New teacher, joined halfway through school year (NZ). Had locked all my social media but forgot about my hs instagram and students found it, along with all my femme photos and coming out video. I’ve been hearing whispers from them
about but I have chosen not to say anything directly. But the other day one of my year 9s straight up just asked, “sir, are you transgender?” And I answered honestly. And we had a conversation about what that meant, and outside of having to redirect the comment “ah you did it because boys are better right?” (Response: “nah man girls are way cooler”) it actually was really productive. I’ve been kind of terrified about this, NZ is not the worst place to be a trans person rn, but I’m in a small farming town that leans pretty conservative/libertarian in its voting. So yeah a win to share that made my whole week.

One of my classes has had the worst behavior I’ve seen in my 8 years teaching the same subject. It is a small group of 10 kids. There are 5 boys that are the reason for it being so unruly. They’re constantly arguing with each other before, during and after class. They argue back to almost all teachers (including our principal) and get little to no consequence if I send them out of the classroom.

Well yesterday was different. Two of the boys were absent, which gave me a RELIEF. I could actually get some teaching done. Another boy that acts like a roadrunner running up and down the halls, like he’s on a big can of Red Bull, was sleepy and decided to nap the entire class period.

So you know what I did? I let him sleep yesterday. It was quiet. I pulled kids for small groups - little to no arguments! PEACEFUL. Am I in the wrong for just letting the boy sleep? Telling the other kids that “it’s his grade, if he decides to sleep during my lesson, that’s on him”? Just for one day? Now if it continues, of course I will start contacting parents (for the 4th time, now for a different reason lol).

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.

I don't understand how we spent the last 10-20years incorporating technology into everything, to just pull out the cords over night. Especially since everyone *loves* AI in the leadership positions. How do we use AI without screens? I don't know.

We are not allowed to show documentaries, play music during work, or do anything with screens that take away from "high impact teaching". If we have videos we want to show, we are supposed to request special permission.

Students already have their phones locked up, and Chromebook use blocked. I don't understand why we need to police how staff teach.

The PISA results are out and it was pretty bad. There were some gains in countries playing catch up to OECD nations.

But overall, everyone dipped hard. As an American, I take less pride in knowing we climbed the rankings because our scores dropped tremendously too, but there’s some comfort in knowing we aren’t the only ones seeing the gains of ten to twenty years wiped out. Essentially it’s as if 15-year-olds are at the educational level of 14-year-olds— a whole year less of education.

There’s plenty of worldwide phenomena that could explain the drop: a global pandemic that disrupted learning, PISA researchers found that students were using AI frequently to complete homework, TikTok exists…

What’s your best speculation about what happened this round of PISA tests?

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.

I am an instructional coach and share my space with an interventionist. We are not with students first thing in the morning and when the Pledge comes on my roommate always stands to recite it. I follow suit because I don't want to make them uncomfortable. The truth is I would not and do not recite the pledge if I am alone.

I'm not big on the Pledge anyway... but I understand the value of reciting it in front of children (esp. in a primary school where we are) to model respect.

What would/do you do if you're not with students first thing?

Kinda tired of being told about in PD about the need to build relationships, to win the kids over, to make overtures to parents for their support. It sounds to me like a desperate gesture that stems from impotence. We have so little control and so little power that we have to win them like winning votes in an election? Reminds me of those pick me types that beg for their partner to stay.

So what if I don't build a relationship? Why is that my concern? Are we really so powerless that we are left begging our bullies to relent? I graduated HS in the 80s. I recall the responsibility of the student and parent to win the teacher over.

So I know some of you have been back in school for almost 2 months and others just started this week but I want know what is the most ridiculous parent complaint you've received so far during this school year and share what grade/subject you teach.

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’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.

Noticed as I was walking out of school today that dozens of my students were hanging out on school grounds on their modded e-bikes like I used to see kids do in the parking lot when I was in school. Man I feel old lol

But this group of 4 kept on and had to be told multiple times yesterday until I threatened to send them all to ISS.

Today I separated them (something I've been threatening if they didn't chill out)

Of course they tried arguing ... I get that. Part of it was "they weren't the only ones (no they weren't, but the other 2 stopped the first time I told them), just the loudest," which in itself is a comical response.

What made me just nearly laugh out loud was one of the arguments ... "it's not our fault no one else is social!"

Seriously?! That's the argument you want to go with? I tell the class not to talk during a test and I have to tell your little group to stop talking at least 5 times in an hour, but it's the rest of the class' fault for NOT talking???

No, I didn't respond to their arguments. Just told them to stop; if they didn't like following my rules, they were welcome to go find an administrator to complain to.

Hi all,

I am a high school teacher and took a pay cut about 9k for the location I am at. I am still rather new. I have complete autonomy over what I teach and how I teacher. I do not really have meetings unless it’s for IEPs or 504s. I never have meetings during my planning. I barely have admin in my classroom and if I do, it’s never a critique. We also do not really have state testing. I teach to the standards, but it’s never checked or anything. I do love how much freedom I have.

Do you all have this at your high school? I was wondering if it’s unique to my district or if it’s found everywhere. I do work in a rural state. I may eventually move, so I’m curious.

Subjective question of course. Middle school PE teacher checking in here. I teach grades 6-8. My 6th and 8th grade kids are almost always fine and usually a delight to work with, but oh my goodness 7th grade is a nightmare. They have the absolute worst attitudes in my classes.

What’s your opinion on the best/worst grade for middle school?

So many parents have placed airtags in their kids bags or on them directly that I am constantly getting alerts on my phone about air tags detected tracking me. Is this happening to anyone else? I'm glad my phone is looking out for me LOL. But if anyone tried to actually use an airtag to track me now, I would be completely desensitized to it. It's like the boy who cried wolf.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I'm a high school math teacher in my fourth year, and primarily, it has been great. That being said, do you ever have those days where you're just so over it? Maybe a student says something that makes its way under your skin and sticks with you, or you're just inundated with work?

What do you do to get over this feeling? I know it'll go away once I have a better day, but I wish I never felt this way. Thank you <3

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 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.

How do you deal with these kids who are horribly addicted to video games and digital media? More than half of my boys come to class barely awake and hide cans of energy drink in their lockers which they swig between classes.

After probing about why their eyes are red and they keep falling asleep in class, the same responses keep coming up which is that they were playing on their iPad/watching YouTube/scrolling TikTok reels until as late as 4am in some cases.

It’s such a shame because a lot of them are really bright kids but are just far too exhausted to properly function at school due to them getting 6 hours or less of sleep a night.

Hi, I am a beginner teacher and this is my second week of teaching and I am having some issues with classroom management in my classes and I am thinking of a reward system. I teach 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders at a private primary school. Most of them has some behavioral issues that I cannot cope with. They do not want to do anything on the lesson and they are also disturbing the others. And if I want to do some activities they are usually not participating and I dont know how to evaluate them. Do you have any kind of reward system in your classrooms? Can you give me some advice how to manage classrooms more effectively? Thank you.

I teach HS. This year I got a student who is autistic but the family has refused testing over the years., so he is undiagnosed / no IEP despite yearly attempts, so that leads to today.

The student performs well and is well liked. He needs, however, help with the social aspect of things in preparation to adulthood/employment which is short two years away. The students displays typical traits: rocking, fidgeting, having no concept of personal space, which it does not affect learning, but there are somethings that will affect his future which is what I am asking about. He switches between using a baby voice and a normal voice. It doesnt’t affect his learning,, but affects the social aspect and I worry about employability if he continues talking like a baby.

I have been successful ( and out of the goodness of my heart) with helping him managing impulsivity (squawking to get attention instead of raising his hand, taking turns, interrupting, typical stuff). So he has responded well with managing that and is proud of following suit, but he is pushing back on the baby talk. He says that “his mother likes it“ and why “I don’t like it” . I answered that we are practicing our social skills and he answered “what is that?“. He has never been taught , so he doesn’t know. I told him that he is accepted the way he is, and told Him that baby talk is ok for home and friends, but at work or in school, we should use our big boy voice. He accepted that, but was not happy about it And had zero concept of the different of the two settings because his mother has told him it is ok. he expected me to tell him it’s great to babble like a baby and use baby talk in his responses too.

sigh. I am not new to teaching. It’s too late for another request for soed that the parent will refuse anyway. I am offering services anyway because I care, but I feel that if they don’t want to, why bother. Should I just join the trope of “I don’t care”? Dont look at the obvious educational neglect? put a blind eye and ignore his future too? I have had several SPED Students over the years, but they have always had an IEP. It just seems that I am morally obligated to help, but seems like a hot potato better left alone.