u/ChucoTeacher

For me, it was this line.

“I want school to be fun. School should be fun. Because these kids. The kids that go here. They got nothing and will be nothing. So, 10 years from now when they’re in jail, or digging ditches, not being able to pay their bills. I want them to think of their time here and smile.

I want this to be the highlight of their lives. We can’t do that if we’re stressing them over academics. I’m not an academics guy. I’m a culture guy. Most of these kids they can’t learn and won’t. So build a good culture. That’s what i want to see”.

I couldn’t hide my disdain for my ex principal after that. Then he did a lot of shady stuff afterwards.

My last year at a Middle School was so bad I just applied everywhere and I just got hired to do High School. More than likely Seniors.

It’s such a big change.

So teachers who’ve taught upper classmen before, how are they like? What works with them?

I won’t have a state test anymore to worry about. So, is the pressure off?

What are the good things and the bad things?

From 2020-2022 I went through all the motions of a BPD relationship.

1)She was my soul mate who I was always waiting for.

2)Suddenly I was making her incredibly mad with every action I took.

3. Next, came the accusations that I was a cheater.

4. Then the breakups, makeups, each makeup coming with a startling revelation of her past that made me want to be the one who finally took care of her.

5. Finally the final discard and she became a ghost.

And I’ll be honest I struggled bad. I struggled really bad. I wanted to prove to her my love for her was real. I wanted to prove to her that she was safe with me. But, I don’t think she ever really wanted that.

Either way, post that relationship I’ve been in three relationships. And guess what? None of those relationships have been drama. Each partner I’ve had since has been kind and considerate.

Well, it’s been so nice that I’m now engaged. And a love that’s healthy is so great. My fiancé never love bombed me. My fiancé has always been her own person. My fiancé isn’t traumatized by her past. My fiancé doesn’t accuse me of cheating.

If you’re struggling. Walk away. Unless your partner is getting help, it’s never going to get better.

But I’m telling you, what’s out there is so much better.

I’ve worked under 7 principals. Only really liked 1. The one principal i liked was very demanding but he never asked of us what he wouldn’t do himself. He worked hard and he even knew my content and the nuances. He was very structured but you could debate with him and sometimes he would concede the point and admit you were right.

On the negative side, my “bad principals” run gamete. I had a narcissistic sexual harasser where the job was his playground. I had a lot of weird principals who were just liars and incompetent. For example, I had one principal tell me about a delivery of books. I stated I had no storage, she said to put it my closet. I said I had no closet. For the rest of the year that was a fight. I had no closet. It was weird. She came to my room to tell me where my closet was and when there wasn’t one she blamed me and the janitor somehow. And I really didn’t want to fight her but she kept escalating this closet thing. If you ever saw the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns is irrationally angry at a players sideburn, that was my year.

I’ve had a lot of that. Maybe I’m irrational, but I want all my principals to be like super knowledgeable and hardworking and what I’ve experienced is that they are people who didn’t like the classroom and got out.

So one good principal out of seven. What’s your record? Is my experience common?

I know I’m not everyone’s cup of tea as a teacher. But every once in a while I’ll just get a kid who goes all out for me and there’s a really great mentor-mentee bond that happens.

For me, it’s the kid from a broken home who’s a little reactionary and gotten in trouble in the past but realizes they’re smart and that they want more for themselves. And you see the wheels turning. You see them starting to do the right things. You see them make different choices and then you see their excitement when those choices pay off.

I don’t know if there’s a thing where maybe we see ourselves in each other or what it is, but those kids make me feel like a teacher.

The pay and the politics are awful. However, it’s those bonds that keep me in it.

So, do you have a type of kid you’re just really good at teaching? And why do you think that is.

Maybe I’m an asshole. Maybe it’s the school. I just wanted to document the year.

1. July 2025. Show up the week before the school year starts. School says everything is being reorganized and can’t set up the classroom yet, be patient.

2. The day before the school year starts the school informs me that there will be no classrooms for the history department (I’m a history teacher) and we will be floating this year.

3. August 2025. The school has an extra 45 minute period to have interventions. I’m told to give interventions in reading to the schools lowest performing students.

4. September 2025. I’m reprimanded because my Reading scores are the worst. I’m not the Reading Teacher. I’m told we’re here to support each other and I can’t just think about my content. By the way, my content is tested in my grade level. I’m not an ELAR teacher. I have been given no directives besides “teach reading”.

5. October 2025. Portables brought in. I’m told to expect to move in by next week and no more floating.

6. October 2025. The Math and ELAR Interventionists 4 separate classrooms are combined into 2 rooms. Freeing up two classrooms which are given to the non-state tested teachers. I’m told I’m going to like my portable more anyways. That portable is never fixed or equipped with electricity. I never moved in.

7. November 2025. Assistant Principal amicably starts a conversation, I tell him, the school year is terrible. Probably a bad on me, but I was at breaking point. I explain that I can’t even use the restroom without going to teachers and borrowing their keys. He goes “you don’t have a key, I have a bunch”. I can finally pee in school. But I’m mad that they never even considered my life as a floater.

8. December 2025. I tell the school the trajectory that I feel we’re in. I ask for a day a week I can tutor, I ask to pull out kids once a week, I ask to be allowed to teach History during the intervention period. School says yes to allowing me to use the intervention period for history. I give the school a list of kids and I did get them.

9. January 2026. After about a month. Math Department wants 6 out of the 15 kids I teach. I say no. Besides Math has 50 kids already spread among their 4 teachers in my grade level. They have way smaller class sizes and double the time to teach their content. Either way, the school starts all over with the intervention rosters. I end up with the school’s lowest performing kids. Literally, weeks where it was me and two girls because the rest of my roster was in alternative or kids who don’t attend school. I tell this to the school and they say I shouldn’t be relying on the intervention class to cover up for any first teach deficiencies I may have.

10. February 2026. I tell the school my projection of my numbers but tell them I could increase that number if I’m allowed to do interventions and the school calls me negative. The school predicts I’ll have the best scores in the City. I ask how they came up with the prediction, they don’t know, but the numbers were approved by the District.

11. March 2026. Highest performing kids start getting pulled out from my class for Math. They are considered “safe” in Social Studies but considered “bubbles” in Math. Keep in mind, math gets them for two periods already in smaller classes with interventionists in the room and supports.

12. April 2026. An ELAR teacher quits and because the ELAR Department is so big, her kids just get absorbed by the other ELAR teachers. That finally gives me a room. The ELAR Teachers are mad because they go from having 40 kids a teacher to 60 kids a teacher. I’ve been teaching 160 the whole year. Principal calls me a diva because they “had to” give me the room whereas the interventionists teachers have to share their space. Or they could have hired a permanent sub and given that person the room, but I was making a “fuss” so they gave me the room to shut me up.

13. May 2026. Scores came in and our school was the worst at every content, every grade, except Math. Principal berates the school and says the only department that showed any professionalism was the Math Department. I actually responded in the meeting and said I was begging for support the whole year and the Principal answered that the school made the decision to ignore me because I was always going on about something.

So what are examples of players who were drafted in the lottery didn’t do well with their first team but then had success once they changed teams?

And who are players right now that you think could do better in a new environment?

I’m sure it super common but it’s annoying and each time I want to fight the guy. What’s the protocol? Because I don’t mind both of us being physical.
I prefer both of us being lazy in the corner. But I hate people who are Draymond one minute and SGA the next.

The Duncan Spurs were known for beautiful offense, but when we needed points we just dumped the ball to Duncan who would go to work. Duncan could score on anyone, beat most double teams and could kick the ball out when needed.

We saw the Knicks go to Brunson when in need.

What do you think we’re going to develop as our “bailout offense”?

Do we have the personnel to have a really good offense for crunch time?

I need to raise some money. Any ideas? How’s selling plasma like? Any good apps for doing gig jobs?

Need to make some money this summer. It would be cool if I could continue whatever side hustle or side job once the school year starts up again

So they cleaned out last years staff. Last year, the school got 29% of their students to be proficient in my material.

The administration saw me teach a few times in the beginning of the year and they liked what they saw.

I started raising concerns and I identified that I was on track of getting 30-45% of my students up to proficiency.

The school disagreed and penciled me in at 75% which would make me the top performer in my content area in the city. Pretty unrealistic for the lowest performing school in the city.

I stated that even if my pedagogy was perfect (which no ones is) and even if I was pessimistic. Assuming I could raise the scores so much was unrealistic.

I asked for tutoring time, pullouts, all sorts of things and was always laughed out of the room.

The scores came in, I scored a 41. My partner teacher, a good teacher who was given a tougher group of kids scored a 13. Together our scores were a 29% proficiency.

And my head just goes to a conversation in December. I asked to tutor and was denied because administration deemed my first teach strong and tutoring to be inefficient.

I said, whatever points we can get, we’ll be thankful for them in May. I don’t want you angry at me in May. I’d rather be worried now.

Well, here we are. And yes, they are angry.

140 students. 8th grade

5% I’ve never met.
10% I’ve met met a few times, they come to school, do some drugs, sell some drugs, go to alternative.
30% Aren’t even literate
70% Aren’t at grade level
100% graduating

What are doing?

I’ve always taught poor kids in academically low areas but I had a run of a few years where I could get them to score in the top 20% overall and top 1% for their socioeconomic background.

I used to preach the growth process and trusting the process. It would be a success if you did it. I would tell the kids, just by trying you’ll get a good grade because I’ll structure the grades in a way that rewards your effort even if you’re having a hard time comprehending.

I would then expose the kids to different ways they could show me their understanding and let them choose how their work.

The kids thought they were getting one over on me because some kids would go the worksheet route, other kids would write poems, other kids would do one pagers.

And basically the teaching was, you have to like one kind of assignment. We did testing strategies and lectures and I would tell the kids that this isn’t fun but tough cookies it’s 30% of our time.

Well the kids worked hard and they celebrated their low grades and then progress and in the end, we had big success.

Now I can’t get them started.

What works now?

Maybe I don’t know how to speak to the new generation. Maybe the methods I used are no longer viable. I don’t know.

It was five minutes, they didn’t check anything.

Just once you return the vehicle it’s the lost and found process.

Is this true?