r/Teachers

My principal is obsessed with all things Marzano this year.

One of my co-workers was going through some stuff that was left behind in her new classroom and found that the previous teacher had left a bunch of boxes of cornbread stuffing. They looked something like this.

What are some weird, seemingly random things you or your co-workers have found tucked away?

Not even a full week with students and my admin think that doing pop-in (informal) observations was a smart idea.
Yeah, that’s not going to raise or MAINTAIN staff morale.

Hello, to give some context, I have been teaching for only an year, and to the undergraduate students.

This is a huge class of 80 wherein I have to take a lecture four times a week and this is my 2nd month at this new place. I have been trying to be patient with these kids, most of them are the suspended one's, coming from a background wherein they don't care about education or getting a better lifestyle.

And today we had a combined lecture with kids from other classes as well. This is a second year degree college class so they have the freedom to not sit for lectures.

However, few students came in and were continuously making weird noises, disturbing others as well as me. I warned them multiple times, walked out of the class as well. But it had no effect, had to discontinue the lecture.

I think I'm too soft, they don't listen when they are being told to do something, rejecting instructions in an outright manner. How do you deal with this?

The other teachers tell me to yell at them, insult or whack but I don't really want to whack atleast. And my voice is soft, and unfortunately yelling gets my throat all worked up.

Apologies if there's any mistakes in the post, English is not my first language. Sorry in advance I might not respond right away, I have to cry this out, and then take another lecture but I would appreciate your insights. All I want is to teach the subject I love and make others aware about it too.

I'm currently in my final year at uni training to become a music teacher, and I have public Instagram and TikTok accounts where I post covers of the music I'm learning at the time.

Some of the pupils from my placement school have found my accounts and have started liking, following and commenting on my posts.

I don't mind them seeing the content (it is public after all) but I'm wondering what the best way to handle interactions with them is while still maintaining professionalism.

I feel a bit awkward when they comment because I don't want to completely ignore them, but replying with something as simple as "thanks!" also feels a little unprofessional given that they're pupils, and I wouldn't want to accidentally cross any boundaries or get myself into trouble over social media contact.

Would it be more appropriate to just like their comment rather than reply to it? Or should I avoid interacting with their comments altogether?

Am I massively overthinking this? What's your thoughts and what would you do?

I am almost done with my degree to be a school librarian and have a question about rules on clothing. Do men mostly wear dress pants/slacks? I know coaches or PE may have better options. I just hate wearing dress pants. Especially when I would have to be squatting to put books away. I know all school districts are different.

As I enter my 8th year, I am looking for new ways to eat well and save time during the school year. I typically do a bunch of cooking on the weekend to avoid being in the kitchen Monday-Friday. I gravitate towards foods that are healthy/filling, but won’t slow me down or make me feel bloated while I am teaching. I am also in the gym 2-4 days a week.

So, what are you eating for lunch? Do you meal prep, and if so what do you like to make?? Best breakfasts?? Favorite places to shop??

(And please: Nothing spicy because I will shamelessly detonate a poop tornado in the staff restroom!)

Hi all! I wish I had discovered this sub before now, but oh well! I am a new teacher who just got on a sub list for the fall (yay!). I was wondering if any current teachers or subs had any tips on how to be the best sub around? Things that make you want to request the same sub again/ get you calls? I was also considering making 'business cards' as I have seen other subs do that, but I'd like them to be fun/unique. I am super excited to embark on this new journey!

Hi!

I’m a fairly new teacher who teaches Grade 7 Health, which includes sexual health education.

Our sexual health curriculum covers topics such as puberty, safer sex, contraception, STIs, consent, gender diversity, gender-based violence, and online safety.

I’ve noticed that my male students seem to be much more uncomfortable discussing sexual health and puberty than I expected.

This past year I had multiple boys refuse to attend sexual health classes, even when their parents wanted them to participate. This year, about 50% of the boys tried to get out of the unit. While the girls were all fine with participating.

Many were so uncomfortable that they tried to leave or avoid the class. Their parents had to speak with them to tell them they had to participate.

The reactions have sometimes been extreme. One student threw a chair because he had label a diagram of a penis. Another student had to call to go home after feeling sick because we talked about what an IUD was.

I expected students to be silly, embarrassed, uncomfortable. But I didn’t expect was: fainting, crying, running away, refusal, and even throwing furniture.

I’m curious whether other teachers have noticed this as well. Is this generational difference, or am I just unusually uncomfortable group of Grade 7 students? Also does anyone have any suggestions for how to navigate this in the future?

Most of us became teachers for similar reasons, the "aha" moments, the creativity, the relationship building...

Whether you have taught for a short while or 25+ years, what things have changed? Has anything stayed the same? What was your favorite year teaching, and why? Please mention your years teaching if you respond!

I found out I was pregnant this summer and after the joy wore off the “holy crap how am I going to do this,” sunk in. Here’s the main concern: last year I did all four NBCT components and, naturally, burned through a ton of my leave (I’m carrying over three days 😬). My due date is March, which means tons of unpaid leave (my state does not offer paid maternity leave), but it also means tons of appointments before I even deliver.

I’m trying to schedule appointments after work, but it’s been really difficult so far, so I’m really worried about using up all my leave and going negative. I’m hoping my admin will be flexible and let me go to some of them during my planning (we have 84 min blocks) which mine leads right into our hour-long lunch block/study hall time. That gives me an almost three hour chunk of time I could leave and come back during without putting anything in anyone else.

Have any of you been in a similar situation? How was your admin? How did you handle it if they were not understanding? How common is it to go to these appointments on planning? For context, our hours are 7:30 am - 3:20 pm and my Dr’s hours are 8:00 - 4:30, so it suuuper tight.

Newish teacher here: In my first year of teaching 6th grade in a title one school admin was pushing for us to post objectives and learning criteria daily. I want to hear from fellow teachers: does this actually seem to help students?

I got a total of $500 to spend on my classroom this year! It's from two different pots of money. As an interventionist, I come up with fun ways to use random instructional materials. Anyways, I got an email asking me to justify certain materials like.... construction paper/graph sketch pad for a dysgraphia student/clip magnets for word cards and other things. Ok. So, I'll send an email justifying these things that cost maybe $50 total. Sure. Then I get an email saying the graph paper and magnets are rejected? Like, those were like maybe $20 total. But like, what the hell?

We get an email from the sup telling us not to share Amazon wish lists because of how it looks to the public, but yet there's numerous items that's been disproved in years past, like kleenex, feminine products, snacks/candy for prizes, hell, I had to even justify fidgets and receive an extensive approval process (I finally had to say it was on a student's 504 in order for it to get a reluctant "fine.") I don't need any more markers or paper or pencils, I can buy hundreds of those and maintain them because I hold them hostage due to some weird scarcity mentality. I come up with inventive ways to curate classroom learning and I basically have to spend my own money because it's not "approved."

So, I guess I'll go steal some graph paper from a math teacher and the rest of my funds will just go unused.

How do these educators who clearly have zero management or people skills keep getting admin positions?

During this teacher return week my admins have:

• told a teacher "You should get Depends" when they expressed worries after an emergency surgery.
• Not communicated to our grade level team how teacher switching in a departmentalized grade (rather than student switching) is going to work. This is especially egregious because the new teachers were not informed of this when hired. We have received zero modeling, zero resources, and absolutely no money to purchase any extra teaching tools to support this teacher switch.
• The newest admin taught a sibling of mine over 30 years ago and his first words to me were "Oh your parents didn't like me". Like what? unprofessional much?
• One simply just told me to not forget to submit my leave after I emailed to inform them that the doctor at urgent care needed to run a whole bunch of tests. (school stress related of course)

This is all just during the first week and does not include ANYTHING from last school year and only what has impacted myself and my team.

Sighhh I need to get out of education.

Being LGBT is one of the most controversial topics in the world. And at school, it can be particularly challenging. We all remember the taunts and teases. I think it was the worst insult you could throw at someone, especially a boy.

However, times have changed. Same sex marriage is legal in a lot of countries. On the other hand, conservative ideas are growing in popularity.

Maybe in some schools, the gender that someone is dating is as relevant as that person's hair color. And maybe in other schools, the attitudes from decades ago are pretty much the same.

What is the case in your school?

Why do we expect students who have been in a self-contained classroom being taught a heavily modified curriculum to be able to succeed in a general education classroom with 30 students and no additional support?

I got a new student today. Nice student. Very polite and excited to be in my classroom. The issue is, this student cannot read. They can write, but only if they are copying what is on the board or another paper. It takes them a couple minutes to write sentences that are 5-10 words. This student comes from our self-contained classroom. Academically no one expects this student to achieve anything close to a high school education. Any grade I give this student will be a lie. This student cannot obtain mastery of my standards.

I’m trying to become a teacher in Washington after moving here, and honestly, I’m getting discouraged. I’ve been reading a lot on Reddit, getting rejection emails, etc., and I’m starting to wonder if I’m doing something wrong.
At first, I was only applying for classroom teaching positions, but I’ve expanded my search to substitute teaching and paraeducator positions as well and I’m still not getting anywhere. I have a master’s degree, classroom experience, and endorsements in Elementary Education and ELL. So far, I’ve applied to 16 districts and countless private schools. And I have been applying since April.
For those of you who have successfully gotten hired in WA, especially around the Seattle/Eastside area, is there anything else I should be doing? School start soon!

Hello! I’m a first year teacher. I teach two math classes. I have no PLC because I’m the only one from my school teaching these courses so I do everything on my own. I was wondering what’s the normal rate to plan? School just started and I’ve been ahead just a few days. I’ve been wanting to catch up and make lessons at least a week before I teach but it’s a lot for me right now .

I just spent an hour after work emailing 2 parents about beginning of year behavior issues (brain fog was part of the lengthy stay). Idk why it takes me so long to write "hey, your kid called another student the n-word," but it does. Do any of y'all have some advice on how to get communication out faster? I'm just afraid of pissing off the wrong parent, and then I've got a bad relationship making everything more difficult.