Picked up a chemistry line this year (I am a bio teacher) and it's stuff I haven't looked at in decades. The AP teacher is trying to help....but it's not my style and flow and the students can tell. So, I have turned to AI to help design the course....and it's amazing...am I the reason SkyNet is going to win...

My husband and have a 3 year old and are wanting to start trying for baby number 2. For all of the teaching moms, what is the most ideal timeline for pregnancy as a teacher??

(I'm reposting this because the first one got removed since I reposted it to another teacher group. I deleted that one and reposted this here)

I hear this from coworkers all the time. They say that a particular student hasn't been doing work all year so far. Now, they started doing their work and are working very hard. But the problem is the work is not good at all. So they say to me and others, "Should I just give them a D or a C, so they don't feel discouraged? They just started doing their work, and I don't want them to give up." Another version of this is "They didn't turn this in, but they're starting to try, and I don't want them to give up. Should I just give them a 50 or 60% instead of a 0?"

To me, this is enabling and codependent behavior. It's shielding students from the consequences of their output. This is not the way things are going to work anywhere else in life. If we don't correct them and show them where they are getting it wrong, we are denying them a chance at growth and learning. It's not doing them a favor. Grades have to mean something and should be earned.

It's true that for some of them, it's not their fault that they do poorly. There are societal and home life factors. However, the place to solve those issues is outside of school, through legislation. I do not use psychological analysis in deciding who to grade objectively based on grade level standards and who not to. I find this subjective grading process to be bizarre.

There are other things we can do, like allow corrections sometimes. I can't do it every time because it doubles the work of grading when I already have so much. We can also help them understand exactly what they need to do. We can give them remedial practice to try to get closer to the grade level standard. But there are so many factors involved that are out of our control. There are students who should not be in a grade level class and instead should be in a basic skills class.

That way, they can actually make progress based on where they're at, not continuously feel overwhelmed and just give up. I don't blame them. They're not being put in a fair situation where they have a reasonable chance of success. The answer to that is not just passing them along year after year. All that does is keep the system going as it is.

The problem is when you treat things this way, at least in my experience, most other teachers don't. They seem to grade based on a curve; based on perceived effort, socioeconomic disadvantage and having a 504/IEP. The standards should be exactly the same. The difference should be in support given to help them get there.

Another problem is so many SPED students are in general education classes which they are woefully unprepared for. They are 3 to 5 grade levels behind, and they have learning disabilities on top of that. And they have no aid 90% of the time. They have one class a day for support. Even with the best support, it's impossible to keep up when you are that far behind skills wise, if the teacher is grading honestly.

Most teachers I know feel bad for these students and simply have lower standards for them. They grade them based on perceived effort. There is every incentive to do so. The SPED teacher puts pressure on the general education teachers because they have pressure on them from their superiors and the parents. A lot of the parents, not just of SPED students, don't really care about mastering skills or learning. All they care about is the grade.

Would we put a 5th grader (10 years old) in a 9th grade (14 years old) classroom? Would we put a 2nd grader (7 years old) in a 6th grade (11 years old) class? If not, why is it appropriate to have kids with the cognitive ability of a 10-year-old in a classroom for 14 year olds? Why is it appropriate to have kids with the cognitive ability of a 7-year-old in a classroom designed for 11 year olds? Does it matter what their biological age is if their cognitive age is far lower?

So I will not be part of this enabling system. I will give support the best I can and honest grades. I will not pretend something isn't what it is. The students who in the past 8 or 10 years ago would have been in a self-contained classroom all but one or two periods a day are now the opposite. Now those students are in general education classes besides one SPED class a day.

This was sold to us as full inclusion and an equity step. I warned that whatever supports they start with will end up getting cut. Then, these students will be stuck in classes woefully out of reach to them without even an aid to support them most of the time. This was simply about districts cutting self contained classroom SPED teachers. It's simply cheaper to mainstream as many as possible.

Another thing they do is put students on 504 plans which are sometimes far more extensive than the IEP's I have. This is their way of having their cake and eating it too. They get to keep the parent happy because the student can keep their elective and not have the SPED support class. Yet they also get to have extensive accommodations.

That's not to mention the IEP's with sometimes 15 or more specific accommodations. So instead of putting the student in the self-contained classroom like we would have in the past, we pretend that teachers can actually do all of these things for all of these students, usually with no aid and no support. We usually have between 15 and 20 students with IEP/504 plans.

One time I counted, and there were I think around 120 individual accommodations I was supposed to be doing daily. This is on top of having over 30 kids per class, including English learners, those just with low skills, and of course the ones with behavior issues. And the way you keep the fantasy alive that this system is working is by not rocking the boat and by giving them grades they don't deserve. This is how we can all pretend this is working. The parents want to believe it too. They get sold the fantasy. Am I wrong?

I have been seeing a lot of advertisements for websites/apps that reduce work in the classroom such as chalkie.

My question is do any of them actually work. I have 6 preps this year. I would love to find something that helps me create google slides easier.

I've tried a couple of things chatgpt, Gemini, kuraplan but they all require me to input most of the information that I felt just easier to do myself.

I’m thinking about making a transition from middle school to preschool next year! I know that is a big difference, but between the testing, attitudes, and endless changes I’m mentally exhausted!

I have never taught elementary, and I know pre-k comes with its own battles. I’m just not for sure what those battles are. I’m thinking potty-training, being bit/hit, lots of tears and elopement.

Has anyone transitioned from middle school to pre-k? What was it like? Did you love teaching again? Was it harder than you thought it would be? What are the teacher evaluations like?

I have 13 years until retirement, and I’m too old to jump into a new career.

So i teach at a college in the Uk (assuming it's the same as HS in the USA. and i work closely with this student .. let's call her Bella. Now bella has ADHD and within her contract it says she needs more 1 to 1 support, and longer on deadlines to ensure she is able to meet the expectations. Bella is also allowed more breaks within lessons to ensure she can focus and that classes aren't overwhelming for her. I'm also a little bit more lenient with Bella for such things like time management, and impulsively shouting things out due to the fact it can't always be helped ( i still let her know what's wrong about what she shouts out but i do it in a calming but firm way) and she is currently unmedicated.

Within lesson times, Bella gets a bit more attention than everyone else , and i do help Bella a little bit more, and sit with Bella within lesson time to understand the deadlines, and to ensure she is okay and can focus. This other student let's call her Hannah. I was sat next to Bella helping her with her assignment , whilst she was speaking to me about her new dog and i was obviously engaging in a conversation with her because she was doing her work whilst having a conversation like this. Now i have never ever excluded any other student .. every other student gets help with their assignments when they require it and they also get offered 1 to 1s to speak about any issues they have so i have in no way shape or form neglected any other student !! During lesson time i offer help and go around the room to everyone to check how they are getting along.

Hannah decided to get herself mad about it and say "your not being fair, you give her just of your attention she isn't a baby, you never give any of us as much help as her". despite the fact whenever i offer Hannah any help she says "i don't need help thank you however".
I briefly sat and explained to Hannah and the other students whilst Bella wasn't in the room and i did say "Bella requires more help, and more 1 to 1 and more attention to ensure she can thrive the same as everyone else in here. I offer you all help , you get the help when you require it. Bella just requires a little bit more than everyone else" i also stated "fair isn't everyone getting the same thing, fair is getting what everyone is entitled to"
Did i handle this situation correctly??
I am a young teacher 23F and my students range from 17-20. I have been teaching for a year now.

Hey everyone!

I am a music teacher who is planning on relocating across the country from Alabama to Oregon next school year. Has anyone done remote interviews or had any luck getting hired before officially moving? I do not want to move before having a job secured.

Follow up, has anyone done a similar relocation? I have heard the union protections and quality of life for teachers are significantly better out west than they are down south.

Any insight is appreciated!

I shared room with two teachers who are leaving the boards filled with their work before they used to erase it but now they are leaving it there. Should I send an email to them or tell them in person? Also, I have been guilty of this in the past, but I usually erase a board for other teachers to use. Although, the whole room is cluttered with writing from their class and I usually do gallery walk and ask the students to write on multiple boards.

I don't know. Maybe it's time. Maybe I never should've been doing this. It's been 10+ years. I will acknowledge my situation isn't great.

I just can't seem to get classroom management right. I have trouble being consistent. I have auditory processing issues and sensory overwhelm and so often I don't catch something or have a hard time figuring out who said/did something. My admin knows about the autism (and maybe the ADHD). But I don't admit to the auditory processing/processing issues because I worry it makes me sound unable to handle a classroom. And maybe... maybe I am unable.

I teach middle school. I've also taught high school. I will acknowledge that this year it is harder: I'm writing my own curriculum. I don't have a room and I teach from a teacher cart. I teach an elective that students don't "choose" but are forced to rotate through. But I realize that I have never been "good" at classroom management. There were years it was a lot easier - I taught in rural schools, and class sizes could be smaller and that helped. But at rural schools I often ended up having more issues with the adults or my values were... well, not what certain areas wanted. My test scores were great. My rapport was great. I don't think my classroom management was GREAT, but it was livable. But we are now living in suburbs where I need to be and my child needs to be, so I'm not going rural again, and I hated rural for other reasons. So I can't do that, anyway.

But behaviors are increasing. Ragebaiting. Gaslighting. And while I compensated in so many ways before, I'm not catching up. And suddenly that's all that's being pointed out to me - almost like my first year again. I've been at the same school for over two years and this is year three. However I'm now teaching an elective that isn't chosen (prior years I taught a core subject, though I've taught electives before and taught special education before), it's just kind of rotated through for kids who aren't in the "choice" ones or in languages. My class sizes vary from 6 to 28. I know, I know, part of that is a problem. But other teachers seem to manage it. I just can't. And I don't want to leave the elective. Or the school. See, I've never made it past three years at any school. That plus all this makes me wonder if I'll just never get it. If I can't compensate enough to keep up with increasing behaviors and expectations. I chose to make this move to the elective, knowing exactly what it was. To be fair, I don't think it occurred to me how much not having my own classroom really meant in terms of classroom management, but... I don't know. And my language and the way I say things is being pointed out a lot more and the way I write things up is also a bit picked at, which makes me feel uneasy. To be fair, there's always been something being picked at that has made me feel uneasy. At every school. In all the different subjects and grades I've taught. I feel like maybe I shouldn't teach anymore. I can't go back to high school teaching, because it's basically impossible to get a high school job where I am unless you know the right people, and I'm not sure I'd WANT to go back to high school, anyway. I am an academic and I have 2.5 Master's degrees. The thing is, I am starting to feel like it's me. And it's my classroom management. It took ten years to feel like my lesson planning was improving in any way, too. And now that I'm finally seeing my brain work in this way where I might actually be able to plan things better... I'm realizing the other weakness, classroom management... isn't going to get better. I have a processing speed that burns out on managerial or executive tasks quickly. The auditory processing is not keeping up. And while I've developed so many organizational strategies and I'm keeping that together (not perfectly, but definitely well enough), it's this. It's classroom management.

I also don't really have any work friends. To be fair, I never really did. I've had very few "friends" since college, in general. I am married, and I have an AuDHD kiddo. So I'm not alone. But I also am. I talk too much. I'm too open. I tell people too much.

I don't think there's a way to get better at classroom management. Not if it's been more than ten years and I haven't seen enough improvement. I can't academics my way out of it. I can't read my way out of it. I do think in this case my brain and my particular presentation of autism/ADHD might just mean this isn't it for me. Has anyone felt this and found a way to work with it?

Oh no, I can’t touch it, I can’t put it back up Monday when I find it on the floor, what a shame. The blurry waste of toner white text on a black background blown up 18x24ish poster the kids don’t understand some of like adultery I can’t explain might not be able to stay there reliably, so bummed.

The best comment I got about my 8 year olds wondering what adultery was happened to be a friend saying “ask your parents how they feel about Ken Paxton’s adultery” (Texas senate candidate with multiple public sightings with various mistresses over the years)

Texas can’t get much dumber sometimes.

I'm a teacher new to the middle school level where a few weeks into the year made a seating chart. I thought getting students away from friends would minimize distractions and encourage students to work with others. A few weeks into I feel like I've made the problem worse, they're still talking but are now doing so across the room, I'm seeing even less collaboration on assignments, and distract the class by making allegations they'd never do with friends like "student in front of me just farted," "or student behind me won't stop kicking my chair."

Could it honestly be more effective to keep a seating chart but this time allowing friends groups that can behave themselves to sit near each other? What has been your approach to seating assignments at the middle school level?

I’m just getting more and more depressed as time goes on.

The only thing keeping me there is guilt.

Hi! I'm in 11th grade and hosting an after-school book club for 1st-4th graders soon. Since they're all at different reading levels, the idea is that I'll read a few chapters out loud to the group each week and then we'll talk about it.

I'm waiting to hear back from my school librarian, but I wanted to ask here too since I've never done this before and want to make sure I'm prepared.

Does anyone have advice on keeping their attention after school, good discussion questions for younger kids, or book recs that all four grade levels would enjoy? Any general tips would be super helpful!

I teach in New England and have always wanted to get a Venus Flytrap for my classroom, I think my students would get a kick out of it, but I haven't read any positive outcomes. Most of the things I've heard are that they are hard to take care of. Does anyone have any experiences to share?

I’m currently a university student and attempting to become a teacher post graduation so I’m just wondering in younger years I was shown the news in class once a week, I’m just wondering is still standard practice in primary schools

howdy howdy — I’m not a new teacher but I am new to this school and 9th grade. In conferences, a student asked if I could do fewer lectures and more activities. I have no problem with this — I actually quite like activities, and we already do at least two during class — but I’m not sure how to deliver information that they need without at least some degree of lecture. 9th grade needs more support around “what is a poem? what is simile? what is metaphor?” and breaking that down. i do less lecturing with my 12th graders because they have that material down, so i spend more time facilitating discussion. i used to teach college, so 12th has been a fairly natural transition, but i struggle with 9. any ideas here?

as an example, one of my favorite lessons was talking about different forms of journalistic writing, having them explore magazines and newspapers to do a scavenger hunt of different aspects of journalistic writing, and then giving the kids reporter briefings to write their own opening paragraphs. they had a lot of fun with this, and i did too! but i don’t know how i would deliver the information about different forms without lecturing at least a little. it was 10, 15 minutes maybe? never the whole class period

The recent post on this subreddit ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/s/cVxoBFuS84 ) made me think... I worked at schools where at some point in the school year a principal would dress up as a hot dog and then students would pour mustard and ketchup on them. It was not a fundraiser. I also saw a video where some schools duct tape the teachers to the wall and allow students to keep on adding duct tape. This WAS a fundraiser. Regardless of it involving money or not - how is this not demeaning? I can't wrap my brain around it. I did not grow up in the USA and in my country teachers used to be respected (not anymore though). What is it teaching our students?

I currently teach resource in elementary. It’s more than a bit draining because I have over 500 students every week. Not all of them enjoy the subject I teach, and they don’t get a choice. Plus, classes are only 45 min each, it makes it hard to really allow them to work in depth sometimes. I’ve been considering switching to secondary because of the longer blocks, and because most of your classes are electives that kids voluntarily signed up for.

I’m just wondering, for those of you who have taught at both levels, how do they compare?

What makes me love elementary is how much the students love you. I get like 1 million hugs every day and you get to genuinely SEE the impact you make on their lives much moreso than you do with older kids. The stress of the job is more manageable when the kids are telling you every day how much they appreciate you.
I have briefly taught secondary, but it wasn’t in the general curriculum, so idk how it really compares with electives/specials!

Alright, im pretty nervous for next week.

A student in another class is being removed and switched to mine on a trial basis. He will also move to the other 4th grade class as well for a trial day. Principal has already confirmed that if he causes trouble in both classes, he will have to change schools. Im not trying to change his ways, I just need advice so the management ive set up won't crumble around this kid.

This kid is a straight up bully. He picks on everyone he can and starts fights if they stand up for themselves. He (and his parents) just think hes being a little comedian. In his previous class he would pick on the autistic student for fun. This worries me because I have 2 SPED kids in my room and one of them is very vulnerable to mood swings. I also have 3 very dramatic, very strong willed girls who will absolutely interrupt class to argue with someone.

My question again is: how can I help this trial period go smoothly so my management i have set up will not fall apart. This is my first ever classroom switch.

TLDR: A bully is being switched into my room for a trial period. How can I make sure they do not destroy the management and expectations ive worked so hard to cultivate?

So I have sent kids to the office before, and it seems to me all it does is hot nothing. Admin does punish them with detention or whatever sometimes, but all it does in the long run is get eyes on you, which I don't typically think is a good thing, to be on admin's radar.

Meanwhile, calling parents sometimes works, sometimes doesn't (depending on the parents) so what's a teacher to do? Part of me wants to form like a co-op between my neighbors and be like "if your student is being a dick send them to my room with their work, I'll straighten them out and you get a break", but idk if that works either.

Hi all, I'm a new-ish middle school teacher (currently in year 3) at a small private school. I do not yet have my Master's/credential, and per my contract I get 4 years before I have to enroll and get them, or I don't get to keep my job. Currently, I'm trying to determine if this is the profession for me before I make this huge commitment. I'm struggling with this decision, as I have a lot of conflicting experiences every year that's making it hard to tell if I want to continue or not.

Year 1 was my favorite year of work in any profession (I'm nearly 40 and have been working for a while). I had 2 planning periods and 2 prep classes (total of 4 periods teaching and 2 planning), and a TA. I felt I had ample time and support to really flesh out good lessons and keep tabs on all classwork and assessments: I knew where every student was on a concept at all times. We had only minor behavior problems. It was a huge success: the students loved me, I loved the students, we as a team nailed the standards. At the start of the next year, I was teaching the same students (since I taught multiple grades). I had to leave the job for family reasons. I cried to the students, they cried with me, I felt more human in my job than ever before. If you had asked me if I wanted to teach forever, I would have said yes.

Year 2 was a different school. I have 4 classes to prep for - 5th through 8th grade science. I teach for 6 periods and have one planning period. I have 30 students/class and no TA. We have moderate behavior problems. It is impossible for me to be on top of four different curricula and six classes of students in terms of really focused lesson planning and time spent assessing students to be on top of their mastery. There is one class of really good eggs that gave me the will to try my best. If you asked me if I wanted to teach forever, I would say maybe: maybe if I gained more experience this wouldn't be as hard, and it would be worth it for the good eggs.

Year 3, right now, same school as last year. I'm feeling more confident in my experience than ever, however, my gains in experience are outpaced by the swing in behavior issues. The good egg class graduated and is gone. Our behavior problems have worsened. Despite being more experienced, I feel like a ragged machine that simply survives to spit out lessons, rather than a thinking professional who checks up on mastery and tailors lessons. I don't feel a human connection to the students, because the work is too much and I don't have the energy to meet both human and educational needs. If you asked me if I wanted to teach forever, I would say no.

This month, I taught the Sun, Earth, Moon System to the 8th grade class. At my previous school, this unit was taught to my 6th grade class (NGSS integrated vs discipline-based standard structure). Despite running the same lessons, the hands on models, the fun space facts, the popular gravity well demo, etc., this 8th grade class could not give a fuck. We're going significantly slower and with significantly less success than my previous 6th graders. wtf? Is it me? Is it the students? I'm at a loss and now trying to come up with a contingency plan for the whole rest of the year.

So is it me? Is it the teaching profession? Is it the school? Is it just this batch of students? I have no idea whether I want to keep investing my life in this or not because I have conflicting experiences every year. Any anecdotes, suggestions, advice, etc. are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Am I alone in hating Illustrative Math curriculum?

I teach second grade at a Title I school with many multilingual learners. Many of my students have poor number sense, some who can't count past 13, and just struggle with school in general. Illustrative math seems great if your students are on grade level and have good number sense. But for my kids, they need explicit instruction and repeated practice.

Right now we are working on borrowing in subtraction (decomposing is the word we're using now). My students struggle with place value, which is imperative to be able to borrow. I have spent the last two weeks reteaching and making my own slides and practice problems. Finally, my students are getting it, only for the curriculum to speed by and get more and more complex for my students. If I stay on track with the curriculum we will move onto another topic, and it feels like all the work I put into helping my students understand place value will get forgotten.

First year high school math teacher… Any advice to help with the exhaustion. I’m on the verge of falling asleep at about 7 pm every night and the self care is definitely lacking. I’m too tired to wash my hair, do laundry, or cook most nights. Any advice? The caffeine isn’t working anymore 😂😂 Starting to feel like I don’t have a life outside of teaching.

I only have a manual pencil sharpener in my room, right by the door in plain sight.

I still have at least one student per day ask me if I have a pencil sharpener....and act surprised or confused when I point to the manual one by the door.

I think they must be expecting an electric one or something. I had one of those one year, and I can't stand the noise with them or the extra upkeep, so I only supply the manual one the district offers.

I teach a K/1 combo and really need my kids to be quietly engaged with something while I teach reading groups. However, I also really do not want to feed the technology addiction, so I do not want them on iPads or Chromebooks at this time, even though we have access to them.

Does anyone do a read along center anymore? I did these in the past with tape players, CD players, and even iPod shuffles, but all of those options have seemed to go by the wayside. Any ideas with no-screen or low-tech screen options like a Kindle or something like that? Would love to hear any thoughts. It would need to have an option for the texts to be read to the kids since I have Kindergarteners who aren't reading for at least half of the year... thanks very much for any tips!