u/Brief_Efficiency_833

I’m becoming more and more convinced a majority of kids don’t actually understand jokes yet 😭
(well, at least a lot of the students in the K - 3 age range I teach!) idk if this is an obviously known fact to everyone else, but as someone with no kids of my own, I never had a reason to notice/think about this until I started teaching

The first time this realization dawned on me was in my first year of teaching. One day in my 2nd grade reading class, a student walked in carrying a joke book he was reading for fun. During break time, I asked him to pick a random page to read a few jokes out loud to the class, and they all got a grand ol giggle in before returning back to classwork.
Before the class session ended, I told em a classic "what did one ___ say to the other?" joke. You would've thought my classroom was the Apollo and I just performed the greatest comedy set of all time with the laughter I got 🤣😭 once the dust settled, some kids felt inspired and tried cracking their OWN jokes .... THIS was the exact moment it first hit me
"hey uh wait a sec, they all have NO idea how jokes work"

Every single kiddo who tried, even the one with the joke book, spewed out complete nonsense 😫 not some abstract, absurdist "nonsense" that's funny for some deeper conceptual reason, ohhhh no no no, literally just random (honestly mad-lib coded) sentences which ALL failed to make a lick of sense. Didn't matter to them tho!!!
They all laughed at each other's jokes like a pack of hyenas. I couldn't bring myself to rain on their parade and break their little hearts by telling em none of it made any sense.

THEN, last Halloween (with a completely different class of 1st graders btw), I showed them how Laffy Taffys have jokes on the back, and BOOM same situation repeats: they collectively lose it at the jokes, they try out their OWN jokes, all the joke attempts make ZERO sense, the crowd goes WILD anyway!! that's when I knew my "hypothesis" here wasn't a fluke LOL

Some of em are soooooo close to getting it too 🤏 like they understand there's some sort of structure/setup to a joke that needs to be followed and it's their job to fill in the blanks, BUT they just don't understand the concept of a punchline yet 🙂‍↔️ maybe next year lol

btw btw I'm NOT mentioning this to judge them or call them unfunny behind their backs, this is NOT a complaint! tbh, it's infinitely more endearing than anything + I wanted to share my observation ~
I'm not the comedy police writing up tickets for their lack of funny material LOL
Feels good to know I can be even MORE confident cracking jokes in class now because I as long as my delivery is good, they'll find anything I say hilarious 🙌

Any of y'all who teach in this age range noticed this as well? or does anyone have opposing testimonies LOL like maybe a student who was actually super clever/witty with their jokes??

sooo like usual, a little context first: I've been teaching early reading (K- 3) and phonics for nearly 3 years now, but this is my first year working my current position at a learning center-ish/after school program, and this is also going to be my first ever year having to teach summer school 😵🙃

I'm going into this alrdy knowing full well basically NOBODY is going to want to be in that classroom ... ^(including me) ^(lowkey) 😅😭 the students will know it's summer, I'll know it's summer, and I genuinely just cannot picture a world where these kids don't walk in every single day ready to act a fool solely because they know it's summer and they'd rather be literally anywhere else 🫠
to other educators on here who've been through the wringer of summer school before: can y'all pls provide any tips, or atp "survival strategies," lol they would be SO welcome rn 🙏

while I'm sitting here (just previewing my summer curriculum btw 🙄), I am simultaneously seeing other teachers out there making travel plans, booking trips, talking about what they're going to do with AAAALLLLL THEIR FREE TIME ... I can't help but feel like the real life version of that meme of Squidward looking out his window to see SpongeBob and Patrick having the time of their lives outside 🪟😩

Tbh the funniest part of all this to me is: when I was younger, I used to look at my teachers every month leading up to summer break and think "wow teaching must be such a cool job, I mean you basically get the same summer break as the kids!!" I never really had intentions of going into education either, yet somehow, somewhere along the way ... here I am!!! And the ONE perk that made me think "y'know what, okay yeah! this job actually doesn't sound so bad!" as a kid ... I don't even get it 😂💀
CLEARLY I need to lock down a big boy/girl job at a public school for the summers and you know ... the #BENEFITS ✨🙌🤣

ANYWAY for all the teachers out there who DO get a summer break this year, I'm begging you to tell me what you're planning to do with your time so I can at least attempt to live vicariously through y'all 🙏😭
Do a lot of you actually travel/go on big trips? maybe some of y'all hibernate for two months straight like a bear?? does anyone find themselves having to pick up a completely different job???

okay obviously I'm not the first educator to point this out smh BUT it's been truly dawning on me now more than ever, I genuinely am starting to think learned helplessness is one of the biggest problems in schools atm 😭🏳️

I swear some students would actually rather sit there in complete silence for 45 minutes than read the directions for 15 seconds🧍‍♂️📝
like srsly I feel like I've been having to beg some of these kids to just TRY doing SOMETHING first before they immediately decide they’re confused and incapable of doing anything. the amount of times I’ve walked over to help a student with their hand up, only for their “problem” to be instantly solved the moment I actually read the literal first sentence on the page ... omg 🤦‍♂️

btw their assignments aren’t ever anything crazy difficult either!! I’ll hand out something that's honestly rather basic and before they’ve even read like 4 words, I will already hear at least one
^(“I don’t get ittttt”) 😭✋
meanwhile the directions are LITERALLY RIGHT there in front of their faces

I can’t even tell anymore if it’s learned helplessness, a fear of being wrong, attention span issues, or maybe some of them have just gotten so used to a stream of constant step-by-step guidance that independent thinking now feels overwhelming to them 🫠🧠 tbh probably a wonderful cocktail of all these lol
idk maybe I’m being dramatic and feeling extra frustrated today about it lol but I feel like this has gotten WAAAAAY worse over the past few years

I know some other teachers have def noted and mentioned this too, but does anyone else feel like a MAJORITY of their kids have at least a SLIGHT problem with this now????
have any of y'all found literally anything that can help these students become more confident/independent again pls!! because they are not going to have an easy time in the future if this keeps up😅

Yeeellllooo everybody!! 👋👋
just for some quick context: I currently teach phonics and early reading (K - 3) at a learning center. lately, I've really been thinking quite hard about the books my students are being assigned to read in class. I'm hoping to make some tweaks in their current curriculum, and have been wondering whether two of my absolute childhood favorites (Magic Tree House & Goosebumps) could actually work for my students! 🤔

Magic Tree House I honestly already feel pretty confident about!! nearly 100% tbh
the reading levels seems to line up rly nicely with my G2 and G3 kiddos, and I think the whole time travel + history angle in this series is EXACTLY the type of hook that would (hopefully) make even the most reluctant of readers eager to know what happens next lol
Would love to hear from anyone who's maybe used it in a classroom setting before or possibly even just seen their own kid go through the series!! 🤗🤗

okay but Goosebumps tho ... this is where I start to lose confidence a bit 😭😭😭 smh
I absolutely ADORED these books sooooo much growing up!!! .. buuuuut I'd legitimately be LYING if I sat here and said that I NEVER felt at least a tinge of genuine fear as a child while reading a couple of them 😅😨
I actually have a whole embarrassing, but funny, childhood story about this ^ exact topic that I plan to share with my students if I ever get the chance to read Goosebumps with them one day 😂 but if not, I suppose that story will just have to work as a silly ice breaker/opener instead lol
anyway, mb that's enough of my personal tangent, back to the book itself!! ~
skill level wise, it appears Goosebumps would be best fit for G3 out of all my classes ... but honestly my real worry here is not even about the reading level.
My actual cause for concern when it comes to this series is: I fear some parents may freak out seeing their 8 year old come home with a Goosebumps book??💀😓 not too sure how parent perception of this series is nowadays tbh

okay also, BEFORE I GET HIT WITH AN AUTOMATIC "NO" ON THESE BOOKS, HEAR ME OUT A LIL 😭 🫸☝️ what if I saved a ^(less-spooky) Goosebumps book specifically for October?? like I treat it as a Halloween reading unit of sorts?? would that be a reasonable enough justification 🫣 or am I still reaching here lol

I'm essentially here to ask if anyone else here has ever had success with either of these book series in a classroom??
and for Goosebumps specifically, I'm looking for any parent reactions to my thought process: good or bad?? yay or nay?? what do y'all think?
I really really want to bring my childhood love of reading into my classes .. but also really REALLY DON'T want to open my email one day only to find an angry parent message waiting for me and it reading about how their kid had a nightmare + it's all my fault + I'm a terrible person for it + I need to be fired for this😭😭

😪🫩 sometimes it genuinely baffles me LOOOL
it's truly a uniquely comical, almost hurtful type of pain to clearly explain a task, then ask if everyone understood, immediately receive a very confident "YES!!" from the entire class, only to finally watch as every single student begins doing something that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what I was just talking about 😐😐😐

like WHERE did I possibly lose y'all?!?
At WHAT point did the directions you were JUST actively listening to suddenly (and completely) evaporate from your tiny child brains?!? 😭😭

and honestly, tbf ... because I teach K - 3 and most of my students are in that age range, I get it and never get too frustrated about it happening 🙂‍↕️ If this was happening with a room full of high schoolers tho ... yeeeaaah I would be sooo ready to quit LOL

the best part about it is honestly the CONFIDENCE these kiddos got 🤣 there's actually something really pure and wonderfully unbothered about the way these kids will 1. say "yes! 🫡" then 2. immediately launch into working on their own completely original interpretation of the task (which almost always has nothing to do with the actual task at hand)

lately, I even started calling on one student (at random) after everybody claims to understand directions. I'll ask him/her to explain the directions back to me ... it's been a solid 50/50 shot they either nail it or end up describing something from a completely different dimension 😭😭

I think this one of those predicaments where I'm not even rly holding onto hope that it gets better 🙃😅 this might just be the way things are with kids this age LOOOL

😪🫩 sometimes it genuinely baffles me LOOOL
it's truly a uniquely comical, almost hurtful type of pain to clearly explain a task, then ask if everyone understood, immediately receive a very confident "YES!!" from the entire class, only to finally watch as every single student begins doing something that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what I was just talking about 😐😐😐

like WHERE did I possibly lose y'all?!?
At WHAT point did the directions you were JUST actively listening to suddenly (and completely) evaporate from your tiny child brains?!? 😭😭

and honestly, tbf ... because I teach K - 3 and most of my students are in that age range, I get it and never get too frustrated about it happening 🙂‍↕️ If this was happening with a room full of high schoolers tho ... yeeeaaah I would be sooo ready to quit LOL

the best part about it is honestly the CONFIDENCE these kiddos got 🤣 there's actually something really pure and wonderfully unbothered about the way these kids will 1. say "yes! 🫡" then 2. immediately launch into working on their own completely original interpretation of the task (which almost always has nothing to do with the actual task at hand)

lately, I even started calling on one student (at random) after everybody claims to understand directions. I'll ask him/her to explain the directions back to me ... it's been a solid 50/50 shot they either nail it or end up describing something from a completely different dimension 😭😭

I think this one of those predicaments where I'm not even rly holding onto hope that it gets better 🙃😅 this might just be the way things are with kids this age LOOOL

Some days I am honestly just sooooooooo ready to quit omg HAHAHAHAAHA (forcing laughter rn to cope)
I just had a parent tell me their kid was "just being a kid" after I had to give a phone call home to describe in detail what he did in class today 😭😭😭

SUUUUURE, JUST A KID!! 😂
yuuup totally just a regular, well behaved kid who threw a pencil at another student🤣🤣
surely it was just good ol typical kid behavior when he told me he didn't have to listen to me because I'm "^(not his real teacher)" 😐😐😐
ooooo and of course how could I forget!! everybody’s favorite shared memory as normal kids: making loud disruptive animal noises ^(every single time) the teacher tries to speak 🙊🙉

The part that’s rly killing me about this whole ordeal is I came ready with RECEIPTS for this call
I didn’t just say "hello, your child misbehaved *again* today in my class"
oh no no no, I gave timestamps   -   “at 12:22 he was standing on his chair quite literally just hooting and hollering” 
I gave quotes   -   “he said verbatim ‘you’re not even my real teacher, why would I listen to you’”
I gave a scene by scene breakdown   -   “so yeah after he stood in his chair and disrupted the entire class, a fellow classmate kindly asked him to calm down, and that’s when he decided to throw his pencil at his classmate”
ALL OF THIS only to receive this brilliant response back: “Well, he's just a kid. Kids do that."

LOOOOOOOOOOOOL but do they tho?!?🤔🤔
bc I have 6 (SIX) other kids in this very same class who somehow managed to survive through that entire lesson without doing any of that
Perhaps those students are just not kids or something huh?? Maybe I’ve been tricked into teaching tiny adults or some interplanetary species of alien this whole time?!?!?

idk I feel like I’m LOSING MY MIND anytime I have to deal with parents nowadays …. 
It just blows my mind how I am younger than most of these parents, yet I feel like it’s ME who is always the the more responsible adult and ME who somehow has a better grasp on what it takes to be a “good parent”

I love teaching 🙃 this is my passion👍
I love teaching! 😭😭😭  this is my passion! ✨🙌💕 
I LOVE TEACHING!!!!!!  ヾ(｡ꏿ﹏ꏿ)ﾉﾞ
THIS IS MY PASSION!!!!!!!  (┛✧Д✧))┛彡┻━┻

Yelloooo y'all, relatively new-ish teacher here, and I'm looking for any app/tool/resource recommendations y'all may have because I feel like I'm missing out on SO much rn 😭😒

For some context: I teach phonics and early reading (K-3) at a learning center. I'm obviously not the only teacher there; however, the vibe at this place is pretty much: everyone shows up, they teach their class(es), then they immediately dip smh 🙂‍↔️🙂‍↔️
so yeah sure there's technically other teachers around ... but sadly nobody really talks to each other or shares ideas. so when it comes to finding out what tools and resources are actually worth using as an educator, I've kinda just been figuring it out on my own as I go lol

The most recent example of this is how I JUST finally got an Epic account after going back and forth with myself on it for waaaayy too long. Now I'm lowkey annoyed at myself for waiting because it's already gotten some of my students way more in reading at home. I absolutely love to see it, but I hate that I waited so long 😭😭😭

Some other resources I'm already using are Canva for making materials the kids are actually excited to look at, occasionally TPT for content, and Planboard to help with my lesson planning/organization. I feel like these are some of the most basic, well-known options out there lol but all three have been solid so far for me!!!

I feel like there's probably a TON of stuff that I just don't know about yet, so I'd love ANY recommendations pls!! Especially any tools that can help with specifically:

- Classroom management

- Organization and planning (even tho I find Planboard helpful I think I need more, organizing is my personal achilles heel lol)

- Assigning reading content to students

- Grading or collecting assignments and tracking student work

- FREE worksheets or activity packets (can never be upset about a $free.99 price tag)

Pretty much, if you use it and like it please tell me about it!! 🙏
I'm all ears at the moment and open to any suggestions you may have found personally helpful in the past 🤗🤗

This may sound a lil controversial, but hear me out for a sec, if you still think I'm reaching after then feel free to lmk:
I'm starting to feel like some kids say they ^(“hate reading”) (and shut down any time reading is involved) but what they ACTUALLY rly hate is the feeling of struggling in front of other people 🤔💭

For any struggling young reader, getting called on to read out loud during class probably feels like they just got selected for the Hunger Games 🙋😭
and I bet it doesn't ease their stress at all when the kid has peers in class who are blurting out the words before he/she can even finish sounding em out,
OR everybody else in class is just silently staring waiting on him/her to finish,
THEN it prob rly does feel like everyone in the room is judging all their tiny lil mistakes and mentally clowning on the kid 😓 so at that point, the child is probably jus thinking "no one can make fun of my reading if I just don't ever read"

I came to this conclusion in my head after an experience I had with a kid just like this in one of my previous classes.
he literally just WOULD NOT read aloud no matter what. it didn’t matter how much encouragement, support, low-pressure prompting or even *empty* consequence threats I tried. It was just complete silence🤫 and blank staring😐 from him. literally every .single. time.

At first I thought this was just the typical "I don't wanna do it" refusing attitude, but then during his last week of class, there was a day where he stayed a few min after class to ask about homework.
I was lowkey confused how he even really does the homework in the first place, since a large portion of it IS independent reading, so there in that moment I asked him (genuinely, not even trying to be rude)
“Can you read???”
he looked at me like it was a dumb question then meekly said “yeah” so I wrote a sentence on the board and asked him to read it
lo and behold, when nobody else was around, he read it decently well 🤯 (not perfect and still in a super quiet voice, but at that point I will take ANY W lol)

That experience honestly changed the way I look at these types of situations! I realize now that some kids shutting down around reading is more of like an instinctive defense mechanism of sorts. Like they'd rather refuse to read outright because it saves them from running the risk of feeling embarrassed in front of the entire class

Maybe this is something everybody else here has already figured out way before me and I'm yapping my thoughts for no reason LOL, but idk it definitely changed the way I think about and approach my struggling readers in my classes

So now I'm curious if y'all have found anything that actually helps kids like this build confidence without them feeling put on the spot all the time??? How do you get a student like this to feel comfortable enough to at least TRY the read alouds and hopefully realize that nobody is out to embarrass them? If y'all got any tips for working with students like this, pls leave em down below, I could def use some

Yelloooo y'all, just looking for some input on the question in my title!!! ^^

Quick context: I teach phonics as well as early reading (K - 3) at a learning center.
Few reasons I needa bring this context up:

1. I sadly do not have any sort of official educator email provided to me by this job, therefore I am NOT eligible to create a free Educator account with Epic and would have to pay for membership🤦🤦
2. Recommending good reading resources to the parents of my students is something that comes up pretty frequently for me

Earlier this week, a fellow reading teacher peer of mine made an offhand suggestion about Epic, and mentioned how he uses it at home with his own kid to read. That got me thinking ...🤔 this teacher has A LOT of experience, and if he is a fan of that app, I feel like there's gotta be something special about it

I'd definitely heard the name Epic before (and was alrdy aware it was a different Epic than the gaming one lol), but genuinely never cared about it enough to ever look into it. but yesterday, I finally did some research, and now I'm actually super interested.
I feel like it would be perfect for occasional use during a class read aloud to help make the books more interactive for the kids, and to randomly spice things up a bit. It also might just be the perfect thing to recommend to all the parents who ask me for book recommendations for their kids!!

after looking online, I mean the app LOOKS like it's super impressive and useful!!! buuut I also feel like EVERY app ever looks impressive and useful .. until you actually use it 😭😭😭😭
idk it almost seems suspiciously good with all of the features they mention, so I'm airing on the side of caution and skepticism right now.
trying not to get toooooo excited to buy it until AFTER I hear from people who've ACTUALLY been there and done that (aka used the app [Epic] themselves)

I also want to say upfront rly quickly: I know physical books will always be superior, I'm not trying to go digital only, ESPECIALLY never in the classroom. but consider this part, I cannot afford to buy thousands of physical books. so you must understand the fact that Epic is claiming to have 40,000+ titles is at the very least catching my attention right now👀 (any users know if that number from their site is actually real btw? or is that like one of those "technically if you count every single worksheet" situations LOOL)

So PLEASE, pls for anyone who's actually used Epic 🙏 I need to hear your thoughts and opinions!!
Whether you used it as a parent or an educator, it doesn't matter to me!

- are the books on there actually GOOD books or is it mostly random filler? like does it actually have most of the common book series that kids get excited to read?
- is the 40,000 books number claim legit? lol
- do the kids actually enjoy using it?? is it making reading more fun for them or does it feel homework-y to them??
- is there anything I need to know before signing up?

I srsly wanna hear ALLL y'all takes on this: good experiences, bad moments, mixed feelings, ALL OF IT just lmk
I am trying to figure out the #realdeal behind Epic before I fully commit to anything!!

^(I'm only asking this question to protect my own sanity atp so hear me out real quick pls 😭😭)
Important context: I've been teaching phonics and early reading (K - 3 age range) at this learning center for a teeny bit under a year now. I teach a few phonics classes, as well as a few reading classes which are either grade 2 or grade 3.
Recently, my G2 classes were assigned the BFG (Roald Dahl) as their new book for their fiction unit ... I was already kinda hesitant about this choice of book when it was initially handed to me, and now that we're a few weeks in, I'm genuinely wondering if whoever on the admin staff put this curriculum together has ever actually read the book or if they even have the slightest clue what a typical 2nd grade reading level looks like 🙄

After witnessing the kids struggle with the book and then feeling insecure that maybe it was somehow my fault, I did a tiny bit of googling to find that the publisher recommends the book for ages 8 - 12 (which is like grade 3 – grade 7) ... now I know these recommendations aren't strict guidelines, but my students are only 7 YEAS OLD🤦🤦

When I spend class time reading the book aloud to them, I can visibly see most of them struggling just to follow along and the other ^(lowkey more insane part) of it all, is that these kids are expected to independently read 2 chapters and then complete a few related worksheet pages on a WEEKLY basis for HOMEWORK

It's come to the point where I feel like I HAVE to say something or else these poor kids are going to be scared of books after this class and I don't want them blaming me for it 😭😭😭

Don't get me wrong either, I actually love the BFG and think it's a solid book (practically all Roald Dahl books are valid classics imo)!!

but I just feel like 1. wanting the kids to experience a classic book is a very, VERY different thing from 2. that book actually being the right fit at their current reading level for independent reading

Am I in the wrong here?? Has anyone ever had to teach the BFG to a group of 2nd graders? I mean maybe not bc that's pretty specific 😂🤣 BUT if y'all are already familiar with the book or just take a look at the pages, does it seem like its manageable for 7 year olds?

I'm really hoping this is just a case of the curriculum being put together by someone who simply picked the book because they heard it was a classic or saw it on a top 10 kid's books list lol

Alrighty for context: over the past few years I've been teaching phonics and early reading (K-3) at a few different after school learning centers that are local to me and haven't ever taught at a public school (I'm p sure I've started with some variation of this phrase in my last like 5 posts I may as well make a copypaste for it 😭😭)

One thing I've noticed lately is that in my conversations with my students whenever they return back to my classes after a school break, they nearly always say that they had an amazing, carefree, homework-less break (which is HOW IT SHOULD BE btw!!)
This + us being on the cusp of summer break ^(wooooo) had me thinking: do public school teachers still assign homework over breaks?

I know summer break is always homework free since kids are transitioning up a grade level, but I 1000% vividly remember being younger in school and pretty consistently receiving homework assignments/projects from my teachers during MOST of my other breaks (spring, thanksgiving, winter).
I used to be pretty unenthused about this to say the least LOL it definitely used to irk me a lil bit as a kid knowing that part of my glorious break would be wasted on school work 😔🥀💔 so I'm definitely internally cheering for my students whenever they say their break was homework free, feels like a mini win for my child self too somehow lol

Guess I just wanted to hear from y'all who got the big boy/big girl jobs at public schools, are y'all still assigning work to your kids during breaks? Would love to hear some takes on this so I can get a better idea of all angles!! Do you think it's worth it or just a massive stress inducer??

--- side note: as I reread this to make sure it's fine before posting, I lowkey had a war flashback to the ONE TIME I ACTUALLY DID RECEIVE A SUMMER BREAK HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT omg 😫 it was the summer going into junior year of hs ... was taking AP lang that year and for whatever evil, wicked reason, they forced all students enrolling in it to read Of Mice and Men and complete an entire like 30 page packet of worksheets that accompanied it during the summer before as like an "application" of sorts to see who could handle the class. that was super whack .. can't believe I had to end one of my last summer breaks ever with Lennie picturing that dream farm 😭😭😭

Alrighty for context: over the past few years I've been teaching phonics and early reading (K-3) at a few different after school learning centers that are local to me and haven't ever taught at a public school (I'm p sure I've started with some variation of this phrase in my last like 5 posts I may as well make a copypaste for it 😭😭)

One thing I've noticed lately is that in my conversations with my students whenever they return back to my classes after a school break, they nearly always say that they had an amazing, carefree, homework-less break (which is HOW IT SHOULD BE btw!!)
This + us being on the cusp of summer break ^(wooooo) had me thinking: do public school teachers still assign homework over breaks?

I know summer break is always homework free since kids are transitioning up a grade level, but I 1000% vividly remember being younger in school and pretty consistently receiving homework assignments/projects from my teachers during MOST of my other breaks (spring, thanksgiving, winter).
I used to be pretty unenthused about this to say the least LOL it definitely used to irk me a lil bit as a kid knowing that part of my glorious break would be wasted on school work 😔🥀💔 so I'm definitely internally cheering for my students whenever they say their break was homework free, feels like a mini win for my child self too somehow lol

Guess I just wanted to hear from y'all who got the big boy/big girl jobs at public schools, are y'all still assigning work to your kids during breaks? Would love to hear some takes on this so I can get a better idea of all angles!! Do you think it's worth it or just a massive stress inducer??

--- side note: as I reread this to make sure it's fine before posting, I lowkey had a war flashback to the ONE TIME I ACTUALLY DID RECEIVE A SUMMER BREAK HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT omg 😫 it was the summer going into junior year of hs ... was taking AP lang that year and for whatever evil, wicked reason, they forced all students enrolling in it to read Of Mice and Men and complete an entire like 30 page packet of worksheets that accompanied it during the summer before as like an "application" of sorts to see who could handle the class. that was super whack .. can't believe I had to end one of my last summer breaks ever with Lennie picturing that dream farm 😭😭😭

Okay y'all sooo I need some advice on how to handle a parent conversation pls

For context: I teach phonics and early reading at an after school program, and rn I have two brothers in the same class who are 6 and 7 (yes. haha. 6 and 7. hahaha. smh  😭😭 idk sometimes its funny) The parents put them in the same grade 2 reading class because they're only one year apart and it's prob way more convenient for pickup/dropoff which tbh I get it lol

I don't think the parents realize that one year is A LOT in early ed, especially at this early of an age! Both boys are disciplined and smart, so no problems there, it's just that the younger one is struggling to keep up. For the fiction section we are currently reading the BFG and I see him working extra hard just to barely keep up with the pace of the class. I don't think this is his fault at all tho, this is completely normal for 6 year olds!

My problem now is that I have no idea how to bring this up to the parents while making sure it doesn't come off poorly. I think they genuinely believe that because the boys are close in age it shouldn't matter but that's just not true 🤦 Oh and to make things a little trickier, English isn't the parents' first language so communication is already meh. I'm nervous that something will get lost in translation😬😬

Has anyone else ever had to talk with parents like this? Pls help if you have any tips or ideas!!
Like how do I explain concepts like this to the parents and especially when there's a language barrier too?

also pls excuse any bad grammar or spelling, I tried making this post earlier elsewhere and somehow got accused of AI 😂😂😂😂 so now I'm literally intentionally trying to get rid of good writing habits and big words on here to seem #real, no more commas, capitals, and complex sentences allowed I guess

Okay y'all sooo I need some advice on how to handle a parent conversation I've kinda been putting off lol

For some context: I help teach phonics and early reading at an after school program, and I teach two brothers in the same class who are 6 and 7 (yes. haha. 6 and 7. hahaha. smh the kids say it alllllll the time, now it has even infected me 😭😭😭) The parents have them in the same grade 2 reading class because they're only a year apart and I bet it's also probably way more convenient for pickup/dropoff, which tbh I genuinely get lol

But here's the problem: one year is A LOT in early ed, especially at this early of an age. Both boys are actually well behaved and bright kids, so that's not the issue at all. It's just that the younger one is visibly struggling to keep up. For our fiction portion we are currently reading the BFG, and I see him working harder than he should have to just to follow along. The content is a bit beyond where he's at, and I don't think that's his fault at all, that's completely normal for a 6 year old!!

My issue is I have no idea how to bring this up to the parents while making sure it doesn't come off the wrong way. I think they genuinely believe that because the boys are close in age it shouldn't matter, but that's not true, and I don't want them to feel like I'm judging them or giving them a hard time. Oh and to make things a little trickier, English isn't the parents' first language, so communication is already not perfect. I'm honestly worried that something might get lost in translation or badly miscommunicated 😬😬

Has anyone else ever navigated a parent conversation like this before?? Pls help if you have any tips or ideas!!
Like how do I explain something like the developmental stage differences to parents, especially when the kid in question is smart and puts in the effort, and double especially when there's a language barrier on top of it all??
I want them to understand my perspective without feeling defensive or offended about it

Okay y'all I just want to share a win I had today that may seem small, but it felt HUGE to me!!!

In my smaller group phonics session (7 kids total in class) there’s a student who really struggles with reading, to the point where he honestly just shuts down when we get into it. It’s been a pretty consistent challenge all semester so far: lots of resistance, avoiding, a general refusal to participate, especially when it comes to sounding out words.

But today?? TOTAL SWITCH!  Idk what but something must have shifted

He was actually fully INTO it. I mean like feeling excitement to volunteer to read, trying to sound things out (even without me having to guide him), staying focused … and then the wildest part of all happened when it was time to move on/switch activities but he literally didn’t want to stop reading?!? Tbh, I was kind of shocked lol, I definitely never experienced this with this particular student before.

I did my best to just encourage him without making it a big deal in front of every other student, but inside I was thinking like “YES!!!! this is what we’ve been working towards”😭😭 

Only problem is now I’m kinda nervous about how to keep this momentum going. I have NO clue if today was just a random good day mood boost or if something finally clicked for him, but I really hope this continues next week!!

Has anyone else had this happen before in their classes?? What helped keep that momentum going for you/that student? I’m trying to help keep the spark that I saw today alive and help him past the struggle and into reading!

Yellooo everybody (: I'm looking for some advice related to the title if anyone has been through something similar and maybe has some tips!!

Just as a tiny bit of context: I have been teaching for just under 3 years now, and I mainly focus on teaching/tutoring phonics + early reading for kids in the K-3ish age range.

In my time teaching so far, I haven't had many behavioral issues with my groups of students or any problems during class instruction, but this time around, I’ve got a class that LOVES when things are fun … to the point where it's maybe a little too much.

The moment we do an interactive class activity or crack some jokes during a reading, it feels like - trying to herd my terrier mix back home during a walk once he's already smelled another dog - to get this particular group of students focused again.. (that means its nearly impossible btw lol)
I never had this issue with any of my former groups of kids, so this has been a bit shocking to me and honestly kinda hard to deal with.

I almost feel bad for "complaining" about this/asking for advice 😭😭 It makes me feel like such a stickler for wanting kids (especially in the age range I teach) to be able to easily shift their energy and come back to focus, like I have become the fun police or something.

I really really do enjoy bringing energy and fun into my lessons, and the last thing I want is to have to be super strict all the time, but I also just can't afford spending 10+ minutes every single time just to get them back on track and ready to work.

How do yall balance being engaging and delivering an entertaining lecture without losing control of the room??
If anyone has any tips/ideas/suggestion, ANYTHING, I would LOVE to hear how y'all manage this balance in your classrooms or even at home pls!

Hey everyone!!

I teach phonics + early reading (K–3) and as most of you probably know … getting kids genuinely EXCITED about reading can be a real struggle sometimes lol

I’m trying to build up a collection of books that my students ACTUALLY enjoy, and hopefully even ask to re-read sometimes.

A few stories that have been pretty consistent wins in my class so far are:

- Clark the Shark series

- Judy Moody series

- Dav Pilkey books (Captain Underpants / Dogman)

- Diary of a Wimpy Kid

To me, it feels like the common thread between these is just that they’re more fun, a bit silly, and never too serious.

It's time I expand my mental list (and maybe grow my classroom library for this upcoming school yr too) so, I would love and appreciate some more recs in this same lane of books!!!

Please let me know any books that your kids/students actually get excited to pick up on their own and have a hard time putting down, that's what I need for my class!!