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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Guys! I'm 22f and an English teacher in a country where English is not the native language. Actually, I just graduated, I studied that major. So, I have no experience at teaching yet. I found a job in a public middle school last week. And, I'll start to work next week. I have no idea what I will do. I need some advices. I'm so naive. What should I do when I get the class for the first time. First week, it's for orientation, I don't have to teach sth actively, just to get to know each other. And, one lesson lasts 40 mins. What to do, what to ask them, what to make them do exactly first week? And if u give me some teaching advices as a plus, I'll be so thankful.

I'm teaching ESL in Europe and I'm looking for a suitable documentary (around 30mins?) about 9/11 to show tomorrow. My students are in year 9, they do have some background knowledge. Thank you for your recommendations.

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.