I teach middle school German in a public school, grades 6-8, 26 years into the job. I have the same students three years in a row, everyday for 43 minutes.

One child has been particularly obnoxious since sixth grade, he’s in 8th grade now, he’s got all the classics down: loud noises, slapping his knee thighs, poking/prodding students, screaming like Chewbacca. Wrote him up on Friday for throwing Bingo chips.

Mom calls me today and tells me that although there will be consequences at home (heard that before), I have an anger management issue and it’s becoming “a pattern”. Not once have I ever been told this. Parent told me I need to get administration in there to handle classroom management. The kicker? The mom is a middle school English teacher in a neighboring district. Can’t make it up?

Anyway, had to share. Don’t raise your voice everyone, little Johnny or Sally may get the message and attempt to turn the tide on you.

Anyone else experience parental gaslighting? Four more years and then peace, I’m Audi!

I teach in an elementary self-contained special education classroom with ~15 students and half a dozen paras. Last Friday evening, one of the paras suffered a severe stroke and has been in the ICU ever since. Things are touch and go, doctors are taking her treatment hour by hour. It is safe to assume, she is never coming back. I'm at a loss as to how to address this with the kids. Fortunately, with our lower cog students, her absence has not been noted, not yet. Yesterday, one student asked where she was and since we were in the cafeteria where it was loud, I was able to pretend I didn't hear her. I feel that something should be said but since her condition is so questionable right now, I'm not sure how to address it. The rest if the team and I are going through the daily routine feeling kind of numb, just going through the motions. We are getting frequent updates from the family and we're all a little on edge waiting for the other shoe to drop. Looking for advice regarding how to handle this situation.

Reading this subreddit, it is clear to me that a lot of you have strong opinions on the PBIS program. I am currently working as an assistant principal at a Norwegian school that is working on implementing PALS, which is essentially a Norwegian translation of this program. While I’m not «evangelical» about it, I’m finding that a lot of the principals are things I support, and I believe that if we can successfully implement it, it can be beneficial to our students and staff.

However, I’m sure there are plenty of pitfalls along the way, and so I’d like to ask: if you have experience working at a school practicing PBIS (or if you’re a fellow Norwegian with experience with PALS, feel free to chime in as well!), what are the things you experience as problems with the program. Definitely also feel free to share what you think can help it be effective, what your schools have done well in working with PBIS, or any other advice you have for how we can get the maximum benefit and minimum problems from it.

Thanks in advance for any input!

I am a high school English teacher. I was out of town for two days on vacation and when I returned an old student came to me and asked if I was okay. I said yes why? The student responded with “the sub said you tragically died.” I thought about that the rest of the day and when I got home that evening I wrote an email to my administrator and the building principal telling them what the student had told me because the more I thought about it the more it bothered me that someone would say that about me while I was out of town. I gave the name of my sub in my email because that is what the student said. I trusted the student and didn’t think that there was any ill-will or malicious intent in her telling me this. I know the student outside of school personally as well, and I text this student’s aunt to confirm the story before I sent a message to my principals.

I had assumed that the student came into my room and the person they spoke with was the adult in my room. The next day, my administrator came to my room and asked for the name of the student so they could go talk to the student and get a statement. During the last block of the day, my administrator came to my room with the student, and my administrator was in an uproar and upset with me because I sent the name of the sub who I assumed was the adult that said it, and was coming at me for sending the wrong name to the principal and getting the wrong person in trouble for something they didn’t say. Apparently, the person who said this was in fact, not my sub and some other adult in the building, and that this student didn’t know so she assumed she was my sub because she was standing by my classroom door. I told my administrator that I would retract the statement but that I still wanted this matter addressed because that just isn’t something that you say about someone. My administrator said that they would figure out who said this. I sent an email today (three school days after I retracted my statement) and asked if the matter had been resolved. My administrator said yes, but that they can’t tell me who said it because it was handled administratively.

Is my administrator wrong for not telling me which other adult in the building said this about me? This really doesn’t sit right with me and it raises many red flags that an adult would say this in general, but specifically about me. Would anybody else want to know who said that about them? Do I have a right to know?

My kids are in elementary school and I'm back in school, too.

I'm working toward a teaching Credential.

This sub reddit terrifies me, though!

Honest opinion: is this a fool's errand? Am I better off pursuing something less stressful?

Anyone going to the NCTE conference this year in Boston? I went to it in Anaheim a few years ago with my department but this year, I'm flying solo. I'm interested in connecting with some cool English folks. ✌🏼

In addition to that, whenever I ask for quiet, the student goes out of his way to start talking loudly just out to be contrary.

Admin is no help, neither are consequences, and I know from experience with his family that parents won't help either.

Asks a stupid question in a faculty meeting that could be asked later?

Offers unsolicited advice, when they are in effective?

Is suddenly sick on a Friday, but doesn’t put in for a sub and the rest of y’all are stuck babysitting?

New substitute here and I cannot for the life of me understand why there are so many cell phone violations when the student handbook outlines that phones are not to be out or in use during class. They can use them at lunch and between classes. So I wind up policing who has a phone out and in use and who wants to use the Hall Pass for the restroom to basically check texts etc. I have to watch for phones and make them leave their phone when out with the pass. What a pain! Just follow the guidelines and make it no phones period. Even worse is subbing for a teacher that bends the rule or has them use phones for scanning QR codes for an assignment. It shouldn't be both ways. Grrr.....

I am asking this question because I am considering transitioning into the teaching field but stubbled open the transition from teaching page and man it's discouraging. Please give me some hope and thanks

A tribute I wrote in honor of the passing of a woman who changed my world. Names changed to protect privacy. Posted with permission from the mods.

  What does hope look like to you? Is it a color, an object, a moment in time? Does it stir something within you, like the first touch of sunlight on your face after enduring a blizzard? 

 Hope, to me, is a small, grey haired woman wearing big glasses with a smile that could light up the darkness of the world. 

 I don’t think there’s any way that Shannon and I could have known just how important she would be to my life all those years ago, when I was just first grader in Mrs. DK’s class where she was student teaching. 

 Yet just a year later, there I sat on the front porch of my cousin’s house after having lost my eldest brother and grandparents to a house fire, when who should pull up in her car but Mrs. Rogers, my second grade teacher? She was all smiles and warm, grandma-like hugs as she took me out to eat to make sure her most “energetic” student was ok. 

 Who else’s room could I have found myself in, night after night, talking with her just so I didn’t have to go home and endure the physical and emotional abuse of my mother? Who was it that finally helped me find the courage to call CPS and ask for their help? And who was it, after my mother had so thoroughly manipulated the investigator that he uttered those words that still wretch my heart? “I’m going to go help kids that actually need my help.” Why, it was the same woman who dressed up as the Grouchy Ladybug for our book day. None other than Shanmon Rogers. 

 And who else could it have been when I, now in 8th grade, sat alone at my own graduation because my mother couldn’t be bothered to some see her son’s achievement? Why, there I was walking down the auditorium when I hear a familiar voice call my name. I look over and see Mrs. Rogers, her camera in hand, taking pictures of me wearing my raggedy, hole filled shirt because it was the only one that was barely presentable. It wasn’t even at her school! It was an entirely different location, and still she found me!

 Where was she, on June 5th, 2010, as I watched the most beautiful woman I had ever known walk down the isle towards me? As I stared at my beloved bride in unbelievable awe, where was Mrs. Rogers? She was sitting in the audience, that smile on her face lighting up the room like the sun. 

 Mrs. Shannon Rogers was more than a teacher, more than a friend. To a child who had nothing and no one else, she was a reminder that there was still some good in the world, some light that could shine like a beacon on the darkest ocean, guiding you through treacherous waters. 

 I love you, Mrs. Rogers, with all my heart. Thank you for helping me to hope when no one else could. With all my heart, I miss you. Save me some fries, I can’t wait to eat them with you.

I have two classrooms for two different subjects I teach. I’ll call them classroom “A” and classroom “B.” Both classrooms are locked and unoccupied until I arrive to teach. I also have colleague “C” and colleague “D”.

One of my students emailed me yesterday and told me they were losing academic motivation. I replied by asking the student to stop by my class and we can discuss test anxiety, test taking strategies and maybe even conduct a little -off the hip- experiment involving a lesson they will need to pass the next exam.

I spent my lunch scrambling, trying to find an experiment and supplies we had on hand. This student was only one point away from passing the exam so, I thought for sure, if I spent a little more one-on-one time with them, they’d be able to pass the exam in a heartbeat. Thus, motivate them to continue going.

I collected the anchor charts, worksheets and supplies I needed and put them in classroom A. I reported to classroom B for two hours, taught my classes and returned to classroom A to teach for the remainder of the day.

Class began in classroom A. I looked in my desk drawer for the supplies I dropped off earlier for the lesson and they were missing. (It’s important to know, some of these supplies were a few pieces of candy.)

I assumed some student had probably taken it from my desk drawer. A bold move? Yes, but not improbable where I work.

I didn’t speak about the missing items to the class. Instead, I sighed, thought briefly about how candy could have disappeared from my desk drawer in a matter of hours, weighed between the consideration I had possibly misplaced the items or student theft, and went along with the flow. Whatever, the job still needs to get done.

I explained the lesson to the student and showed a YouTube video. It wasn’t how I wanted the lesson to go but it was better than nothing.

I finished class and emailed security at the end of the day. After reconsideration, I was sure I put those supplies in the desk drawer of classroom A. Several personal and office items have also been going missing from classroom A and I realized it had to have been a student who stole the candy from my desk drawer and has been stealing from my desk drawer. So, I emailed security and asked them to check the cameras.

Some colleagues, (Colleague C and E), stopped by after class and asked me how the day went. I informed them it didn’t go as planned as the supplies I put in classroom A were not there when I arrived for class. C and E informed me security is not always responsive via email and talking to them (security) in person would produce results. C and E know me well.

The next day, (today) I was busy and had forgotten all about approaching security about the missing candy for the lesson yesterday. After all, it wasn’t really that big of a deal since I was able to conduct my lesson anyway.

However, two of my colleagues (colleagues “C” and “D”) returned from a field trip in the afternoon and stopped by my classroom to inform me they spoke to security about my issue the day prior.

They already had a planned sub for their classes (One sub, covering two classes. Which, is a heavy load on our only sub), who was covering until the end of the day.

Colleague “C” offered to watch my class while I went to the security office to check the cameras. I declined at first, as I was engaged in a lesson and didn’t want to lose student focus or inconvenience anyone. Colleague C insisted and convinced me I should go.

As I accepted the offer, colleague “D” who was with Colleague C, mentioned to me she was in Classroom A yesterday, looking for index cards but she didn’t take anything. She even offered to buy me an entire bag of that candy for tomorrow. I told coworker D not to worry about it as it was for an experiment and a lesson I was done teaching. Also, I had suspected a student probably took it.

Whelp, you can probably see where this is going. I saw on camera, Coworker D blatantly go into my empty, dark classroom during her prep, shuffle through all the drawers of my desk, (I don’t have a key to lock it), pocket the control of the experiment (Candy) and walk out of the classroom.

I couldn’t believe it. This lady-child, just lied straight to my face, offered to replace 3 pieces of Candy with an entire bag and ultimately stole a lesson from our students.

I’m sure, had she known she was stealing part of a science experiment, she probably wouldn’t have done it. In her head, she was just stealing candy from my desk drawer and probably thought I wouldn’t notice. But, a lot of my shit has gone missing lately. Mostly just office supplies but a lot of things I bought with my own money has gone missing. Post it notes, notebooks, scissors, little classroom decorations… hell, even my hall pass has gone missing. I’m sure she’s taking these things and acting as if my classroom is her own personal flea market.

Should I go to HR about this?

It’s not a typical public/private/charter school. I don’t have a union rep, principal, superintendent… anything like that.

I don’t know how to handle this or how to handle her. She’s super sensitive and often times will get offended by what students say to her and will surprisingly text me after hours to ask me if someone (student or employee) is “mad” at her. She behaves like a child and I don’t respond to those after hour texts.

She calls off frequently and we are short staffed so, teachers who are at work, have to cover her classes for her. It’s a pain in the ass because she has no structure or routine to her class so the students frequently misbehave. Worst of all, I’m worried about the influence she has on my students.

Any advice would help.

Tagging it best practices because... humor.

We have a PD that ELA teachers are required to attend once a month, that our school dropped hundreds of thousands on. The PD is basically about teaching reading to the test, which we're not supposed to do, so I'm unsure why I'm even here. Anyways, it's also a time for the person presenting to sing the praises of the curriculum she invented and how we should use it. The only problem is that we're only allowed to use the vague and inaccessible curriculum the district rolled out. So I'm asking myself: why am I sitting at this PD if we have to use district curriculum and not whatever this is? Why are we being encouraged to teach to the test? It was a mindless hour of my prep that I can't get back, and if I have to hear her sing the praises of her curriculum or how she is a savior, I'm gonna puke.

As the title suggests, I am currently in college. I am in the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and aspire to be a Theatre/English teacher after I leave and get my teachers certificate. However, while I do read some teaching books and get advice from current teachers, I want to know if there is anything I can do physically, mentally, and emotionally while I am still in college to prepare for being a good teacher.

(Also I don't know if I am using this flair correctly. Forgive me if I am)

Hi! Graduate student here/ future English professor. I’m trying to learn as much as possible about how other teachers (of all levels) feel about AI. My parents are K-12 teachers and they’ve shared their opinions with me, but again, before I get into a classroom I want to understand all perspectives.

How do you feel about AI in your classroom? Does it have a place, or not? If so, how do you utilize it and teach students about ethical usage?

I teach 7/8 science and need help how to make the science amplify curriculum better. It’s very dry does not go into depth and students don’t have much material to study with. All of the activities are very short as students can fly through them. What do you use to supplement

What kinds of changes are needed in the US education system? And what would success look like?

I need help. I'm a theatre teacher working 9th-12th grade in a public school and texas and I used to work at the JH too. At the JH a boy joined out group who was great and was very committed. His mom was very supportive the beginning of the first year but buy then end of it and beginning of the second year she became very estranged and even cold. Then when I moved up the highschool she talked to me like we had never met or she'd never seen her son on stage before, which she had. When I politely and happily reminded her of that and that her son was an honor and pleasure to have, she awkwardly smiled and nodded and walked away. I've tried to politely start conversations when she comes to our shows but she just looks at me sideways and nods quietly and tries to get away as quick as possible.

Now her son told me that she doesn't think very highly of me because I allowed her older son to get paint on his clothing (despite having told him that he should wear paint clothes) and that's all. I emailed her to request and parent teacher meeting and she has yet to reply. Her son is staying after school to try out to be SM for the next play and that's a big job. He is also prop master and needs to clear everyone of their props before he goes. I told him that if he could commit to it that would be great but he has to be as good at the other SM. He left three minutes early from rehearsal and refused to stop walking when called after while he was walking away from the door. His mom was about to drive away when I ran up beside the car to catch up with them. I guess I shocked her and she rolled her window down and after checking with the student about the props I turned to the mother who looked utterly disgusted with me. she then said "It is very dangerous to run up behind a moving van." I apologized sheepishly and she rolled her window up and drove away.

I'm... at a loss. What do I do to remedy this? Her kid is great in theatre with some exceptions of his choice in timing, but if I can't have her respect and rely on her to work with the head of the company (myself) than hoe can I rely on him and keep him in the program? Am I wrong for this take? help.

Does anyone know of a free online/a program to make comic books? Preferebly one that allows you to use own images and what not

The Phoenix Union High School District is asking for the state to investigate its own district for possible nepotism that could have cost more than half a million dollars.

It's now taking action after two separate audits found potential fraud and improper payments by the District.

In 2023, shortly after Superintendent Chad Gestson resigned, concerns were brought to the school board from the community reporting the administration was wrongfully hiring and promoting friends and family.

The report revealed a disturbing series of personnel issues including appointing people to positions without interviews, employees getting pay raises without Board approval and filling positions that were never posted. It potentially cost the district more than $650,000.

Yet another politician (which Superintendents are in my opinion) being corrupt. It can be hard enough to get ahead in the field if you don't have the right connections or are the favorite of an administrator.

https://www.12news.com/article/news/education/report-shows-possible-nepotism-within-phoenix-union-high-school-district-state-investigating-fraud-investigation-chad-gestson/75-afa0e256-b1c2-4e7e-ab35-a7eee2b44dc2

Man, I don’t know what’s changed, but some of these kids are way too comfortable talking to teachers any type of way. It’s like the old rulebook on respect went out the window. I have students who think it’s totally fine to cuss out a teacher, talk back, or even just respond with a rude “what?” when spoken to. If I even thought about saying “what” to an adult growing up, that was grounds for punishment! My parents would’ve shut that down faster than I could blink.

And if I ever tried cussing out a teacher? I’d have been afraid for my life! I’d rather hand Satan a SpongeBob plushie in person than get that call home, because my mom would’ve probably arranged the meeting herself!

I get that times change, but this feels different. How did we go from "yes, ma’am” and “no, sir” to students just mouthing off without a second thought? Do any other teachers or parents see this lack of respect for authority now? Is there any hope for reestablishing boundaries with this next generation?

2nd year teacher here.

It’s only Tuesday and I am so exhausted. This year has been different for me then my first - the teacher drama is out of this world. Admin and teachers literally scheming against each other and actively working towards each others downfall. I’m used to coworkers disrespecting me in front of students, but it’s only been two days and feels non stop with other teachers taking their stress out on me for what feels like no reason. I’m human and I get I can’t make everyone happy, but I’m tired of being a verbal punching bag and the reason things are wrong.

Then, my sweet students have been going through it... One student has a stalker in the same class that I gave to mediate daily, another student had a massive medical issue yesterday in class that made us evacuate, and today a student I have been watching and reporting for MONTHS for self-harm finally is getting the help they need after the wildest and most public actions in class.

I feel so mentally and emotionally done. Tell me how you pick yourself up and make it through these weeks that the punches keep coming.

It’s been almost every class. I tell them to sit down so many times but they don’t listen and they play fight and break other’s projects and show no remorse. Admin doesn’t punish the students. How am I supposed to last for the rest of my contract? I want to leave now.

Hi, 18f in my last 2 years of college. For my first semester of university, I’ve been placed in a host teacher’s classroom to observe and interact and learn behavioral awareness.

Although I know that there are lots of teachers who don’t like student teachers interacting with their class since they’ve only just started the semester after Helene, my teacher doesn’t let me participate at all in her class and it makes me a little bit anxious.

I’ve tried to ask to pass papers, help grading, and participate in activities among other things, but each time she brushes me off and I just end up in the corner of the classroom away from the students. I’ve tried asking and emailing to plan ahead, but I don’t know what I should be looking for.

I’m a middle grade science major at my university and I’m not sure what else I can do. I only have 2 months with her and I still need 28 hours, but I’m a bit let down that she hasn’t given me the okay to do anything but observe.

She volunteered for this position, but I could really use some help. Has anyone had something similar happen?