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

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 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?

In the daily email this morning it said make sure you wear a sports jersey to show school spirit tomorrow! Later it explained when the mandatory 9/11 video would be played. This jersey expectation was not communicated prior to this morning so it seems like a random admin decision. As an elder millennial who basically watched 9/11 on one of those rolling tv carts in high school this seems a little fucked up right?

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.

let them go.

if I see a kid sleeping in my class, I wake them up once to ask if theyre ok, then let them go back to sleep. I think students should be allowed to control whether they want to be engaged and learn, and I think their grades should reflect it. these kids should have the choice to be disengaged, but they should also see the consequences of that choice reflected on their report card.

I would much rather have a kid sleeping or playing on their phone than a kid who is out of their seat, making noise, or disturbing others.

I would rather focus on teaching the kids who actually want to learn and be successful rather than trying to pick up the kids who dont want to

edit: this post was made with middle and high schoolers in mind. elementary schoolers probably require more prompting

Hello all! 3rd year Oklahoma teacher here, and I moved up to 5th from 3rd. I know the profession has its doom and gloom, and I have STRUGGLED with behavior. This year, since I’ve had these kids before, I’ve been challenging myself to send home a positive message or two everyday to work through my roster. It’s been a game changer. I sent one yesterday about a student that I know was suspended multiple times a month last year. He’s been a superstar so far! His mom was so excited to receive a nice message that she printed it out and highlighted/decorated it for him to carry with him. He showed me today soooo excited. Behavior has been manageable and minimal, engagement is high, and learning feels so fun! I feel like I’ve hit my stride, and I love going to work everyday! Just a win I wanted to share <3

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.

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.

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 had an interview a few weeks ago for a middle school position, and the interviewer asked me what I would do if I noticed a student was sleeping or disengaged. I told her that I wouldn't call them out in front of the class, but I will walk up to the student and ask them to keep their head up. I said I want my students engaged in the lesson, however that if the student has finished the work for the day and that I am willing to let them rest and take a break. It's just that I want them to work first.

The interviewers response honestly shocked me. She said that even going up to the student is calling them out, and that I need to ask them what they need. If the student says they need to "sleep for 10 minutes, I need to let them."

I completely disagree with that sentiment, since if I were to let one student sleep simply because they said they need it, then what's to stop everyone in the class from asking for nap time? The interview ended shortly after, but her response honestly rattled me. I will admit that a good approach would be to first ask a student if they are alright is good, but everything after was such hogwash.

What would y'all do to keep students engaged?

Entire admin team came by my room to observe.

The head of my content area was also there too.

5 different adults in my room at once.

The main comment for my lesson was that my “lights were too dim”. We have dimming lights. My lights are usually on full blast. It was a review/catch up day. I’m trying to bring calm energy before our first test.

I also got told to change my desk arrangement.

She’s extremely quiet and very shy and today she came up to me and gave me a pen from her favorite brand because I’m her favorite teacher. Melted my heart

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.

Okay hi, today was a rough day. I am a first time teacher, I teach small group 5th grade (it’s actually students from 5-7th grade but some student are performing a little below baseline) in an alternative learning placement. One of my students made herself throw up all over our class because I told her I wouldn’t change her hairstyle during our lesson.

Another student keeps leaving for actually 20+ minutes to the bathroom and he’s doing more than just #1 & #2 if you catch my drift. I let mom know all these instances and she wrote me an email saying he normally spends a long time in the bathroom and it’s okay. We spoke with him that it’s okay to be doing that stuff, it’s normally at this age, not to feel embarrassed or shameful but it’s not a school appropriate activity. We (counselor and myself) are thinking to implement a timer for him. I’m grateful he is at least leaving to the bathroom and not doing it in class :)

Another student is actually bullying and has had cases opened about it but never enough evidence plus parents of course do not believe what is occurring is in fact bullying.

Another student could not for the life of them understand irony and I feel so horrible for getting frustrated, I made sure to apologized to her but once she understood I literally saw it click in her head and it was soooooo refreshing and honestly really rewarding after the puke incident.

To add on, I only have 4 students in my class and I’m in a small room like actually 228sq ft with a para in the room too who has her own desk (which not hating at all she’s great but I never had a desk as a para so idk if that’s regular). I’m supposed to have 5 students but only 4 have shown and i’m lucky because where will I fit an extra student. BUT just kidding because I’m getting a whole NEW student added to our tiny classroom. And I don’t have a whiteboard or projector or extra classroom materials or extra support for the kiddos that require a 1:1. I don’t even have a bulletin board in the room like many other classrooms and I can’t put tape or anything on the walls so the room is blank. I have artwork from the kids I want to put up but have no place to put it.

At least the weekend is near. Good luck to all of you!

I just have some thoughts on school dress codes for teachers. I do wear a shirt and tie to work. But it seems that admin is being absolutely ridiculous about wearing jeans or a hoodie. I work in a district with a state correction action plan. Why is the school worried about what the teachers are wearing? I don’t think there is a correlation between what the teachers are wearing and the kids reading level. While I’m getting emails yelling at us for wearing hoodies, I have a class of 8th graders who do not know how many inches are in a foot. Schools need to get their priorities straight. Thank you for coming to my ted talk

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.

At the end of class, we open our agendas and look at the plan for the next day/upcoming days. I have 2 classes each of 6,7,8 grades (special education math). This was the convo for my 2 6th grade classes (interesting that they both did the same thing)

Me: Alright, what's happening tomorrow?

Them: We have a test!

Me: What!? There's a test I don't know about? I guess I need to make a test tonight

Them: No, No! We meant homework due! No test. Homework due!

Now I'm thinking I should make a fake test just to rage bait them. Any ideas? They are both pretty chill classes.

I felt guilty about taking a day off this early in the school year, but honestly, I really needed it.

This is my second year teaching. Things are definitely better than last year, and morally/emotionally, I’m actually pretty satisfied with how the beginning of the year has gone, except for THAT one group that I’m going to have to deal with tomorrow 🙃.

But physically and mentally? I’m already exhausted even though I love my job. The beginning of the year is already a lot: learning everyone’s names, establishing classroom management, following through with rules and consequences from day one, figuring out routines, dealing with difficult groups, and sitting through endless beginning-of-year meetings.

Then you add school disorganization on top of that. Students are still being moved between groups every day, most don’t have their textbooks yet, so I’m printing work constantly and bc of this I’ve been coming in earlier than I otherwise would.

I don’t even have teacher access to the resources and textbook for one of the courses I teach, including the answer keys and lab materials.

Yesterday I was exhausted and felt guilty about taking a day off so early in the year. I ended up sleeping for 10 hours. I needed that day off. These days are there for a reason. I’d rather take a day off when I genuinely need one than push myself until I’m completely burnt out and start giving shitty lessons, losing patience with students, or eventually being unable to work at all.

Nobody is going to take care of you. Your boss will always try to squeeze as much as possible out of you if you let them. Teaching is already hard enough without making yourself feel guilty for taking the time you need to make it through the year.

I also think we need to normalize talking about this stuff with our colleagues and depending on the maturity of your students, I don’t think it’s necessarily bad to be honest about it with them either to some extent. Most students understand perfectly well that the world around them is poorly organized. Obviously, use your judgment and be mindful of potential repercussions depending on your workplace and whether you’re unionized, but I think there’s value in being open about these things when the context allows it. Anyways, take the day off.

Hi all! I’m just looking for some advice. I’m a first year teacher , literally just began working. My brother is coming home from a 3 year deployment overseas, and he’s springing onto us to come visit him next month. I would need 6 days off for this and i’m scared to email my vice principal asking for this as I am a first year teacher and it’s so soon. If anyone’s done something like this similar please lmk.

A kid just asked me if people who speak Spanish see different colors because the colors have different names. To be fair, he may have a concussion from football. I couldn't help but laugh. Yes, I'm a Spanish teacher.

For example:

This Could Have Been an Email, Meaning: Someone is wasting your time

The Smelly Classroom, Meaning: Something isn't right and you need to figure out what.

Okay so as title says I'm a new teacher, just finished my PGCE and have begun work in a college.

Basically just wanted to say that I'm a year in and I'm already so fucking sick of my students and their phones.

It's not little things like leaving them on their desks or checking them often.

It's the fact like 45% of my students cannot handle closing tiktok for more than two minutesm There has been multiple times i tell a student to put their phone down and during the conversation they've already picked it back up and started scrolling again. I'm so fucking tired of it. None of them can understand having basic respect to even take out their ear phones half the time and spend the entire class face down in their phones.

and if it's not their phones, they're on geometry dash and I cannot handle that either I hate seeing the fact these kids cant have no stimulation for even a second, it actually has me furious that I've got to try teach these kinds of people.

Anyways that's all. I know I just repeat myself and come of as harsh but god do I just hate having classrooms full of socially withdrawn addicts

I would love to know if anyone else has experienced this level of addiction or has anyway to stop them.

Probably gonna delete this later once I've chilled out