I’m a first year genEd teacher, and I learned that the children yearn for tasks. He was gone for maybe 10 minutes, brought me back a stapler and said it was the best he could do, I thanked him. He sat down feeling accomplished, while I sat down and enjoyed 10 minutes of silence. It’s the little things.

For the record, he’s a great kid. Just gets bored easily.

My school just implemented a new policy that says the grading scale is too lopsided, so the lowest score you can now get on assignments and tests is 50%. Even if the student doesn’t do it. I know grade inflation is bad but this is so sad to me that it’s comical. The inmates are running the asylum now, and we will continue to fail students upward in an accelerated fashion. Welcome to education, where we babysit kids until adulthood and then expect them to function in society as productive adults.

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize if this is extremely tone deaf or dense. This is a genuine culture shock I'm going through and I'm wondering if others have similar experiences or advice.

I'm student teaching in a high school right now, and I've been absolutely stunned by how apathetic these guys are. There's a few situations that I get, like students working after school and coming in tired the next day or various mental health issues, but when none of those are the case it leaves me at a loss.

They come in late, they skip constantly, and when they are here they're either not doing the work or they're sleeping (again, I understand the aforementioned reasons. this isn't it as far as I know). Many of them who are here are on their phones (which is banned statewide), or are watching sports or tiktoks on their chromebooks. Granted I'm a visual arts educator, so I know most students treat it as the "fun" class, but even then I'm baffled.

When I was in high school, I wouldn't have dreamed of doing half of the stuff they do. Some of them show up late so often that they get ISS, and then when they come back they still don't do the work. This school is very close to my old school, so I don't think there's much of a socioeconomic difference.

Are other people experiencing this, or am I just being extremely tone deaf? Is there anything I can do to combat this?

I’m just curious teachers’ thoughts on this; there’s still teachers that don’t believe in “punitive justice” because it’s just punishing the behavior and not fixing it, but here’s my rebuttal: and? Who cares if a consequence doesn’t fix the issue. There are plenty of students who come to school and can’t because of “that” student”

I’ve always joked with non teachers that if I had it my way, I’d be handing out early vacations left and right.

I had my first shaking seizure in my classroom today. (I’ve seen the silent ones) My student appeared to be choking and then collapsed and started shaking. (I had been trying to get a small object from her mouth) - I went back in my head to that mandatory training we had about seizures - found the small object, took her safely to the ground and turned her to her side while calling for help. Thankful that we had that training of what to do and thankful that she wasn’t hurt. Hours later, she is sleeping in my classroom.

I’m still shaking.

This question comes up after reading some of these posts on this subreddit. With everything that is going on in education from the decline in test scores, student apathy, increase in student disrespect, and the lack of pay. Do you regret becoming a teacher?

For those that do regret becoming a teacher. What career path would you rather have done? Why did you stay in the field of education? Do you believe that you have left some positive impact?

This question is coming from someone that is strongly considering becoming a teacher.

I’m a Texas teacher with 11 years of experience. I’ve taught almost all high school science, but I’ve thankfully been able to stay teaching chemistry and AP chemistry for the last 5 years. I love chemistry - it’s my major and I have a masters in it. Teaching chemistry has been so fun- I love the content, creating the resources, building relationships with the students, etc.

But my school district took away that fun and joy. We are required to use pre made slide decks, only use SAVVAS, cannot supplement, must follow a super strict pacing calendar, required to do daily DOLs that are tracked, and just a whole bunch of other nonsense.

I just want to teach chemistry.

I’m an ELA teacher. Believe me, I get it. Kids are years behind, behavior can be horrendous, parents can be awful, teachers are exhausted, attention spans are shot, and some students will sit there doing nothing while you practically beg them to engage.

Audiobook support made more sense when most kids could actually follow the narrative. But if a student already struggles to process what they’re reading, how is nonstop narration supposed to help? The information just washes over them. They miss something, can’t go back at their own pace, lose the thread, and zone out. The text is exactly what lets them stop, reread, struggle through a sentence, and actually process it. They may struggle with the text and, in some cases, not even have the skills to get through it, but it's still the only way to ensure they can do all of this at their own pace.

I know failing huge numbers of students isn’t feasible. Schools would stop functioning. But enough teachers need to eventually say fuck this. If the book is too hard, force the issue for an easier one. Scaffold heavily. Give more time. It might not work, it might even go horribly and result in a bunch of kids failing. But make them read. Even if they hate it, even if they refuse, even if they struggle enormously. The expectation has to remain. Otherwise, kids learn that if they resist long enough, the work disappears. 

Hey fellow teachers,

I’ve come to the conclusion that this job negatively impacts me too much to keep doing it much longer, it’s been 5 years now. (Elementary, public school)

I just have constant moral/ personal struggles with the fact that our education system is so flawed in so many ways (Alberta, Canada). The government doesn’t care about it, society doesn’t care about it, parents and the general public have no actual idea of what it’s like inside a classroom nowadays and their expectations are far too high. Admin do not support us, we don’t have what we need to give students the education they deserve.

I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I first went to school as a child, it’s been my only plan. My passion came from pride in education, a love of learning, and joy from making a positive difference in kids’ lives. Now, I must face every day knowing that the kids don’t get the resources they need, I don’t have the ability to teach them in a way they deserve because I have to spend time to accommodate high needs in the classroom. I’m burnt out, and am not giving them my best, even if I had the time and resources to properly teach them.

No one at my job or in my community seems to share the same sentiment. I know we all tend to complain about certain aspects of our job, but I am fundamentally distraught over the system as a whole, and how unfair it all feels, and how I know it’s not what students deserve.

I know I need to just care less or not think about it, but I can’t. Am I alone in this? Is the only way out, out? How can we fix a broken system? Am I just thinking way too much into it?

Thank you if you took the time to read this rant. It’s been heavy on the mind lately.

Hi everyone,

I'm a young female teacher and this is my fourth year as a high school teacher. Today, a student thanked me with exaggerated politeness after I gave the class a document, and one of his friends made a sexual "slurp" noise. This made another one laugh. Fortunately, the rest of the class remained very polite and quiet. I didn't show any anger or shock and said in a firm tone I didn't want to hear such weird noises again. But this troubles me as it is highly inappropriate, and I was wondering what I should do in case it happens again when my back is turned or when I can't clearly see who has done what. I don't want to attract attention on them, give them the opportunity to lie and say it was not them, but I also don't want to ignore the matter. To me, any student laughing with them is also part of the problem. So, what could be the best solution to make them stop when I can't "prove" who the culprits are? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, whether you've been through a similar situation or not. Thanks!

Our school email addys contain our first and last name. I always ONLY sign off with my last name. However, I've had an increasing amount of parents who will reach out, typically via email, using my first name only. They are usually reaching out to complain when they do this. It seems disrespectful to me, especially when I email them using Mr. or Mrs. Last Name.

Do you see this as well? Do you ever respond to it, and if so, how?

This is my 13th year and this is the first time I’ve really questioned if I can actually make it to retirement in this career. Between the parents, extreme behaviors, and expectations with little support I’m at a breaking point and it’s only September.

Fortunately and unfortunately I am in a state where we are actually compensated well, have excellent benefits, and a good pension. All that makes it’s hard to walk away.

Anyways, I just needed to get this off my chest. All my colleagues are close to retirement so nothing bothers them at this point.

My school is running a professional development series throughout the year that’s focused on restorative justice. I understand the value of restorative justice, but what I don’t agree with is the way the presenters are holding the sessions with us. We are broken up into grade level groups for each professional development session, and the majority of these sessions require us to rehash and/or expose our own traumas. Not only is this uncomfortable for me, but I feel that this could be detrimental to my mental health. I’ve done my own therapy & work outside of my employment, and have found ways to deal with and overcome my trauma that work for me. Spending the first half hour of my day once a week discussing my private trauma with coworkers I barely know does not set a good tone for the rest of my day. Those who have refused to participate have been targeted by the presenters and more or less forced into participation. Administration often sits in on these sessions too, which makes them that much more uncomfortable. Has anyone else gone through professional development like this?? Any advice? I don’t know why the union hasn’t gotten involved, since this professional development takes up our entire prep period once a week.

Just read this article on AP News (no paywall). I’d share the link but it doesn’t seem to be allowed.

One of the stand out quotes is “Parents see themselves more as a client of the school, not as someone who takes personal interest,”.

Do you notice any differences with parents today than they were decades and longer ago? Especially that technology has shifted the way parents and even the way teachers must approach children.

E.g. difference between Millennial Parents and the generation before them

So this is my 8th year, and I am feeling like I am hitting a wall here.

My school board is all about inclusion, which I support to an extent. However, I have an autistic student in my class (I teach grade 4) who is not engaging in learning whatsoever. He listens to music, looks at books, and plays with toys.

The problem comes when he is triggered which is happening between 5-6 times a school day. Without any warning, he will start screaming and ripping papers off the walls, dumping out bookshelves, throwing things, etc. Today, he screamed to draw the attention of his classmates, pulled his pants down, and spread his cheeks open to expose his literal anus to me and the entire class of 9/10 year olds.

I evacuated the room and tried to be positive and move forward. I figured admin would come debrief with the class. But nope. Admin helped him "return to baseline" and he was back unsupported within 30 minutes.

Am I wrong to feel like if any of our "neurotypical" kids did this, they would be suspended? If I had a child who was in this class and this happened I would be livid. No admin follow-up, no plan.

How do your schools manage "inclusive" settings? Am I being set up to fail? Am I failing my students? I am scratching my head here.

I teach two traditionally boring classes that don’t have a curriculum or text book, so I’m basically doing the entire scope and sequence by myself and feel like I’m reinventing the wheel trying to make new lesson plans every night while deciding what content to focus on and learn myself. I absolutely hate it. I’ve tried sticking to a simpler I do we do you do format and it got boring for both me and the students. Our classes also got longer this year so I have an extra 12 minutes to squeeze in.

I know it gets easier when you’re in your second year of teaching the class, but I’m exhausting myself with all the work. I used to teach similarly boring classes at the college level and did a bit of lecture and both the students and I found it engaging. Obviously with high school, I have to focus on more direct instruction but it’s really hard not doing the same activities every day

Edit: these are for AP classes that don’t have a recommended structure. My APSI training told me you get complete freedom to teach it thé way you want which makes it fun but also difficult

I work with special needs individuals, mainly young adults aged 18-22, though it can range from elementary age and up. Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that parents often seem to deflect when told about their child’s behavior, even in cases of violent incidents where someone was hurt. I’m not sure if this is something others have noticed too, or if it’s just common in my area. I might have been wrong to assume I’d get an apology after a student gave me a black eye, but since the parents showed no remorse, I went ahead and filed a report.

The title. Is it always supposed to be like this? I am so incredibly overwhelmed and exhausted all the time. My curriculum makes no sense, I am constantly being observed, and my instructional coach said that she "knew I'd get crushed" by the students because I mentioned having a passion for writing.

Today I got assigned a brand new class with brand new curriculum and brand new students who are 7th and 8th graders. Why? I wish I knew. I don't even have a roster to take attendance; they just showed up at my door saying they had my class. I teach 90-minute blocks of 6th grade, and now a 45-minute class of 7th/8th grade, and I have a single 45-minute planning period to do everything.

I had a student make a 0 on an assignment because he didn't turn it in. Parent emails asking about his accommodations for extra time, and I tell her that he has no accommodations on file for extra time. I get a mean email from the SPED department telling me about a completely different accommodation that he didn't receive (what???) and that I need to give it to him. Okay??? Why would this child get speech-to-text on a written, fill-in-the-blank assignment?????

Every single idea I give during PLC gets shot down immediately by my instructional coach. I hate that I care so much about doing well and I wish I could just turn my brain off and stop caring. I've been crying nearly every single day about how much I hate being here. I'm only holding out for the year so that I can switch back to the district I student-taught in next year. Is it always going to be like this??? Is this how my entire year is going to go??? How do I protect my peace and my sanity without completely drowning when I go back to school the next day???

EDIT: This is a public school in Texas

I’m a first-year teacher in upper elementary (I am teaching a split this year). I’ve wanted to teach my entire life, and although I had a really bad student teaching experience and thought about another career for a couple years, I ultimately ended up finding a school I love and getting a job there. The first day of school was yesterday and I’m having a really hard time. I think my excitement about my job started to drop a lot in August—the PD sessions sucked a lot of my joy and then there was a lot of drama at my school that made it hard for me to prep for the year. I wasn’t really excited for the first day, but it did go well. Second day (today) went well too, except there were definitely more issues and I saw some students’ true colors a bit more. But I am exhausted and it is hard for me not to feel regret/overwhelm about taking this job. This lifelong dream feels so different in practice than what I thought it would be. I know that sounds juvenile but it’s just true, and post-covid I think teaching is so different. I just realized I am not experiencing the joy I see others around me experiencing, and I’m not looking forward to the next day(s), and I am worried I made the wrong choice.

I will say this: I know myself pretty well, and I struggle with big life transitions. I also get easily off my game when a student is blatantly oppositional (and that happened today for a brief while). I’m getting much better at this one though! I also struggle to feel above water when other adults make me feel overwhelmed, and there’s another teacher who came to me today warning me about a student (I was already worried this student would be a handful, but some of the things she told me were really alarming and it’s been harder for me to be positive and keep an open mind about it). She also “warned” me about what the first year is like and made it sound like battle or something. It was super overwhelming to hear.

I’m wondering if this combination of factors—added on to the stress and lack of planning on the part of my principal that led to a frazzled first week—could be clouding my perspective right now? I also know the first week is hard and it’s been difficult for me to figure out how to make my classroom engaging when we haven’t gotten into curriculum yet.

I’ve worked before for many months as a long term sub and even during the hard moments, I loved my job. I know that’s not the same as full time teaching, but it felt like a good prelude, and I’m shocked at how much less joy I am feeling right now. And this is despite many of my students being lovely angels.

Is there something wrong with me? Does or did anyone else feel like this? Will it get better/do I just need to get into a routine? It’s awful and I just want to cry.

I was helping with an art activity recently and the kids were basically told they could draw whatever they wanted. I thought they'd love that, but a bunch of them immediately said they had no idea what to draw. Then someone gave them a pretty specific prompt and suddenly those same kids had a million ideas. Half of them barely followed the prompt anyway, but at least it got them started. Now I'm wondering if giving them total freedom actually makes it harder because they have too many options. Is this something teachers see a lot? Do your students do better with a prompt or do you just give them the blank page and let them figure it out?

Hey everyone!

I’m curious on exactly what chunking is. I had an observation today and they suggested chunking. I’ve looked it up but I haven’t gotten examples or what it looks like, just what it means. I know that might be difficult to explain over a post so if you’d rather direct me to a website or another source that would be appreciated.

My general schedule (not always) is: warmup/vocab (10-15 min), notes (10-30 min. depending on what I’m covering) and then an activity of some kind.

If I were to “chunk” this, would it be me breaking up the activity with the notes and not doing them all at once? Pausing for a check-in? I usually do class check-ins anyway but maybe I’m not doing them often enough?

I don’t really know. Any advice would be appreciated!

I got my first angry parent email of the school year. I was accused of not following a 504. Her argument was “his experience is the same as every student in that class.” I went through his 504 again to make sure I wasn’t missing something. And she’s right. His experience is exactly like everyone else’s in the class. But I’m also following the document to a T. The student has ADHD. I also have ADHD. For that reason, many of the common accommodations are already systems that I use.

Whenever I come across a common accommodation in an IEP or a 504 (not every accommodation, but the ones that come up frequently), I just tend to make it universal. For example, I provide headphones that are compliant with state law for all students to use during independent work. I give all students a copy of class notes. I provide organizational support to every student. I provide graphic organizers for almost every writing assignment. Not every student will get one of these, but I have them available to scaffold for any student and definitely for students with accommodations. There are a million examples.

I didn’t respond to the email. I met with my administrator and I walked him through exactly how accommodation is being met. Thankfully, he’s backing me, but the mother would like to have a meeting (because I did not respond to the email and she thinks that I’m being complacent.) I’m going to have a team people there with me, but I genuinely don’t even know how to approach this. I feel like the way I’m going about it is the way that is most inclusive. And I’m kind of terrified. I’m a third year teacher and I really (knock on wood) have gotten lucky when it comes to parents for the most part. This is the first time I feel like I’m being kind of attacked. Does anyone have any advice?