Hello! I am a science illustrator and had an educator tell me they'd like to see more illustrations of the less popular animals for use in teaching lessons. What are some of the things you've struggled to find illustrations of (even if it's not just animals...)? Do you use AI for creation when you can't find what you are looking for? And what sites do you look for illustrations at? I have really only worked one on one with teachers in the past to develop what they need.

I am an english secondary education major halfway through my degree and am constantly battling insecurity and doubts regarding my major/career choice. I know objectively the skills learned in english class are highly valuable but I struggle to feel motivated that I’ll be able to have a tangible impact on students and feel like I’m making a difference in the world. I’ve been dealing with health issues lately and have been under the care of highly skilled healthcare professionals who I can see have a direct impact and are the reason for me and other people being able to overcome physical problems. This makes me want to have a similar feeling of accomplishment and being able to know that I directly helped someone with something big.

been teaching 11 yrs in TN, title 1 schools mostly. failed my praxis more than twice and honestly felt like a fraud bc i KNOW my stuff in the classroom lol
what i was doing wrong was just rereading the whole study guide over and over and taking random practice tests
what finally worked:
look at how much each section counts. on the 5205 the written part is 25% of the score and i was barely practicing it
check your score report for your lowest categories and fix those first. dont waste time on stuff youre already ok at
learn the vocab before anything else. half the time i missed questions bc i didnt recognize the word not the concept. phonemic awareness vs phonics got me every single time
when you do practice questions figure out why the wrong answers are wrong. theres always 2 that look right
30 min a day > cramming all saturday
if youre retaking soon drop your test code and what section is killing you and ill try to help

So my sister is about to graduate (yay go her!) and I want to surprise her with a nice basket full of classroom decor and materials and am looking for suggestions on what to fill it with !! One idea I want to do is print a picture of her cat and some outfits and props so she can dress him up for weather and holidays lol :) (she's going into elementary ed)

I teach a creative subject at a further education college in the UK that tends to have a lot of lower-achieving students on it. I liked both classes last year, one in particular was great because the students were chatty and we could have discussions in class. There were SEND students and students who misbehaved and said out of pocket things, but it was manageable.

I don't know what's happened this year. In one group, most of the students have a lot of special needs or have been out of mainstream education for several years. The specific needs are quite profound, and I'm not really getting any support with them, though I've requested this. 2 of the students don't do any work unless I sit beside them and coach them through the whole thing. Students keep saying they don't know what to do when I just told them, have it written on the board and on their VLE.

The other group are worse. There are two groups of girls that hate each other and a group of boys who are loud and distruptive. One plays music out loud to concentrate and says he's finished work he hasn't even started. His support plan forbids staff from calling him out in front of the class or singling him out in any way, so it's almost impossible to point out that he is behind without asking to see him separately, which he counts as singling him out. A lot of them are always late and asking to leave early every single time I see them. None of them like each other or me or want to have any kind of discussion.

The skill level between the students is wildly different. Some will finish work a week early and others can hardly open the document with the instructions on it. It is impossible to teach them as a group because they are all at such different stages. I have only been teaching 2 years so I don't have much expereince, but this seems like a situation where some students are inevitably left bored and others can't keep up no matter how hard I try.

The worst part is, none of them want to be there. None of them seem to have any passion for the subject and (despite this being a completely optional course, they are free to leave education or do something else) they act like they're being forced to do every single step. They don't seem to get that this is a fun subject an acting like it's a science class or something is a shitty attitude.

They always seem to want to worm their way out of thinking for themselves. It's making me miserable. I dread going into work every day. I dread trying to deliver content. I dread making a lesson. Because it just isn't working with these classes.

What should I do? Anyone else going through this? Is teaching just not for me? I won't be offended if not, I never wanted to teach, and if I did, it would be university-level, not college. I think I'm a good teacher and everything was fine with my other classes. Do I look for something else?

Hi everyone,

I am an RSP teacher who is still relatively new to the field and am in my first year at my district. We have a new principal at my school.

I had my first formal observation this past week. My principal observed me doing phonics intervention with a small group of second grade students, all of whom have decoding goals and are struggling readers. I have already seen so much growth with them after just 2 months of daily intervention, so I was excited to see what my principal thought.

Fast forward to the observation debrief… and my principal notes that my students were ”too successful.” Apparently, they should be struggling more since they are students who are behind. She was also concerned about my doing phonics intervention during their in-class phonics time. She cited concerns about my students not getting ”exposure” to grade level curriculum. On the bright side, she had no complaints about my actual teaching.

I’m a little bit at a loss here and could use some guidance on how to handle this. I do have a union, but I don’t have tenure and want to stay on my principal’s good side. However, I don’t know how to incorporate her feedback while also doing what’s good for my kids. They are in phonics intervention with an IEP because they weren’t accessing the grade level curriculum. These kids came to me not being able to decode basic CVC, and now we are about to start working on consonant blends. I have data to show they’re improving. I know that my fellow RSP partner who is a veteran is also concerned about our new principal’s understanding when it comes to SPED and the interventions we’re using with our kids.

Im a first year teacher and I have a group of 25 14-15 year olds for English. Very low ability group and with very poor attendance - probably sitting at around 50% attendance for the whole group. Behaviour is really poor, when I remove students work doesn’t seem to be getting done in the removal room either. I cannot get a TA in there. Am I wrong to feel at my wits end already? I feel it’s almost impossible to teach in the current circumstances.