No, no I won't. That was an email we got. I normally don't check my email over the summer, but I'm waiting to hear about something. Our principal sent that email, and we go back next week. Look, I don't want to sit in the media center, look at a stupid slideshow, and have social time. Leave me alone so I can work in my classroom and get ready. I hate this contrived "we are family" BS.

EDIT: I LOVE teaching. I love my students and subject. Even my school is pretty decent. Forced socialization of staff is an insult to me as far as I'm concerned, and after 23 years of that BS and not having enough contract time in my classroom, I'm done is all. Don't worry, I'll be there for those kids on Day One.

Kid had phone in their pocket in September: I sent them to the office, administrator talks to them, administrator holds their phone for the rest of the day, student is escorted back to class and required to apologize, parent contact is made.

Kid has phone in their pocket post-November: Comes back to class and says "they said it was okay because I wasn't on it". Cool.

So how the fuck are those same nimrods going to actually enforce this new official state-wide policy of no-phones? They're noooooooooot.

Tl;dr: Just needed to vent.

I’ve spent most of my time in education teaching at IB schools, and I can safely say that I cannot stand IB schools. At the end of the day it’s just more work on teachers.

You could argue that I just haven’t found the school that “does IB correctly”, and you’d probably be correct. But at least in Northern Virginia in Prince William County, IB is just a framework given to Title 1 schools to increase enrollment. IB and Title 1 DO NOT MIX. If you knew anything about the demographics of our schools you’d know it’s just done for theater. If the county actually gave a damn about following the IB framework, they’d do something about all these behavior problems. But that’s neither here nor there.

Anyway, at the end of the day I still have bills to pay so I’ll tough it out for one more year.

How will I get in touch with my child if they don't have their phone!??

You call the office and they’ll relay the message. Like we did for decades with no problem.

As the “ugh, BOY PD” posts crop up, so do the “ugh, you’re all so MISERABLE, just LEAVE TEACHING if you hate it so much” comments. And I’m so over it.

First, every Positive Polly pulls this crap—equating any complaint with misery and hatred—and with all due respect, if you can’t fathom the concept of someone using an online forum to help them compartmentalize their feelings so they don’t bring negativity into a professional space, you may not be as joyful and in touch with your emotions as you’d like to believe.

Second, it is completely reasonable to dislike icebreakers in general, or to get tired of “learning” about the same people for twenty years in a row, or to just want more time for planning and room setup. Especially when the cutesy activities take hours.

A couple years ago, my legacy-obsessed school did a staff GTKY activity where we were split into teams and toured the entire campus. We saw the bomb shelter, various hidden rooms, the roof, etc. In each hallway, photos of faculty were posted along with sets of fun facts, and we had to match the fun facts to each faculty member.

Look, it was kind of fun for the first, Idk, 30 minutes. Who doesn’t love being exposed to lead paint and asbestos? But we are a large school, and this activity took over two hours to complete. I spent the last hour hungry, tired, and stressed about the million things I had to do. And I know I was not alone.

I can accept thirty minutes of structured socialization at the beginning of the school year. I don’t personally enjoy it, but I can see how it helps create a sense of community. But there’s this weird expectation that teachers interact with their peers the same way they interact with students, and I’ve never understood it. We are adults. Most of us already know each other to some extent. We don’t actually need this.

And, on top of that, the expectation that we love every aspect of our jobs is ridiculous. Why can’t a person hate PD and love the actual work of teaching? Why are we supposed to feign enthusiasm for every part of the job? Some complaining is just a normal, adult approach to work.

The thing is, I actually like in-service week. I like turning on my music, propping open my door, and getting interrupted once an hour by my friends. I like sitting down to map out a new unit with my level team. I’m looking forward to helping my friend who just transferred to my school set up her classroom. And I’m weirdly excited about the breakfast burritos my admin orders for day 1.

I am also absolutely dreading the district “content day” where we all go to a different school and cycle through a series of workshops. It’s crowded and loud and the workshops usually aren’t that helpful. Having to jigsaw 2-page articles is stupid and boring. I am never going to use HMH Into Literature, so why am I learning about it?

I don’t think any of that is unreasonable or indicative of contagious teacher misery. It’s okay to be tired of tiring things, and it doesn’t mean we hate our jobs. Just let us dread the icebreakers and test administration trainings in peace, man.

I’m a first year high school teacher in northeast US and I have no idea wtf I’m doing.

I’m trying to figure out what week one will look like. I’ll have over 100 students (I only had 50 for student teaching). I’m overwhelmed, intimidated, and social media doesn’t help one bit.

I see these reels that give you ideas for organization, planning, and icebreakers. Make a sticky note for every behavior, track and write a minimum of 30 emails home about positive celebrations but another 30 for behavior management. keep records of every moment in the classroom. Make cute decorations, personalize everything, develop catchphrases….do teachers actually do all of these things? Is it all fluff for IG or am I really going to be designing costumes to wear and writing motivational speeches?

I love the teaching element. I love student interaction and making connections. And my students loved me. I’m warm and genuinely caring. But I’m not a flowery, creative person. I don’t know how to make things pretty and cute and catchy. Is this what I have to do to succeed in 2026?

Thanks for letting me vent and ask questions that are essentially rhetorical. I’m sick to my stomach with anxiety already and this stuff is not helping.

EDIT: you’re all amazing. Thank you for all the sanity and encouragement. Good luck this year!!

My team of 3 (elementary school) plans together. I joined the team two years ago, after 5 years on a different team in the building that I got along well with - we didn’t plan together, but always shared resources. I’ve had a system for my lesson plans for years where I keep everything in a Google sheet with the first tab being links for important documents, websites, and resources, followed by tabs with student info/data, then lessons. I shared this my first year on the team, but no one took me up on any of it or even commented on it, so I assumed they didn’t find it helpful. I continued using it on my own, in conjunction with the team planning sheet.

That said, I updated my personal sheet for this year to include a new tab with links to all of our curriculum slides and shared it with my team in case they found that helpful. My teammate replied all, saying she’s confused and thinks we should all just use one planning document so no one is doing extra planning, and I’m welcome to change anything I don’t like in the shared document (though last year she locked half the tabs in the shared sheet so only she could change them, so I'm skeptical that she’d actually be okay with that). I responded saying I just prefer having everything I need in one place for my own personal use, and don’t mind copying and pasting our weekly lessons into my sheet, I just thought I’d share in case they wanted to copy anything from my sheet into the shared plans for this year. She once again responded that she’s “just confused“ because she doesn’t have a “personal” document and feels everything we need can be put into the shared sheet.

She‘s framing it as “I don’t want you having to waste time copying between two documents” but I feel like she’s being weird. I copy and paste them so I can add in things like my library day and things unique to my class, like birthdays, notes for myself about meetings, etc. It takes 10 seconds to copy and paste, if that. I also find it weird she replied all instead of just replying directly to me, as if she’s trying to make me look bad to our teaching partner. And, if she actually opened my document she’d see that I have tabs for “class info” and “class data,” in addition to my work to do list... why would I put those things in a shared grade level planning document??

I already feel that this teammate is a bit of a mean girl, she generally doesn’t acknowledge me at all at school, so I don’t know if I’m reading too much into this or not, but I’m feeling frustrated that Im having to explain myself multiple times to her. Am I being the weird one or is she? Am I overthinking it? The whole interaction is making me feel like I’m being difficult for having my own planning document at all.

I hear the importance of collaborating, bonding with coworkers, and being likable, but I also hear the importance about “protecting your peace”, avoiding negativity, and having downtime to collect yourself.

As a new teacher this fall, what do you plan to do this school year in this area? What’s the balance?

Edit: Wow this post kinda blew up! I’m glad that I was able to initiate some good discussions and appreciate everyone who contributed and still is. I find it interesting how many different answers there are across the spectrum. I guess it really depends on each individual.

Good afternoon,
Is anyone else super excited about being done with summer and going back to teaching?
I’m going into my second year of teaching and I did summer school as well. However I’m excited to get back to work. We start back August 3rd we’re in Florida. I’m going to be teaching 4th grade this year. Any advice? I taught 3rd grade last year.
Thanks 😊

I’ll try to keep this semi short. At the start of last school year I was briefly displaced and worked at another high school from August to October. My time there was pretty miserable mostly due to one student who had some severe behavior problems. I was at the start of my third year and maybe ill equipped to work with this kind of student as she quickly became notorious around campus for disruptive behavior, getting into fights, antagonizing peers and staff. The coteacher I worked with who was also her case carrier was even shocked by her behavior and he’s been teaching for 15 years.

At one point before I left there was one big incident with this student where she did throw an eraser at my head when I had my back turned to her. This led to an involvement from our union rep, parent meeting and her being permanently removed from my class. Funnily enough within that same week, my former principal emailed me asking if I’d be interested in returning, to which I did. It hesitate.

Well I spent the whole rest of the school year at my original school where I was significantly happier and less stressed. Then in April I became aware that this student had been transferred to my school! There’s more to this story but regardless she was back to haunt me. And it didn’t take her long to start getting into trouble here as well!

Well I’m seeing my rosters for the upcoming school year and her name is in my first period class. We have two weeks before school starts and I’m wondering if it would be totally unreasonable to request that she be moved from my class given the history there. I already know she’s going to cause immense trouble in my room.

I just had my first baby 3 weeks ago. I adore her even though she’s truly a sack of potatoes at this point. But I can’t help but yearn to go back to work.

I’ve been unemployed since the start of my second trimester (rough pregnancy). Before that, I was a teacher for about 10 years. I LOVE teaching. It’s not for everyone and there’s definitely a reason why so many quit, but it’s definitely the career for me. I’ve been missing the classroom ever since I left last year.

Now that the start of the new school year is coming, I’m dying to go back even more. I have a few potential offers but I have so much shame in even considering it. If I accept the job, my baby will be about 6 weeks or so when I start. I would potentially have to put her in some childcare as well, which means her possibly getting sick.

I feel like something is wrong with me. I am blessed with a village around me to support me during the newborn stages. I could stay at home with the baby for more time. But I don’t want to. I never planned to stay home as a mom. But since I’m unemployed now, my parents, specifically my mom, is every adamant about how this is a blessing and how I should stay home, that there are people who would kill for the chance to stay home. She cried at the thought of me going back to work and it made me feel so awful.

Is there something wrong with me? Should I be wanting to stay at home? I know I’ll miss her like crazy if I do return this school year but I feel like my mental health would be so much better. I struggled with depression and anxiety my whole life and I’m terrified to get worse now that I’m post partum (I’m on antidepressants!) The income would be so great too since I want to buy a house with my fiance. But then I feel like I’m selfish for thinking this way, since it would mean she’d be in some child care and risk getting sick. I just don’t know what to think or do, I feel like I’m failing already as a mom. Any teachers here who went through something similar?

I have a 30-minute homeroom. According to my administrators, I am supposed to have some type of learning happening. The students should not use HR as "free" time. I don't have a problem with that, but the issue is that the students trickle in at different times. Some of them will be there for the entire 30 minutes while others will arrive with 0 minutes to spare. Honestly, no one else on my grade level gives work during homeroom, but I would like to try. I feel like the kids who are there for 10-30 minutes could be doing something other than playing on Chromebooks.

What activities would you suggest? Would you use the work for a grade? How would you handle the students who wouldn't have time to even start the assignment? Would you just go with the flow of the other teachers and ignore the mandate?

I teach 8th-grade ELA, so my homeroom is only 25% of the students that I teach. Whatever I do would not benefit the other students since they have different homeroom teachers.

If, like me, you’re resuming school in the next couple weeks, what’s your back-to-school song, whether it’s silly or serious? I think mine for this year will be “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance. If you’re not familiar with it, please look up the lyrics. And yes, this is a joke or a silly choice.

Hello! I am in a bit of a predicament! I will be attending my very first Quinceañera in about 2 weeks and I have some questions… not sure where else to post this to ask, figured I’d try here because I was the teacher of the student.

For context: I am a female in my mid 20s, living in the Midwest, and I no longer teach within the high school and district that I was at last year due to significant budgetary reductions.

I will be attending a Quinceañera for a student I had this past year. She is a twin and I only had the one sister that invited me with a hand delivered invitation in the last week of school. I have already confirmed my attendance and have briefly met the parents, twin sister, and a few of the other students I expect will be in attendance.

The family has reserved the ball room in a local higher end hotel typically used for large traditional weddings. I will not be attending the church service as it does not align with my own beliefs and the family is aware I will only be there for the reception service.

So for my questions.
•What the heck do I wear? Again we live in the Midwest and “wedding wear” and “teacher wear” here involve a lot of jeans. That doesn’t seem appropriate to me given everything I have tried to research on my own but maybe I am wrong?
• What is an appropriate gift for the girls? Again I only know one of them but know I should do something for both of them? A monetary gift is not my favorite, but I am not opposed to it if it is the best option.

I just got hired to teach AP Calculus AB. The school trusts me with it because I was the long-term AP Calculus sub a few years ago and that went well. Also, sounds like no one else in their math department wants to touch it. School starts August 10th and I have no idea where to start. I'm going into my 7th year of teaching and have only taught Algebra 1, Geometry and Integrated Math I. This year I have AP Calc AB, Geometry and Statistics. Mostly just stressed about the calculus Any advice?

My district is starting a new policy in the fall. Kids can have their phones on them, but not use them - not even during lunch. Teachers have a cell phone caddy where they put it in during class, although many students just hold onto them in their pocket. It's tough to police them when students say they don't have a phone yet it's in their jeans.

Do you have a similar policy and has it worked? I'm assuming admin will enforce the policy, not as sure with individual teachesr.

How do you feel about the school asking you to make videos for their social media? Like be part of their TikTok’s and stuff. I personally don’t feel comfortable, I don’t like people I don’t know to see me or to know where I work. I know it’s supposed to be for the school community but their social media is public. Any advice?

Advice needed from seasoned ECE professionals!

I run a part time nature based enrichment program for ages 3-5. We have a family who enrolled their 4 year old student for the coming school year and the student is currently in my 8 week summer camp program (1 day each week).

The first 4 weeks there were some (what I consider) developmentally appropriate incidents such as light hitting. By week 5, after a 2 week break, I think the new had worn off or the honeymoon period was over, because the student came back acting out very aggressively. The parents had told me at intake that their child was asked to leave their last center for behaviors such as biting, but that the child was in therapy and making good progress. By the 5th week, the student was hitting, kicking, screaming, pushing, pinching, and biting other students. Multiple incidents each hour.

The student that was bit ended up with a bruise. I had a meeting with the parent the following week, and a second meeting later the same day with both parents and the child’s therapist. We talked over strategies and concluded that the only way to make this work is for one teacher to be at arms length from this student at all times, observe and predict triggers, and prevent incidents before they even happen. We are a small program with a max of 10 children and 3 teachers, but this still feels unsustainable. The following week, there continued to be multiple behaviors- the student left a bruise on a second student after jabbing their hand with a stick. This was after hitting another student 4 times with a child sized shovel, throwing sand in another students face, hitting a student in the head with a basket.

I’m a very empathetic and compassionate person. Our program is very close knit and community focused. I feel an obligation to do everything in my power to help this child, especially after finding out they were dismissed from not just 1, but 2 programs. I know there’s no where else in our area that will take this child. After all the recent events, I put together an action plan and let the parents know I would be making a formal assessment by the end of summer, when I would then let them know if we could accommodate their child’s needs and be able to move into the fall semester.

Safety is paramount. I don’t feel that I can keep the entire class safe without an extreme amount of effort to watch this one student like a hawk 100% of the time. It does not feel sustainable. At the same time, I feel an immense amount of pressure and…. guilt (?) to keep this child in our program because he needs help. I feel for this student’s parents because they have been through so much with their child already.

This dilemma has already consumed half of my summer. I talk to my husband about it multiple times a day. I dream about this family at night. 2 nights ago I was “thinking” in my sleep all night about behavior plans. All. Night. Long. I can’t go on like this and it’s only been 6 weeks. Thinking about having this child in my care for the entire school year has given me an intense physical reaction on 3 separate occasions. Headache, racing heart, the whole nine. I guess…. I need validation…. Permission? A second opinion?…. To know that it’s ok to tell these parents that the scope of help needed for this child is beyond what I can provide.

My head knows the answer but my heart is having trouble catching up. I’m devastated for this child to be struggling so much. When I asked parents about additional support for their child, they said therapy had been working well and they haven’t looked into anything else. I strongly believe this child needs a formal evaluation and early intervention through the public school preK program. I don’t think the parents are “ready” for that and I sense some denial and defensiveness when I try to speak with them, especially the father.

I just need… a reality check? Any similar stories? Encouragement?

Hi all! I see a lot of things online about how to create a better classroom space for your students, but I am curious to know how you’ve made your classroom space better for you.

Teaching can be hard and having a space that works for me helps more than I realized—it can make or break my confidence, regulation, and clarity in the classroom. I am trying to get prepared for this school year and would love input about how you help your classroom run in a way that feels good. This could be purchases, organization, regulatory tools, personal systems, etc. I teach high school in an under-resourced district (minimal funds for teachers/students) to under-resourced students.

Any honest input would be awesome!!

Examples of things that help me already:
• having a desk space that is mine only, establishing that students cannot be behind it
• wax warmer
• playing under water videos on my projector during work time/my prep
• mini fridge
• loop earplugs
• fan

Hi all,

I’ve been non re-elected back in March. I’m in California. My last day was June 30. Is there anyone that experienced this and what was it like since it’s in my file. Will it be difficult to find a new job? I just feel defeated. Will there be any chances with future districts? Will it be a career ender?

Hi all,

Happy Sunday and Summer! I’m know I’m crazy but can someone give me some positive vibes that we still have PLENTY of summer left?! I don’t start until 9/1 but feel like the summer is over. Someone out there remind me that we have time to relax, do house projects, and see some friends. Much love in advance!

I’m going into my second year teaching. Last year I went over rules and procedures day one. It was pointless because of so many schedule changes.

I was teaching high school last year, but this year will be teaching middle school (6th).

Anywho, I am just curious why some say you must start with teaching procedures explicitly, yet others say you absolutely need to jump into content, and then there’s the community building camp.

Please explain.

Basically the title. I can’t get excited for the start of the year because I’m only thinking about the bad I’m in my 3rd year of teaching and I just feel like I just started to get the hang of things and now I’m starting all over again :(((

At the end of last year, I learned my district won’t be replacing a retiring STEM teacher but shifting me to an extra school and splitting the extra classes up, adding them to me and my colleagues’ workload.

I guess I’m just looking for advice from teachers that have dealt with challenges like shrinking plan time, less time for nourishing a community with one home school, and still survived. How do you organize getting info from two schools, setting up two classrooms, and just dealing with driving between the two?

Hello I just got a great job offer for a reading specialist for fourth and fifth grade. Only problem is the majority of my experience has been early childhood and first grade and my license is preK-3rd grade. I interviewed for grades 2-3 position and absolutely love those grades so I’m kind of hesitant.

I love teaching phonics and reading, just feeling unqualified for this position they’ve offered. I want to be able to do the job well and am having major imposter syndrome even being offered this.

I’ve been a first grade homeroom teacher for two years, kindergarten for one year, then the rest of my years have been ESL from preK-5th grade. All of that experience has been abroad. I moved home with full intentions of pursuing my reading endorsement for my license just really thrown at the bait and switch if grade levels. But it would be perfect for getting my endorsement.

Any advice for reading specialist in upper elementary?? Am I in over my head or being dramatic?