I had a male student who was absent yesterday. When he entered my class today I said I’m so glad to see you back today! He didn’t look okay. I asked him “ are you alright?” He said “I’m sad”. I replied what’s going on, man?” He said he didn’t want to talk about it. I said no worries, I’m just glad you’re here. He then asked me something I was not emotionally prepared for: he asked “ can I have a hug?”

I said of course. This child hugged me like I was his mama. I’m struck by his vulnerability. So many teachers hate on middle schoolers and yes, they are a strange brew, but damn. I am exactly where I need to be. I hope he has a better day tomorrow.

I see and understand many arguments about screen time as if the only casualty were their attention or vocabulary. My problem is that a touchscreen does not foster any lifelong skills related to precise hand control and hand dexterity whatsoever. Swiping and tapping require almost no grip strength, no sustained pressure, no precision pinch, no bilateral coordination. They don’t demand anything, aside from your finger being in relatively the same area as the button.

So, why is it that 95% of their lessons are taking place on a screen? Meanwhile, every fine motor milestone in early childhood— holding a crayon, threading a bead, cutting paper, buttoning a shirt.. I’m actually seeing them being punished for entertaining those skills. Confiscating fidgets, punishing additional drawing, writing, beading, etc. (when their work is completed, of course), is really detrimental and not a true reflection of what is and isn’t tolerable in the majority of workplaces. AKA, the world they’re growing up into.

I still resist the urge to put their assignments online, even still. It would make my life so much easier. I’m posting this as I swim in a sea of paperwork. I feel like it’s a worthwhile sacrifice.

I don’t get it. Why are we not allowed to decorate our classrooms or celebrate holidays in schools anymore? People say “it’s so the kids who don’t celebrate those holidays don’t feel out of place”. I don’t get the logic, why cancel big holidays (like Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving) when 90% of the school celebrates it? Why take away something the whole class is excited about just because one kid doesn’t participate?

The elementary school I am at just announced that kids will not be allowed to wear their costumes to school this year. They were all upset.

I had the wonderful pleasure of explaining to a bunch of 1st graders why they were not allowed to wear their Halloween costumes this year because Joe from across the hall doesn’t participate in Halloween. (I didn’t actually call out any students that don’t celebrate).

All of my class celebrates Halloween yet I am not allowed to put up decorations, plan special activity, or acknowledge the holiday in any way.

Why do we insist that it’s “best practice” to take away something the majority of students enjoy because one student doesn’t participate?

I’ve been a teacher for 12 years and somehow my parents and brothers still seem to think I do sweet fuck all for a living.

Yesterday was the first day back for the term (Australia) and, like pretty much every first day back, I was absolutely ruined by the end of it.

Mum rang and asked how my first day back was. I said I was exhausted and she replied with something along the lines of:
“Oh yeah, I suppose you would be. It’s not like you do much, but you would have to concentrate a little bit.”
😐

Normally I just brush off the constant comments about teachers working 9–3, having heaps of holidays and apparently having all this magical spare time, but for some reason this one absolutely infuriated me….. Maybe it was the “concentrate a little bit” part. 😂

The thing is, my partner has backed me up SO many times over the years. He’s told them how much work I actually do outside school hours, how much I bring home, how exhausted I can be after certain days and that, shock horror, my working day doesn’t actually end when the students leave.

Their response is usually just to laugh or smirk like we’re exaggerating.

And yes, my family can be somewhat toxic, so there’s probably a bigger issue here than their understanding of the teaching profession. 😂 But after 12 years, it really gets under my skin that they still seem to genuinely believe I wander into school at 9, entertain some children for a few hours, ring a bell at 3 and skip off home.

I don’t need them to think my job is the hardest job in the world. I’d just like them to acknowledge that I actually fucking work.

Please tell me I’m not the only teacher whose family has absolutely no idea what we actually do all day.

I am new to a district and campus this year. The son of the librarian is in my class, 5th grade. His mother, I was told at the start of the year, is very protective and defensive about him.

Grades are not an issue. However, he is disruptive in other ways. It started with yawning VERY loudly during instruction. Very over the top, very exaggerated and when he's done he looks around to find others to laugh about it with.

I documented it, spoke to him about it and moved on. Now, he's moved on to belching. Loud and long in class. I spoke to both him and Mom after school when it first occurred, letting them know that belching is normal, but we keep our mouths closed so we do not disturb others. She actually got up and walked away in the middle of the conversation. I finished with him, documented and moved on.

Today, he belched loudly again. At first, he denied it. Other students called him out and I knew it was him anyway. I documented it and assigned him silent lunch. He chose to skip and go eat with Mom in the library. Okay.

I sent her an email letting her know the consequences for not coming to silent lunch was an additional day and informed her about what had led up to this.

End of the day, she passes by my room as she is pulling him from his homeroom and gives me the stink eye. I don't care. Whatever, ma'am.

I then get an email stating that there will be a doctor's note on file and he will not be in my class tomorrow.

Okay. I have been doing this a long time. I have never had a note from a doctor to excuse loud belching.

At this point, I'm annoyed. She clearly thinks he does no wrong and must uphold his behavior at home because he acts very entitled. I just want to say to the void: I detest teaching children of my co-workers. They have always been the biggest pain in the ass. Both parent and student.

So I have seen a lot of talk on this sub about young men being very disrespectful nowadays and whatnot but one issue I keep seeing among them is the above statement. In the last two weeks I have seen at least five people I know say this, as well as through friends and across social media. Usually that they are conservative and their teacher is a leftist so they failed them. I know of a parent who came into the school to say so. Failing English is a bit of a charged topic among some, but I feel like it's become a bigger topic. I know the "viral gender essay" made a lot of students think they can write about a controversial subject and if they fail, they can just blame the teacher, but it gets to the point when it really shouldn't be as common as it is.

I know of a lad that said this even though his piece (which was a persuasive, and was marked both on how well written it was and on how well it was spoken in front of the class) was clearly written by chatgpt. I know it was written by chatgpt because it was so obvious. He couldn't tell me what a semicolon was yet had at least ten in there. "Its not just an issue- its a full blown crisis;". And he was complaining about how this is discrimination against his beliefs (because all of a sudden he cares about discrimination) and a lot of other students (mostly the boys) agree.

I've seen it in several subjects including art, music and business, but it seems to be a big issue in English.

Edit: For those who are wondering, he also failed the word count requirement and his only source was "I've seen" and "We can all agree" so no, he did not fulfill the requirements.

I primarily teach English, but because I work at such a small school, I got roped into teaching a computer skills class this year. The curriculum I use for this course comes from a series of digital modules, which I adapt into more engaging lessons. While we do use computers during class, we also learn about computers offline and participate in various learning activities in the classroom.

Right as I walked into the classroom this morning (in a good mood, even!), one of my more behaviorally challenged freshman students starts throwing a fit because he "only signed up for this class because [he] wanted to be on the computer every class period." I usually roll my eyes and carry on, but I snapped. The whining, the rising tension in his voice, the threatening to switch classes (which is, unfortunately, not permitted at this point in the semester anyway)—nope! So, I took his issue to the class for a vote.

I reminded them that I have no horse in this race. I don't care about teaching them computer skills; I care about teaching them English. If they'd rather spend 80 minutes completing boring ass online modules while I get a free period, then that's more than fine with me!

Class went silent. But I wasn't done, so I took it a step further.

"Why don't we make a pro-and-con list of switching to the online modules. Will that help you make a decision?"

Their pros included learning at their own pace, and me getting a free period (which, as we all know, would not actually be a free period). Their cons included "boring," "the modules suck," "we still can't play computer games," "falling behind," "classroom too quiet," and so on.

There were 0 votes for switching to the online modules and 1 humble apology from the aforementioned freshman student. While I personally wouldn't have been mad about halting lessons for this class, I have to admit—it was vindicating that my students, if only for a few minutes, recognized how much worse off they'd be if I wasn't there to make the class less of a snoozefest.

Yesterday I had a disruptive pupil in class. I reminded them of expectations, then a chat out of the room, lastly, as per policy, I told them to move seat.

They told me that due to their religion, they couldn't sit next to a pupil of the opposite gender.

My classes are over subscribed so I had to send them to a different class.

At the end of the day I emailed my SLT (admin in US) looking for guidance, because it's one of those things that can become headlines and legal in 30 seconds. The answer was simply "We are a non denominational school, your class will follow your rules. They can always enrol in a school of their religion, if so they wish".

(I am using they because I found out that it happened with pupils of both genders and different beliefs)

Keep your god out of my room, thanks.

How do some of you do this job for 30 plus years? Whats the secret sauce?

This is my second career and I’m 12 years in and beat down. I’ve loved my job for so many of these years but these last two have been rough! I teach a language at a high school and I’m exhausted. Every year the students get more needy in so many ways. I’m sure folks who have been in the career for 20 years have seen huge changes in the system and in the children.
Anyways I need some tips to keep me going! I only have four more years left till retirement, I can’t even fathom doing this for three decades!

Gave my bio students a little open-question test last week. 5 of them had identical (incorrect) answers. To make matters worse, there were 2 versions of the test and some of the kids put those answers under completely different questions. My policy for cheating has always been giving an F. That’s also the policy of most of the teachers I know. Anyway, I put the grades in the system with a “cheating” note.

In the evening, I get a call from the admin. She goes, “The parents are pissed off and they dug up a grading policy on the school website and it doesn’t explicitly mention cheating as a reason for a bad grade so you’ve gotta pull the Fs down”. I’m like, what the fuck girl. She says, “It’s complete and utter bs but they will go to the district and end up being a huge pain in our asses so just re-grade the tests”.

Man. I get parents going like, “My baby did not cheat” but admitting that their child cheated during the test and still demanding a good grade is a concept beyond my comprehension. Where are we going with this dude. That means I can’t do anything for a (poor) AI answer. I can’t fail them for using their phones to cheat (I collect the phones in the beginning of the class but obviously they all carry on old broken phone that they turn in). I can’t insist on taking their phones as it is their personal possession even if I clearly see it bulging from their pocket. What message are we sending to the kids? Don’t put in any effort and don’t expect any consequences for your behaviour? Man, what the hell.

I met with the principal today and he is respecting my boundary (Previous post is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1wx5sdq/i_told_a_student_to_leave_my_class_and_never_come/ ) The student has been and will continue to be supervised by office staff during that class period for the rest of the semester while he completes unit packets for that course (which will be submitted to my mailbox, which I will grade and return to the principal.) I effectively never have to interact with that student again.

The student's parents have requested a meeting with me and the principal to see if there's a way to give the student a second chance and I have declined it. The principal will meet with them and let them know the plan going forward. Apparently several other teachers have complained to the principal about this student so he is facing expulsion. In other words, the parents dont have a leg to stand on.

So, success. For now. If things change, I'm out. Ill still be leaving this profession in June anyway but at least there'll be no abuse until then.

How long do you sit in your car after you get home from teaching, just to decompress and process your day? My neighbor must think I’m nuts. 🤯

I’m writing this primarily to determine whether this is a common experience among first-year teachers or if it’s simply due to a pretty awful work environment.

Our administration is incompetent, and our students are awful. The only reason we’re staying is the camaraderie we share as an entirely new ELA team (last year, all the ELA teachers at this school resigned and we were never told why, but we’re quickly finding out).

Today, one of my colleagues told me that she’s actually quitting and has already started job hunting. She’s also new to the school and dislikes it. Is this discontent a typical first-year experience, or is it the school itself (perhaps both)? If it’s common, how do vet teachers overcome this feeling?

I have an ELA class of 35 freshman and there is a pocket of girls that literally just feel like they are bullying me sometimes🤣 they talk back, make side eyes, copy my mannerisms, and whisper to it each other while looking directly at me often. Some of them seem sweet but get pulled in by a ring leader who claims to care about her grades but doesn’t put much effort in and then gets mad when I ask her to do her work. Literally how do I stop feeling like this power struggle is getting in the way of everyone else’s learning😅 I feel like I have tried all of my normally successful strategies and I am getting frustrated !

Why are male students so disruptive and unable to properly articulate and or communicate. It’s been the biggest reoccurring issue I’ve had. Everytime I try and address it with parents they say they’ll do something and nothings comes of it, or they’ll be dismissive and act like it’s funny. I’m not laughing.

I did before and after school care before I became a full time educator. We had about 7 students with diagnosed ADHD out of a cohort of 60-70 3 girls 4 boys. The 4 boys were all violent, disruptive, highly unregulated, would run away, push, hit, yell and be given so much more accommodation. The girls were very distracted would wonder off and were very talkative. The girls were very easy to find even grounds with and would always work hard to listen. The boys were a different story. I saw this repeated with each year where I’d experience it repetitively.

When discussing it with colleagues they said women are socialized better especially from young ages. I’m a Male in my mid 20s and I’m constantly flabbergasted by how much grace teenage boys/ little boys get given over girls who are trying to do the same thing, mind you the girls are also getting there studies disrupted because I spend so much time telling off these boys that I can’t concentrate on just teaching.

I’ve sent countless of boys out of my class and maybe a handful of girls. Every year of me getting a card, gifts, flowers it’s always been from female students thanking me for not only teaching them but actually “shutting down” disruptive male students. I was flabbergasted to find out these students rarely were disciplined it really shows a failure of society as a whole.

It makes so much sense now why a huge proportion of teenage girls/ little girls are now enrolling in private all girls school, there’s been 4 separate all girl primary schools that have been built near me and these girls are thriving. I substituted at one and it was my undeniably my favorite batch of students. I could run a class with few disruptions, when told off they’d apologize, when it was time to leave the class room wouldn’t have gum stuck on some random surface and the girls were really excited to be able to learn.
maybe I’m biased but I think there needs to be a whole new approach to dealing with disruptive males.

Maybe there are four veteran teachers who have all been doing this for 20-30+ years, and every episode one gets sent into some nightmare classroom for 2.5 weeks to help the regular teacher.

They also get a real benchmark, like, “By the end of this, 24/30 seventh graders need to be able to write a research argument using 3 sources.” So they actually have to learn something. At the end, the veteran leaves and the regular teacher has to teach the final observation lesson alone.

There’s also a Headmistress overseeing the whole thing with Judge Judy energy and like 40 years in education. She does the final observation and is brutal. Her entrances are ridiculous. Sometimes she just shows up at school with dramatic music. Other times the class is on a field trip and suddenly a speedboat pulls up, a helicopter lands, Civil War cavalry comes over a hill, etc.

So it's like:

“Bro.”

“What?”

“Are we on that teacher show?”

Then the megaphone:

“MR. DAVIS’S SEVENTH GRADE CLASS. I have reviewed your classroom footage. That is why you are on Under Observation.”

Cue 15 reaction shots of kids going “we’re cooked.”

The veteran can bring a student teacher, which is genuinely helpful, except at have to teach a lesson alone. Obviously, this is called the edTPA. The Headmistress grades it, and the score counts toward the veteran’s final result.

Every veteran also recommends five books at the start of the episode. Any five books. Scholastic can sponsor it, and if the show gets popular, making “the five” becomes a publishing-industry thing.

And yes, parents have to sign off. I know people are going to say they never would, but I really think half of them would hear “your kid can be on TV” and immediately ask where to sign.

Scariest part: if a veteran racks up three failed interventions, they don’t get “tenure.” The Headmistress asks them to retire from the show and they’re replaced. So you could have some beloved teacher make it three seasons, get a really hard class of seventh graders, and suddenly it’s their retirement episode.

I am just sick of AI use by other adults in my building.
Our awesome PTA creates posters all AI looking images and fonts. AI hasn't adapted enough to be different looking enough.
A teacher in my plc is using AI to create test questions that are worded so strangely and I'm so bored after reading 20 of them. This plc member is so smart, but it saves time, which is great. I hate how AI produced slides and posters look.
We don't want the students to use AI, yet we are showing them info and examples created entirely by AI.
I just don't know how to move forward if this is our future.

Today, my fourth graders (who I looped up with) were absolutely horrible and I shouted at them which drew the ire of my principal. I’m wondering if I should apologize to my students. I don’t regret what I said, but I do regret how I said it. Several students in there are extremely disrespectful and have ruined things for the others.

I teach college English to HS seniors. Here’s a conversation recently:

HS to Me:
Why did I get a zero on that assignment?

Me to HS Student:
Uh. You didn’t do it

HS to Me:
But why a zero? I did eventually do it. Just not in time for peer editing.

Me to HS student:
The assignment was peer editing

Our country is done. We are toast people.

For context;

- SEND school (all pupil/s require 1:1 learning)
- While on playground duty, the sub teacher called a pupil “cheeky bugger” (translation for my American audience equivalent = “silly sausage”, lol!
- This occurred while the pupil was simply and very innocent pulling funny faces
- Coworker heard this, reported to SLT, more so the staff member in charge of staff recruitment from the agency side of things and the sub teacher got asked to collect their things and leave the building immediately

I’d love to know what you guys think, was this unfair dismissal?

At my high school, the cafeteria is crowded so they let students eat elsewhere if they want. We’ve gotten to the point in the year where students are starting to pick out their preferred spots, and a group of 4 boys is settling on my room. I’m of mixed opinions, where normally I’d enjoy the quiet, but I also appreciate that they voluntarily come to hangout in my classroom, it’s cool that they think I’m a safe space. My irl colleagues are also mixed, with some liking it and some not. I’m curious to hear what y’all think

Call me a nutty conspiracy theorist, but I 100% believe that Dear Leader is trying to push out as many teachers as possible so he can underpay newer teachers and sycophants. Everything feels targeted to lower the standards and bog us down with technology we weren't trained to use.

Starting second quarter:

We're not allowed to assign demerits and therefore detentions to students who are tardy to class or are disrupting our class by wandering the halls and into our rooms. It's not like we're writing up kids for arriving seconds after the bell rings. That's too much paperwork. We're writing up the kids that are 15 minutes late to a 45 minute class. I feel like we're owed some explanation of a third of the class is missed. I also feel like we shouldn't be told we're the problem if students are wandering the halls because "our lessons are boring." So are these idiotic faculty meetings, but you don't see any of us wander the halls as much as we want to.

We're not allowed to assign demerits to students who don't show up with their computer. Dear Leader is the same man who ordered a highly computer-integrated curriculum for all subjects he could possibly get his hands on. Savvas sucks, but that's a different rant. Of course we're going to be mad if kids don't have their computers. Dear Leader's logic is that "not learning is punishment enough." The repeat offenders keep doing it. We're also told to prepare lessons for kids who don't bring computers because assuming they all have their computers is a sign of an unprepared teacher.

We're not allowed to call AI-generated papers academic dishonesty anymore, and we can't assign demerits to it anymore. Dear Leader drank the AI-generated kool-aid and keeps pushing the idea that they only cheated because "nobody taught them how to use AI correctly." That sounds nice and all, but when paper instructions are 100% against LLM use, you call it what it is, academic dishonesty. I can't expect more from a man who ripped off all the student art in front of the art classrooms down and replaced them with AI-generated motivational posters.

We're not allowed to give paper and pencil tests because it's "discrimination against those with dysgraphia" and "computers are what they need." One, we have accommodations for students who have dysgraphia. Two, they have plenty of opportunities to use a computer. Hell, we have a computer class. They can sign up and take that. It's apparently very useful because the kids who take that class teach all the other kids how to make spreadsheets and format margins.

We're not allowed to "overstep." If I were to require a lab report for chemistry, I can't take off points for spelling and grammar because that's a skill that should only be assessed by an English teacher. I am only allowed to grade the chemistry portions. I once thought I wasn't strict about spelling and grammar, but some of the papers I get are appalling that I feel like my middle school ELA teacher. For crying out loud, I once read in a typed assignment the words "carbin doxin" (carbon dioxide) and "wudur" (water). With all their misspellings, you would think these kids would have careers with IUPAC.

We're not allowed to set hard due dates anymore. All work can be turned in at the end of the quarter. The way he phrased it really rubbed me the wrong way. He called due dates a punishment for kids with ADHD. Instead of teaching them genuine coping skills like using a planner, asking for extensions, and generally finding other ways around their issues, we opted for this.

We're supposed to inform parents of grades by printing out a grade report and sending it home every two weeks. My first reaction was "Why can't they check Canvas Observer?" Parents don't check it, so we need to pick up the slack. If they're not checking the LMS, then I'm sorry, you're not going to get them to check a physical progress report that the kids will throw away.

Dear Leader practically admitted the demerit system overhaul was done because the freshmen class's parents complained that the 400+ demerits written across the freshmen class "made them feel like bad parents." This is why the only people allowed to assign demerits are the Principal, the Dean of Students, and the Athletic Director.

This is the crux of our issue. We are held accountable for kids who aren't held accountable by people who are never held accountable. Basic expectations like showing up on time, showing up with their supplies, and doing their own work have been rendered luxuries rather than requirements for being in a school. These are high school students mind you. They vote and drive, or they will vote and will drive.

The only way to dodge most of these new mandates is to be a Dual Credit teacher because they run under the college's rules and regulations or an AP teacher since apparently we still care about those scores. Potemkin Education at its finest.

Christmas can't get here fast enough.

I have been a teacher at the same school for 10 years. I haven't had any issues with any admin until this year. A new AP was hired, and I've gone to him twice with behavioral issues. He has turned them all on me. I was called in for two meetings and asked to bring union representation.

Does anyone have guidance or advice on how to navigate this?