The Exasperated Teacher Blog UK

This is a massive confession and one that some people might consider to be ridiculous – but it is a real issue and one I am happy to share because I know I’m not the only teacher with this challenge in their daily classroom practise. If you ask any teacher whether they have a ritual or specific way of doing things, most of the time, there is a secretive, sometimes long, list of routines and aspects of the day, that to any ordinary non-educator, just seems weird and strange. (And if they tell you that they don’t, they’re lying, oblivious or in denial!) But to us teachers, we have to do it this way, otherwise it’s the one overwhelming, insignificant thing that tips us over the edge on our worst day. Maybe it’s because we are constantly dealing with changes to the curriculum and elements of education that we cannot control like we can control most happenings inside our own classrooms, so to reclaim some sense of control, we have these little things in our lives that provide a little moment of calm that we so often feel is missing from our professional lives?! Just a thought. 🤔

Here are just a few of my own OCD quirks:

Alphabetical order. There are many things that I do in an obsessive alphabetical order. Not just in my classroom, but at home as well. My books, on the bookshelves in my house, are in alphabetical order, for the most part. (The top shelf in my bedroom is in preferred reading order.) My CDs and DVDs are in alphabetical order. Names on my group lists are in alphabetical order. The housepoint tokens are in alphabetical order (blue, green, red, yellow) I just can’t have it any other way. My class even line up in alphabetical order when we travel to assembly, indoor PE, ICT suite travels, or other random journeys around school.

Rainbow colour order. Sometimes, it’s not just the teachers who have this obsession. Sometimes, even the children have it. If I’m doing some mindfulness or using paints, I will scatter (carefully organise) my colours in rainbow colour order. I thought it was just me, but I noticed that some children in my previous class did it as well. There was about 4 or 5 children that I spotted with the entire pencil pot of coloured pencils laid out in rainbow colour order. Could my OCD be contagious? I remember, as a child, reorganising my berol felt pens into rainbow coloured order in the pack, because the order they had them in, just didn’t make sense to me.

Colour co-ordinated planning. I have recently stopped doing this because I simply can’t afford the colour printing credits. I’ve sacrificed my appealing planning sheets for budgeting printing credits. Red used to be my higher ability groups, green was my middle groups and blue was my lower groups. Key questions were purple, unless directed at a specific ability group, learning objectives were red, success criteria was green and vocabulary words were bold. Now my plans are plain, boring black and white, with the occasional yellow highlighting here and there. (It gets printed out in grey!)< strong>Numerical order. I’ve recently been assessing my class in core areas of learning. (Maths, reading, spelling, grammar and writing.) After I’ve marked their assessments, I organise the papers in order from lowest score to highest score, but then I have to put them into alphabetical order so that I can input the data onto the spreadsheet. 🙄

Even borders. When I trim display posters, that are straight edged, I have an invisible line on the paper holder of my paper trimmer, that I use to ensure that all white bordered edges are equal and even. They are the same thickness all the way around the outside of the poster or picture. If somebody else trims them, it’s not likely to be the right thickness around the perimeter and in my own mind, that is too much extra work to go and re-trim them all to fix them. It sounds anal, and I know it is, but I just need them to be equal so it doesn’t annoy me. When I cut oddly shaped laminated items, I use the thickness of the scissor blades to ensure that the edges are equal thickness between the paper that was laminated and the cutting line. My eye is now trained and I’ve used the same pair of scissors for years, but it just allows me to quickly trim around shapes and keep the edges equal and even. I’ve even tried passing this tick onto friends/children who “help” but their eyes are not like mine and they don’t have OCD. It annoys me to no end, when I show a child how to leave a thin border of white/laminating sheet around the item they are cutting out, and then they go and cut it out as close to the item as possible. It makes no sense to me, and once I know it has been cut out incorrectly, it’s all I can think about. A few children have been eliminated from my ‘cutting things out’ team, for this very reason…🙈

Parallel/even spaces. When I put displays up, I like to make sure that key words, posters, pictures etc are all equally spaced and parallel. To do this, I might have to measure accurately with a ruler, but if a ruler isn’t to hand, I often find other classroom resources, that are within reach, to help me. For example, a whiteboard eraser, pencil sharpener, I’ve even used an old staple before! It sounds strange but when you’re stood in front of a display board all day, teaching from the front of the classroom, it’s all you see and when you know something is skew-iff, wonky and misaligned…it does bug you and it begins to be the only thing that you can concentrate on.

Wonky with intention. Sometimes, displays can look too military and uniformed if everything is straight and squared off. Sometimes, you have to add some wavy borders and place some posters etc at a slight angle to create a creatively pleasing display – Which makes ensuring that they are parallel, and equally spaced, slightly more difficult, but if it creates an eye catching display board to admire as you scan the room for volunteered answers, it’s all worth it. 😁

Level displays. Sometimes it’s hard to make sure that lettering, pictures, posters etc are level on the display board. In the past, I’ve even had display boards that were not even level, which has made this more challenging than it really needs to be. Luckily, my display boards are fairly level, in my new classroom. It made putting up displays, over the summer, much quicker and easier to do! A quick trick I use to make sure letters are level is to place the middle letter where it needs to be and then arrange the other letters either side to spell out the word. To place the other letters, I tend to place the letter I’m holding over the top of the already placed letter and then move it to the side slowly so I don’t lose the height and level-ness. In the past, I have used a small spirit level but I dropped it one day and have never bought a new one.

Aligned pictures/letters. When I put pictures up on a display board, I need to make sure that they are aligned. Again I use the technique of placing the picture over the top and gliding it in the right direction to maintain alignment. When you get an odd number of items to put up, it becomes frustrating. Number work needs to be considered as to how many rows/columns can be created with the items you have, in the space that you have available. (If I have 12 pictures, can I do 3×4 or 4×3 with the space available?) It’s all a huge dilemma sometimes and that’s when you need a fellow OCD person with you to check from a distance whether the items are in line and level before you stick it down in place.

Symmetrical/balanced. Often I will have an issue with unsymmetrical views in the classroom. For example, if I have cushions on the chairs in the reading area, they will either need to be intentionally placed so that the colours or shapes are symmetrical. Ideally, I’d put one chair either side of the book shelf, but then two children won’t be able to share a book together. 🙄 So the cushions and rug will need to be central or symmetrical, in front of the chairs, instead. Just to counteract the limited possibility of having balanced or symmetrical chairs and furniture.

I’m thankful that I have at least one other OCD co-worker and we’re lucky that we have similar tendencies as well. I have worked with someone in the past, who had opposite OCD tendencies to me and it caused a few annoyances between us. Our colour coding systems clashed and we were forever re-colouring the plans that we forwarded to each other. 🙄

Recently, I’ve proven that the OCD is real and not actually a joke. I don’t know how to explain why I get so annoyed by these small details not being just so in my classroom but I do. I just know that I’m not an easy person to work with, if these things are not right in my classroom. A co-worker has watched the OCD methods and hacks in full force, in complete and utter disbelief. She thought I was actually joking. Luckily, my fellow OCD co-worker was there to back me up. I’m still not certain whether she finds it hilarious or disturbing that we go to such lengths with the displays.