I’m thinking of becoming an elementary teacher but am worried because I hear a lot of different things. Some people love it and it’s their lives work, and some hate it. im just curious to hear what made you decide teaching is what you want to do, and do you still enjoy it?
Help! I got my first job as a kindergarten teacher and I’m feeling underprepared and stressed. I was a GSRP teacher for 2 years and I’m switching to kindergarten this year. First time with my own classroom and I just feel so unprepared and super nervous. Working in a low-income area and with lots ESL children. I plan to have everything in Spanish and English, label literally everything, and giving lots of space and grace. However, I’m mostly worried about centers, small groups, and the overall schedule of the day. I’ve got lots of material from TPT but I’m still so nervous! Any and all advice is welcome please! 🙏❤️
Also, I’m making my own planner on canva and a substitute binder, any helpful tips to put in it?
And any tips for binders? I LOVE being organized so lots of bins, labels, and binders for everything.
I see a lot of negative posts on the different teacher subreddits here. Let's talk about something positive. Who is happy about returning to school?
How do the students/school policies compare in terms of behavior?
I am Californian. Wondering if more rural or more Republican states are more punitive by and large and suspend/discipline easier…
Hello everyone! I wanted to come on here because I’m currently stuck between two career paths and would really love some advice from people who have experience in either field.
I just finished my first two years of college, and I’m at the point where I need to start taking my major-specific classes. I’m trying to decide between becoming an elementary school teacher or going into social work. Both degrees would take me around the same amount of time, so that isn’t really a deciding factor for me.
For those who are teachers or social workers, what do you like and dislike about your career? What do you wish you knew before choosing your degree? I’m especially interested in hearing about the day-to-day work, stress/burnout, pay, work-life balance, and how rewarding you find it.
I’ve also heard that the education route requires some pretty major exams. Are they difficult to pass? I have a really good GPA, but I’m definitely not the strongest test-taker, so that’s something I’m a little worried about.
I’m honestly just trying to make the best decision for myself and would appreciate any advice, especially from people who have actually worked in these fields. Thank you!! :)
Last year was a little bit rough! Because I wasn’t firm enough with my fourth graders, and a smaller upcoming population, I was put on an improvement plan for behavior management and moved to the first grade team.
I’ve shared this with them, and added the whole group incentive after their feedback. They also shared I needed to lower my expectations of only giving one reminder. I also based this off of previous experiences with responsive classroom in undergrad, and PAX my first four years in a different district. It just doesn’t feel complete to me. Any advice?
Hi! I hope I'm not braking rules of community. I created some printable pdf teacher worksheets, I usually create puzzle collections, but this kind of content really helped me in my school and created long living love for logic puzzles, so I though I should probably create something like this.
But I'm not a teacher so I can't tell are they useful or can become useful if updated. So I would be grateful if you have some spare time and check them out.
So if they are ok feel free to use them if not: Can I make them better? Or do you not see yourself using something like this?
I see this roughly for ages 12+, but It's really hard for me to grasp is this too hard or too easy. It's mix of simple puzzles, some math puzzles, and entry level logic puzzles.
I see I'm not permitted to post a link to them, so I added some images, I will check and add it to comments if permitted by mods.
So any feedback would be helpful!
Thanks in advance!
I am so incredibly discouraged and disappointed, mostly in myself. No matter how many times the other teachers told me it’s hard the first few weeks, that I was doing well, that I would be so proud of myself and my students in the future months, I have cried multiple times a day and slept within the hour upon arriving home.
Can anyone simplify all the books I’ve attempted to read, the plethora of YT videos I watched, and the multiple articles and blogs to give me about 5 procedures/rules that you found most successful? Please, and thank you!! 😥
What are your favorite chapter books to read aloud to first graders throughout the year?
They always love Dory Fantasmagory! The kids also like Heartwood Hotel, but K teachers read that to them, so I don’t want to repeat.
I’m a nanny trying to get these kids ready for school! I have a 2nd grader who probably needs some summer habits phased out.
We’ve already done 30mins of out loud reading, 15mins of creative time and chores this summer, but I’m wondering about the silly sounds!! He’s constantly making little noises should I try to get him to stop? Only outside silly noises?
I’m thinking making sure he puts everything away, and getting used to quiet hours. Maybe asking to read in his head ?
Any more you wish the parents would practice before they go to school?
Thanks!
Students have an opportunity to go when they arrive, we take a whole class 2 hours later, and whole class in the afternoon. Second day of school and still a lot of kids asking to go individually and that it’s an emergency. What is your policy?
How do you know when to be firm with students and when to give grace to them for just being kids?
On one hand you don’t want them to walk all over you, on the other hand you want to honor that kids are going to be kids.
How do you balance that as a teacher? How do you know?
Hi everyone! I am a first year teacher teaching second grade. Today was the third day of school, and I think today went horribly. I know it is still super early, but I need to know if what I’m doing will stick, or what I need to switch to next week to get these behaviors under control immediately.
The first day, I went over my routines and procedures and exactly what I want them to do. I modeled it for them, I had multiple students model it, and I had us practice it as a class. They were able to complete it each time I had them do it, however, when it was time to lineup for lunch or walk to specials for real, they would just talk and yell and jump. Each time they did not do to my expectations. I had everyone sit down and do it again over and over. For example, when I picked them up for lunch, they were not following my line/hallway expectations, so we redid the line about five times.
I spoke to the instructional coach and my mentor teacher at my school for tips at the end of the first day, and my instructional coach made a good point. He said it was great that I had them redo it, but what happens when we get to the fourth time? What about the students who are doing it correctly each time? So I realized that I need to have something visual on display for them to know exactly what will happen if they are not adhering to my expectations or the classroom agreements.
So the next day, we went over our classroom agreements that we made and why we have them. I listed out exactly each step of what will happen if they are not following my expectations/directions/talking over me/etc. it seemed to reign in a lot of the children. I ended up having about three of them missing a chunk of the afternoon recess to fill out reflection forms, and have a conversation with me, which is one of the steps on the consequence chart.
But today, having the consequences explicitly laid out and a visual tracker for them to know which step they are on did not work. I had like seven or eight children, sitting during recess to recess to fill out reflection forms and have a restorative conversation with me. There were so many of them, so two of them had to miss the entire recess because I didn’t get a chance to speak with them.
What landed most of these children on the recess refocus sheet step was talking while I’m talking, playing while I am up there giving directions or doing our demo lesson. They were talking in line no matter how many times I have them stop and redo it.
I am being over the top with students who are doing exactly what I need them to do by walking around and passing out my classroom tickets that they exchange on Fridays for a prize. I’m literally stating exactly what these students are doing for example “if you are not sure what you should look like, look at blank. They are sitting on their bottoms with their voices on level zero and looking at the screen. That is exactly what I’m looking for. Keep up the great work.” I even got to the point of passing out three tickets at a time to students who were following these expectations. I was even standing right next to those who were completely ignoring me and I waited for several minutes like maybe up to five or six before I continued speaking when they were speaking over me.
I have those individual classroom tickets to acknowledge them individually for doing what I ask of them. I have a whole class marble jar for when the whole class is rocking it, which I am also being over the top about when I noticed that they did a desk to carpet transition really nicely or etc, I am giving two marbles at a time saying that was fantastic Oh my gosh, you are so amazing.
I make it a point that anytime I see these children who are not following expectations frequently finally follow directions, I immediately point them out and give them a ticket and name exactly what they’re doing that I want to see.
I am really not sure what other tricks to try. My mentor teacher gave me the tip of instant gratification, so during each transition or chunk of time where I need them to have voices off and listening to me, I tell them exactly what I’m looking for, and that I am going to be watching who is a star student during this time/who is doing a really nice job at that time and they win a DumDum right after. I’ve been doing this the past two days, and it worked really well the first day, but today we are right back to where we started. It feels like even worse. I have students who are laughing at me when I am redirecting behavior, so I made them go on a walk with the para to try to reset. When they came back and were still being disrespectful, I made them take a refocus sheet and go sit in the classroom next-door. I’ve had them sit out during recess.
I am just really not sure what else to do. I am trying my hardest to end these behaviors now, so it doesn’t make them think it’s OK to act like this in my classroom and so it doesn’t get worse throughout the year.
It’s also so frustrating because there’s only two teachers per grade level, and the other second grade teacher is also a first year teacher. I found out today that like five of her kids still haven’t shown up this week so she’s been walking around with like 19-20 kids who were all really well behaved, while I have 27 with a good chunk of them having behavior problems. and I’ve had three different veteran teachers come in and look at my class list before school started and said wow they really stacked you up with this bunch. like not in a positive way. So it is so annoying to watch her and her class walk around and they listen to her, while I have more children than her with a lot more behavior problems and it makes it seem like I am doing horribly.
I just need to know, should I continue sticking with these management systems and it will eventually stick, or is there something else I should be doing? I am feeling lost and feeling like I suck at my job already and it’s only day 3.😭
Hi everyone! School starts back up for me in a few weeks and I currently have zero pairs of sneakers that fit! I had a baby at the beginning of last school year my feet grew so none of my old shoes fit. I bought a pair of sneakers when I went back to work and I just tried them on for the first time in months (once I switch to sandals for the year I refuse to wear anything else until I absolutely can’t), and those shoes are too big now! I’ve always worn vans or converses but the last shoes I had were adidas and I didn’t mind them. I teach third grade so I’m on my feet all day. I need something that is comfortable but still looks cute. What are you guys wearing?!
Thanks in advance!
ETA: Thank you so much everyone! My one year old doesn’t want to give me the time to respond to everyone, so I appreciate all of your responses. It looks like I’ll have to check out hokas and brooks before school starts again!
I’m a first year teacher in a 4/5 combo class. I feel like I’m losing my mind and confidence. How do you teach two different grade levels while being one person? Trying to figure out how to structure ELA and Math blocks is stressing me out. 😢
Hi!
I’ve been teaching for 12 years, just got moved to fifth grade (after teaching fourth grade). What are some fresh read aloud books so my repeaters aren’t stuck with the same ones I’ve read.
Also, any cool tricks/tips/hacks? It’s not much different but I’ll take anything anyone can offer!
I'll tell my students something along the lines of "okay, y'all have about 15 minutes left to finish this!"
and everything will be fine for a literal couple of minutes until one of the students asks
"how much time do we have left?"
sure, fair enough I guess, maybe I unintentionally added a lil extra pressure by mentioning the time and now they want to stay on pace, okay I'll tell them
then somehow no more than 2 minutes later, another kid asks the EXACT same question 😅
then another one ... and another one ... and at least 5 hands will shoot up within that 15 minute span
before I know it I'm basically spending the rest of independent practice time as a human alarm clock giving live updates on the passage of time LOL
I've already tried just not giving a specific amount of time, but then I find I still need some way to communicate when we're moving on/how soon they should be wrapping up etc etc
So, for the teachers who work with younger kids too ... is there actually a way to bring up time without accidentally triggering this phenomenon ?? 😭 or is this just one of those things I'm doomed to accept and serve my role as the living countdown clock forever hahaha
edit: omg yoooo timer recommendation makes me feel like a genuine idiot right now 😭😭😭
sorry should have mentioned I tried timers before and found that sometimes kids get real distracted by them lol so sorry y'all thank you for reminding me timers exist tho!! haha genuinely not being sarcastic, BUT ALSO, are there any better alternatives to timers?? maybe something less visually distracting when up on a big screen?
Hey, I am preparing a child (who was home schooled by their parents) for getting into 1st grade. I wanna know how does a child get tested or what knowledge or question do they get asked so I can test them and keep a note of where they need more focus.
The school didn't really give any idea other than Math and English skills. Any tips are helpful or just letting me know how the procedure works would be really great!