r/AskTeachers

I never understood the benefit of this, and it seemed to slow down classes. I remember there were classes like social studies where we go down the rows and one kid read a paragraph. Kids would zone out so after it’s all over, there was not much retaining besides the one paragraph you read. Kids got anxious counting the kids ahead to know what they have to read. Others don’t pay attention when you read. If you struggle to speak and read out loud..good luck!

Im assuming this has gone away but I never understood any of the positives of it.

I’m a first time parent here with a little boy just wondering if he should do anything prior to going into kindergarten. I have a 6 year old stepson who started kindergarten this year and I can’t even believe how little he seems to know. He just got singing the ABCs down pat but can’t point any out to you and say what they are, and still can’t count to 20. Like I said I’m only the stepparent to the 6 year old so I can’t really say or do much because of the parenting situation.

I’m not a kindergarten teacher so maybe this is normal.

Non-teacher lurker here (graduated HS 2008), as this page comes up a lot on my feed. I don’t have kids so naturally I’m not privy to what’s going on in schools these days, and the things I’ve read on the teaching-related subreddits are SHOCKING.

I remember when the parents were almost ALWAYS on the teacher’s side, to the point where it wasn’t even worth it to try to come up with a fake explanation for poor behavior/grades, because you knew they’d take the teacher’s word over yours and they knew what you were telling them was bullshit. I remember when the admins used to be scarier/even harsher than the teachers. Like you knew you were fucked if the teacher had to get an admin involved. Or if it was the admin that busted you for bad behavior instead of a teacher first.

Was it just my school/not as common in other schools??

Hey Kindergarten teachers - I was having a conversation with another teacher. (She is high school, I am Pre-K, both in our 50s. I'm new to teaching.) I was telling her my frustrations with a 4 yo who isn't yet potty trained. While I am working with him, he also has been labeled as ODD, but no IEP. What policies does your district have about kids without IEPs who are not yet potty trained? I was a para in another district and worked with SPED kids and our policy was that if there was no accommodation for pull-ups, it was not the school's job to deal with. The parents had to come and deal with it.

Edit: I just want to say that I'm not saying this child is/isnt on the spectrum. I'm mostly looking for input on policy. From my experience with him, most of his behavior seems like simple defiance. I have now and had last year, students with autism, and a nephew with it also. Im just discussing the avenue this is likely to go if he is not trained by Kindergarten. Since the district is work in now is different (and I don't know the policies), I wondered what other districts did. I plan to work with him, and encourage him to try, offering our resources/help to parent.

Old millennial here, we were moving my mom this weekend and found some notes from our school days and I totally forgot we used to fold up notes to pass them around. Do kids still do that? We had some pretty intricate folds going on

I'm 24M, it's my first year teaching officially. I'm having some trouble with one of my students.

I'm teaching a multigrade class (1st and 3rd grade)

Most of my students are well behaved and they listen and do what I tell them to do but there is one girl (3rd grade) who wouldn't listen to anything I tell her to do sometimes, especially when she gets upset.

I'm not sure if it's because she's been too spoiled or bullied at home yet. although I'm planning to have a meeting with her father tomorrow to try and understand her situation at home better.

Regardless of what the problem is, I need to deal with her because she's taking so much time out of our class.

I tried not paying attention to her and it worked for a bit but she's too short tempered and she started bothering the other students at some point. That's when I couldn't just watch her do whatever she wanted.

I also tried praising her which also had some good effect but then I can't praise her out of bothering the students

I need some real help with this girl especially because she's actually a smart kid

Hi!
I am 21 years old and I am from Portugal. For some reason, teachers subreddits keep appearing on my feed and I have reading it all for a long time now but I feel I dont really know how a day of school is like in the US.
I thought I would explain what school is like in Portugal and, if you are kind enough, you would explain me your day at an american school.
In Portugal, classes from 1st to 4st grade start around 9 and finish around 3:30 but, if the parents cannot pick up their child at 3:30 their are free activities until around 5:30. The parents park their cars outside school and take their kids to the door. We do not have school buses.
From 5th to 12th grade, the classes start at around 8:30 and there is not a fixed time to finish classes. Usually, the kids have 2 to 3 free afternoons or mornings.
All schools have a canteen and there is a full meal available for the students for around 1,50€ (soup, a main dish with meat or fish, salad and pasta, rice or potatoes and a desert, usually fruit). It is also possible to buy some snacks (without sugar).
Most schools have 50 minute classes. For exemple, a typical day would be:
\- Class from 8:30 to 9:20;
\- 10 Minute break;
\- Class from 09:30 to 10:20;
\- 15 minute break;
\- etc etc;
Most classes are expositive and everyone writes with pen and paper. I hear a lot about guided notes, fill in the gap notes, guides, and I dont really know what that means. We have a students book and a work book for each subject. There are also extra worksheets and the teachers use powerpoints to explain/videos/etc.
If we want to go to the restroom we just ask and go. In high school, grades are from 0 to 20 and you cannot have less than 10 if you dont want to fail. It is not possible to retake tests if you fail and if you miss an online assignment you need to ask the teacher if you can submit it later but the answer is usually no.
We do not have school nurse or police inside school. From 5th grade, if the parents authorize, the kids can leave school alone. It is very comon for kids to go outside school during breaks to go to a coffee shop, hang out, etc.
The typical subjects include: Portuguese, Maths, Geography, History, Music, Physics, Chemistry, English, a second foreign language, PE, philosophy, natural sciences, and some more I dont remember.
I would be happy to answer questions if you have them and I thank you in advance for your answers.
Keep doing the amazing job you do!
Thank you!

Edit: For the previous way, he’s not writing the full problem each time. Just individual numbers example: 11,11,11,11,11,11,11,11,11,11, =,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=,=11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0,+,+,+,+,+,+,+,+,+,+,+,+,+, 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,to cut the time it takes and the mental math out of it. My mother-in-law took him to her house and said I have no say so and that his teacher said for him to do it this way. She also does his homework for him.

I really appreciate when my teachers are nice to me and understanding, especially those in the last few years as I was struggling a lot with mental health. It meant the world to me and I want to know how best I could thank them for all they've done. In the past I cleaned and took care of my teachers fish tank so she didnt have to worry about that and I often bake for my peers and teachers.

it requires us to have multiple conversations with ai. it’s really clunky, and i don’t really like the idea of ai listening to what i say idk. i don’t mind ai usage for like typing and stuff but having it listen to me creeps me out (i don’t even use siri on my phone) it’s not optional and i’m really not a fan. is there anything i can do or is it probably just mandated curriculum and i need to deal with it?

eta: it’s an online course

So, my daughter is in 2nd grade. She told me a teacher is abusing a child in her class, so much so, that she wants to get out of that class. So, another student, may have some behavior problems, he gets pulled for extra help. She tells me that teacher yells at all the students for mistakes including her, but singles out this one child in particular. She has also hit him, back of hand on shoulder, not super hard, but still...!!!! She has shown and comments on the relief when the child gets taken for extra help. I tried to contact this parent by asking for class registry...teacher refused to give to me, claiming she decided to not do that, and any party invites should go through her....strange...so, im at a loss what to do now. It's weighing on my heart what she's told me. I don't know what to do or how to bring this to light without involving my daughter and causing some kind of problem with my own children, I currently have 3 in that school. Any ideas or advice? Plz help!