r/TexasTeachers

It's barely the third day of school and this year Austin ISD took away a planning period and gave us an EXTRA class instead + an advisory class (homeroom), all with no extra pay. No joke, seeing just about 200 kids every day now is utterly exhausting. I have a feeling there might be an exodus mid-year because it's been brutally awful thus far. It's not fair to the students nor the teachers 😔

Hi, I made this one. I've played Wordle-likes for years and always wanted to build my own, but I never had an idea that felt like mine.

The push came from a strange place. Half of what I read these days is written by AI, and it's never short. Every email, every doc, twelve words where five would do. At some point I said the phrase out loud, long story short, and realised it was a game.

So: you get a twelve-word sentence. You rephrase it in exactly five of its own words. Real English, same meaning, your job is to work out which words carry the sentence and which are just dressed up to look important. Scoring is Wordle style, blue for right word in the right spot, orange for in the answer but elsewhere, grey for out. Five tries, one sentence a day.

My wife and my brother were the playtesters. An early version let "the" beat proper words in the answer, which felt awful to lose to, so the answers now always favour the concrete word. That one change ate a whole weekend.

Hi all,

I currently work in the service industry and am desperate for a career change. I have a bachelor's degree in English and am certified already as an EFL teacher. I've been considering applying for the Region 13 alternative teaching certification to teach secondary school ELA. This would obviously be a major financial and time commitment and is quite the risk for me. I'm pretty unaware about the state of the job market for teachers in Austin as well as the quality of life that comes with such a career. Any advice? Is it worth it?

7th year Sped unit classroom teacher, 10+ years para experience in high school Sped before. Just got called into the principals office at 3:45 to be told by the HS principal that I’ve been picked by the district to move to an elementary school for a resource position. I really don’t want to move as I’ve worked with my kids in the department from their freshman year until now and I want to see them graduate, but our unit numbers dropped from 22 to 16 so they see having 2 teachers on campus as a redundancy. I knew this would happen eventually, but I didn’t think it would happen this soon into the school year. Do I have any rights to ask for more time or to try and fight the move? Or should I plan on staying late tomorrow to pack all my stuff while my badge still works. Houston area, not in a union. I was told by my principal that since I’m the only staff on campus with elementary experience (2 years) and am not currently coaching or in a leadership position that I was the only choice available.

My campus used to give us “bonus time” or extra planning time to make up for the minutes lost in PLC meetings, as required by law. This year, with district budget cuts (Austin ISD), part of our schedule change is one 45 min PLC meeting per grade level per week, but they aren’t giving us any extra planning to make up for lost minutes. This breaks Texas Education Code § 21.404** **which states teachers are entitled to 450 mins of planning every 2 weeks.

Is this happening anywhere else? Can we do something about it– even after budget cuts?

So I was at my local district (it is a big district in Texas) for three years, and there I did quite a bit I feel. Some lasting things I left was building a makeshift studio before designing a real studio for a CTE Center and creating a whole program of study for the district, rolling out across multiple campuses. I left for another career opportunity… left very well liked by Principal/Admin (I’ve seen their recommendations so they at least say that I was well liked).

The career opportunity didn’t really go where I wanted and since then I’ve hopped between two neighboring districts and well… grass was greener where I was. Beyond perhaps more academically engaged kids, there is the material case of: I was paid more and now the new CTE center (which has the studio I designed) is literally in walking distance to where I live (and old campus five minute drive).

I feel like I gave up career (or at least respect) progression there and working part-time for the city (I left that due to the drive to other districts). While my attempted career pivot didn’t work, I think I might have had better luck trying to progressively climb with the city. I’ve been obsessively checking the job postings for my the district and the problem is the teacher who replaced me just will not freaking leave.

I ran into a former student who said none of the students liked him, so I was hoping that was a clue he was unhappy and was about to leave. But he hasn’t so far.

Any advice?

My daughter brought home two math books and said that the teacher told them that they weren’t going to be using them and that we could keep them for reference or throw them away. Is this common?

I just got a student in my third-grade class that didn't go to second grade, but enrolled in second grade.

His mom requested he be enrolled in second grade, but because he had simply been enrolled, (not an attendee) that school, still got funding.

Dun. Dun. Dunn! I have been lied to by admin.

I was told: We can't hold them back because we can't have students in developmentally different ages interact with each other.

Truth: It's funding (duh). Texas only covers the cost of students until they are 18.

I guess I am late to the game (and I like to "ostrich head" myself).

I was really holding into hope that I was here to grow and inspire (gag. Tears for my ignorance). Reality hits like a kid not spacially aware, putting their arm through the sleeve of their sweater, on a collision course your face.

Time to make some cute designs for their data folders, so I can ignore the contrast of reality vs. my locus of control.

The letter requests the final report of these investigations by December 31, 2026, so that appropriate action can be taken and additional reforms may be considered by the 90th Legislature.

Look for making up findings to lower spending on education even more.

Is anyone in region 7 or 8 area? Northeast? Our insurance rates skyrocketed. Last year I was able to cover myself and children for $6xx (medical, not including others) but now that same plan is $1xxx. The others are also too high. Now, I can cover myself but won’t be able to cover my children. What are we doing for something outside of school insurance to cover our chronically ill children?

We have to use the bluebonnet curriculum. (I won’t go into specifics about my grade level and subject as I don’t want to give identifiable info). Dense slides with poor explanations. example and practice problems that don’t take into consideration the average student is behind in math and needs more simple “starter problems” or explanations.

I’m doing my best to pick out the key concepts, cut out complicated problems and getting kids to understand at the basics but this is miserable and school just started 2 weeks ago. The pacing is so quick I can’t just spend multiple days on one topic so I’m basically left to cut my losses and get the kids to understand the bare bones ..

I am currently enrolled with Teachworthy and I cannot get in a school to do my observation hours to get my SOE. I have applied to observe in just about every school district in the central Texas area and nearby campuses. I keep getting directed to substitute teach instead, but I need to observe direct instruction. I get called for interviews but as soon as they know I don't have my SOE I am told they cannot hire me (even when I have disclosed not having the SOE openly to the talent acquisition team and the campus prior to the interview- I am trying to be respectful of their time). I don't know what else to do since I have exhausted every resource. I come from a completely different career field so I have no contacts within school districts to get a foot in. I have passed background checks for two campuses (one offered a job once I have my SOE and the other has approved me to sub) My advisor continues to say to keep applying. Any advice on how to get these hours? Has anything worked well for anyone else in the past? I have completed all the available online hours I have through the program and passed my content exam. I just need the 25 hours in person observation hours to complete. I appreciate any help I can get, thank you!

I found out today I was designated Recognized in 2023 and Exemplary as of 2024. It appears on my certificate as active until 2029.

I was a new teacher in 2022 and I worked myself crazy for good scores. But I was never sent a letter or email, no one informed me, and I have not received one cent for TIA on any paycheck or supplemental pay, so I never knew. I just assumed I wasn't doing a good enough job.

Has anyone else experienced this? Am i missing something? Is it somehow possible I just won't get to see exactly what funds/how much I will receive for TIA?

I emailed our district's TIA rep but so far it's crickets...

I applied to Austin ISD last night, and received a rejection this morning before 8am (making me think nobody actually read it). What gives?

…..where did you go?

I know a lot of teachers are leaving the profession- where are all of you guys going?