r/Teachers

I smoke weed every day, and I’ll be a first-year teacher next year. do I need to quit, or do some teachers still smoke outside of work?
Upstate NY

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.

Hi all, I recently got a job offer in a school in Essex County, NJ, but I was told at the doctor’s visit that I’d be required to take a drug test on the spot—no prior notice. HR says it’s a school policy, and if I don’t comply, the job offer may be withdrawn. Has anyone else in NJ dealt with this? I’m feeling really uneasy, especially since cannabis is legal here. Any advice would be so appreciated! ps I don't even take drugs!

I get a new pair of "school shoes" every year to just wear for teaching. I teach band, choir, and now theater so I'm on my feet and moving A LOT, especially with my additional duties outside of the school day.

I wore Dr. Scholls last year and they were great but were dead by spring break and very broken down by the time school ended.

Recommendations for shoes that'll last the whole school year AND be comfortable?

Our district is transitioning to ParentSquare next year for communication with families. Anybody have any thoughts? I had never heard of it until the announcement.

Maybe this is controversial and might ruffle some feathers, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about. Everyone always tells us secondary teachers to not go into teaching if you only care for your subject and not for kids, and they are right! I always found that the people in my history and secondary education program at university that only wanted to yap about history all day and thought that is what the job entailed usually ended up switching back to a history-only major in college during student teaching or burning out within the first few years in the field. The same goes for aspiring ELA teachers who think it is just talking about and teaching their favorite books all day, aspiring science teachers who think it’s all talking about science with enthusiastic students, and so on. It’s just simply not that, and the people who think it is tend to fail as teachers and switch careers when they realize that they need to actually be able to know enough about their content to pass the licensure exam as well as teach students the content, to deal with classroom management, to handle parent and administrative matters, etc. We all then rightfully acknowledge that they made the correct choice.

On the other hand, I rarely see the inverse advice given to aspiring early childhood and elementary educators who are choosing that career because they “just love cute kids.” But is not enough to be a good teacher and it needs to be said. You need to care about actually teaching those kids all of the content and be competent at it. It’s not just about spending time with cute little kids all day and making your classroom Pinterest board real. But yet I will hear from aspiring ECEs and elementary teachers both in real life and online who struggle to pass their content licensure exams (I see this especially with elementary math) about how frustrated they are that they even need to take this test and how pointless it is because “I just want to live my dream of teaching kids because I love them and want to have my own classroom. I don’t need to know this to teach them.” And instead of giving them a reality check about the job, everyone jumps into toxic positivity mode and goes “Never give up! I failed my tests a few times too! You will get to live your dream, these tests mean nothing about your ability to be an amazing teacher.” And like yes, I get being positive and perseverant, but I think we really need to be honest about what being a good ECE and elementary educator also entails. You need to not just love kids, but you need to love teaching those kids that foundational content instead of disparaging it (especially math!) as a barrier to you and your teacher dream.

I don’t even mean this in a mean-spirited way, it’s just an observation I’ve made in both real-life and online conversations surrounding this topic and I think it’s something worth acknowledging more.

Have any of you attempted to have students submit work by taking pictures of their work and uploading to Google Classroom?

I’m potentially teaching half my classes in one room and half in the other which complicates my turn in and grading system. I was thinking about making students do pencil and paper work, but having them upload their work digitally via a photo in Google Classroom. What are your thoughts about this?

This is my first summer after my first year teaching. So far, I have done ZERO work related to school this summer. I have a few planning meetings for next school year in early August, but that’s all I plan on doing until school starts again.

There are some members of my team who I KNOW are doing work over the summer, some of them have even been sending emails/messages related to stuff for next year. Because of this, I am really feeling guilty for not doing anything, but it was a hard year and Im really enjoying the break. Am I wrong for this??

Conveniently leaving out who will pay for them.

It’s a small, independent institution in the global majority and the students aren’t well to do, but I believed in the mission…before I started. The pay is already significantly less than what I’d like to make but I’m young and want to pay forward to communities with visions I believe in. However there seems to be more and more efforts by the head to extract more labour than I’m comfortable with, they already do it with the 4 other teachers who juggle several hats, some juggling 10 hats, actually. Recently I came up with an idea for a summer reading challenge, the head pushed for the introduction of a summer reading activity that would require me to check in with the students weekly, then students started coming up to me talking about summer classes mentioning that the head thought this would be a good idea.

I’ve communicated my boundaries to the head- very politely asking how I should respond to students because I don’t know what rate to set and hinting that I have other commitments during the summer seeing as that time is contractually free of any and all teaching duties, but seeing as other workers are so eager to be taken advantage of (one already confirmed he will do it for free), my gut tells me that I’ll be fired for being ‘greedy, money hungry and not dedicated enough to the mission as to forgo my autonomy, personal life hopes and aspirations’ but they’ll cover it up as ‘not a good cultural fit.’ how likely is this? From people who may have been in similar positions?

My dad and sister graduate from their credentialing programs this year. One will be teaching kindergarten and the other middle school. I am asking for any/all ideas that are great gifts for each of them! I am hoping for things that will help set up a new classroom or things you teachers find yourself using year after year that just make life simpler.

From one education family to another, thank you!

I’m a new teacher getting my own classroom in August, what are some must-haves in your class (ex. Fancy stapler, hot glue gun, smart board clicker/remote etc.) ?! I’m teaching Gr. 8 hums & phys ed! TIA :)

Title.

I’m teaching middle & high school for a dozen years now. I honestly see much worse behavior and much less support from parents & admin today than when I started, but there are also so many kids who are just kids and the supposed “behavior issues” they have can be chalked up to kids growing up, experiencing chemical changes in their brains, learning about the world, etc. I’ll admit I’m guilty of sometimes hopping online and venting about students, but does that necessarily mean that kids are so much worse today than 15-25 years ago? Or does it just seem that way because it’s so easy to post a horror story online?

I am going into my 4th year and I am sick to death of the 1/1 devices. They aren’t entirely avoidable as I teach a tested subject but I am looking for ways to use them less this upcoming year. Every year we get 1/1 textbooks that have traditional chapter readings, but they also have worksheets in the book for the students to complete. The entire book is standard aligned and it has practice EOC questions in it so I think it could be a really good resources. I have only ever taught in the 1/1 device era, and I work in a title one school where many of our kids are behind/below grade level. I had 8th grade students that genuinely could not read last year. My question is: does anyone still teach primarily out of textbooks? How can I accommodate my lower students when using this method? With kids below grade level and general behaviors of kids these days, I know “read chapter 1 and complete XYZ” isn’t going to work like it did when I was in school. Any and all advice is much appreciated!

I have the opportunity to serve on the hiring committee for a last-minute replacement of our principal who took another opportuniy relatively unexpectedly.

I have my own thoughts and ideas about what I'd look for and ask, but I'm actually curious to see what others in my place would prioritize--I'm pretty spoiled being in a strong union state in a very small district with strong culture.

I'm not asking you to tell ME what to do--I'm pretty set on what I'm going to ask/what my priorities are. I'm just curious how my personal experience measures up to the general populace.

What would you look for in a leader, and what questions would you want to ask in an interview setting?

Zero interviews and scarce listings. I wasn't teaching in 2008, but I can't see how it is any better than it was then.

I keep hearing: Just wait until May. Just wait until June. Just wait until July. Well just sub. Just move 500 miles away. Get a different endorsement.

Then the narrative changes from "There's a huge teacher shortage nationwide" to "There's a shortage in SPED math middle school teachers in rural areas."

Fucc this. Take your Chromebooks and shove them straight up your ass.

This may come across as a rant, and I'll keep it brief.

I recently got a job as a science teacher at a middle school. Initially, I had come in to interview for social studies (US history is my thing), and they ended up asking me to move into that science position because of a transfer to the social studies one. For some context, I work as an archaeologist during the summer, and it is a form of science/humanities, so they saw that as a good experience in the field. They had told me that if I get a license in science, I would more likely get hired into teaching then I can smoothly get into a social studies position.

Now, I had told them I was pursuing Transition to Teach for the Fall and was still waiting on applications to roll through in my interview, since I did not graduate with a teaching license when I graduated from college. I graduated with two bachelor's degrees, one in General Education and the other in Anthropology. I had initially pursued social studies education, but switched after a grade tanked my GPA below the requirement and I had no money to stay another semester/year. The interviewers initially told me all I needed was a Praxis, and I was good, and they would help me get there, so I toned down looking at transition to teach altogether. Then after a few weeks, I had a call with the superintendent; I found out I do need to be in transition to teach and will also need to take a Praxis. I was also told I have 30 days after the school starts to get into transition to teach, or I would be terminated from my teaching role since I would be placed on a transition to teach license. Working on my application and, after submitting a TECR, I waited and waited (forever) for the results until finally last week, when I was told exactly what Praxis I needed (horrible timing).

I researched the Praxis all last week and around the holiday season, trying to juggle it all (studying, knowing what to go over and what is expected, when the test results are due for the program I applied to, etc.), and studied what felt like day and night for it and took it today. Sadly, I was just a few points off from the passing score. I know I have 28 days to retake it, which places me near the start date of school, and I'm coming up past a few transition to teach deadlines for the fall semester. I'm unsure where to go next: if I should even keep this job, if I should try to get into a different type of licensing program, or if I should use this time to study hard every day, retake the Praxis, and hope the program I applied to still gives me admission. I've been looking at other universities' programs as other opportunities as a failsafe too. I love teaching and have for some time now. Right before this job, I was a paraprofessional at an elementary school and enjoyed it.

Any advice or comments would be so helpful! I would appreciate anything.

I am asking this as a genuine question out of my own curiosity. Because where I live, the pay and benefits at most private schools are much lower than public schools, and it can cause interruptions in your pension. You also have way less protections. Teachers in our charter schools get to participate in the state pension system, but their pay, benefits, protections, and hours are much worse. I know public schools have their issues, but to me it’s clear that working in a public school where I live is the way to go. I’ve also only ever worked in public schools so that is my only experience.

However, I’m aware that schools across the U.S. and the world operate differently. I also know that in some secular private schools you can sometimes get more freedom in what you teach (I knew someone who liked this aspect, but her husband made enough money to support them so she could take the lesser pay.) I can see how that might be appealing if you have other income. I also know people who work in private language immersion schools who like it for that reason. But overall, I don’t really see the appeal in working for most private and charter schools. Are they sometimes the better option in the area that you live in? Is it a case of just taking what jobs are available? Is there something about them that you prefer to public schools? I’m curious.

Hey all,

A little about me. I have taught AP Chemistry for a few years and have struggled teaching AP at times and getting kids to pass.

I just wanted to put some reminders out about AP scores. Some people stress about them but keep in mind the following:

• It takes several years to become a good teacher. It takes several years of teaching an AP class to get good at teaching an AP class. You need time to try things out and change things based on your students. So if it is your first year or even second year teaching an AP class, don't worry so much. Try and improve.
• Student population matters a ton. There are some teachers that boast about getting so many 4's and 5's but they teach in an affluent district where kids really care about performing well and can afford 1 on 1 tutors.
• Variance occurs from year to year. I have had years where not a lot of students take the test and I have had years where I only have a few kids pass and I can usually identify that pretty early in the year. Don't fret so much about the students that chose to take your class, raise the standards of your class.
• AP Classes are more than just getting that 3, 4 or 5 on an exam. You are providing a rigorous class to students that is beholden to a CED, , for better or for worse. Often AP can be more difficult than community college classes. Students who take the class come out the other side way more prepared for difficult classes than students who even take community college classes.

So hopefully you are teaching the class next year and you are allowing your self to change a few things, whether that be the content itself or even class expectations.

Teachers who have been through a formal complaint—I’d really appreciate hearing your story. I'm finding the whole experience incredibly draining, and one thing I'm struggling with is the fear of what comes afterward. If you've been through a complaint, did you ever worry about retaliation from the student or parent, or that you'd always be looking over your shoulder waiting for the next complaint? Did those fears turn out to be justified, or did they ease with time? I'd also love to hear how the process unfolded, how long it took, what the outcome was, and how you managed to move forward afterward. Whether the complaint was substantiated, dismissed, or found to be unsubstantiated, I'd genuinely appreciate hearing your experience. I think there are probably a lot of teachers carrying this anxiety quietly, and hearing from people who've come out the other side would mean a lot.