Student teacher here. While its only been a few weeks, I have taken a nap every single day after a full day bell-to-bell at my school. Was curious how many of you guys do the same.

I (38F) teach middle school ELA, and my 7th grade class this year is mostly boys. We are reading Lyddie and they are not taking it seriously, so we had a reading check today. Open book on the first 40 pages, 7 short answer questions. 5 of them had been discussed as we were trying to read the last two days. It was not going well for them.

At one point, a kid asked me what Monteplier was, and I MEANT to say it's a city or town somewhere between Lyddie's farm in Vermont and Boston.

But I did the thing where you mash two words together because your brain can't decide which to say first.

I said it was a titty.

The absolute SILENCE as the boys who could hear me tried to keep themselves together was possibly louder than if they had laughed.

I had to turn around and face the wall to compose myself. The boys were really nice about it, at least ("it's ok miss, we all mess up" etc.), but I seriously considered just going home for the day.

When I composed myself, I told them that if it ever comes up again, I will be sending their mothers video tutorials on how to check and monitor their browser activity with recommendations for monitoring programs/extensions.

So hopefully no one will mention it again, lol.

I've been teaching a long time and started to think about things I have learned over the years. Some of them have been a bit surprising to me and if someone had told me in college I never would have believed it.

1. Schools can be so cliquey. It can seriously be like high school all over again. The jocks and mean girls are still there.
2. Some teachers are so underhanded and such backstabbers. It's weird to me because I can see it in the business world if you're trying to get a promotion, but teachers are rarely competing with that many for a promotion. Most people who are serious about being admin leave if there isn't a job in their district.
3. Nepotism is huge. I'm convinced part of the reason there is a long probationary period until tenure/continuing contract, etc is to give a family member, spouse, or side piece a job.
4. Some teachers are really stupid. They don't understand salary schedules, don't join a union, don't know their content area, you name it.
5. Hard work doesn't really pay off. If you get down to it, working extra hard doesn't actually pay off. You won't get a promotion (I've never seen a principal get hired because of how good of a teacher they were) and you won't get a raise. You might get teacher of the year but in my district it seems those are brown nosers and natives of the town.
6. A surprising numbers of teachers hate kids. Even more disturbing, there are some bigoted people teaching.

We've barely been back and I forgot how tiring it is to be on all day. I'm fine in the morning but by the last couple classes I feel like I've already said the same directions 40 times, answered 200 questions and walked half the building then I get home and remember I still have stuff to prep for tomorrow. I know I'll get used to the schedule again but the first few weeks always hit sm harder than I expect. What are you guys doing during the school day so you still have something left by the afternoon?

It’s our first week back. First day we did basic procedures, second day we did “meet the teacher” and a make your own bookmark activity. We’ll finish that tomorrow, some kids are already finished. We also did a “summary of me” page for them to fill in.

Tomorrow is Friday and I have no fucking clue what I should do with them. My brain is running on empty it seems like. I don’t want to start any official curriculum stuff until we’re back on Tuesday. Any ideas? I have 25 of them and they’re mostly well behaved. Help.

I work at a small private high school and we get 5 sick, 5 PTO. If we run through the sick, we can use the pto for sick (but not vice versa). There’s no rollover- use it or lose it. My school also doesn’t have paid subs-other teachers just cover when we’re out.

Is this standard? Sicks days feel low, but maybe I’m not being realistic. I’m just bummed I got covid this first week of school and blew through 3 of my sick days! Teachers have been advocating for more sick days but admin feels this number is in line with the field so I’m curious.

I’m frustrated. Of course the way we hold ourselves in the classroom matches up with our true selves, you can’t fake it. I’m a naturally calm person. I am stern every day with my students (7th grade) because they talk non stop. However, I like to laugh with them and stay calm most of the time. I’m trying and doing all the things: calling home, messaging home, positive rewards, having them practice my expectations over and over, giving consequences like silent lunch. I have already tried a million things with one class and nothing has stuck yet. I can’t force myself to be someone I’m not (a teacher who yells or whose voice naturally commands the room), and I know that I would be considered the “nicest” out of my students’ teachers. I know people will say nice = not setting expectations, following through, etc., but I am constantly doing those things. There’s been rare times that I haven’t followed through. The behaviors 98% of the time is talking in class. What else can I try and how much of it is just that I have class sizes of about 30 and ofc they want to talk??

I teach at a rough school, so my yearly “problem” class is usually a bunch of juvenile delinquents who don’t care about school and commit violent crimes until half of them get arrested before the end of the year.

This year, my problem class is just really … immature. 9th graders are already notoriously immature, but these ones take the cake. They collectively work together to pretend they don’t know how to do anything and ask me a million questions they already know the answer to, then pretend they forgot, then want to show me everything they do to make sure they “got it right” even if they didn’t actually add anything since the last time I checked it, but they won’t go away until I check it again. They don’t listen when I tell them how to do something, or when I tell them to hold questions until I finish giving directions, or read the board when I ask them to read the board because their answer is on it. I finally lost it today and sent two of my most disruptive students to the office. They were sent back because apparently asking me how to find the Chrome icon on their Chromebook that they’ve had since middle school for the 500th time isn’t actually breaking any rules even if they interrupt me every time I try to speak to ask the same question. I’ve contacted both of their parents every day since the first day of school, along with the parents of the other 10 or so kids that picked up on their game, and of course never receive a reply (one parent replied but only one time and then the line of communication went dead).

Please give me tips on managing a bunch of kids who refuse to shut the bleep up but aren’t technically breaking any school rules (and know they aren’t because they ask their questions in that so-polite-it’s-obviously-sarcastic way).

So I’m a teacher aide trying to get hours in for my teaching credential. I’ll be a single subject but I’m doing my hours for TK. We were all in a circle holding hands two girls next to me were fighting because one wanted to hold her hand the other didn’t want to be touched. I told them they don’t have to hold hands. The teacher left the circle, came over, and forced them to hold hands and they were both unhappy.

Am I too woke or is being forced to hold hands not teaching consent? What should I have done or should do next time?

Teacher(53 F) of about 15 years(got a late start but not a career switcher) I make decent $, benefits are good. My school loans are paid off. I'm about 7-10 years away from being done..But I'm tired. Our district made days longer but didn't compensate pay, basically they're making us take an unpaid lunch. Which we know a lot of teachers don't get a full 30 mins for lunch! To be clear, I'm not thinking about leaving over this detail, it's one small thing amongst all the other things that administrations and school boards do to teachers. Plus, preaching to the choir, it's just a lot. Not really sure it makes sense to leave at this point but was curious. I do get a decent pension for retirement. So, if you wanted to leave teaching or if you're someone who left, was it worth it? Specifically, what did you have to do to leave the classroom and secure another job without any other certifications or degrees?

I have an odd section of 12 (despite my other classes being 35+) and I have a lot of smart kids in this class. However they rush through their work without really getting it. I’m teaching an AP for all class this year and a lot of them could score high but are not there yet. We’ve been speeding through material compared to my other sections, or in groups, they will finish early and twiddle their thumbs or start chatting. I have to push them through questions because they give me the surface level answer but once they get it, they don’t really do anything else with it. They’re compliant but don’t quite get what’s at stake. A lot of boring responses.

How can I either get it to be more engaging for them (they are definitely not used to the rigor of a college class and they’re used to be graded on completion) or how can I get them to slow down and make the work more meaningful?

Hi, I 18F am an Art Education major.

For my BA I have to take foreign language classes and I’m debating French or Spanish. I took French in high school so I have some prior knowledge, but I think Spanish would be more beneficial to me as someone who wants to be a public school teacher.

What would you guys recommend?

I’ve just started as a student teacher so I’m updating my wardrobe but a little unsure of how covered I need to be.

Edit: Wow I did not expect to get so many responses!! Thank you for your advice, I decided to play it safe and leave it:)

When I was just about to do student teaching my senior year of college, I arrived the first day and my host teacher was no longer working there.

I met her thru my college and visited the school the spring prior, met the principal, did a CORI, emailed at the start of summer but by August, nothing. I remember even emailing her a few days before school started and when she didn’t answer, I assumed she was busy!

So I show up the first day, with my lil lunch packed, and she’s not there. No one was expecting me and they basically just told me to leave 😅

I thought it was SO crazy that someone who had worked at a school for <10 years would randomly no longer be there without planning on it.

Now, seven years into my own career, I get the unexpectedness of it all. Hope she is doing well in wherever ever life took her!

Has anyone tried the Engaged and Independent in 10 Days program? If you have, in your experience was it straightforward to implement and effective?

This is not really a post for complaining about canned curriculum.

My site uses the Daily Math curriculum. It is an online suite of paper, downloadables, games, and work. I find it all a little overwhelming, what with the terminology, optional data collection, assessment, etc.

I’m looking for people with experience in this curriculum to break it down for me. What parts did you use? What is an average hour lesson like? How did you plan your math? What did you use to supplement.

Any help would be great—I’m moving from Eureka (which has its own faults but is at least a tighter package, imo) to this and I feel swamped with options while at the same time, with no real plan.

Any advice or resources for how to pace my middle/high school science classes? I am a brand new teacher and I am worried I am going too fast…some students are doing great but I have gotten a bit paranoid. Please share resources if you have them.

I want to try to break into teaching in pa or nj my gpa in college 6 years ago was below 2.5 besides going back to school how can I get into teaching

has anyone gone into teaching but wasn’t the best in school ? i feel like sometimes the ones who struggled with school can be really understanding of the kids who are having a harder time and struggling to stay focused and apply themselves.

Looking for something to hold my classroom doorbell, I kept losing it last year and this year I stuck it on the back of my ID lanyard, but I keep accidentally bumping it when I don’t mean to. Has anyone found something that has worked?

"Me and my friends was gonna go to the mall yesterday but my mom say we cant because she dont trust us going by are selfs, which is literally so unfair cause we never even done nothing wrong and everyone else parents lets them go."

Our 4 year olds used these notebooks for journaling for years and the website does not make them anymore! They have hard covers with no lines and were sturdy and great for them to draw and start writing! Does anybody know where we can find notebooks like these?

Hello:) So long story short, I know Hebrew and Arabic, and some woman my age(21) offered me a job teaching Arab kids(ages 8 - 12) Hebrew online(In Israel alot of Arab kids dont have hebrew frineds/learn in arabic only schools, and that creates problems down the line, academia, jobs, etc...) and since i know Arabic atleast conversationally, she just offered it to me.

I dont have any past experience teaching, and neither does she, but theres such a lack of teachers that theres a lot of demand, even though we dont have qualifications.

I did one lesson so far with a kid which was 30 minutes. The kid knew hebrew fairly well althoug he had little vocab. I just spoke to the kid generally in simple hebrew, asking him questions about himself, life and everything, figuring out his level

. It was pretty tough filling the 30 minutes tbh, and I feel kinda stressed actually filling it up next time with actual exercises, doing stuff which interests the kid and makes him participate....

I am much more concerned about kids who almost dont know hebrew, I am stressed about what can I do to make it worthwhile. I feel bad a bit for the parents who pay good money for these classes... perhaps i am exaggerating but thats my feeling.

Please if anyone has any tips at all, feedback, anything, id be very glad haha. My boss said i should have more or less 5 students in the coming weeks, with varying leveks of proficiency.

I still think its cool and fulfilling job, i judt hope i can actually be good at it.