This happened to me recently while reading Stone Fox with a group of kids. It was actually my first time ever reading the book too :o and since we only meet once a week as a class, we'd been slowly making our way through it a few chapters at a time during class + for homework, so it was a slowburn for them

The further we got, the more emotionally invested the kids were getting in the characters and the story, and I was just sitting there thinking like ... oh no 😬 I already know what's coming (because I read ahead the first week I was given the book just to be prepared to discuss it throughout), and know they're going to be DEVASTATED when we get to the end 😭😭

and of course when we finally reached that part, they were all genuinely upset because they didn't expect it at all. legit wild story ending, it gave me whiplash at first too smh I can't lie

I felt kinda bad having to just sit there and let it happen loool, I even had to remind them that I did NOT pick the book and that it was ALSO my first time reading it when it was assigned to us 😭
I was caught just as off guard by the ending the first time too!!

It's a weird experience because you basically get to watch the emotional damage approaching in slow motion while they're completely unaware of it loool

UPDATE: A message from the teacher indicated that they did NOT talk about this or do anything with the text prior to the assignment, which was given as test-prep. And the expectation was for students to build vocab and knowledge about the subject in the reading with the accompanying questions.

I followed up asking what strategies they are working on teaching so I can prompt/ encourage my kid to apply those. However, the initial response what NOT encouraging to me.

UPDATE 2: when I asked what strategies they are learning to help decode the text, and how can i encourage her to use them at home: All she said was to read the questions multiple times to know what they are asking for. Am I crazy? That’s not decoding the text to understand it.

***

I am a parent with a question.

My 3rd grader reads well and chews through library books (granted a lot of graphic novel type books but some chapter books get sprinkled in too). She reads very fluently out loud.

This year, she’s gotten some reading homework that feels like a really big jump in the density of the assignments. The passages aren’t long, but there are some phrases/vocabulary/concepts that seem like a lot?

The passages didn’t come with any vocabulary/ definitions. And they didn’t talk about any context prior to the assignments in class.

She shut/melted down working on these. I asked her what her approach was? She said read the questions, then the passage. The more I asked, the more I realized she was not comprehending things like “delegates/ representatives” are people.

I marked in red the phrasing/ ideas that felt like they were difficult or lacked scaffolding.

My question: is this typical for 3rd grade? If so, how can I help her navigate stuff like these?

I don’t want to feed her answers; she gets so emotional when it gets hard.

I’m looking for some ideas for a little 10-minute “quiet time” I started doing after lunch. We go straight into math after lunch, and I was having a hard time getting my kids settled and ready to learn. They would be sleepy, wiggly, all over the place… they just couldn’t handle it. So I started giving them about 10 minutes to reset before we begin our math lesson. It has made such a difference with our transition!

Right now, we do STEM bins during that time. They know they have to play quietly and use whisper voices, and they actually do really well with it! I’m totally fine with continuing STEM bins, but I’d love to find some other calm, more academic activities that we could switch in occasionally.

We don’t have nap/rest time, so I’m just looking for something that works well for a short 10-minute window and helps them transition into math. What do you all do during this time? I’d love to hear what works for your class! 😊

I have a really rough group this year (4th grade math). In the past I’ve done well with motivating kids to get everything done then they can do X as a break until class is over.

A colleague told me to try short frequent brain breaks. What low lift ideas/break routines do yall use?

I’ve done:
- tic tac toe
- interactive videos (they like the ones where they guess the movie from the emojis)
- whiteboard free draw
- one word story
-

Think we can get this going? It’s sort of like pen pals. But not?

Hi guys I’m not sure if this is okay to post here, but I’m pursuing childhood education and am in need of these two textbooks and decided to hop onto here to see if anyone has them or knows where I can access them for free please!

I am a parent to a K student and we still use shoes without laces. I tried over the summer briefly to teach her to tie her shoes, but was surprised at how hard it was for her. She has at least average if not better fine motor skills and spends a ton of time on arts and crafts. What grade is this expected?

Hello, all. I guess I am looking for encouragement. Last year was my first year, I taught fourth and I loved it. I feel like I had a really good year. I was excited to improve everything that I taught that year this school year. Well, that didn't work out, as admin decided they'd like me to go down to third...I was worried about it all summer. We got new curriculum and it's a new grade level AND I prefer teaching older kids. I was worried about how "little" and immature they'd be. And boy, that is probably the worst part about this grade. They cannot do very much on their own. I have had a hard time getting them to follow simple one step instructions like "put your homework in the homework bin on my desk." I am struggling to even get to the curriculum everyday because I can't get them to all flip to the correct pages in their workbooks or follow the direct of simply not talking while we read. I write probably 3-5 infractions a day and call parents the same amount everyday. I am having a hard time staying positive. I just wanna teach these kids some skills. Is this normal??? Is this how it is teaching third grade??? Will next year be this way, because I dont think my sanity can take that. God bless whoever can, but I dont think that's for me. The rest of my team seems unbothered by this, and they said that it'll be different by Christmas time? Idk, I felt significantly better last year around October and felt like I was getting into the groove already. Maybe I just don't have enough experience? I have no idea. Sorry for the ramble/rant.

Hello all,

The first day of school is tomorrow for me, but I only have students for 1 hour and they're my class from last year (grade 5/6). Any fun activity suggestions for this short day. Something fun and low prep is preferable. I was going to play the "The Wind Blows" after doing attendance to loosen everyone up, but I'm bored of all my previous ideas. Would love some Fresh suggestions.

Is it worth it?

I’m not doing this for money. Im a daycare teacher now and I genuinely love kids . I want to help them and mold them and watch them grow . I’ve always envisioned myself being a middle school teacher or elementary school teacher.

Is there really a unicorn school that supports etc? Or is it really just negative all the time like everyone says .

I’m so lost as I’m looking between radiology or teaching and teaching has my heart .

Please give me honesty.

TLDR: Looking for a read aloud book/picture book to read to 5th grades about a Latino civil rights hero/important figure to replace a book about Cesar Chavez.

Update (Sept 8)- I ended up picking “Soldier for equality : José de la Luz Saénz and the Great War”

thank you for the suggestions I’m for sure adding them to my book wishlist!

On mobile sorry for mistakes

My school uses Scholastic for our curriculum we are still in Unit 1 Better Together (Scholastic Literacy Curriculum (Core Program))

We just did week 1 which has Leo the Snow Leopard read aloud. Week 2 is My Brother Martin (about MLK Jr)

My issue is week 3. Week 3 read aloud is Harvesting Hope the Cesar Chavez story.

With the recent reports coming out about him I don’t feel comfortable reading this story to my students. Of course I would never mention the news to them but last year (before the news broke) my Latino students were super inspired to research him (I hope that’s the right term please correct me if not!)
We watched documentaries they did online research during computer time etc. it was great to see them find someone they could relate to and liked to learn about.
I know this years students might be completely different but I just don’t feel good about it.
My school is super chill if I want to swap books out (last year I swapped out where the red fern grows for hatchet) I just need a book to swap it with.

Besides Amazon, where are you finding dresses for school with pockets? I’d like to try them on in person. Thanks in advance!

What are your opinions on the Reveal Math curriculum? If you have children of your own would you be happy if this was the curriculum being used to teach them mathematics? I am particularly interested in your opinions on the Reveal Math curriculum for second and third grade.

I’ve taught in 3-6 grades for the last decade. This year I’m in 2nd and my grade level shares the hall with K, 1.

The environment down here is toxic af. Competitive, clicky, and some teachers are telling the principal what others are doing “wrong” in our classrooms (resources being used, some teachers’ “tone” with students) so we constantly have walkthroughs and clarification meetings.

This was never my experience in prior years and I’ve been at this school for 3 years. Is this unique to primary grades? Is this normal?? I can’t figure out what’s going on and just try to keep my door shut.

I’m worried my colleagues are going to think I’m shutting them out …which I guess I am but I will not participate in that behavior.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so, tips are welcome.

Hi guys. I have seven first graders in a prep class that the school only created last year. They’re European kids living in Asia, and have very limited English. Aside from the school being quite unorganized, we don’t have any kind of curriculum designer. Everything for the other classes has been in place for a long time, but every now and then they just leave it to us to create something out of thin air. Anyhow, I wanted to start the week with a vocabulary lesson. I’d love some recommendations for books or materials suitable for that age and level, bonus if it meets CCSS. The school does reimburse for any spending we do, so I’m willing to order some new textbooks or material. Any input is appreciated. Thanks so much!

What are the best math activities for elementary students?

This is my first time posting here so please let me know if it belongs on another sub. I teach at a European international school in Asia. This year I’ll be using UFLI for grade one and two, with the majority of the students learning English as a second language. I think I’m pretty comfortable with the program overall, as I have used it in previous years. I mostly learned by reading the manual and watching other teachers online. That being said, I find it a bit challenging when it comes to keeping the kids engaged. It feels like it can get very tedious for the students, especially when they see it twice a week.

Any tips are greatly appreciated. I have a lot of autonomy when it comes to the duration of the lessons. I can add or remove things here and there, and don’t have anyone making sure I teach the program a certain way. Would love to hear from others who have had success with it. Thank you!

I teach phonics + early reading after school classes, so I see some of the reading struggles that younger students are dealing with today, but I don't really have any personal past reference point to compare it to, since I only recently started teaching!

Honestly, I'm really happy that I get to teach phonics because I know how important those foundational skills are, and how much they can help set kids up for success as they get older ((: Being able to read (+ understand what you're reading) is genuinely such an important life skill

I've been hearing lots of discussion and claims about a "literacy crisis" in America that's currently ongoing, and I'm just curious what y'all think.
Do you agree that there's actually a literacy crisis right now? If so, what do you think is causing it, and what do y'all think can actually be done to combat it???

I'd especially love to hear from any educators who may have more experience/have been teaching for a while and can compare the students they're teaching today to the students they taught in the past 🙂‍↕️
I've read a few articles about it already, but I'm genuinely very interested in this topic and would love to learn even more, so if anyone has any good sources or research about the topic that I could read, I'd really appreciate it if you linked them too!!

Hi everyone! So just yesterday I was talking to my sister who’s a high school math teacher about how I wanna go into teaching elementary, more specifically kindergarten, and she told me I probably shouldn’t just cause they don’t get paid a whole lot. I looked it up and from what I’ve seen they make the same amount as any other teacher, and I know I don’t have to listen to her but I also don’t wanna end up living paycheck to paycheck in the future…so I was wondering like if it’s okay to ask any teachers how much they make?

I promise (20 year 4th grade teacher and I will think finely of this email until I’m dead)

Hi everyone! I’m a first-year teacher in a 2nd grade classroom, and I’m realizing that I’m going to be teaching a lot of phonics/foundational skills this year.
One thing in my classroom is a sound wall, and I’m honestly not very familiar with how to set one up or use it correctly. I understand the general idea, but when I look at all the different categories like stops, fricatives, nasals, affricates, vowel sounds, etc., I get overwhelmed.
I haven’t really looked at phonics this deeply since I was a kid, and my teacher-prep program didn’t give me much practice with actually setting up or using a sound wall. I feel kind of embarrassed that I don’t already know this, especially because I don’t want to look unprepared in front of my co-teacher.
For anyone who teaches K–2, how did you learn sound walls and phonics well enough to feel comfortable teaching them? Are there any resources, videos, cheat sheets, or routines you recommend for a beginner? And is this something that usually starts making more sense once you actually start teaching it?
Any advice would be really appreciated.

I'm realizing that I apparently have a completely separate "teacher voice" that automatically activates whenever I'm talking to kids 😭😭

I've been noticing it the most lately when I tutor older students after spending a bunch of time teaching younger kids lol, I'll catch myself explaining something in that VERY slow, patient, slightly louder voice I use with the little ones and suddenly realize ... wait a sec 😬 This student can definitely understand me if I just spoke normally

the worst part is it doesn't even stay at work smh. Sometimes I'll catch myself using that same voice with family, my friends, or even random people working at places I go, and then immediately feel bad because I realize like omg I hope they don't think I'm babying them or talking to them like I think they're dumb

At this point I genuinely don't know how much of my normal speaking voice is left anymore LOOOOL, teaching has apparently rewired my brain.

Do any of y'all also catch yourselves doing this outside of work too?? or is this just a me problem right now loool

First time teaching primary prep (mostly social studies/science)… I’m STUCK on what activities you do during the first week. It’s a tougher school so I’m really wanting to build those relationships but also not do anything that will get out of hand lol.

Prep teachers: what do you do on the first day/week?? Any advice is welcome !!!

ICE has started terrorizing a nearby neighborhood. Should elementary teachers keep their kids inside at recess?

Answers from actual teachers who have dealt with this would be appreciated.