The 69-year-old says having a sense of humour comes in very handy when working with teenagers.
Her deep understanding of the complexities of the teenage mind and her extensive repertoire of humorous one-liners allows her to defuse tense situations and get pupils co-operating.
Her witty comments also help her Otago Girls' High School teaching colleagues keep things in perspective.
Many morning tea breaks have ended with her shouting across the staffroom: ``Right, I'm off to make a difference.''
At the end of this year, Ms Babbage will retire after nearly 47 years in the profession - 43 of which have been at Otago Girls' High School.
It makes her the longest-serving staff member in the school's 146-year history, and she credits her sense of humour with keeping her there so long.
``How would I be teaching for 47 years if I didn't have a sense of humour?
``It underpins everything you teach. If you don't have a sense of humour, you can't see through what's really important.
``Sometimes, things that seem huge are actually very small.''
During her career, there are few things she has not done.
She began by teaching physical education and was the head of the department for about 15 years.
She then took six months' study leave and retrained as a commerce teacher, before going on to teach typing, word processing, text information management and then office management.
At present, she teaches accounting and business studies. She has had four stints as head of commerce, and over the years has taught human biology and mathematics.
She has also contributed many years to the running of the school and associated organisations, as the staff representative on the board of trustees; the dean of years 10, 11 and 12; the secretary, chairwoman and treasurer of the school PPTA branch and the Commerce and Economics Teachers' Association; and was a school certificate exam marker for 13 years.
Ms Babbage said she had no major plans for retirement as yet.
``The idea of retiring is that you don't have plans, because a teacher's life is plan, plan, plan, plan, plan.
``So all I know at this stage is, I'm going to spend a lot more time in my garden, I'm going to clean my house, and I'm just going to do whatever I feel like on any given day.''
She said the thing she would miss the most would be the learning.
``When I first started teaching, I think I knew more than they [the pupils] did.
``Now, it's the other way around. I learn stuff from them every day - things like how to put my phone on silent or do something on my laptop.
``It's a sharing of information rather than teaching for me now. That's what I'll miss most.''
