or Not to Grade” Meme
Showing Hamlet contemplating life’s great questions, replaced by an English teacher holding a stack of essays debating whether to start grading or procrastinate a little longer.
6. The “Red Pen Wielder” Meme
A sarcastic twist on superheroes: a masked figure wielding their mighty red pen, illustrating that not all heroes wear capes – some just correct grammar!
7. The “Mispronouncing Literary Names” Meme
When you hear a student mispronounce a famous author’s name like Jane “Ow-sten,” it takes every ounce of willpower not to correct them immediately.
8. The “Literal Note-taking” Meme
After repeatedly stressing the importance of taking notes during class, your students take it literally by writing down every single word you say, verbatim.
9. The “Singular They Debate” Meme
Grammar traditionalists and modernists clash in this meme depicting an English teacher caught in the middle of the great “singular they” debate.
10. The “Close Reading vs. Skim Reading” Meme
Portraying a student attempting to explain that their skim reading technique counts as a close reading, much to an English teacher’s despair and disapproval.
11. The “Fine Line between Plagiarism and Inspiration” Meme
Watching students blur the line between borrowing ideas and copying work, you question if they’re just heavy inspirations or downright plagiarism bandits.
12. The “Too Many Classic Books Not Enough Time” Meme
A photo of an impossibly tall stack of books in front of a teacher with outstretched arms conveying the frustration of having to choose which essential literature makes it into the curriculum.
13. The “Split Ends: Run-on Sentence Edition” Meme
The division on compound sentences has never looked so literal (and had such bad hair) than in this meme illustrating how run-on sentences should be split into separate thoughts.
14. The “Mixed Metaphor Madness” Meme
As your student remarks on “burning daylight at both ends,” you shake your head in amusement at this creative mish-mash of classic idioms.
15. The “Figurative Language Fiasco” Meme
When students struggle with figurative language and claim that similes are similar, but not the same as metaphors or personification- and you just can’t deal anymore!
