u/Fantastic_Double7430

I always hear that getting a physics cert is a guaranteed job, but there’s usually only one physics teacher at each school. Wouldn’t that mean it would be hard to find openings?

The physics teacher at my school is also screwed with four preps because not many kids take physics. He has 2 AP Physics (1 & 2), gen Physics, and our school has him teaching earth science too. Just curious what that situation would be like at others’ schools.

I teach environmental science at a new school and environmental science is the “easy” science that pretty much all the kids who don’t like school take. My classes are full of kids who genuinely don’t want to be there and are a mix of kids who act out for fun, kids in gangs, and just general troublemakers. A handful of kids are good, but I’m struggling trying to even think about how to teach when the kids themselves don’t care at all it seems. It’s also low level as mentioned.

Behavior wise, should I pick battles? For example, the school has a no phone policy. Some of these kids, though, phones might be the last of my issues in that classroom.

Any other districts having severe decline in chemistry enrollment? At our school, all students start out with biology and complete their life science requirement. For physical science, chemistry, physics, and environmental science are offered. Chemistry used to be the obvious choice with most kids going there and environmental science was more so for students who struggled with math. A few students trickle into physics, but more so for a 3rd year of science.

Anyway, is decline in chem enrollment a problem elsewhere? Kids seem to be going for an easy A in environmental science which was originally intended for lower level students. Environmental science sections have gotten so large that our chem department is being cut and there’s more environmental science teachers. Why?? I’m in CA btw

I’m 24F and had sex with a man for the first time tonight. My ex is a woman, so I’ve had sex before but obviously just fingers in there and I believe a couple small vibrators but nothing going in and out so to speak besides fingers. Anyway, I’ve been seeing a guy and I was too embarrassed to tell him it was my first time and thought that it would be roughly the same as fingers but it was pretty painful and by the end I was bleeding a lot. He was so sweet and said I think you started your period and cleaned it all up and got me a shower etc, but I’m concerned with the amount of blood. It truly looked like I started my period but I didn’t. the blood was run down my legs and was enough to leave a stain on his couch.

I also will note that he was VERY thoughtful with foreplay and used fingers and oral before any of this. I was aroused (maybe nervous?) but it shouldn’t have been a matter of him not doing enough for me at all. I’m embarrassed of course but also worried that this will keep happening in the future. Is it just that I tore my hymen? I’m reading into things and I’m seeing some people say bleeding like that is not normal, but I feel like he did everything right. It shocked me because again I’ve had fingers in me pretty aggressively. I definitely should have said it was my first time, but he really wasn’t being super aggressive either and we were in missionary the whole time. Thoughts?

This isn’t set in stone by any means, but it’s just something I would want advice on. I just finished my first year teaching in the Inland Empire and it was great. I have an amazing gig at my Alma mater school, and it’s been very cozy. My bf just got hired for LA county fire and might move to an area closer to his station (near Long Beach). This is very far away for a couple to be separated, so I’m kind of considering moving districts as just an option in the back of my mind.

How difficult would this be? I LOVE my job and my school, but I also love him. This is his dream job as well, so it’s difficult to think about the future. I’m terrified to move districts not only because I’m a new teacher still, but also because of losing the cozy job that I have and having to start all over unknown territory. I also work in a district with pretty good students and it’s not super “rough” so to speak. For context, I teach chemistry and am also credentialed for life science and general science. However I love teaching chemistry and that’s another reason why I love where I’m at. With that being said, I need brutally honest answers for how difficult it would be to find a job in another district and if it would be worth it or if we should find another solution. I also would note that I definitely wouldn’t make a decision this school year, but thinking about maybe the year after (3rd year).

This isn’t set in stone by any means, but it’s just something I would want advice on. I just finished my first year teaching in the Inland Empire and it was great. I have an amazing gig at my Alma mater school, and it’s been very cozy. My bf just got hired for LA county fire and might move to an area closer to his station (near Long Beach). This is very far away for a couple to be separated, so I’m kind of considering moving districts as just an option in the back of my mind.

How difficult would this be? I LOVE my job and my school, but I also love him. This is his dream job as well, so it’s difficult to think about the future. I’m terrified to move districts not only because I’m a new teacher still, but also because of losing the cozy job that I have and having to start all over unknown territory. I also work in a district with pretty good students and it’s not super “rough” so to speak. For context, I teach chemistry and am also credentialed for life science and general science. However I love teaching chemistry and that’s another reason why I love where I’m at. With that being said, I need brutally honest answers for how difficult it would be to find a job in another district and if it would be worth it or if we should find another solution. I also would note that I definitely wouldn’t make a decision this school year, but thinking about maybe the year after (3rd year).

I don’t know what to do anymore. I was with my ex for about 5 years total and we first broke up 2.5 years ago, got back together, broke up again, and our final go was 1 year ago now. I’ve tried EVERYTHING. I’ve done everything “right” as in I’ve tried to heal intentionally by working on myself, staying single, going to the gym, hanging out with friends, enjoying hobbies, staying away from substances, weekly therapy, letting myself “feel”, like literally everything. I’ve dated myself and am okay and happy with myself and enjoy my own solidarity. I’ve tried going on Hinge a couple times and went on a date a few months ago and totally freaked out. I concluded I wasn’t ready, cool, so I went back to focusing on myself.

The issue is, it doesn’t matter what I’ve done, I always feel a massive emptiness. My ex was the only person in my entire life I truly felt 100% comfortable with and was my favorite person ever. There is zero chance of us reconciling bc we tried it so many times and honestly the things that happened were super unfair to me so I really did have to shut the door for good for my own self’s sake. However I feel like I’ve just been going through this life empty, as every day sure I get up and try and live and make it the best I can, but I’m constantly thinking about my past life and her and what I would be doing etc. Ever since the first time she left 2.5 years ago (yes that’s a long time ago) it absolutely crushed me and I feel like my perception of the world changed. I thought she would be my wife and I took that seriously and now I’m just walking through life in this weird shock. I just want to feel at peace again. I feel better when I’m not trying to date, as I truly enjoy my own solitude, but I also know what it’s like to be deeply in love and committed to someone, and I miss feeling that way as well. I really do miss her and I worry I always will. I won’t get back together with her, but these feelings just carry with me like a rock in my chest.

I’m in California. Kinda panicking right now because I went in to get my car windows tinted and got a clear film over my windshield. To do this, they have to take off that windshield sticker that I completely forgot about with my temporary registration. I’m going to get the sticker back, but I won’t be able to stick it on without ruining the tint. I’m not sure what to do because I’m reading it can take months before the DMV processes my registration and I’m stressed about not having it displayed correctly with it being removed. What to do? Where do I put it, and am I over stressing?

I’m buying a new car and want to get the windows tinted soon. I’m thinking 5% back windows, debating 20 or 35% front, and debating 70% windshield. I know the legal limit is 75%, and none at all for windshield. However, I’ve noticed it’s one of those “everyone does it” type thing. I also value the overall look, so if having different tint levels would make my car look weird that’s also important. My concerns are being able to see safely but also want to maximize privacy. I also don’t necessarily want to be a huge target for getting pulled over, but I also accept that if I go over legal limit at all that’s a possibility and I am willing to accept that. What should I go for? I’m basically almost sure of doing 5% on the back windows just because that’s what I currently have on my old car and it has never been an issue. I’ve never tinted my front windows though. I’m strongly debating between 20 and 35 for the front windows. I’m not doing any darker than 70 on the windshield. I keep reading about pedestrians being hard to see at night with 20 front windows, not being able to see at all, etc. advice needed please. I’m also not a cat person so I don’t care too much about aesthetic, but it’s more so the privacy aspect. I want as dark as possible without it realistically becoming unsafe.

I’m buying a new car and want to get the windows tinted soon. I’m thinking 5% back windows, debating 20 or 35% front, and debating 70% windshield. I know the legal limit is 75%, and none at all for windshield. However, I’ve noticed it’s one of those “everyone does it” type thing. I would prefer the 20%. I also value the overall look, so if having different tint levels would make my car look weird that’s also important. My concerns are being able to see safely but also want to maximize privacy. I also don’t necessarily want to be a huge target for getting pulled over, but I also accept that if I go over legal limit at all that’s a possibility and I am willing to accept that. What should I go for?

I want to tint my car windows and found a good place, but I’m debating what levels to tint it at. I want privacy, but also worried about getting pulled over. I’ve seen 70% tint is barely anything, but that’s the legal limit for the front. Do most people push past that anyway? And if so, is getting pulled over a real risk?

I need to elaborate on the title. I’m 24F and I work as a high school teacher. My whole life, I’ve been pretty academically and goal driven, which worked out well because I got through my education and got into my career with ease. The bigger issue is, now that I’ve done that, I’ve hit a social life wall and am struggling when I come home from work to emptiness.

I also need to elaborate on the fact that I have friends and hobbies, but it’s more complicated. When I graduated college, my ex broke up with me. We were together for 4 years, I was deeply in love, and tried to get back together a couple of times. It was basically a toxic relationship, so that’s something I’ve taken awhile to heal from. Nonetheless, it was very difficult to go through that especially starting my career. Ever since I’ve been single (about a year now without interruption), I’ve taken time to hang out with friends more. I have a couple friend groups and hobbies that I sometimes do with friends (pickleball, golf, gaming) or alone (climbing, lifting). The bigger issue is- all of my friends are in relationships. All of them. Married even. With that being said, they’re not about “going out” anymore. At my age and situation being single, I really feel like I just genuinely need to go outside to meet people and you know ideally get approached, but the issue is I don’t have anyone to go with! And going to a bar isn’t necessarily something I feel comfortable doing alone. I’ve also tried Hinge, but I kind of get icked out by the platform and I did meet up with somebody but just wasn’t feeling it and I wasn’t a fan of the whole online to real life thing. Not only is it hard in this way with friends, but they also obviously want to hang out with their person with the majority of their time. That’s completely understandable, but the point is I don’t have a whole lot of companionship despite having friends.

The point is, I don’t know how to improve my social and relationship life. I have a whole summer (teacher schedule) to figure this out and start to build a better life for myself. I have all the tools - I’ve gone to therapy, I’ve improved my looks by working out, taking care of myself, and I’ve got a steady job and am going to be debt free from student loans next month. The only thing missing for me is really what actually matters, connection. How can I turn this around? What can I do even without my friends to put myself out there? I also would mention that I’m more introverted and have trouble just signing up for meetups because it feels inorganic. But also if I’m being too picky with that feel free to let me know. Thank you!! I look forward to responses

How was your honors chem class? Did it prepare you for AP chem? And how is it different from general chem

First year teacher here. My classroom management lacked a lot in the year because I was focusing mostly on content. Luckily, I have a lot of curriculum built now so next year I can focus more on management. My kids aren’t super bad, but I need advice because I know it came from just lack of consistency.

I’m a young female teacher and I’m pretty tiny. I’m usually perceived as “nice”, which I think is somewhat good but I don’t like it as a compliment for teaching bc that could also mean pushover. My school doesn’t have a no phone policy, so some of my biggest struggles with classroom management have been phones and kids talking while I’m talking. It’s so disrespectful to me when I’m giving instructions and a handful of kids are on their phones, but admin doesn’t have anything to back me up on that. Regarding kids talking while I’m talking, I don’t let them do that now, like I pause and call them out or wait etc etc, but it’s a constant thing I have to do just because I wasn’t strict enough about that earlier in the year. I just let side bar conversations go on which was such a mistake. I’ve caught a handful of kids cheating recently, using AI apps to scan and write lab reports, do their assignments in class, etc. and they cheat right in front of me. I give them zeroes when I catch them, but it’s so frustrating. Oh yeah, a couple periods have always been in the habit of stopping ~5 min before the bell and starting to stand by the door which bothers me so much. I tried telling them for a couple months not to do that but it literally just kept reappearing as an issue. Again, my fault, but certain things I gave up on because they didn’t seem like worthy battles, but now I have a ton of small battles seeming like one big one.

I just feel like they perceive me as stupid and I know it’s because I haven’t been firm enough in the beginning of the year. I let too much slide and now I know next year to be more consistent from the very first day of school, but honestly I also was nervous because I was a new teacher both in general and to the school and was unsure of my power. I’ve been very good with routines, like I definitely keep the kids busy and that helps, but it’s more so the demanding respect aspect that I struggle with. This late in the year, I’ve struggled because I’ve been trying to implement that but they’re not used to be snapping about phones and demanding their attention which is completely my fault, but I’ve lost multiple of them in multiple periods. Again, they’re not bad kids and don’t do anything referral worthy, it’s just a reflection of my lack of follow through and I feel embarrassed. There’s only a couple weeks left in this school year, but I need advice for the next year and how to prevent this from happening.

I’m actually an honors chem teacher and I want to obviously best prepare my students for AP chem while staying within the parameters of honors. If you took honors chem and learned things that helped you in AP chem, please specify what they are!

The extra topics we cover include:
-wavelength & energy calculations
-quantum numbers
-bond energy (considering taking this out? Not sure)
-periodic trends & couloumb’s law
-hybridization
-IMFs
-oxidation numbers
-Vapor pressure, collecting gas over water
-Partial pressures w/mole fractions
-Electrolytes
-Net ionic equations
-Strong/weak acids (conceptual, no Ka/Kb calculations)
-Buffers (conceptual, no calculations)
-Titrations
-Calorimetry
-Hess’s Law
-Calculating K (no ICE tables)
-LeChat
-Identifying oxidized and reduced
-writing half reactions & balancing

If you have any input of if any of these helped you and/or anything you would add (again, fitting within the parameters of first year chem), that would be helpful.

Hi,

I teach honors chem and I just tried to take the AP chem MCQ and I honestly didn’t know how to answer most of it. I teach topics in honors that connect to AP and help prepare the students (for example net ionic equations, Hess’s law, IMFs, partial pressures, etc.) so I thought I would be able to understand most of the AP content but I was surprised.

I’m weirdly stressed that I lack that content knowledge. I don’t want to teach AP chem ever and my school has the position filled, but in a way I’m feeling like an impostor for not knowing AP level of my content area lol. It’s been so long since college too. Am I over stressing or is this ultimately important?

Hi everyone,

Does anybody have an honors chemistry / chemistry summer assignment? I did not do one last year but have a few kids who probably should have dropped earlier. I want to make some kind of algebra based review bc they need higher level math skills. However, not sure if this is helpful since AI exists and I know the other option is to quiz them when they get back, but if I give an algebra test to a chemistry class I’m not if I’ll get in trouble for that lol.

If anybody has a good summer assignment for honors chem, that would be helpful. Thank you!

Out of RHS, Citrus Valley, and REV, which high school is the best and why?

Hi,

I teach HS science and have noticed many teachers moving towards not lecturing at all. Many of my colleagues just have the kids copy notes from their Chromebooks into their notes packet and that’s it. They don’t really go over the content and then the rest of it is projects and activities and then the test.

When I give the kids notes, I lecture. Not a crazy amount, like I don’t stand up there for the entire period, but I explain the concepts with them and work out examples. This is how it was when I was in high school too, the teachers went through the notes with us. I know attention spans have dropped significantly, but it kind of surprises me how many of my colleagues don’t lecture at all. Projects and activities are of course necessary for concept reinforcement and discovery, but they just kinda have the kids self take notes and then have open note tests as well. I do both - I’ll teach the concepts using notes and then have them do activities and labs or I’ll introduce the concept as a lab and then do notes on it soon after. The whole self note thing also makes it kind of hard when kids go from a class like that into a class like mine where they’re expected to listen to direct instruction.

Is this the new norm? Should I shift towards that next year? I’ve tried having kids self take notes a couple times for strictly vocab based sections and it was just so awkward and judging from the last test they didn’t even understand the topics, probably just went through the motions of copying the notes and that’s it. I’m curious what you all think and do just because this was not a thing when I was in school at all. And I’m not sure if I would like learning that way, but everyone’s different and things are constantly changing of course