Bad Dreams Teachers Have – and What They Mean
“Even your worst nightmares are just your brain doing its thing to help you become a better teacher,” says Florida teacher Roxanna Elden in this Educational Horizons article. Here are her interpretations of some recurring teacher nightmares:
• You come to school in a bathrobe, your pajamas, or the clothes you went out in last night. Interpretation: feeling vulnerable, inadequate, afraid of being unprepared.
• You are already running late and then get lost on your way to school. Interpretation: perhaps a desire to avoid responsibility, or perhaps just fear of being late.
• Your subject or grade level has been changed at the last minute. Interpretation: fear of wasting all that preparation you’ve done for your classes due to capricious administrators.
• Students come to your house and start helping themselves to bowls of cereal from your kitchen cabinets while you think of ways to keep them busy. Interpretation: you think about your students all the time.
• You are in a physical fight with a student, fellow teacher, or administrator. Interpretation: fight dreams express a desire to defend your honor, values, or personal space. They may also reveal anger, frustration, or a genuine desire to hurt the person in question.
• Your classroom is in the cafeteria, an open field, or an irregularly shaped room in which you can’t see all your students and they can’t hear anything you say. Interpretation: preparing oneself for the worst possible teaching scenario.

“Class Dismissed! Your Unscientific Guide to Interpreting Teacher Nightmares” by Roxanna Elden in Educational Horizons, October/November 2012 (Vol. 91, #1, p. 31)