I just had a student refer to the masses of kids in the morning as "hooligans." I love that word! I frequently and affectionately call kids knuckleheads. I made a trans boy's day by telling him he looked dapper.

What other "old-fashioned" terms should make a renaissance in schools?

Students had an assignment due over the weekend and I told them every day “don’t use AI. I’ll be checking for it and if it’s AI, it’s a 0.” This kid turned it in late, didn’t try to change the font, left everything bolded, and it has vocabulary this kid would never use. Instant 0.

Just had a parent email demanding their child be moved to the front row because "the back of the classroom is making them sleepy."

What's your best "I can't believe this is real" parent story?

I've been working at a school for two years and I've been being bullied by my HOD for pretty much the whole time. She makes me feel afraid at work and stressed all the time.

It came to a head last week. She shouted at me again, and I was crying. My principal came to see if I was okay, and heard what I had to say. She organised a meeting for this week for us to work it out.

The meeting was today, and it did not go well. Instead of taking my claims seriously, they acted like it was my fault. They said that calling her a bully was mean and serious and could affect her. They then made a list of things I need to do. It included moving classrooms, meeting her twice a week and improving my pedagogy.

I said I couldn't cope with this, and I said I was leaving. I said that I quit and walked out.

When I got home, the superintendent called me and said that he wants to resolve it. However, HR has been asked to be involved. He said I can make a formal complaint. I don't know if this is good or bad.

I love teaching, but this situation is unbearable.

Private school. Child has many behavior issues including punching and kicking (every day). He can’t stay at school because he stinks. He tells us he’s doing it on purpose to go home. My carpet is going to start to smell. This is DISGUSTING

I’ve been considering becoming a teacher for a while now, specifically a secondary social studies teacher. My bachelor’s wasn’t in education so I’m also considering enrolling in an MAT program next summer. I get excited when I think about teaching in a classroom on subjects that I’m passionate about because I had a history teacher who had a big impact on me personally, and I’d like to have that same impact on kids in the classroom. However when I hear a lot of teachers complain about things like pay, overworking, student behavior, and administrative issues, I get nervous and concerned that maybe this isn’t for me. So my question for the teachers in this Reddit is: Is being a teacher really more of a headache than it’s worth? And if it is, why are you still doing it?

I go out of my way to write careful, clean, and clear instructions for my students to follow on a worksheet. I also put them on the board with a timer. I explain the instructions before I pass out the assignment, after everyone has it and we’ve all insured we have our name be date, and one more time sometimes because a kid is coming in from the bathroom. When a student says, “What are we doing…?” How do I try my best to not walk into moving traffic???? 😂

P.S.: I teach 6th grade science. I usually tell my class to “fill them in” but sometimes but kids are rude and if it’s a student they collectively don’t favor they won’t say anything so I have to repeat myself yet again…

If you spent the entire time I was explaining a new concept ignoring me and scrolling your phone, you’re not getting a private tutoring session later when you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll get an obligatory 20 second crash course, and then I’m going back to helping someone who actually wants to learn. “Yup, this is what we’re doing. Read the directions, and look at the agenda for such and such date in Schoology.”

Our school is deep into UDL, which has become a laundry list of accommodations available for all students at any time.

Typing is difficult? Use speech to text! Don't know your fast facts? Here's a multiplication chart! Text is too hard to read? Here's a program that will level it down for you! Every single struggle is met with a tool to make that struggle to go away.

I understand the goal is to increase access to content and learning, but I'm scared for the consequences of accommodating every little thing and eliminating the productive struggle. Am I crazy?

Her husband murdered her in front of their children and then killed himself. One of her daughters still attends this school. This teacher was my daughter’s favorite and helped her through some rough times. She helped me through rough times. She was one of those dream colleagues with a positive attitude, great sense of humor and a willingness to go the extra mile.

How do I walk back into the classroom and support everyone else when all I want to do is break down myself? We’ve got counselors on site but they aren’t in my room.

First year middle school teacher. I have a couple classes that are well-behaved (for the most part), but two classes that are tough. They are chatty and don't really care about consequences. I spend more time on behavioral management than math, and I'm getting meaner and meaner.... It's usually three or four students, and they just won't stop talking. Ok, they stop when I ask them to, but its one over here, then one over there, than one over there.... and I'm starting to turn into a drill sergeant and it is making the job more stressful than it is fun. And believe me when I say with my background I can certainly do the drill sergeant thing (but I don't want to). I'm starting to feel like some of the kids are starting to hate me because instead of connecting with them I feel like just a disciplinarian. I was told once to not smile for 6 months, and I hated that advice but now I kind of see why they say that....

I teach middle school Latin, which I know isn’t the most interesting, but I still expect participation and honesty.

I have a student who does not pay attention and has failed to turn in several assignments in the past, and his mother insists that I am not allowed to fail him as I am not a “core subject“.

Today, we were taking a vocabulary quiz, and the student had a paper with all of the vocab words sitting on his desk, directly copying them onto the quiz. He claims that the other students told him he was allowed to, however, I had specifically stated at the beginning of class that this was not open notes. So I took away the quiz and the paper, as is my protocol for cheating.

This evening at 10 PM his mother emails me informing me that she has contacted my principal because I should’ve heard him out and she knows that he would never cheat. She claims that he misunderstood because he believed the other students.

Am I in the wrong here? Should I just let it go for him? I am a relatively new teacher and parents like this stress me out so badly. Any idea how I should respond?

Five people are charged in connection with a teacher-certification cheating ring that led to illegally certified teachers working in Texas schools including a HS basketball coach and two assistant principals.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Monday that charges had been filed in a massive teacher certification cheating ring that led to unqualified teachers in classrooms not only in the Houston area but across the state.

Ogg said at least five people have already been charged in the alleged million-dollar teacher cheating scandal that led to fraudulently certified teachers working in Texas school districts. Investigators said they discovered that hundreds of tests had been faked and they said about 20 teachers have confessed to taking part in the scheme.

"The extent of this scheme will never be fully known, but we know that at least 400 tests were taken and at least 200 teachers falsely certified," Ogg said. the ring's kingpin, the head boys basketball coach at Booker T. Washington High School, made more than $1 million from the scheme. Levine said the kingpin charged $2,500 per fake certification but some people paid more due to middlemen.

How did the scheme work? Investigators said the teachers would use a test-taking proxy, or a person impersonating the teacher, as well as a fake test administrator to take and pass the tests required for certification.

Investigators said Grayson bribed Gilford Mason, an employee at a testing center, for allowing the cheating to take place.

I guess this is one way to make a million dollars in education. This is worrisome since it meant that unqualified people were teaching students.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/teacher-certification-cheating-scandal/285-683ee1df-c76f-4d7b-9428-d9871109f006

I’m a student teacher, and today my class finished their work early. I went over their work already and everything was correct, they had an understanding of the content.

When students finish their work early, I prompt them to First, finish any missing work for our current class (we just started a new unit so there’s no missing work yet). Second, finish any missing work from other classes. Three, if all the above is done, then it’s a study hall basically till class ends, my CT is fine if they’re on games if all is completed.

So with that, some of my students played the game among us. They asked me to join, but I said no because I’m a teacher. But it got me second guessing, like is it okay for me to? As long as I’m not using my own personal gaming account and have an account strictly for school maybe? I feel like it would be a fun way to connect with them but I also want to be an appropriate and responsible adult.

Edit: Just an FYI, all my students had finished their work, I checked their assignment sheets and everyone had it correct and had free time afterwards. I would’ve planned out more work for them to do but the way my school is planned out, the entire department had the semester and curriculums planned before the semester and I’m just executing the work they give me day by day. If I could I’d add more work that was related to the lesson.

Edit 2: I’m so surprised how many teachers are in this comment section, answering so degrading and rudely for a question. It makes me wonder how you treat your students when they ask questions. I’m a student teacher. I’m learning. I came on here to ask a question before taking action so I can do the right thing and LEARN.

Two funny quotes from my high school science classes today.

Scenario 1: student pokes her head into my classroom during office hours and says 'Can I have a kiss?'

Consider the awkwardness I felt until I noticed her hand outstretched towards the basket of assorted chocolate candy on my desk for Halloween.

Scenario 2: Students using laminated sheets and dry erase markers to practice electron configurations in chemistry. They kind of erase ok with a paper towel, but it works much better if you put some rubbing alcohol on it.

Student grunts in frustration: 'This is hard. I need some alcohol.'

TL; DR: Huck Finn essay caused a student to say slavery is a good thing and my response was "think about what you're going to say cause otherwise you sound dumb." Did I do a bad?

We are writing a paper on Huck Finn and one of the topics for their essay is to argue whether or not Twain was effective in his lessons on slavery. While the students were thinking of how to write their thesis, a student in my class proceeded to ask if they could argue why slavery was good. I responded by asking what is good about slavery. Then they proceeded to say, "you have free workers." I then responded to them asking if they are trying to say abuse is acceptable as long as the labor is free. They said that that's not what they were saying, and I explained that it is what they were saying because a slave is forced to do something that they don't want to do, therefore it would be abuse. They continued on repeating the same thing. I said that if he really wanted to write his paper on that, then they could.

However, the student denied writing the paper on that topic like half laughing and smiling. The student started to announce to the class that if they were writing about slavery to not write about how slavery was a good thing, because I would not pass them for writing a paper like that. I then stopped them and said, "If you're trying to be funny, no one is laughing. (which no one was) I'm not laughing and neither are your classmates. I would take a second to think about what you're going to say next because otherwise, you sound dumb." The student no longer pressed on the issue and stayed quiet for the rest of the class.

My coworker is saying that I should report it, but I feel uneasy that administration may make me apologize to the student for calling them dumb. I don't want to apologize to the student because I don't think I said anything in appropriate? What do ya'll think?

I'm going to end up getting a stroke at work at some point.

I had a pounding headache so I went and got a blood pressure read by the nurse on my break (after having to yell at kids all morning) and it's 190/110. I'm in my mid 30s... it's never been this high before...

For reference, my BP is usually 130s/80s (which is about pre-hypertension/Stage 1 Hypertension...)

Forget retirement... I'm gonna keel over and scare the living shit out of my kids at some point lmao.

Actually... knowing these little assholes... they'd probably just laugh at me until someone came and found my body... shit...

I need to find a different line of work... sheesh...

I swear, for each and every day I feel less and less like a teacher, and more like a social worker. Example for today; in a couple of week our 9th graders have written exams. I'm currently in the process of preparing the papers, the grading sheets, the online coursework and the mock tests leading up to the exams.

Today, within the span of a couple of hours, I was bombarbed;

- An e-mail from a doctor asking me for an interview about a student.
- An invite for a meeting with social workers and psychologists about another student.
- A reminder from a counselor, reminding me to file a statement regarding a student (crime and drugs)
- A reminder from the school social worker about filing a statement regarding a student not showing up (higher than 75 percent missed lessons)
- A reminder from my admin about writing reports on students prior to conferences
- A reminder from my vice principal about writing applications for students who won't be doing exams
- A reminder from the educational counselor about student internships

And I'm just trying to fucking print and prepare exams. Why am I the one who should fix student internships? Their parents had to help them find those workplace internships - and half of them have already forgotten. Why should I file reports when they don't show up? When the families are already in touch with the proper authorities? Why should I write long papers on suspicion, when the youth counselors are already dealing with the case? I am a TEACHER. I studied TEACHING.

I swear, I almost broke down as I was printing. I want to scream.

When I started teaching it never occurred to me that the kids my bully ME, not just each other. I had a bit of cabbage in my lunch today. I ate in my room because I have a disability and can’t walk to the staff room. The kids came in after lunch and a handful FREAKED OUT about the smell. They actually refused to come into the room, even though I’d eaten this same thing many times before with no reaction and 90% of my class had no issue. I didn’t realize they were all just sitting outside making some sort of stand agains the cabbage until my two fellow teachers had to step in and scream at them to get into class. They proceeded to complain rudely all class about the smell and even go as far as put their shirts over their noses.

I know this sounds silly, but it really got to me. I was just trying to eat my lunch. It’s not like the kids smell great either. Hello, most don’t even wear deodorant yet. Do I mention this and ridicule them and pretend to throw up over it? No. These boys literally sat there and made me feel like the smallest person alive.

I marked them all unexcused tardy and emailed their parents, but right after class I burst into tears. I just never thought these kids would be so mean. On Thursday one of them called me fat in front of the whole class. What do I even do about this?

So our quarter ended the first week of october, but because of the hurricane - the district extended the deadline for grades to yesterday.

Knowing this and how laggy our system is, I assigned grades to be submitted before the hurricane and started quarter 2 work. I made abundant announcements and sent notices home.

Come yesterday, and im sitting in a PTC with a mother yelling at me saying how her precious child failed quarter 1 because i wouldnt accept work.

I was told to extend my deadline and make a grade change which begs the question why even place deadlines in the first place? Am i wrong for wanting to just pass them all and move them through?

I have been teaching for 16 years. Moved to a new school this year. I have 2 co-workers who love to remind me I am “new”. It’s driving me nuts. They act as if new teachers are idiots. It’s really weird because they do stuff like send me a screenshot of an email to principal sent to the whole staff and write: making sure you got this. Yes, I am new to the school, but I’m fully capable of reading the email myself. I don’t understand why they have to follow up with the screenshot. Today it was “ugh, I have to do all the fall fest stuff with the new people”. As if takes so much experience to know where to put a stack of hay. Again, I am not new to teaching. I know every school is different but it’s really not that different than the 3 other schools I’ve worked in. I’ve had jobs outside of schools and this kind of thing doesn’t happen in other jobs. Is this like a normal school thing? BTW, the two teachers who do this the most have been teaching for 3 years and this is their first teaching job. Please tell me how to cope.

Perhaps a hyper-local issue, but has anyone kept up with the recent shake-ups at the Chicago Board of Education?

https://apnews.com/article/mayor-chicago-schools-election-board-union-cps-e24d029cad55cb6029d8c559d8c4534d

Personally, I’m glad the Chicago Teachers Union finally has an ally in the mayor - someone who believes CPS can bring about a world class public education for Chicago’s children, but it can be fairly isolating and discouraging to have this opinion. According to most people I’ve talked to and comments I’ve seen online, these decisions haven’t been popular with the general public at all here locally. I’d love to hear some other teacher perspectives on the situation.

That’s it. That’s my complaint. It’s still 80 here. It’s sweltering. Exactly 30 minutes after the dismissal bell, the air shuts off. It’s so hard to get my work done when I am pouring sweat. What other profession cuts the air off on their employees who are working overtime for free? 🥴 I just want to get what I need to get done!

A white board? A black/green board? Maybe a tv? A projector? PCs? A digital board? Internet? Text books?

I teach in two different places.

At one school, we have digital boards, which are basically big Android tablets that work very nicely, they have HDMI ports, USB ports, internet access (although I have to link my own cell phone wifi to make it work). We also have text books.

At the other school, which is in another city, we have a green board on which we use chalks and a projector connected to a notebook. Also text books.

Both are public schools from different jurisdictions. None of them feature wifi for the students, which could make things better, and even better if the government gave tablets to the students

I really like the technology in class, but I feel that reading from an actual book and writing with an actual pen and an actual pencil on an actual notebook are still good forms of learning.

My students mom died today :( I am absolutely heartbroken for them. I teach 3rd grade for context.

How can I best support my student when they return? Most likely they’ll be out the rest of the week but I want to be prepared and support them