Bad dreams about teaching, anyone?

[chemigal]

I'm amazed that so many of you guys have these too!  I have at least one before the start of every single semester!!!  They're the usual ones, nothing prepared, forgot laptop, markers (actually did forget these my very first lecture), and students just getting up and walking out as I start talking.  I'd kinda hoped they'd go away after several years of teaching but no luck yet.

[Kron3007]

Never.

As a student, however, I had the exam dream twice. And I had a dissertation defence dream, although it wasn't really bad; I just dreamt how it would go.

My stress dreams pretty much all involve my teeth crumbling or falling out.

Me too!  Haven't had one recently, but my teeth are always falling out in my dreams.  I used to have a lot of dreams where I was being chased too.

 

 

[Chemystery]

While I do get to have the "bad day teaching" themed dream at the beginning of the semester like so many of us seem to, my brain does not do "regular" dreams.  Here's the short version of this year's.

I noticed that my colleague was late for class.  That is very unlike her, but I didn't have time to tell her because I had to get to my own lab.  As I began my pre-lab lecture, I realized that my prep-person provided me only with mislabeled salad bar ingredients (One of the bags said "rabbit womb," something I neither needed nor wanted, but actually contained de-stemmed sweet peppers with tiny bits of cauliflower).  As I lectured, the door opened and a bunch of students not enrolled in my course started streaming in.  I realized that my classroom was actually a small cafeteria and they were coming in to eat lunch.  This was never going to work, so I tried to figure out how I could get this dining room shut down without getting in trouble for doing so.

I'm reasonably sure that none of this is going to happen this year.

[ergative]

One of the bags said "rabbit womb," something I neither needed nor wanted

In the context of the dream, or generally? I mean, haven't we all had cases where what we really needed was some rabbit womb?

[Myword]

All right, then what do these dreams mean? Why are we dreaming this nightmare?

My dreams usually include losing my car and having no transportation.

[hoopyfrood]

Every year without fail, a new beginning of term anxiety dream.  My favorite:

I show up to the wrong room for the final exam, but so does the whole class. So I have to lead them across campus (I don't teach in a multi building college now) like ducklings.  Everyone gets settled and I ask everyone to hand in their cans of tuna and put up the exam question on a power point "Is it moral for Dorothy to bake a cake in Kansas?"   I collect the tuna but keep dropping cans loudly, disturbing my students.   At one point the fire alarm goes off but no one wants to leave and I resort to pulling the exam sheets from their hands screaming "You can't pass if you're dead" and herding the class of 250 people out into a snow filled field. 

[AmLitHist]

I'm amazed that so many of you guys have these too!  I have at least one before the start of every single semester!!!  They're the usual ones, nothing prepared, forgot laptop, markers (actually did forget these my very first lecture), and students just getting up and walking out as I start talking.  I'd kinda hoped they'd go away after several years of teaching but no luck yet.

Chemgal, I've had variations of most of these dreams before the first day of every semester; more aggravating is the fact that they're usually accompanied by waking up every 20-30 minutes the entire night before that first day. (So much for going to bed early and being well rested on Day 1!)

If it's any encouragement to you, this past First Day (Aug. 19) is the first time I've ever NOT had a bad dream or woken up repeatedly the night before--it was great!  I didn't even have the butterflies when I walked into class that first day, as I always did in the past.  I'm starting my 16th year FT here, so maybe that's it. 

(Then again, it could be as my colleague said:  It might just be that I truly don't give a @*$^ anymore. )

[EdnaMode]

I've had several dreams of the sort where I have to teach two classes, back to back, 10 minutes apart, on totally different topics, so I need to carry two sets of materials with me to class. And, of course, my campus has mysteriously grown exponentially in size with the classes being in different buildings, miles apart, and I keep running and running in hopes of reaching the second class but never manage to get there on time.

And right before this semester started, I had a dream that a colleague and I were both scheduled to teach at the same time in the large lecture hall that seats 200. We each had 100 students in our classes, so decided to split the room in half and both lecture at the same time. Yeah, like that would work!

[AJ_Katz]

Chemgal, I've had variations of most of these dreams before the first day of every semester; more aggravating is the fact that they're usually accompanied by waking up every 20-30 minutes the entire night before that first day. (So much for going to bed early and being well rested on Day 1!)

Yep, that's me right now.  Up 2.5 hours past my normal bedtime, fretting about the first day of class tomorrow.  It's not even a big class.  I so dislike teaching.  I'll take research, writing, committee work, and faculty meetings over this stuff any day...  even ordering and reimbursement paperwork!

[geoteo]

I never had these dreams until after I retired, when I started to dream that I kept forgetting to teach my T/R class.  Also, for some reason, I was teaching history (I'm a biologist), as well as taking a history class that required a large project that I didn't want to do, so the person teaching history flunked history.

[Second Chance]

The bad dreams about teaching got far worse after I stopped teaching  - so i'm very much like the OP. (not even sure if i had them whilst i was still teaching. ) The dreams seem similar too. Usually it's that i'm unprepared for a lecture and i try winging it as best I can and it feels dreadful. But there was a worse series i had for a while in which i realized i had an extra class to teach that I wan't really showing up for. So i missed a bunch of lectures, and then i'd remember only the night before or the morning of and then it merged into not be prepared.

[nebo113]

Had one last night....I'm retired!!

[chemigal]

So, not only do I suffer now but it'll get worse when I retire????

[Second Chance]

Since both me and nebo didn't get them until we retired, perhaps you will stop getting them once you retire.

my award goes to the cans of tuna dream but close call- lots of great dreams people reporting

btw, like nebo, i also now after retiring for first time get a dream that i'm taking classes - usually math (I was a dual math major as an undergrad) but I haven't turned in any of the assignments and mostly forgot all about the class so will likely fail. in the dream, i think this is so unlike me, and its stressful.

on the forgetting to teach dreams, I've figured this is my brain's way of trying to figure out why on earth i am no longer doing what i did so often for so many years. Did you forget? Also think the dreams after something is over is a way for brain to purge unneeded things as part of the general efficiency that the whole body practices.

[nebo113]

So, not only do I suffer now but it'll get worse when I retire????

Fortunately, it doesn't happen often!