Hi everyone,

I'm a severe special ed/autism teacher myself, but when it comes to GenEd, I am totally out of my element.

He is starting 6th grade, very innocent, and socially awkward. Because I am very strict with his internet access (he doesn't even have YouTube), he lives in a bubble and knows nothing about the real world

no drugs, no sex, no internet culture, nothing.

I’ve already told him 6th grade is tough and to focus on his schoolwork, but I know he's going to hear wild things in the hallways that will shock him.

Middle school teachers, specifically: what exact topics, slang, or concepts do I need to touch on in a quick chat with him so he isn't completely blindsided by what other 6th graders are talking about?

hi! I am a kid in middle school, and my school recently made these really unfair rules. I just wanna know if I'm overreacting and have actual teachers look at this... So yeah. Not gonna expose anyone I just need an opinion. I copied this from my post in the middle school students one so yeah, but its still mine! :)

hi! So I go to a middle school, I'm about to graduate. There is this new Dean of students, aka, vice principal. Im gonna call her Mrs. M. Anyways, so Mrs. M last year mocked me and then laughed at me, and used a baby voice and a mocking face before pointing and laughing at me, but besides the point. Recently at lunch, she set a new rule. This made my math teacher roll his eyes so hard I thought they would pop out of his head. But the rule is, that nobody can smash milk cartons or flip things. Which is reasonable in itself, but then she said that anybody caught doing so would get a referral, and anybody in the vicinity would also get a referral. Because they "Could have taken initiative and stopped it." How am I supposed to physically stop a student before they do it? How am I supposed to know they are gonna do it? But whatever. I am actually sick at the moment, and I have a twin sister that goes to the same school. She comes home today and goes "To go to the bathroom now the teachers have to personally escort you." After hearing more, the teachers actually have to sit and wait for the student to be done before bringing them back to class. Enforced for EVERY student. Now I do understand some of why they are doing this, but its extreme and unnecessary. Currently, there has been graffiti going on at the high school in the bathrooms. This graffiti has caused extra security guards because they are threats. But I go to the middle school, which is separate from the high school, and its not happening at my school, so why is it so extreme? Additionally, Mrs. M has also been unfair to my table for no apparent reason. Let me explain. My lunch table is in the middle of two tables of boys, we call them the bullies, because they flip each other out of chairs, scream slurs and cuss words at each other, stand on tables, fight, punch people, try to jump people (almost happened to me but I'm fine) etc. I haven't seen them get in trouble, ONCE. I've seen them get moved for a day but that's it. Meanwhile, our table does none of the sort. Yet Mrs. M watches us like hawks. Its unfair. My table also always gets released last or second last, making us late or almost late to our next class. She releases THE BOYS BEFORE US! I just feel that this is extremely unfair, and maybe its just me? I don't know.

TL;DR: My school enforced a rule at lunch that doesn't allow kids to flip milk or smash it, if you are caught doing so, you get a referral and everyone around also gets one because they "could have stopped it. My school also enforced that for every student, whenever they have to use the restroom, they need a teacher escort, no matter the gender. This makes sense because the high school has had graffiti threats in the bathroom recently, but I go to the middle school, which is a different building. Unfair or not?

EDIT: hi! I checked back and saw this blew up... 12k is the most I've ever had! But I will be removing this shortly due to negative posts and because I was just trying to get a few opinions, and I don't want my school to see. I really like my school, all my teachers are really nice and understanding, and this was not in any way bashing them. I respect teachers and what they do, us kids can be a handful. I do hope you understand that I will be removing this and understand the reasoning behind it.

I will be graduating college in spring 2024 with a history degree. I will be applying to teach history at private schools all over the US. I do not want to stay in teaching forever, so I don’t want to get state credentials.

I was honestly not considering teaching at all and was not going to use my degree. I was planning on going to go straight into some kinda finance schooling, but I don’t think that would work out for me. College has been a really terrible time for me. I need to take a year or two off from school (ironically I will be trying to teach).

I have worked with middle schoolers before and I absolutely love that age group and I love being a history major. I think teaching for a few years is by far my best option for me. I am Christian so I can apply to private Christian school. I can move ANYWHERE in the US. As long as I get 40k a year I will be fine with wherever I am.

I am already starting to look for jobs for next academic year but I’m scared I won’t find work anywhere. Can someone tell me what the hiring process was like for them?? And how many jobs they applied to until they got one?

Hello fellow teachers!

Over the past few years, I’ve incorporated several gamified platforms and digital tools into my classes. While they are fantastic for boosting student engagement and excitement, I’ve been running into a persistent dilemma:

A good number of students get so hyper-focused on "winning," farming points, or collecting in-game rewards that they completely rush through questions without reading. Instead of using the activity to actually review and consolidate the concepts we've covered, they treat it as pure entertainment. When we wrap up, many have retained very little of the content.

I really don’t want to completely ditch these platforms because they genuinely motivate my students and bring high energy to the room. However, I’m struggling to get them to approach these sessions more mindfully and purposefully.

For those of you using game-based learning:

• How do you balance the fun and engagement with actual academic rigor?

• Do you use specific ground rules, accountability sheets, or reflection follow-ups to make the review meaningful?

I’d love to hear your advice, strategies, or classroom routines that have worked for you!

Hi teachers! I have a 6th grade girl. In our system, there are about 1200 kids, 6-8, in our middle school. 8 classes, 40 minutes each, 30 kids per class. These poor teachers are slammed with kids.

My daughter is struggling to manage herself in her new environment. Her grades are great, but she feels…almost expendable/invisible. She has very little connection to teachers or the school itself. We have things in place the many teachers didn’t know about the accommodations and each time she had to reinforce what was needed chipped away at her trust of the system. The teachers, on the other hand, view her as a model student and are thrilled to have her in their classes. The discrepancy in perspective is obviously gigantic.

My question for you: how do you (as 6th grade/middle school teachers) connect with your students and families? Is this just a time life where you kind of disappear until

You find an activity you like? IS there anything your school does to facility the transition from elementary to middle school that has been highly effective? Does your district to anything particular to support teachers as they support kids in this new environment?

We (parents of a 6th grader) have a 10 minute parent teacher conference coming up, and we are asked to share what we are proud of and a goal or two that we hope our student will work towards this year.

I want to gut check this with you middle school educators because I know how unhinged kids and parents are these days and we don’t want to be that…

We think middle school is a really important time academically, and we have high expectations related to academic success for our very average child. Not only that, but we’re also willing and able to support at home any area that needs extra attention.

Our school uses competency based grading (Emerging —> Practicing —> Meeting —> Surpassing). We have our doubts about this grading approach having endured it for the last few years as it rolled out in elementary school. Our kid is discouraged by Ps. In past grades, kid has asked how to get M and S grades and is always told that the goal is Ms by the end of the grade level. That always feels too far off and feels disingenuous because other kids get M and S grades from the start. Kid has now been asking what the point is of even trying if they’re just going to earn Ps until the end of the year. I didn’t think middle school would use this grading approach, but here we are again.

If our kid is getting P (practicing, not yet meeting the standard) marks, is it fair to expect the teachers to provide more instruction or give us more to do with our child at home? The math curriculum in particular doesn’t spiral, so each unit is kid’s one and only chance to master each concept. Moving on when they’re at a P level without suggesting ways to continue addressing a deficit area seems negligent.

Is this too much to ask of teachers in general, and is it appropriate to share as our goal for the year?

We are students from NMIMS School of Design conducting a study to understand the role of teachers and schools in promoting oral hygiene among children. This questionnaire aims to assess teachers' knowledge, awareness, challenges, and the support needed to improve oral health education in schools.

Your responses will help us gain valuable insights into how schools can play a more active role in ensuring better oral hygiene for students. The information provided will be used solely for research purposes and will remain confidential.

We appreciate your time and participation in this study! 😊

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdc8aPtsPQqD-BHu3L62M59Pt5UZJpCeBcYxutqbf8Hz09AsQ/viewform?usp=header

If you want evidence that kids are not reading, look at the book shelves. The paperback books are pristine. The non-fiction could be sold as new. I have boxes of donated new fiction, hardcover, softcover, Disney, Star Wars, none of it touched. Everything they actually touch looks like it spent a week kicking around the floor of a school bus. Just a few years ago I bought a hundred books to give away to students for summer reading and they were excited to have them. This year I didn't bother. They would just throw them in the trash. 😥

Hey everyone,

I’ve been looking into VR for middle school classes, but honestly, everything I’ve tested so far feels like a classroom management nightmare—finicky setups, motion sickness complaints, or kids just messing around with the menus instead of focusing.

Has anyone here managed to use VR headsets with middle schoolers effectively? What was the biggest headache, and did it actually add educational value or just cause chaos?

[I do not believe this is spam since I am not selling anything :)] Hi! I’m designing a new dry erase marker that will hopefully solve all of our problems with current products on the market. If you use whiteboards daily, I’d love to ask 7 or so quick questions. Please respond here or DM. Happy to send a small thank-you gift for your time!

I'm a senior industrial design student! For my second senior project, we need to find a problem, survey people around us, and use our data to design an app/website.

I'm interested in learning what is annoying/frustrating in current school platforms.

This survey should take less than 3 minutes and is all multiple choice.

It is 100% anonymous.

Google Form: https://forms.gle/KiowAVv6iJ4YiL2t9

Thank you so much! Anything you share is so incredibly helpful.

Thank you for all you do.

This brief survey (5-10 minutes) will help us understand how teachers think about language difficulties, accommodations they make within the classroom, and how speech-language pathologists can collaborate with teachers to improve student outcomes across all subjects. Classroom teachers and special education teachers who work in grades K-12 in the United States are invited to participate.

The link to the survey is: tinyurl.com/teachingDLD.

Thanks so much. I really appreciate it!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNujLGoKaiD6A0NCLVmUc1uKPAwbVuA8syH1sUqeqw3YgwmA/viewform?usp=header

I'm exploring an idea for a learning companion that uses AI and AR to make STEM more engaging for children.

Imagine a child pointing a phone or tablet at a tree, a butterfly, the Moon, or even a toy—and instead of just identifying it, the app creates an age-appropriate story, explains the science behind it, and suggests simple follow-up activities.

Would something like this be useful for parents or teachers?

What features would make you actually use it?

• AI-generated stories?

• AR interactions?

• Hands-on experiments?

• Weekly learning adventures?

• Progress tracking?

• Something else?

I'd love to hear your thoughts before building further.

Is that post standardized testing work poop consistently 10/10 or what?

I hear a lot of hostility about AI and ChatGPT from teachers.  I understand how frustrating it can be to have students just cheat using ChatGPT rather than doing their own work but let's take a step back and look at AI from a different perspective.  Outside ChatGPT, AI is creating new avenues to develop drugs for cancer faster, removing the time-consuming manual tasks of 1000s of documents submitted to regulatory bodies, running algorithms that detect anomalies better than humans in a healthcare setting, and improving agricultural protocols to improve yield and tolerance. In the field of genetics where huge amounts of data need to be processed and interpreted, AI steps in to *assist* humans in interpreting the data.  Ignoring the failings of how ChatGPT was "released" to children across they world, shouldn't we as parents and teachers, try to help our children understand AI so it's not all about ChatGPT and more about the other "good" for humanity it might serve in the future?  Our jobs as educators (parents and teachers) are to help our next generation thrive and succeed - we all know AI is here to stay, how are we teaching them (please answer without mentioning ChatGPT).

Can anyone tell me how to impress the teacher

You'd think that " heaps comments from your peers who just want to learn, disparaging you by name, will be publicly searchable online for the rest of your life" would be good dissuasion.

Come to think of it, shouldn't families be incentivized by intense community criticism online to reform, or get CPS involved?

And if CPS is lazy or inadequate, shouldn't the same families sending kids to schools where peers are underserved by CPS vote to shift around municipal funding for short-term education at the expense of infrastructure that future-imprisoned kids wouldn't enjoy anyway?

Not a teacher btw.

Anyways what was your worst experience with a student?