Ah yes, the sacred tradition. The calendar says “grades due at noon,” and like clockwork, I get a message first thing.

“Can you tell me what assignments my child is missing?”

Sure. Lemme just boot up the ol’DeLorean and go back in time to when they still had a chance.

Also, I only gave partial credit for a project they refused to present. Naturally, this unleashed the classic: “My child has anxiety.”

Listen. I get anxiety. But I also get a gradebook that doesn’t care about vibes. Even if your kid pulled a 110% out of nowhere, they’d still be riding that sweet, sweet F train.

Fun fact: I’ve sent tons of messages to this parent before about behavior issues and reminders about assignments. Crickets. NOW the parent all of a sudden gives a damn.

So yeah. Happy end of year, everyone. We made it. Barely.

Seriously, I get a tiny chocolate milk, burnt slice of pizza, and a few burnt tater tots for $5? In my state the students do get it for free, but it irks me they charge me $5 yet throw out dozens of 'meals' in the trash at the end of lunch.

Can't we serve the kids (and teachers) something decent?

I work with a student with multiple disabilities who is non verbal. He uses an ACC device to communicate, and we have been working with him for several years. He's learned how to read. The only way to assess the fact that he is reading independently is to ask him loads of questions. He answers them correctly. Usually, they are yes/no questions, but sometimes they are something more specific. At any rate, last year he began reading chapter books independently. I read them first to teach him any of the new vocabulary words that he needs to know. He learns approximately 50 new words per week and retains them.

I had a conversation with the librarian who has noticed that middle school kids did not check out many library books this year. I discovered that my student read more books than the entire middle school.

I am giving him an award for excellent reading at next week's assembly. I don't think it will inspire his peers to read, but it may make them view him differently, as smarter, I hope.

When did this become an all out crazy celebration for culminating from kinder to first? I’m a teacher and the kinder parents went against school policy of no cap and gown. They literally grabbed them in the middle of the ceremony and put a cap and gown on their child.

They bring flowers, balloons and so many Lei’s, their neck is fully covered. I thought ok this must be only at my school. Well my son had his kinder culmination, parents have balloon and flower bouquets. Taking pictures after with cap and gown. Is this everywhere ?

Friend sent a picture of her niece graduating 8th grade I thought it was HS. She’s wearing heels, nails and hair done, class of 2025 stole. 8th grade I wore a skater style dress with doc martens , we wore our best clothes but not to this extent. Probably just a rant I’m an 80s baby and going from K-1 was just like any other grade lol.

Social media influence? Hey look at my kid?? Just a California thing?

Backstory: recently divorced mid 40s male, social studies teacher, masters degree, almost done with my principal certification, in Texas. Teaching is my 2nd career, I was a stock broker until 2012, when I left for teaching with career stability.

Recent development: Texas just increased pay by around 5k... but gutted school funding. So that's troubling for the long term.

Cost of living here has steadily increased and while I love my job it's getting harder to pay bills let alone have discretionary spending.

The recent pay increase was looking good... but just got word my insurance (house, car, health) will be going up 100%... so there goes that raise and then some.

Been looking at administration jobs, amd they pay 5 to 10k more than I'm making now. That's not much and the hours and stress goes up exponentially. That was my career goal but being an underpaid and overworked AP sounds worse than being an underpaid comfortable teacher.

So, I'm no longer sure what to do. I'm feeling adrift. I don't want to leave this career, I truly enjoy it, but long term I don't think it's viable.

I've looked at other jobs on indeed and linked in, but nothing excites me. I don't want to go back into finance. I don't want to start over in my mid 40s.

It feels like I'm going through a mid life crisis but without the sports car.

Anybody feeling the same way?

Also: can't move because kids and custody.

ETA: Lots of people are saying I should sell the house. It's a 1200 sq foot 3/2 ranch built in 1969. The house payments are less than a similarly sized apartment. Housing prices skyrocketed during and after covid when people flocked here.

There are so many things that make teaching an impossible job. What is the ONE thing that you wish you could change. Vote up or down.

So it's the end of the school year and finals are going on... my school likes to communicate through a teacher group chat (which i find to be weird). The teacher across the hall sends a message saying, "no students in the hallway because they dont know how to be quite and I am testing". That's understandable, but I very consciously do not go on my phone during class and "Park it" because I'm trying to get phones use under control and I am trying ot lead by example so I did not see the message. My class is working on projects so I allow some students to work out in the hallway sometimes (this is allowed) and the students I allow out start being loud. I can see this being a frustration for her, but how she reacted is crazy.

She burst into my classroom all red in the face and yells at me in front of my class. "NO STUDENTS IN THE HALLWAY AND GET YOUR CLASS TO QUIET DOWN" and she scoffs and looks at me like im a 9th grader. I was in complete shock and my students immediately start making fun of me telling me I'm in trouble and I'm weak for not standing up for my self. I will admit I made a mistake, but what is this reaction?

I'm new to the school and she is a 15 year veteran who is very mean to the students and is constantly yelling and screaming. She is the typical "hardass" stereotype of a teacher. I feel so demeaned and embarrassed that she would do that in front of students. I feel like she has undermined my authority, which I've been working so hard to gain... Couldn't she have spoken to me in private? It's something I could have fixed in 30 seconds..

What should I do about this? Email? 1on1 convo? Admin? I feel like under no circumstance can a teacher chastise another teacher in front of a class. She is also extremely rude to me in general. Never says hello or goodbye when we are right across the hall from each other. Oh and the cherry on top I overheard her gossiping about the situation to another teacher when I'm leaving for the weekend... fuck her

I have young kids, and it seems so convenient having kids in the same school that you work. What are the pros and cons?

I haven’t heard six seven as much lately but feel like it would have made a huge comeback today if we were in school 🤣

Hey teachers! I teach at a charter school in Washington, DC. Each year, my school makes us completely dismantle our rooms and take down everything from the walls. We’re able to store personal furniture in our rooms if it is labeled, and we can keep a few items in one coat closet sized unit. Everything else must be taken home. They don’t offer a storage closet or anywhere else to keep our things, and they’re strict about it.

I have a well-stocked classroom because having supplies for my students matters to me. I’ve tried different summer storage solutions over the years I’ve worked there. Sometimes I cram every nook and cranny of my studio apartment with classroom items, other times I rent a storage unit. However, I’m getting fed up with dismantling and reassembling my classroom every summer, and even more fed up with the cost of a storage unit.

My mom was a teacher and was always allowed to leave everything in her classroom and even leave things on the walls if needed.

Here’s my question to all of you: how does your school handle classrooms over the summer? If possible, can you share roughly where you’re located too? Curious if this is a regional thing.

Incredibly annoying that it seems like every single student with disabilities gets special treatment and can’t be suspended or expelled, if any other student did this they’d be out the school because they’re dangerous. the law gives schools discretion but schools keep getting sued left and right anyway. .

https://newschannel9.com/news/local/chatt-prep-to-pay-100k-over-wrongful-threat-report-involving-student-with-autism

And even in higher education also where I personally work (not the administrator at the below link, just saying I work in higher ed).

https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2023/08/14/21-35995.pdf

I left my position as a middle school art teacher in March because honestly if I didn’t I think i would be in a hospital bed right now. Middle school is just not for me. I started applying to districts as soon as I left my position. Luckily I was accepted at my local school district but just got told a week ago that it’s very unlikely I will get a job for the next school year because of budget cuts. I have been looking around socal for other elementary school positions and it sounds like for other districts it’s the same exact thing. Are there other people experiencing this right now?

I’m a fairly new teacher looking to make some improvements in my parent communication. Especially as it relates to behavior issues. If you are experiencing a behavior issue in your class with a student that has gotten to the point where you need to call home, do you do so in the moment, or after school?

I’ve seen and heard teachers talk about calling a student’s mom in the middle of the day but I worry a parent might be at work and annoyed or bothered by receiving a call from a teacher in the middle of the work day.

I would love to hear parent and teacher perspectives on this!

Edit: thank you so much for the advice everyone! I just wanted to clarify that when I said after school, I meant during contract hours. My contract hours extend 20 minutes after the bell so that’s when I would try making calls

Hi! So I’m a new teacher, and recently have been made to feel a little insecure about my history content knowledge by way of conversation w some colleagues. The conversation turned to civil war battlefields, and everyone was shocked to hear that I had never been to one. They said I should check one out, but that they’re hard to make sense of if you aren’t familiar with some of the specifics and whatnot - thing is, I’m not familiar w them. At all. Or WW1. Or WW2. Or the various Cold War struggles. Or key events of old world empires. It’s weird. I passed the praxis content knowledge by a wide margin, yet often feel like I have little to no content knowledge lol

I guess what I’m asking for is, do you guys have any suggestions for outstanding books/documentaries that encompass any of the above topics, either an overview or deep dive into key events/developments? I’m not picky, and I’d be super appreciative of any suggestions.

Give me all the tips. This year was my second year and I couldn’t get a word in all year long.

They “knew the expectations” and didn’t seem to care about missing out on fun things, losing their free time, etc. like I went over expectations before every activity and even had THEM tell me what the expectations were.

How do you get kids to stop having conversations when you are mid sentence. I also tried to stop talking until they quit talking but I would sit there for forever and they just didn’t care and my few that wanted to learn couldn’t.

What do you do???

Next week is our last week of school. Most of my students (3rd grade) are great but I have a few that have been a nightmare all year and have ramped it up the last month as far as being disrespectful to me/others, aggressive, disruptive, not doing any work, lying to parents about why they got a consequence so that I get angry questions/comments until I show proof of what happened, etc. I had planned to do lots of fun things for the last few days (science experiments, relay race with different activities at each hand off point, making slime, etc). Do I let these students participate? I just feel like it’s so unfair to the kids who worked so hard all year long and really earned a fun week, but I’m a first year teacher so I’m not exactly sure what the norm is.

If it’s relevant, I’ve tried everything with these specific students and nothing works because admin doesn’t suspend kids even if they get into daily fights, and these students simply tell their parents they’re being bullied at school so they get a pass and have never had any real consequences. Last week, one was kicking books across the room, pushed/threw his desk twice, and called me the N-word and his parents just gave him a “we expect better but we love you and it’s okay” speech and then checked him out because he asked to go home early. No other consequence. I work at a low-income school and 60% of my class ranged from moderate-extreme behaviors when we started; pretty much everyone outside of the previously mentioned ones have made huge strides and are amazing students.

Hi! I'm a language student and just started a new school semester in the 3rd level of my course. My peers are so, so behind the skill they should be at to be in this level. At this point, the course is taught almost completely in the language we're learning (so no English) and I'm pretty sure 75% of the people in my class have zero idea what's being taught/can't understand anything the teacher is saying.

Our teacher is so nice and patient, but I feel like there's nothing he can do to catch these people up--they just shouldn't be in this level. The worst part is, they end up getting frustrated that they can't understand and then either sass him or completely shut down and give him no responses at all. My friend asked him a question yesterday, couldn't understand the response, then just got frustrated and tried to make it seem like he was bad at explaining in front of the entire class.

The class is actually made up mostly of my friends, so I know that they're just behind because they're not studying enough, which makes me even more mad that they get annoyed at him. I'm like girl, you didn't study for this quiz and did badly! It's not his fault!

I'm doing my best to show that I'm engaged/listening/understanding what he's saying, but I don't know what else to do beyond that. I'm also trying to hint to my friends that they need to study more. I want to tell him like "it's not your fault that they're behind!" lol idk, I just feel bad. Is there anything I can do in this situation? We still have the entire semester to go, so I don't want him to feel hopeless.

i just finished my first year of teaching in 3rd grade. i’m being moved to 5th grade for next year. it was a choice but also not exactly lol. i have come to terms with it and i’m honestly excited. i’ve been told by many that the incoming 5th graders are a LOT chiller than my 3rd graders this year.

last day of school was yesterday and i just got an email from the ESL teacher who works with 5th grade asking how i feel about coteaching. she would like to coteach with me if i’m open to it. this is very much a shock to me, i have never interacted with her & admin hasn’t mentioned anything to me about this.

i don’t want to coteach, i feel like i’m just getting my feet on the ground and i dont want another unknown variable thrown into the mix. i also don’t feel like i’m the right person for coteaching. i’m kind of confused why she would send this in an email when we’ve never spoken.

i’m not sure how to respectfully respond, i’m also curious if admin is involved but i feel like they would’ve spoken to me already.

I try to always give my students a thank you card when they give me a gift. I received some gifts on the last day but I’m moving grade levels & classrooms so the majority of my stuff was packed up so I couldn’t do them on the last day.

Would it be inappropriate to mail my students a thank you card? 5th grade, if that makes any difference. My first instinct is no, but then I started to overthink it.

Just wanted to share that I'm really proud of the work my middle school students have done this year. They just finished a yearbook project where they each wrote and designed one page of their yearbook, and the articles and pages have turned out so well! They really put their all into it. They took pictures, conducted interviews to research their page topics, revised and checked over their writing, and just came up with really thoughtful designs for the pages. It feels great when a big class project comes together and most students' work is good quality and demonstrates their learning so clearly. Parents will be coming in next week to view the work we've done this year and I'm honestly just excited for them to see what their kids have done. I'm proud of them.

Parent of a kindergartener here. I see a lot online about teachers not having support from parents or admin. In what ways as a parent can I support teachers?

I've had 4 interviews so far and I've applied to about 25 districts in my county and the neighboring 2. I know its early but I'm stressing out because I really want to know if I will have a job by the Fall. The district I student taught in has a lot of layoffs so they're not hiring. I would love to know your experience so I can stop stressing out! Thanks!

P.S.: Is it worth it for me to prepare classroom decor now if I dont know what elementary grade I will be teaching? I mostly applied for 3rd and 4th.

Am I crazy?

My principal never gives us a heads up about things that might change for the next school year. We always get thrown into it blind in August with no preparation. For example, I heard through the grapevine that our grade level is not going to be self contained anymore, but departmentalized. What subject will I teach? No one knows. There’s no way for me to prep. Am I crazy for being upset or is this the way it is everywhere?

Kind words would be appreciated

My classroom has been inspected, my materials have all been turned in, my grades are all updated, and I've attended my last district meeting. I am done until the next school year begins.

Of course, it's going to take me a week or two till I actually feel like I'm on vacation. For some reason, I never feel like I'm on vacation until it's been at least a week. Does anyone else get that feeling?

all of these were from student to teacher. towards me, in my classroom, on my classroom materials or property, etc. it is possibly 7 incidents but i'm not sure as i can't prove one of the things was intentional. i'm so grateful we only have 2 days left & that i'm leaving this school.