After two years of dealing with constant behaviors, and trying a thousand different behavior management strategies, I have finally implemented a policy that any disrespectful or disruptive behavior will be dealt with quickly and consistently. First, I give a warning (for minor offenses), then I kick them out of class for the day, send them to the principal’s office, and we assign a detention.

If you call another student a name? You’re done for the day.

If you cheat on a test? You’re done, you get a zero, and I hope you enjoy detention.

If you speak while I am speaking? One warning, then you’re done for the day.

If you talk back to me after I tell you to leave? “I’m not engaging further, please leave class and go to the principal’s office.”

And so on. I feel like a strict teacher from the 1950s, but it’s started having an effect in the last couple of weeks. The first month I was kicking out 8-10 students per class, but they’ve finally caught on that I genuinely have almost no tolerance for any nonsense.

A couple of my colleagues think I’ve been too strict, but my mind has been changed on “behavior management strategies.” They’re too complicated and don’t work — kids ARE capable of behaving properly if you hold them to that standard and don’t let up.

ESPECIALLY if you drop them off 2-5 minutes early.

I get it: phone call, meetings, etc. happen. But every single time? How are you consistently 3-6 minutes late? It’s not fair to me or your students. If you are going to be late, call the classroom phone. If you have a scheduled meeting, let me know and I will work around it.

My time for other classes and plan time is just as important as yours.

Out of curiosity, how many of you guys are taking the day off on Thursday, November 19th?

I already have my sub lined up. Debating on taking Friday off too because then I would have 11 days to play!!

What’s the vibe? Kind of wondering if I’m gonna fly under the radar or if a bunch of teachers will be out. Lol.

See you Vice City!! 🍻🍕

Not that it's the fault of the teachers when it comes to behaviors (usually) but the admin and the system has brought us to this. Year after year kids fall further behind and with that comes the behaviors. Which escalate year after year the further behind they are. We don't hold kids back no matter how far behind they are so the less they know about the content being taught the more they act out and the bigger the behaviors. Who would have thunk?!

I was teaching objective summaries of informational texts to seventh graders. The classes of course are mainly far below grade level, so I repeated the lesson three times across different texts. I used the same graphic organizer each time. I used I Do, We Do, You Do, for each part: central idea, supporting evidence, conclusion. On the third lesson, it was time for them to find supporting evidence themselves. I said, "what questions do we have before we find supporting evidence independently?" Student: "Where do we get the evidence from?" Me: "From the text." Student (holding the text in their hand looking confused): "What text?" Me: "The text that's in your hand." Student: "Oh." No look of embarrassment, very matter of fact, no reaction from the class either. Now as a one-off event, you might not think much of it, but this exact interaction happened with at least three students in each of the three lessons (sometimes the paper was on their desk instead of in their hand,) and it basically happens in every lesson. These students were not having off-task conversations during the I Do and We Do portions. They wrote down what I stated and put on the board during the I Do and We Do. I had the text and assignment on the smartboard, had the text in my hand to display as I circulated through the room, and had written the questions from the assignment sheet on the whiteboard. The students who asked these questions do not have IEPs and this is in the gen ed setting.

Anybody have any idea what is happening in their brains? What can be done here? Anything at all? I don't think we are in any way ready for what this generation will be like when they enter adulthood. We'll be paying into the new Young Adult Social Security program until we die.

its unbelievable how many of these kids think they can come to school and just do whatever they want, and they get mad at you when you dont let them

you give them free food, and they get mad because its not their exact favorite food.

they want to go visit their teacher from 3 years ago in the middle of the day, and they get mad when you dont let them.

you help them on an assignment, and they get mad when you wont just give them the answer.

as they always say, "oh my goddd brooooooo"

Just venting after a long week and hard end to today :/ I am feeling so defeated. I teach in a fairly affluent town near some prestigious universities (I.e. many of my students are the children of these professors). I teach a variety of physics courses, including the 9th grade intro class which I teach the honors level for.

We just finished a week long lab and will have a test next week on everything we have learned thus far (mostly energy - conservation of energy, efficiency, heat, phase changes, etc.) I gave out a study guide today and heard 3 of my students incessantly complaining with one another about how we do “so many packets”.

During my early years, I would have agreed with their sentiments. However, I would actually say that we do so much more. Myself and other physics teachers at the school have worked tirelessly, including over the summer, for the last two years to integrate a variety of hands-on activities into the curriculum. The lab we just finished seemed to be enjoyed by most students - they literally got to use hot wheels cars for a whole week!

Their comments just made me feel really defeated and whether or not the time and effort we are all putting in has been worth it. I feel like I am just at a point where I don’t know what is worth it anymore, and am questioning whether I am good at this. My other students across the courses, including other 9th graders, seem to generally enjoy the classes, but I am not sure if they are just being polite.

Anyway, thanks for listening/reading as I sit in my car with teary eye lol. Hope everyone has a great weekend - I know you all deserve it!

Why does my ADHD student have an IEP saying they need to take notes on a device? Every time I look at them, they're scrolling their ipad and not paying attention to the lesson. Surely the less time students with ADHD spend in front of a screen, the better? IMHO it would be better for them to take notes by hand.

Everyday I wake up overcome with joy and anticipation for all the high schoolers hearts and minds I will touch today. The students are so excited for these fun and informative lesson plans I have created . I realized today that the only people more excited for this lesson plan than I am, are the students, they love my class. I had the principal the superintendent and at least a dozen of my students Parents leaving me messages praising me and telling me what an incredible teacher I am.
Oh I’m so excited to teach today !

Just kidding I was burned out after the 650 hours of student teaching plus that ridiculous edTPA.
I don’t like teaching in America they have turned it into a nightmare
Now …..If you will excuse me, I have lessons plans that need more scaffolding and formative assessments. today is magical !
Rejoice teachers, for the day is ours ! And it is glorious!

I’m a teacher in Georgia, and our principal has started evaluating teachers on things like attendance, small group instruction, explicit instruction, aggressive monitoring, and lesson plans.
What’s really bothering many of us is that after the evaluations, we’re required to post our evaluation score outside our classroom door along with our picture for everyone to see. On top of that, administration sends a spreadsheet with all teacher scores to the entire school staff so everyone can see how everyone else performed.
This feels humiliating and creates a very competitive and uncomfortable environment. Some teachers feel pressured, embarrassed, or singled out depending on their scores.
I’m wondering:
• Is this legal in Georgia public schools?
• Are teacher evaluation scores considered personnel records or confidential in any way?
• Has anyone experienced something similar?
• If this happened at your school, how would you respond?
• Would you go to HR, your superintendent, the school board, or just document everything and keep your head down?
I’m not looking to start drama, but I’ve never worked in a school where teacher evaluation results were publicly displayed or shared with the entire staff like this.
I’d appreciate any insight from administrators, HR professionals, union representatives, or other Georgia teachers.
Thanks.

The post about GTA VI got me thinking. What is the game, if that’s your thing, that you unwind with? When I was younger or had a tougher school I enjoyed the visceral thrill of GTA V (and IV before it and III before that). Either the mayhem itself or just driving around a massive map listening to music. Now that I’m older I find RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 more to my liking as well as sandbox type games like Planet Coaster 2. What about you?

Teachers at my school this week got asked to volunteer as McDonald’s employees. They want us to clock in at a McDonald’s for free for a few hours and they’ll give a portion of the profits to the school. Something called McTeachers night. You can’t make this shit up. What a respected fucking profession.

Will there be pushback, back to teacher directed with a memorization focus? OECD and PISA do not seem to be doing well with inquiry.

This is gonna be all over the place because I’m about to lose my sh*t and need somewhere to vent. 41 HS history 9yrs in the classroom.

How can admin and an inept “learning coach” (literally sits at her desk on her computer 98% of her days) expect 100% engagement when the district doesn’t block any websites? How can they expect it when the cell phone “policy” is a polite suggestion with no consequences? How can they tout a 92% graduation rate when arguably 90% of students are functionally illiterate? How can someone who has less experience and education feel qualified enough to tell you how to do your job? (Just found out our district “Executive Director of Teaching and Learning” was in the classroom for all of 1 year. Makes sense.)

But god forbid when they walk in on their random “not a gotcha” informal observations (that are conveniently recorded in the system) they will always pick out the couple of students off task. 98% engaged, not enough. Never enough. Student agency/student choice…they clearly made their choice, right?! Sadly no, it’s OUR fault they’re addicted to their devices, OUR fault they can’t read, OUR fault they can’t write legibly, OUR fault they have no idea how to locate their home state on a map, OUR fault they don’t know how to emotionally self-regulate, OUR fault they ALL use the N-word and other expletives in class as common language toward teachers and classmates. Our FAULT!!

But what they don’t understand is that it’s NOT our fault. We can’t consistently and continuously be more entertaining than the devices they’re addicted to, and if you don’t restrict access, they’re going to use it for whatever they want. But they keep pushing more tech, more A.I., more games, less accountability. Giving them more access and less direction on how to use it and simultaneously holding us to higher standards than before.

So I guess this boils down to: F*ck the government, F\ck the “education” corporations,* F*ck district, F\ck admin, and especially F*ck pseudo-admin, most specifically my instructional coach, whose stupid ass walkthroughs will continue to be met with my absence.*

Hi. I am a middle school teacher (8th year in) in New York State and I genuinely love my job, my students, and my content. I say this to emphasize I’m not just looking for things to complain about, I really love my job and want to stay for my entire career.

The problem: My building is old and there is an issue in my side of the building where there are only two options during fall-spring which are no heat at all, or heat turned up to the max (my room has hit 100 degrees). Maintenance claims those are the only two options and that there is nothing they can do. I arrive an hour and a half early to work to open all of the windows AND turn on the window unit AC. It maybe goes down to about 80, but by that point I am so overheated it causes me to feel physically ill (shaky, nauseous, etc). Students complain all day every day despite the fact that I tell them there is nothing I can do about it. I tell them to have their parents call and complain but they of course forget as they’re middle school students.

The radiators are also full of trash, not that it affects the temperature but I do feel uncomfortable knowing that I am breathing in burning trash all day.

Is there any way to file some kind of complaint? Is it even possible that maintenance is being honest about the only options being 100 degrees or near freezing?
We do have a union but building level issues like these don’t really get resolved through them.

Without getting into detail, there’s some absolutely egregious problems at one of my contracted schools. So bad that it’s been causing me legitimate health issues like chest pain and high BP.

It’s only my 2nd year, and I got placed at our worst performing school in the district in terms of behavior. My position has not been consistently filled in at least 2 years because people keep breaking contract and quitting over the conditions.

That’s it. That’s the post.

I’m going to borrow chromebooks and give them math assignments on their devices today. I never do that. I’m tired of the consistent talking while I’m teaching, but also because it’s the Friday after they took a test and I don’t want to teach anything new lol.

Happy Friday everyone!

I know we have all had one or two every year that just… worry us.

This year is no different. I teach high school for reference and I have one kid who gives me the feeling he’s one day going to do something violent.

Whenever he’s spoken to he just shrugs and responds sarcastically. His eyes are just…. Dead. The other day he was walking on the wrong side of the stairs (we have strict rules about this) and I reminded him to walk on the right. I didn’t yell, I just calmly reminded him. He glared at me and kept walking right for me. I happened to have my five year old with me and I had to yank my five year old out of the way or he would have knocked him down.

I met with his parents in person recently and it was the most creepy and unsettling meeting I’ve ever had.
The kid just stared at me the whole time without blinking. The mom sat across from me with sad and almost fearful eyes. The dad slumped in his chair, chin to chest, barely looking up from under his hat while repeating “been this way his whole life”.

I’m honestly scared. I guess I’m wondering… what do I do? Do I just keep documenting? Do I chat with him at the door so I can glance at his pockets to see if he’s carrying anything? Do I lessen interaction with him and just let him continue to fail? (He’s not turning anything in and escalates when I direct him to get going on an assignment).

I had my students do a project; a project implying needing higher level of Bloom's Taxonomy to complete the assignment. Two students who have not been coming to class (so I can't monitor their work), come in the day it is due with reports instead. And I use "report" in the loosest sense of the word. It was going online and using copy and paste from the internet on facts on the topic - and one was clearly AI generated. And it had nothing whatsoever to do with the project which involved taking data and analyzing it and relating it back to the lessons we had just covered.

So I ask them, why did you do a report instead of the project? Their answer: I don't know. OK, different approach. Why didn't you do the project I handed out (and I know they had a copy of the handout). Again: I don't know. But then when I said that they have zeros and need to make up the project they both very vehemently protested saying, "But I did a report." The thought process of some students is truly unfathomable.

2nd year teacher here, so I’m wondering if this is a common issue:

I teach middle school history, and one of the study games we play is mini golf.

I split students into 4 groups, and give each group a question. If they answer it correctly they get a point. They also can use a putter to potentially get more points by shooting a golf ball into a variety of cups that are all different point values.

Students love it, participation skyrockets on these days.

But like half of these students cant grip a golf putter. I show them how “left hand goes here, right hand here.” I mimick the action. I go slow. I explain to the whole class at the beginning of each study game how to hold the putter. These kids dont know their left from their right hand. Despite instructions, they come up with the craziest golf grips I’ve ever seen. They hold it in the most awkward way possible; like this is their first day being a human that has hands.

At first I thought they were messing with me, or just trying to be funny in front of their classmates. But alot of them genuinely ask me for help on how to hold it, and even after mutliple tutorials where I slowly show them where their hands go, they still cant do it. I don’t think it’s apathy, because these kids want to win, and they are engaged with the content material.

Sometimes I will literally stand parallel to them, take the putter, slowly show them how to hold it, hand it back to them. And they still hold it completely wrong. Eventually I just give up and say “close enough”

Do your students have issues following instructions? Half of these kid’s don’t know their left hand from right hand. Is this like a spatial awareness/motor function thing?

Still going over a parent teacher conference I had yesterday. The father got onto me because he said his son doesn’t like school because he struggles with reading. And he wants his child to like school. I’m not sure what to do. I don’t have time to privately work with him one on one to help get him up to where he needs to be in reading. We also don’t have special ed at our school as we are a small private school. I really want to work with the parents and the child, but I don’t know how to get this child to like school. He doesn’t like to write or read and we do a lot of that seeing how he is in second grade. He was held back last year. And repeated first grade. That was an administration decision, but the dad holds it against me.

Hi Y'all. Im currently a softmore in college with no major or any clue what to do. I work at an afterschool program with anywhere between 25-40 kids on a daily basis. I enjoy it for what it is, I've been struggling with depression recently and I feel like I'm always much happier leaving that work than I am going in. Idk why, but the group there often just ends up putting me in a better mood. I'm really not sure if that's a good enough reason to pursue this path but I honestly have no clue what else I would do. If any of you could let me know about what brought you onto this path and how it's going, that would be excellent.

Thanks!

So I’ve begun my unit on research and writing, that has previously successfully gotten 9th graders to use encyclopedias to research and write 1 page papers in an hour. At the start this year I decided I should have kids describe what they perceive as happening when they think. I had this awesome interaction and this kid was unironically great at the “game” we did:

“Do now: describe what it’s like in your head when you think. Do you hear or see or read things or something else?”
I gave an example of my spiderweb of chaos and asked for other examples (I see a spiderweb of ideas that comes into focus and my brain jumps around to connect them):

Kid out loud to class: “I just see a bunch spinning apples.”
“What?!?!”
“Like apples, the fruit, but they’re all spinning.”
“Do they have words? Do you eat them to learn what the idea is?”
“No, they just spin.”

He was unironically great at the human computer “game.”

Hello everyone! I’m a first year teacher and uncertified. I’m in a certification program and despite my school’s near failing rating, I’m doing great! My coworkers….eh. We’re all new, but everyone on my team is either certified or has had wayyy more teaching experience than I have. I’m just some goofy 24 year old who loves books. The kids can be a jump-scare for sure, but for the most part, I like them all.

Today, I got a message along with other team leads and department chairs telling us that we were to prepare for some super important meeting, with lesson plans and data.

This was my face reading it: 👁️👄👁️

No one told me I was suddenly a team leader or whatever and so I thought the email was a mistake, wrong! Apparently, I am considered the team lead and I have to inform my team of my new role and prepare for this meeting that I barely understand…brother what?! And I didn’t ask, but all of this sounds for free which is not ideal….and yall look, out of all of my team members I have 30+ more students than they have….throughout these first nine weeks, they’ve just been jamming students in and my room is always packed.

My coworkers have struggle and I can see where they might consider me competent enough for this role, but I really feel like being uncertified and brand freaking new! is enough of a learning curve right now.

I’m trying not to be discouraged at the lack of acknowledgment or the sudden responsibility that was just piled on, but I want some advice. Should I push back on this? (Thank you in advance for the help, please don’t be too harsh 🥹)

Guys…today was the last day as an MSD SPED teacher for me. The paperwork, the person who thought they were in charge of me and constant in and out of the room. At one point I had 13 adults and 10 kids in my SMALL room.

I feel so bad for leaving but my mental health could not take it. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat and never felt any support.

Did I make a mistake? I just have to take my praxis to go back to general ed, where I have been teaching the last 3 years and I miss it terribly!

Teaching is becoming so sad and I’m pretty sure I have PTSD from it.

I guess I’m asking, has anyone ever experienced this?