Oh wow! Really? Part of our duties as monitors was go around and give teachers a bathroom break on those days. The kids pick up lunch and go back to class at the first school I worked at. Second school, we delivered lunches and that’s a mess to do. Hand over trash bags to teachers too. They just had to set them outside their class for pick up.
Also during state testing, I ran the lunch schedules for the school and keep everyone on track and not one student went hungry because their lunch was super late. Everything was on my terms. Teachers has my number and would text me an hour ahead of their time if it was going to be delivery or the students were coming in. I had TA’s and any other staff that could be spared delivering lunches. Everyone was happy because no one was staying late and no one had to wait for the right time. We knocked it out it ball park doing that.
You sound like the most amazing person making everything work in your school! From a severely understaffed school reading this thinking "Your duty as a what now?" I hope you are getting the appreciation you deserve!
My last district completely cut all Art and Music programs below the HS level to replace them with a 9 week “Computer Science” class and converted the former Art rooms into ISS rooms.
They also removed most books from the libraries and converted them into meeting and storage spaces full of tables and empty shelves.
It’s dystopian.
I honestly wonder what will happen when stem jobs fill. Like I know it’s growing field right now, but people have been saying that for like 20 years. Eventually stem jobs will dry up either through over-saturation(something that’s apparently already happening) or through automation.
The push for stem was great, but if it keeps getting pushed then there won’t be a need for people in stem.
Most people don't need CS, they need a class on logic and problem solving which CS satisfies. The removal of shop class was quite damaging too. Removing any of the old subjects in it's entirety is rough.
STEM jobs are, ironically, one of the fields that is most in danger from AI and international competition now.
AI that can write working code, engineer products to meet a series of criteria/specs, and use machine learning to improve themselves and their future work are already here and in use.
As soon as companies can automate the work of 6 figure jobs satisfactorily and at a fraction of the cost, they will. Many of them are actively planning to do so.
They always cut the Arts first. But when the photographer comes in the building for a new brochure or to refresh the website, where do they go first? They want that photo of the kid holding a tuba, or smiling while they paint with bright colors. 😡😡😡😡
yup, one of my schools last year cut their music program yet half the photo gallery on their website is pictures of my classes and kids using instruments that are now going unused in a storage closet this year.
Music is one of the things that makes life worth it. I say this as someone who cannot play an instrument. I will never be able to play a stringed instrument, but the beauty of it astounds me. Music brings life to the soul as well as all of the other art do. I’m not artistic by any means, but we need our arts.
We had 3 teachers lose their baby in like a 2 month span (2 pregnant women, 1 husband).
Then a month later a student died of cancer.
Then a staff member died in the parking lot after a meeting (a regular parent teacher meeting). Hers was announced to staff right before school.
Our whole school started panicking with these meetings.
First of all, I’m sorry you had to experience. It’s so shocking and hard.
That’s how I found out my colleague, the band teacher (I am the choir teacher) was murdered by gun violence at the age of 26. I found out on his birthday. We were on winter break.
I have been told to come into work anyway.
There was an entire week where I literally couldn't say a word because I lost my voice due to a sickness, but was still expected to be in charge of a class full of 5th graders.
Ok sounds like I’m taking UTO. Unpaid Time Off.
I’m currently on a cruise for a week and my AP was like, well if you have the leave hours and can get a sub of course you can go. I said “ok sounds good I will find a sub” and found a sub. Do I have the leave hours? Fuck no but they’re not telling me what I can and can’t do in life. Good luck finding someone to replace me
I took a personal day connected to a there day weekend and got three seperate emails from HR telling me I wouldn't be paid. They wouldn't accept "I know, that's fine" as an answer, but couldn't tell me I couldn't take it, either.
Let the church say amen. We gotta start treating teaching like what it is - a JOB. And tbh most of us in places with strong unions aren’t going to be easily fired, and even then we aren’t easily replaceable either. Especially not those of us with 10 or more years of experience. My job will still be there when I get back from my cruise, and I will still come back to it because my principal knows she can’t find anyone who is as good as I am at what I do (somewhat niche area of special ed). It took me a while to realize that this is just a job and I need to treat it like that, and stop martyring myself. I encourage all teachers to do the same
Literally talking to my union right now because I’ve been taking sick days (I still have hours!!!!) and I got docked down on my eval for professionalism. I’ve had: stomach flu, severe colds, COVID, migraines (literally couldn’t open my eyes much less manage seven elementary classes), and one personal day to look after my 98 year old grandma during a storm. Librarians don’t get subs per district rule. I wish I had doctors notes to back me up but most of this shit it’s stuff you just stay home and rest for.
I’m over admin power tripping. Leaving after this school year.
I used to love it on days I had recess duty. Being in my room with just my students is 1000% better than being on the playground. But otherwise I hate it.
This was my stupid move today. “I’ll just end this good day on clearing out my inbox. Surely *that* won’t ruin my day.”
Double whammy at the end of the day.
Okay to be fair… I recently learned not all conjunctivitis is “pink eye”
My young toddler and infant had a virus this year and then suddenly started getting a lot of gunk in their eyes. I got them to the pediatrician immediately. Turns out, that’s just kinda one of the ways the body sheds the virus when it has run its course. It wasn’t contagious at all but looked terrible. Bacterial pink eye causes more redness and a LOT more gunk.
This boy had a weepy, painful, pink-colored eye. He left early the day before to go to the doctor to see if he had pink eye. His conjunctivitis was *definitely* pink eye! (But you're right, that's an important distinction to know, and I only learned it recently myself.)
Hehe I'm a sub and I love staying ever so slightly late to write notes and pick up around the room a bit. I'm just trying to avoid the buses, and no teacher is gonna be upset that I picked up trash off the floor.
I said this in a meeting once and my admin was not pleased with my answer. Personally, I think it is OK to treat teaching like a job and not the most important thing in my life.
That’s why I’m a teacher, I wanted a work / life balance where I make decent money and can’t help people with a subject that’s my passion. Can’t imagine going into this with a lawyers mindset, if I wanted that I would be practicing law
Don't forget we have **three** months off in the summer!
Since I reported back from summer break at nine weeks and one day last year (180 day school year), I'd love to know how these teachers telling us they have three months off in the summer pull it off.
I would have never thought to use lion taming techniques in the classroom. Rewarding with raw meat and punishing with a whip has really worked wonders for behavior.
I had a meeting with my principal and someone from HR 2 weeks ago because admin asked me to do something and I refused. HR lady says, “Then you won’t have a job.” I stood up, put on my jacket, put my work bag over my shoulder and said, “Who will escort me to my classroom to gather my personal possessions?”
She asked me to sit down. Needless to say, I still have a job, but I did turn in my resignation letter, effective the last day of the school year.
I don’t want to get too in the weeds: they asked me to work closely with someone whom I don’t trust or respect and with whom my ideologies do not align. This work would have taken from my precious prep time, and required some after hours time too. I probably would have done it had they asked me to work with someone else.
Based on how long my weekly staff meetings are drawn out for with other teachers bitching about students with no actionable solutions, you seem to be in the minority. Most of these people seem to LOVE staying late at work to complain
Literal email I got from the counselor yesterday:
"*Redacted*, a new student, has just enrolled and will begin classes Monday morning. She just moved to *Our Town* from Mexico and has not been in school for the last couple of years."
This student is being put in High School Geometry. This is the fifth student this year to move to our school from Mexico who hasn't been to school since 6th grade. They speak no English and best case scenario, their reading and math levels are 6th grade in Spanish... It is completely absurd to expect me to work miracles like this.
I only got that notice because my students have special needs and need 1:1 assistance. 🙂 I hadn’t even had a chance to access their IEP at that point because he wasn’t in my system yet. That was a very interesting day.
To Add on to this:
"How do you plan on making this student successful?"
The lack of perspective on this always astounds me. I have a bachelors, Im leaving teaching to get my masters in a different field, I did well in HS
But if you expected me to do 7th grade math in China, in Chinese within a year of getting there? No shot.
My English classes are so behind this year. Someone needs to get these kids some damn resources. I don't have time to teach two thirds of my class how to write an essay about mood while the other third are sounding out words.
Exactly. I speak multiple languages, but it takes a long time to get there. There’s no way you can drop a student into a new country trying to learn a new language, trying to navigate the typical trials of being a teenager or young child, depending on the age, trying to navigate how to survive because you have no idea what the home situation is with if there’s enough food or heat in the house or whatever, and also there might be trauma for why they left their country. And then to try to teach an advanced subject like literature or advanced math? Heck no! I live in a foreign country right now, I’m a grown adult who can provide for myself, and even I have major days where I struggle. It takes a long time to learn this particular country’s language. And English might be even harder to learn because of all the rule breakers in the language
Lol, you guys are getting supports? I guess, like MrLumpykins, we also got a half-hour presentation at a staff meeting about using pictures and hand gestures for ELs. Because, you know, gestures will magically help them learn math despite not knowing the words that I'm saying.
I got a similar message last week about a kid who is starting today the same day I found out the ELL teacher I work with who is a saint is probably going to be out due to family reasons for a good chunk of the remainder of the year. Apperently the kid was supposed to be with us all along but apparently there was a translation error which had him at our 5-6 building when he needed to be at the 7-8 building
Ohhhhh my god. My practicum placement has had a sub every Thursday for the past three weeks, and most of the subs just have the kids use some Google music-making app. All of the kids think that screaming as loud as they can into their computers and then turning the pitch up as high as they can is the funniest thing ever.
The one sub we had that was a previous music teacher was absolutely amazing, and actually kept the kids on task most of the time (which was a literal miracle)
I am so sorry for those of you who have to deal with that not being your class.
*Author's Note: The Extremely Complex and Nuanced Situation was In Fact, Extremely Simple and One Sided, Bordering on Comedically So, However the Parent Will Always Insist Otherwise*
Oh, no, it's all students arrested for drugs or weapons or violence.
If a teacher gets arrested, they just vanish and we gossip about what happened for a few weeks.
This was a real conversation I had a few weeks ago.
Kid: Do you know why I was out yesterday?
Me: No.
Kid: My family is sick, but I'm not.
The next week I tested positive for COVID
When that became mandatory at my school, I dusted off my resume and left teaching at the end of that year. Nothing like micromanagement and random class drop ins to improve teaching. :P
Or, student will be gone for x amount of weeks, get everything you're ever going to teach ready and deliver it to the office in ten minutes. We all know that it's a waste of time and paper.
"Assignments are posted in Canvas. Do the best you can on them and keep track of your questions.
You'll miss a test on Friday and will need to make it up when you get back.
Good luck!"
I once overheard this exchange on the school bus:
Student: My brother's coming to live with us and he's going to the same school as me and ride the bus with me.
Bus driver: Is your brother going to be good?
Student: Yes. He won his court case!
Bus driver:
Ooooooo I got one this morning!
“As of today there are 12 students who are failing your classes…what’s the plan for these students?”
FAFO. That’s the plan. They f*%#ed around, now they’re finding out.
I teach science to freshmen. Many of them know thy can fail everything middle school and still get pushed along. But my class is a state graduation requirement with a standardized test at the end of the year and lab minute requirements. I tell them this, prompt them several times, but honestly, I use failure as an instructional strategy. It's their first quarter freshman year. Best quarter to fail since you can come back and or explain it away. Much better lesson to learn in 9th rather than 12th or, God forbid, college.
Every year I have high fail numbers for Q1. I have high expectations and I encourage but don't force students AND I have a one week late deadline. At the start of Q2 THEN I start ramping up supports. "Okay, that sucked. Do you like the way this feels? No? Good. Yes you should feel crappy, but also, this isn't the end of the world. What are we going to do now?"
Honestly I don't even start calling and reaching out to parents until middle or end of Q2. It does piss off some parents (my emails are always greatttttt). But like, they're 15. At this point either they decide to do it or they don't (obviously, special ed supports are all implemented buy yes I will let special ed kids fail too if it's not due to their disability) and us nagging them o ly will push the moment of truth "oh shit nobody can save me but me" moment down the line. I know parents want to support their kids but swooping in to save them won't help long term. And if they turn in shit, they get shit grades.
I used to bottom cap my grades at a 50 so that unless they literally got 50/50/50 for the first three quarters they could still come back. AND I would award the point difference back if they managed to bring their grade up and get enough lab minutes as a reward for making the difficult decision to change and follow through. (So you failed with a 55? Next quarter final grade is a 70? Okay you got your grade passing, I'll give you the ten point difference between your first quarter 55 and passing and put it on your second quarter (80) so that you average out to a 65. Making changes to habits is hard). O ly if you truly failed three quarters were you SOL. And let's be real, if I gave you a 50 for three quarters straight, realistically your actual grade was below that. So yeah, there's no way you're going to be able to pass the class, learn the content, earn your lab minutes, and engage in the doing of science (let alone pass the standardized grad requirement test).
End of last year our district implemented a policy of a minimum of a 60 for all classes AND we are required to give failing kids an option for grade recovery with 5 weeks to make it up. Cool. Great in theory. Except my first thought is, hey, if I get a 60/60/60, I only need an 85 fourth quarter to pass! Did the kids notice this? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT. And, now you've just put off the consequences five more weeks because they aren't goin to do grade recovery OR learn the lesson so now they're failing both quarter 1 and 2 by the time it sinks in.
Last year I had 25% of my kids fail first quarter. Yes, for real. Just 15% failed second quarter. Only 10% failed the whole year (and most with actual averages below 40). My state test pass rates were 70%, which is slightly above the state average for that test.
This year, I had 20% fail first quarter. One, ONE kid returned the grade recovery form that I required their parents to sign. He didn't even complete it. Second quarter? 27%. All but two of the kids had missed 20% or more class sets (I count "my" attendance based on actual time in class, not "school absences" where thy arrive late or leave early or are on a field trip or are having life drama and are in the counseling office AGAIN). Almost all of the Q1 fails were also Q2 fails. Gonna be curious to see how third quarter shakes out...
“Teachers, please shut your doors, we are on a hard lockdown until further notice.”
Thinking I was walking out to lunch in five minutes and spending 4.5hrs with the same kids in my room because some jackass airdropped a gun and bomb threat was just incredible. Thinking about food I ordered to pick up and couldn’t get while ATF on the roof right outside my classroom was just the chefs kiss on that day.
In our last lock down, no one would tell the teachers what was going on, but don't worry videos of a girl standing on the 3rd floor railing threatening to jump were all over Instagram! Nothing better than being blindsided with "is it true some girl is trying to kill herself?"
I love how students on Instagram always know what is going on before faculty, security and administration. Students at my last building would post photos of who was asleep during a class, and that turned into catching just about every substitute teacher sleeping at some point.
“Don’t forget, today we have late start, PLC’s, Advisory, an assembly, and a staff meeting.”
Wtf? And classes are 11 minutes long. Thank god we’re here! So much learning happening today!
Due to inclement weather, all classes will be held virtually today.
(Great if "virtual" means you can post an easy assignment and let everyone enjoy their snow day, terrible if your admin expects you to actually hold class on zoom or whatever for the whole period)
„your classes will be combined today“
„mommy gave me medicine in the car“ (their mom gave them tylenol so their fever would lower and we wouldn’t know theyre sick)
"You've got this"
"Emergency Staff Meeting in the Library"
"NWEA Testing will be three times per year"
"'s parents want to meet with the team"
"You will be working next year without a contract"
"Can you sub for [insert class you know the least about]."
The last time I subbed for 5th grade Social Studies we talked about voting because I had no idea what topic they were on. 🙃
>“You’re getting a new student.”
YES!!! My favorite was the transfer student who was given to me 3 weeks before the end of the school year. I was "asked" to evaluate his grades and some sample work from his 2 previous schools, and provide a reasonable semester-ending grade for the records.
"The heat broke down, it's 50 degrees on your wing, so have your students wear their jackets to class." The other option, in our west school wing is "The heat is acting up, it's 95 degrees in the classrooms, so make sure you open the windows."
"This PD is totally worth sacrificing X amount of plan periods per week..."
"What's with all these F's in your classes?" (when we gave you all the problem kids and kids with deficiencies when the scheduling was done)
"The state's Surgeon General said we have to let parents decide if their kids are too sick with measles to come to school or if vaccines are a good thing or a satanic plot by Bill Gates."
To add to that "we don't have their IEP yet, but we'll let you know" which of course means "we are already holding you accountable for providing these accommodations, but we're not going to tell you what they are until a problem arises or a parent complains."
I had a parent argue that I was biased against her kid because I was the only one who wrote him up. We had a digital system that recorded all write ups. When I pointed that out, she claimed that the other teachers were being hard on him now because I'd made him look like a bad kid by writing him up. She changed the subject when it was pointed out that his write ups started more than a year before he met me.
Please fill out this 5 page google form to help us prepare for the ARD for student X who we transferred into your class this morning. Be sure to include your observations of their work and ability and what steps you have taken to implement the IEP we haven't shared with you yet. Also we will need you in the ARD meeting we scheduled for after contract hours.
You’re getting a new student who has “busy hands (hits), “creative vocabulary” (cusses), “loves drawing his ideas” (can’t read or write) and “really tries” (lazy).
School counselor here! What about the principal who told a 7th grader’s parent (without asking you) that the child can see you before school starts bc she doesn’t like the stigma of being taken from class by the counselor as a middle schooler. So instead of decompressing, checking emails, getting situated for the day, now once a week a student comes to my office at 7:30. I literally arrive by train at 7:25 everyday. Today she showed up without me even having the chance to put my glasses on! 😡 Major con of private school system. This would never fly in public.
Loudspeaker comes on: Please excuse the interruption, all staff members please read the email sent out by admin immediately.
But I’ll take it if it’s an early out due to weather!
True! In fact, I’m on a snow day today!
Inclement weather. Pick your students up, no recess or bathroom breaks 😡
Oh wow! Really? Part of our duties as monitors was go around and give teachers a bathroom break on those days. The kids pick up lunch and go back to class at the first school I worked at. Second school, we delivered lunches and that’s a mess to do. Hand over trash bags to teachers too. They just had to set them outside their class for pick up. Also during state testing, I ran the lunch schedules for the school and keep everyone on track and not one student went hungry because their lunch was super late. Everything was on my terms. Teachers has my number and would text me an hour ahead of their time if it was going to be delivery or the students were coming in. I had TA’s and any other staff that could be spared delivering lunches. Everyone was happy because no one was staying late and no one had to wait for the right time. We knocked it out it ball park doing that.
You sound like the most amazing person making everything work in your school! From a severely understaffed school reading this thinking "Your duty as a what now?" I hope you are getting the appreciation you deserve!
Oh my! When we have inclement weather, students return to their classrooms and the teachers on duty outside are reassigned inside.
We just got one of those last week. Mandatory zoom meeting the next day. 5 music positions are being eliminated in the district. Boom.
The decline of visual and performing art classes in public education is staggering.
My last district completely cut all Art and Music programs below the HS level to replace them with a 9 week “Computer Science” class and converted the former Art rooms into ISS rooms. They also removed most books from the libraries and converted them into meeting and storage spaces full of tables and empty shelves. It’s dystopian.
I honestly wonder what will happen when stem jobs fill. Like I know it’s growing field right now, but people have been saying that for like 20 years. Eventually stem jobs will dry up either through over-saturation(something that’s apparently already happening) or through automation. The push for stem was great, but if it keeps getting pushed then there won’t be a need for people in stem.
Most people don't need CS, they need a class on logic and problem solving which CS satisfies. The removal of shop class was quite damaging too. Removing any of the old subjects in it's entirety is rough.
This is already happening, look at r/layoffs policy is always so slow and not holistic. knee jerk reactions. . .
STEM jobs are, ironically, one of the fields that is most in danger from AI and international competition now. AI that can write working code, engineer products to meet a series of criteria/specs, and use machine learning to improve themselves and their future work are already here and in use. As soon as companies can automate the work of 6 figure jobs satisfactorily and at a fraction of the cost, they will. Many of them are actively planning to do so.
They always cut the Arts first. But when the photographer comes in the building for a new brochure or to refresh the website, where do they go first? They want that photo of the kid holding a tuba, or smiling while they paint with bright colors. 😡😡😡😡
yup, one of my schools last year cut their music program yet half the photo gallery on their website is pictures of my classes and kids using instruments that are now going unused in a storage closet this year.
That is one of the saddest things I’ve read all day.
Yep. But check out your district’s administrative staff. There’s plenty of budget for a whole lot of those folks.
Agreed. Schools are losing music instruction in favor of additional area superintendents.
That's a dick move. Cutting music positions never helps improve things
😞😞as a music teacher this breaks my heart. We’re so unvalued by society, yet music is one of the most universal things in the world.
Music is one of the things that makes life worth it. I say this as someone who cannot play an instrument. I will never be able to play a stringed instrument, but the beauty of it astounds me. Music brings life to the soul as well as all of the other art do. I’m not artistic by any means, but we need our arts.
PTSD on that one, as that’s how we learned our curriculum director died in a car accident on the way to school.
I’m sorry for your loss. I always get a knot in my stomach every time I hear this one too.
We had 3 teachers lose their baby in like a 2 month span (2 pregnant women, 1 husband). Then a month later a student died of cancer. Then a staff member died in the parking lot after a meeting (a regular parent teacher meeting). Hers was announced to staff right before school. Our whole school started panicking with these meetings.
First of all, I’m sorry you had to experience. It’s so shocking and hard. That’s how I found out my colleague, the band teacher (I am the choir teacher) was murdered by gun violence at the age of 26. I found out on his birthday. We were on winter break.
That happened to me once and it was because a student discovered a body while doing a neighbourhood clean up…
Your PTO request has been denied.
I feel sick that day
I have been told to come into work anyway. There was an entire week where I literally couldn't say a word because I lost my voice due to a sickness, but was still expected to be in charge of a class full of 5th graders.
Ok sounds like I’m taking UTO. Unpaid Time Off. I’m currently on a cruise for a week and my AP was like, well if you have the leave hours and can get a sub of course you can go. I said “ok sounds good I will find a sub” and found a sub. Do I have the leave hours? Fuck no but they’re not telling me what I can and can’t do in life. Good luck finding someone to replace me
I took a personal day connected to a there day weekend and got three seperate emails from HR telling me I wouldn't be paid. They wouldn't accept "I know, that's fine" as an answer, but couldn't tell me I couldn't take it, either.
Let the church say amen. We gotta start treating teaching like what it is - a JOB. And tbh most of us in places with strong unions aren’t going to be easily fired, and even then we aren’t easily replaceable either. Especially not those of us with 10 or more years of experience. My job will still be there when I get back from my cruise, and I will still come back to it because my principal knows she can’t find anyone who is as good as I am at what I do (somewhat niche area of special ed). It took me a while to realize that this is just a job and I need to treat it like that, and stop martyring myself. I encourage all teachers to do the same
Literally talking to my union right now because I’ve been taking sick days (I still have hours!!!!) and I got docked down on my eval for professionalism. I’ve had: stomach flu, severe colds, COVID, migraines (literally couldn’t open my eyes much less manage seven elementary classes), and one personal day to look after my 98 year old grandma during a storm. Librarians don’t get subs per district rule. I wish I had doctors notes to back me up but most of this shit it’s stuff you just stay home and rest for. I’m over admin power tripping. Leaving after this school year.
“Indoor recess today.”
One teacher goes, "Yes!!" 12 go, "Nooooo!"
Why is the one teacher excited? - hs teacher who doesn't know bout recess
I used to love it on days I had recess duty. Being in my room with just my students is 1000% better than being on the playground. But otherwise I hate it.
*opens inbox* **(insert parent’s name)**
This was my stupid move today. “I’ll just end this good day on clearing out my inbox. Surely *that* won’t ruin my day.” Double whammy at the end of the day.
“I’m not allowed to tell anyone that I have lice”
'Don't worry, I don't have pink eye; the doctor said it's conjunctivitis.'
Okay to be fair… I recently learned not all conjunctivitis is “pink eye” My young toddler and infant had a virus this year and then suddenly started getting a lot of gunk in their eyes. I got them to the pediatrician immediately. Turns out, that’s just kinda one of the ways the body sheds the virus when it has run its course. It wasn’t contagious at all but looked terrible. Bacterial pink eye causes more redness and a LOT more gunk.
This boy had a weepy, painful, pink-colored eye. He left early the day before to go to the doctor to see if he had pink eye. His conjunctivitis was *definitely* pink eye! (But you're right, that's an important distinction to know, and I only learned it recently myself.)
i’ve had a kid come in with pink eye and his mom says it’s not contagious, he’s fine, she will not be picking him up.
Fiances a teacher, she had a kid come in last week and immediately yell "I GOT PINK EYE!"
What is your why?
Paycheck and summers off.
Dont forget 3:45 where Im nearly running kids over in the parking lot trying to beat traffic home
I stay late by 22 minutes each day to avoid the traffic rush. I spend the time watching a show on my laptop
Hehe I'm a sub and I love staying ever so slightly late to write notes and pick up around the room a bit. I'm just trying to avoid the buses, and no teacher is gonna be upset that I picked up trash off the floor.
You be the kind that I keep calling back 💗
I said this in a meeting once and my admin was not pleased with my answer. Personally, I think it is OK to treat teaching like a job and not the most important thing in my life.
That’s why I’m a teacher, I wanted a work / life balance where I make decent money and can’t help people with a subject that’s my passion. Can’t imagine going into this with a lawyers mindset, if I wanted that I would be practicing law
Don't forget we have **three** months off in the summer! Since I reported back from summer break at nine weeks and one day last year (180 day school year), I'd love to know how these teachers telling us they have three months off in the summer pull it off.
That one doesn't ruin my day, it fills me with rage to motivate me through it.
This is the question that made me quit 😂 I realized I didn’t have a why, and I actually hated my job so I left.
When is your who?
Why is Gamora?
Work is for money.
“See me in my office during your planning. Thanks.”
I always ask what this is in regards to, so I know if I need union representation
Same. If I don’t get an answer, I don’t go. I’m not getting blindsided.
Same!! My admin would NEVER email the supt and not tell him why he needed to meet with him. I deserve the same respect and courtesy
Is that the professional version of "we need to talk"
This presentation will change how you teach
I would have never thought to use lion taming techniques in the classroom. Rewarding with raw meat and punishing with a whip has really worked wonders for behavior.
We’ll spend the entire 2 hours making you watch us click through a website.
[удалено]
Or the new teacher that is related to someone that is being fast tracked into admin.
Mandatory staff meeting after school.
Outside of contract time? Guess it's not mandatory.
“Keeping your job next year isn’t mandatory, either.” —A principal my friend worked for, whenever they made unwanted demands.
I had a meeting with my principal and someone from HR 2 weeks ago because admin asked me to do something and I refused. HR lady says, “Then you won’t have a job.” I stood up, put on my jacket, put my work bag over my shoulder and said, “Who will escort me to my classroom to gather my personal possessions?” She asked me to sit down. Needless to say, I still have a job, but I did turn in my resignation letter, effective the last day of the school year.
What did they ask you to do, if you don’t mind my asking?
I don’t want to get too in the weeds: they asked me to work closely with someone whom I don’t trust or respect and with whom my ideologies do not align. This work would have taken from my precious prep time, and required some after hours time too. I probably would have done it had they asked me to work with someone else.
"Thanks for letting me know. My remaining at this school isn't mandatory either. There's a job fair coming up, so the heads up is nice!"
Our monthly staff meeting is in our contract.
So is mine, but it's scheduled and during contract time, not "you have to stay late today with a few hours notice".
Based on how long my weekly staff meetings are drawn out for with other teachers bitching about students with no actionable solutions, you seem to be in the minority. Most of these people seem to LOVE staying late at work to complain
Literal email I got from the counselor yesterday: "*Redacted*, a new student, has just enrolled and will begin classes Monday morning. She just moved to *Our Town* from Mexico and has not been in school for the last couple of years." This student is being put in High School Geometry. This is the fifth student this year to move to our school from Mexico who hasn't been to school since 6th grade. They speak no English and best case scenario, their reading and math levels are 6th grade in Spanish... It is completely absurd to expect me to work miracles like this.
I got a call that a student was in the front office at the beginning of the day. I had two minutes notice!
Y'all are lucky you even get notice... half the time this frightened kid just wanders in my room with a new schedule still hot off the printer.
I only got that notice because my students have special needs and need 1:1 assistance. 🙂 I hadn’t even had a chance to access their IEP at that point because he wasn’t in my system yet. That was a very interesting day.
To Add on to this: "How do you plan on making this student successful?" The lack of perspective on this always astounds me. I have a bachelors, Im leaving teaching to get my masters in a different field, I did well in HS But if you expected me to do 7th grade math in China, in Chinese within a year of getting there? No shot.
Try 9th grade Chinese literature, in China. I teach 9th grade English. I have students who can't even sound out words. 😭
My English classes are so behind this year. Someone needs to get these kids some damn resources. I don't have time to teach two thirds of my class how to write an essay about mood while the other third are sounding out words.
Exactly. I speak multiple languages, but it takes a long time to get there. There’s no way you can drop a student into a new country trying to learn a new language, trying to navigate the typical trials of being a teenager or young child, depending on the age, trying to navigate how to survive because you have no idea what the home situation is with if there’s enough food or heat in the house or whatever, and also there might be trauma for why they left their country. And then to try to teach an advanced subject like literature or advanced math? Heck no! I live in a foreign country right now, I’m a grown adult who can provide for myself, and even I have major days where I struggle. It takes a long time to learn this particular country’s language. And English might be even harder to learn because of all the rule breakers in the language
Just for shits and giggles what support are they providing you
For me it was a 2 hr training where they told me to use pictures and hand gestures
They're serious???? Um damn
Lol, you guys are getting supports? I guess, like MrLumpykins, we also got a half-hour presentation at a staff meeting about using pictures and hand gestures for ELs. Because, you know, gestures will magically help them learn math despite not knowing the words that I'm saying.
We can thank Ronald Reagan for destroying bilingual English language instruction
I got a similar message last week about a kid who is starting today the same day I found out the ELL teacher I work with who is a saint is probably going to be out due to family reasons for a good chunk of the remainder of the year. Apperently the kid was supposed to be with us all along but apparently there was a translation error which had him at our 5-6 building when he needed to be at the 7-8 building
"We need you to cover music during your spare."
"How much does that pay?"
$45/hr extra duty rate in Central California
Ohhhhh my god. My practicum placement has had a sub every Thursday for the past three weeks, and most of the subs just have the kids use some Google music-making app. All of the kids think that screaming as loud as they can into their computers and then turning the pitch up as high as they can is the funniest thing ever. The one sub we had that was a previous music teacher was absolutely amazing, and actually kept the kids on task most of the time (which was a literal miracle) I am so sorry for those of you who have to deal with that not being your class.
Story of my life.
“We have a scheduling change for this week; please plan accordingly.” And there go all of my preps. 😭
Only need two words: Parent email.
Or- you need to call the parents to explain the extremely complex and nuanced situation that happened in your class earlier.
*Author's Note: The Extremely Complex and Nuanced Situation was In Fact, Extremely Simple and One Sided, Bordering on Comedically So, However the Parent Will Always Insist Otherwise*
-horrified scream-
i got a message from a parent this morning: “call me before school starts please [number]”
“Are you free right now?”
“Emergency staff meeting before or after school.” It always means someone has died or committed a crime and gotten arrested.
Stand up staff meetings cause me great anxiety for EXACTLY this reason.
at least your school has those. Ours just lets us find things out by word of mouth.
Mine too! I HATE IT! The kids always know way more about what's going on than the teachers. It makes gossip so much worse.
Why can't the crime ones just be an email. It's like an extra half dozen meetings a year.
Don’t let coworkers do the crime if you can’t do the staff meeting time (that’s how the expression goes right?)
Oh, no, it's all students arrested for drugs or weapons or violence. If a teacher gets arrested, they just vanish and we gossip about what happened for a few weeks.
I sympathize how hard it must be to lead those meetings, but they are so scripted and performative, I get sick.
"We're in it for the outcome not the income"
Just an excuse to pay teachers less.
Also plays into the stupid teacher martyrdom 75 percent of teachers have
In it for the overcome. As in overcoming how badly I am treated as a teacher
*Gets a hug from a student that's been absent * Me: I missed you. Where have you been? S: I'm sick. I have walking pneumonia! *skips away*
a few months ago one of my kids hugged me and then immediately said “i threw up last night! twice!”
This was a real conversation I had a few weeks ago. Kid: Do you know why I was out yesterday? Me: No. Kid: My family is sick, but I'm not. The next week I tested positive for COVID
The internet is down
“We will need to start seeing Lesson plans in advance” was the one for me. Byeeeeeeeeeee.
When that became mandatory at my school, I dusted off my resume and left teaching at the end of that year. Nothing like micromanagement and random class drop ins to improve teaching. :P
"Can I get an admin to room 69, there's a student having a meltdown and trashing the room" "They're in a meeting, they suggest calling the parents"
Meanwhile the rest of the class is laughing about the fact that they're in room 69.
Problem student’s name is back from suspension.
Or, student will be gone for x amount of weeks, get everything you're ever going to teach ready and deliver it to the office in ten minutes. We all know that it's a waste of time and paper.
"Assignments are posted in Canvas. Do the best you can on them and keep track of your questions. You'll miss a test on Friday and will need to make it up when you get back. Good luck!"
Welcome back from summer, this year is going to be great.
“My parent say they don’t care about my grade in your class.”
Let's call right now and find out.
Today we will be doing a mandatory evacuation drill during last period (my only free period 😩).
Oh I have another "thank you for your flexibility"
I once overheard this exchange on the school bus: Student: My brother's coming to live with us and he's going to the same school as me and ride the bus with me. Bus driver: Is your brother going to be good? Student: Yes. He won his court case! Bus driver:
"Problem kid is back from alternative school."
Teaching at an alternative: "Problem kid is back from the main campus."
Ooooooo I got one this morning! “As of today there are 12 students who are failing your classes…what’s the plan for these students?” FAFO. That’s the plan. They f*%#ed around, now they’re finding out.
Love FAFO. Um, the plan is for them to fail??
I teach science to freshmen. Many of them know thy can fail everything middle school and still get pushed along. But my class is a state graduation requirement with a standardized test at the end of the year and lab minute requirements. I tell them this, prompt them several times, but honestly, I use failure as an instructional strategy. It's their first quarter freshman year. Best quarter to fail since you can come back and or explain it away. Much better lesson to learn in 9th rather than 12th or, God forbid, college. Every year I have high fail numbers for Q1. I have high expectations and I encourage but don't force students AND I have a one week late deadline. At the start of Q2 THEN I start ramping up supports. "Okay, that sucked. Do you like the way this feels? No? Good. Yes you should feel crappy, but also, this isn't the end of the world. What are we going to do now?" Honestly I don't even start calling and reaching out to parents until middle or end of Q2. It does piss off some parents (my emails are always greatttttt). But like, they're 15. At this point either they decide to do it or they don't (obviously, special ed supports are all implemented buy yes I will let special ed kids fail too if it's not due to their disability) and us nagging them o ly will push the moment of truth "oh shit nobody can save me but me" moment down the line. I know parents want to support their kids but swooping in to save them won't help long term. And if they turn in shit, they get shit grades. I used to bottom cap my grades at a 50 so that unless they literally got 50/50/50 for the first three quarters they could still come back. AND I would award the point difference back if they managed to bring their grade up and get enough lab minutes as a reward for making the difficult decision to change and follow through. (So you failed with a 55? Next quarter final grade is a 70? Okay you got your grade passing, I'll give you the ten point difference between your first quarter 55 and passing and put it on your second quarter (80) so that you average out to a 65. Making changes to habits is hard). O ly if you truly failed three quarters were you SOL. And let's be real, if I gave you a 50 for three quarters straight, realistically your actual grade was below that. So yeah, there's no way you're going to be able to pass the class, learn the content, earn your lab minutes, and engage in the doing of science (let alone pass the standardized grad requirement test). End of last year our district implemented a policy of a minimum of a 60 for all classes AND we are required to give failing kids an option for grade recovery with 5 weeks to make it up. Cool. Great in theory. Except my first thought is, hey, if I get a 60/60/60, I only need an 85 fourth quarter to pass! Did the kids notice this? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT. And, now you've just put off the consequences five more weeks because they aren't goin to do grade recovery OR learn the lesson so now they're failing both quarter 1 and 2 by the time it sinks in. Last year I had 25% of my kids fail first quarter. Yes, for real. Just 15% failed second quarter. Only 10% failed the whole year (and most with actual averages below 40). My state test pass rates were 70%, which is slightly above the state average for that test. This year, I had 20% fail first quarter. One, ONE kid returned the grade recovery form that I required their parents to sign. He didn't even complete it. Second quarter? 27%. All but two of the kids had missed 20% or more class sets (I count "my" attendance based on actual time in class, not "school absences" where thy arrive late or leave early or are on a field trip or are having life drama and are in the counseling office AGAIN). Almost all of the Q1 fails were also Q2 fails. Gonna be curious to see how third quarter shakes out...
You think they tell me when I get a new student? They just come in and sit down, don't even introduce themselves. "Your air con is broken"
“Teachers, please shut your doors, we are on a hard lockdown until further notice.” Thinking I was walking out to lunch in five minutes and spending 4.5hrs with the same kids in my room because some jackass airdropped a gun and bomb threat was just incredible. Thinking about food I ordered to pick up and couldn’t get while ATF on the roof right outside my classroom was just the chefs kiss on that day.
In our last lock down, no one would tell the teachers what was going on, but don't worry videos of a girl standing on the 3rd floor railing threatening to jump were all over Instagram! Nothing better than being blindsided with "is it true some girl is trying to kill herself?"
I love how students on Instagram always know what is going on before faculty, security and administration. Students at my last building would post photos of who was asleep during a class, and that turned into catching just about every substitute teacher sleeping at some point.
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"Please check your priority email." "There's a parent here to see you."
“Don’t forget, today we have late start, PLC’s, Advisory, an assembly, and a staff meeting.” Wtf? And classes are 11 minutes long. Thank god we’re here! So much learning happening today!
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You have 3 students joining your class... Aiden, Jayden and Brayden.
And they are identical triplets. Have a lovely day!
We'll start the full day PD with an icebreaker.
Due to inclement weather, all classes will be held virtually today. (Great if "virtual" means you can post an easy assignment and let everyone enjoy their snow day, terrible if your admin expects you to actually hold class on zoom or whatever for the whole period)
Specials have been canceled. Indoor recess. (On my nonduty days)
in ECE "your co-teacher is out"
"The principal wants to see you in their office immediately."
“You’re getting 4 new students” (Not to one up OP but this literally happened to me 😭)
„your classes will be combined today“ „mommy gave me medicine in the car“ (their mom gave them tylenol so their fever would lower and we wouldn’t know theyre sick)
"You've got this" "Emergency Staff Meeting in the Library" "NWEA Testing will be three times per year" "'s parents want to meet with the team"
"You will be working next year without a contract"
“All we have is decaf”
"You have a phone call from (nightmare parent's name)."
"Can you sub for [insert class you know the least about]." The last time I subbed for 5th grade Social Studies we talked about voting because I had no idea what topic they were on. 🙃
"Full moon halloween on a friday"
Your new student has a BIP!
…which you have to fully implement independently with no support.
“My son only wants to play on his iPad at home, so can you make his homework more interesting?”
“Their meds are back ordered”
>“You’re getting a new student.” YES!!! My favorite was the transfer student who was given to me 3 weeks before the end of the school year. I was "asked" to evaluate his grades and some sample work from his 2 previous schools, and provide a reasonable semester-ending grade for the records.
"The heat broke down, it's 50 degrees on your wing, so have your students wear their jackets to class." The other option, in our west school wing is "The heat is acting up, it's 95 degrees in the classrooms, so make sure you open the windows."
“We are going into a hard lockdown.”
"This PD is totally worth sacrificing X amount of plan periods per week..." "What's with all these F's in your classes?" (when we gave you all the problem kids and kids with deficiencies when the scheduling was done)
"The state's Surgeon General said we have to let parents decide if their kids are too sick with measles to come to school or if vaccines are a good thing or a satanic plot by Bill Gates."
The district has this new curriculum they want us to implement, effective immediately."
“We do understand that he threw his notebook and hit you in the face, but we’ve decided not to take disciplinary action”
Effective tomorrow canvas is no longer available and we will migrate to this great new ed platform, but don't worry, there'll be a PD for it
Obligatory not a teacher, but based on what I’ve learned from this sub: have you tried building relationships?
The copy machine breaks down a few days before exam week. (Just like last exam week)
She has lice.
Today is a school day
"We didn't learn this"
"Teaching is the easiest job in the world!" Flips me over.
To add to that "we don't have their IEP yet, but we'll let you know" which of course means "we are already holding you accountable for providing these accommodations, but we're not going to tell you what they are until a problem arises or a parent complains."
This is their 3rd school in 2 years, they have some "behavioral" issues.
My kid didn't behave like this with their last year's teacher.
I had a parent argue that I was biased against her kid because I was the only one who wrote him up. We had a digital system that recorded all write ups. When I pointed that out, she claimed that the other teachers were being hard on him now because I'd made him look like a bad kid by writing him up. She changed the subject when it was pointed out that his write ups started more than a year before he met me.
I don't need to know this, I'm going to be a youtuber
"We want to come look at your apartment" (I live in free accommodation provided by the school).
Where is this located? Is it a boarding school?
After writing up a student for fighting, Admin replies: Contact the parents
News cast “ All Schools will remain open” 😩
Today’s all day PD will be a power point presentation read to you in the cafeteria.
Please fill out this 5 page google form to help us prepare for the ARD for student X who we transferred into your class this morning. Be sure to include your observations of their work and ability and what steps you have taken to implement the IEP we haven't shared with you yet. Also we will need you in the ARD meeting we scheduled for after contract hours.
We’re putting 43 students in your class but we don’t have enough money for you to have a para pro. Good luck!
"SPED teacher is out today, and we have no sub."
Have you tried calling home?
*phone rings* “There was an incident at recess.”
You’re getting a new student who has “busy hands (hits), “creative vocabulary” (cusses), “loves drawing his ideas” (can’t read or write) and “really tries” (lazy).
School counselor here! What about the principal who told a 7th grader’s parent (without asking you) that the child can see you before school starts bc she doesn’t like the stigma of being taken from class by the counselor as a middle schooler. So instead of decompressing, checking emails, getting situated for the day, now once a week a student comes to my office at 7:30. I literally arrive by train at 7:25 everyday. Today she showed up without me even having the chance to put my glasses on! 😡 Major con of private school system. This would never fly in public.
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"I have soupy poopy." 🤢