First year art teacher at a middle school that has never had a visual arts class before. We're just over a month into the school year and about half my classes are giving me a super hard time, while the other half are somewhat manageable but still not great. I guess I just have zero classroom management skills and I know I need to be more systematic and consistent; I tried so hard to think things through ahead of time, make plans and routines, but I can barely get a word in edgewise to establish them in the first place; I was reading a classroom management book recommended by my professors and colleagues, but it seems to operate under a bunch of presumptions that don't apply to my situation. I just can't get a handle on things.

It's not a situation of "a small handful of kids are acting out because they don't understand expectations / feel aimless because the instructions aren't clear enough." It's a situation of "50-75% of students in most classes seem to think it's normal to talk over teachers, run around the classroom, jump on/over the furniture, get physical with each other, etc." Except I've seen them in some of their normal academic subjects and it's clear they know how school is supposed to work, how to read and follow instructions, how to tidy up after themselves, and so on; they just choose to act out with me specifically. I know certain groups give all the teachers a hard time, but it's nothing compared to what they're throwing at me.

I love coming up with lessons and units, making slides and project examples, prepping materials, and actually teaching art. I love working directly with students who try their best and want me to show them how to do things. I deeply appreciate the handful of students who actually care. But the majority of the behavior is so unbelievably bad that I'm just struggling to get through the bare minimum most periods. There's simply nothing left over to meaningfully build up their skills and creativity and confidence, so by the time we get to the next step, they're ill-prepared, but I can't slow down and do more work with them because they won't let me.

I only see each class twice a week so if we miss out on the opportunity to properly work on a certain part of the lesson, I kind of just have to move on and say "If you're having a hard time with this part, it's because you were too busy messing around to fully engage with the last part." But of course this also ends up negatively affecting all of their classmates, even the ones who actually want to try and do well.

Admin at this school claim they support teachers so much, but I'm not even sure what support to ask them for. I've already had to get their help several times and it doesn't do any good; kids may settle down for the few seconds someone else is in the room or after being scolded by the dean... then immediately go back to their bullshit afterwards. There is no "sending kids to the office to get them out of the classroom because they're acting unsafe and disrupting everyone else's learning;" we're expected to just magically make them stop then and there all by ourselves. The next step is supposed to be calls home but I hate doing it, and the handful of times that I have didn't make any difference. One parent even straight-up told me "I teach my daughter she's allowed to defend herself. If she hit someone it must be because they put hands on her first. Why weren't you as the teacher doing your job to prevent that from happening in the first place?"

I've submitted so many reports about student behavior while barely scratching the surface of maybe even 1% of incidents in my classroom, because at a certain point I'm sure it reflects more poorly on me than on the students. I worry admin is getting sick of it and probably just wants me to fix the problem myself and stop telling them about it. (BTW, I only learned about the system for submitting reports from my colleague who is also a first-year teacher; no one else told me how to do this or that it was even an option.)

I simply don't have any system for enacting consequences; I can say, for example, "If you act like this I'll have to assign seats and you'd better stay where I tell you to" but with no enforcement mechanism they're just up and all over the place again; I can say "This will affect your grade" or "If you prove you can be responsible with basic materials we can level up to special projects with special materials," but obviously the ones acting wrong are the ones who don't care about any of that. By now it's devolved to a lot of yelling, which is both physically painful for me and makes me feel like a failure; in the midst of doing so I also slipped up and swore at/in front of students on two separate occasions, so I worry if word gets around that I'll get in trouble. (Meanwhile I guess students can say as much foul and hateful stuff as they want without fear...)

I also kept misunderstanding the coverage schedule during my first couple weeks and had to be fetched for classes I was meant to be covering multiple times, so I'm sure they hate me for that. (I messed one up again first period this morning because the coverage email came in on my subway ride so I didn't get a notification until I was already in the school building.) Nobody has said anything yet, but between all these shortcomings, I get the sense I'm on eggshells. I feel like I have no one to talk to or ask for help; I don't even know how or where to start because the whole situation would just be blamed on me being a bad teacher to begin with. Sometimes I think if I get fired for how much I've fucked up already, it might just be a relief.

My anxiety has been so bad that I can barely eat or sleep. I was taking medication for it, but recently stopped because all that did was make it marginally easier for me to sit back and not give a shit that the students are acting like maniacs, which is not particularly helpful to improving the situation. At the same time, part of me feels like it's so bad I might just have to write off certain classes as a wash and not let myself care. I definitely don't want it to stay this way, but I also can't see the path from Point A to Point B right now. I know I need to be doing everything better but I'm scared it's too late.

I know there was a teacher just a few days ago who was caught CCW and had to resign but hypothetically if I had stopped an active gun man what would happen to me?

For admin. Tell me about a time that you misjudged a teacher and later realized you had it wrong and that you mistreated them for an incorrect idea or judgement. How did you handle this ?

Hi everyone! I recently applied for an ELOP Instructor position and got a call back the next day. They offered me an interview next week. I was pretty surprised since I'm 18 and only have experience babysitting and being an assistant at Kumon for a short period of time. I'm trying to prepare because I've never interviewed for this type of position before.

I have experience babysitting, but I've never officially worked as an after-school instructor.

For anyone who has worked in ELOP or a similar after-school program:

I'm wondering what the interview is usually like and what kinds of questions they ask. Do they ask situational questions about handling kids who misbehave or get into arguments? Because I really don't have experience with that. I'm also curious about what a typical day looks like for an ELOP instructor.

If anyone has worked in ELOP or a similar after-school program, I'd really appreciate any advice on how to prepare and what to expect. Thank you!

I’ve been dealing a bit with an internal problem. And maybe it’s all in my head, but I’ve just been feeling this way for awhile.

I’m a male teacher, but I came into the profession a little later (currently 33 and year 4 in education. 1st a para then teacher) and long story short for a couple years my finances weren’t the best so getting that figured out was my first priority. My partner was also figuring out her career and we were both just not at a place to have kids.

We’re not married yet but I feel like that is in our future. but I’m just feeling this weird pressure coming from school , coming from my coworkers of like accelerating the process.

I feel judged a little bit that I’m not married or don’t have kids yet and I’m getting up in age and I’m a male.

I feel like there’s pressure to conform to be like the Joneses and have a family already and have a house and not to say that I don’t want those things but I’m just not there yet.

I’m just feeling all this weird external pressure which I feel has like slowly creeped into my relationship because I brought it up to my partner and I just know she’s not ready yet. She tells me she still needs a few years and I feel like our timelines aren’t aligning.

But in any other career no one would care about my personal life to such an extent as I feel in teaching.

Any other male teachers feel a little judged for being unmarried or without kids yet?

A girl fight broke right out in front of me today in the hall (high school). I walked right past it and went around the corner into the ROTC room and told the male teachers, “There’s a fight.” They, being ex-military, went straight into action. I decided about 2-3 years ago that I was done putting myself at risk with fights. It’s not part of my contract, and I could get seriously injured. While I’m in good shape, I’m only 5’2” and also 56 years old. Felt proud of myself for not engaging. Back in the day, I was always willing to pull kids off each other.

Hear me out before downvoting.

I don't necessarily believe there's such a thing as a "bad teacher." I believe the vast majority of teachers genuinely try their best. What I do believe is that sometimes a teacher simply isn't the right fit for a particular school. And we know these schools continue to change their policies like Cassanova does with his partners.

I've even questioned whether I'm the right fit for my own school at times. So much depends on whether your teaching philosophy aligns with the school's expectations, leadership, and ever-changing policies.

For example, a teacher might excel at direct instruction, have outstanding student achievement data, and consistently produce strong results. Yet an asshole principal might still criticize that teacher for not incorporating "enough group work." It's such bullsht.

That's what frustrates me about teacher evaluations and other such things. So much of it is subjective and influenced by administrative preferences and school politics rather than actual student outcomes. What should matter is that a student feels safe and is learning something.

Sometimes it's not that someone is a bad teacher. They're just teaching in an environment that doesn't recognize or value their strengths. Teaching these days is hard as hell and I hate how they make it a competition among coworkers.

I'm a first year SPED teacher and finishing up my masters in May! Praise the Lord! My question is when do I start preparing for the job search? I live an hour away from my job, so that is two hours in the car everyday and 10 hours per week. It's draining me. I like everyone that I work with, but I don't think this is sustainable for me in the long run. I'm taking my English Praxis in November so I can have the scores back in time. I want to do this to see if it will open more doors for me. I can't hurt. I know I need to update my resume, email and cover letter. Anything else? When should I start emailing principals? I probably won't start until January or February to apply.

My school normally requires professional attire, and I like to dress professionally at work. We have dress down days where we can wear things associated with whatever theme is going on that day (band tshirts, decades, camp, pink shirt, orange shirt, etc). I never dress down because it makes me feel uncomfortable and unprofessional. I always get comments from other teachers about why I'm not dressed down, how I'm unspirited, etc. I get that we work with kids, but I take the job seriously and want to dress the part. I get we're not on the level of doctors and lawyers, but I would find it off-putting if a doctor or lawyer or other public facing professional was dressed down.

I want to keep dressing professionally, but I don't want to attract negative attention from my colleagues. Does anyone else feel similar? How do you navigate this?

Hi. 22f, currently in my 2nd year teaching 1st grade. I got my EVAAS data back today and it was everything but what I thought it would be. I had such a great first year last year. I had an amazing student teaching experience and learned so much so starting out I felt super comfortable and like I already had so many skills already. My classroom was organized, my students were wonderful and it showed with their behavior. We had structure, routine, positive reinforcement and a wonderful classroom community. I always felt really proud after all of my post-observation meetings with my principals because they always had really good things to say about me and my teaching. I won beginning teacher of the year for my school as well as for the district, have spoken at my former university to inspire other teachers. But that EVAAS data. Opened it first thing this morning. Crushed me.

I scored in the red and my jaw literally dropped. I was and am so confused. I literally pour my heart out teaching these kids. I give them 110% every day. I try to implement all of the strategies that we talk about in PLC’s and staff meetings. I teach, analyze, re-teach. Although my schedule doesn’t allow it, I try my best to pull small groups and we share one assistant between four classes so I try to utilize her as best I can too. I’m just so confused on where I went wrong. I know I’m still learning my craft but honestly, it comes so naturally to me that I don’t really feel like most second year teachers do. I don’t want to sound stuck up and conceited, but I know I do a good job and I’ve seen their progress on all our benchmark testing and during in class assessments. Am I overthinking this? How important is this data? What does this data even mean?

Hi all, new teacher here. Thank you to everyone who has been helping me along with some of my posts! This is kind of a vent.

I have a parent that I have been greatly warned about. She complains about everything, and "threatens" to homeschool her child. The student is super sweet and never an issue in class. She definitely has some learned helplessness, but overall does a great job.

The mom however is a nut. Admin has dealt with her the last few years. I received an email from her and I am feeling like I fucked up. I had to leave the class for about an hour for an IEP meeting, and when I came back the para, who was subbing, had a bad review and said that most of the kids were not following expectations.

I was stressed as it was already a stressful day. The special education teacher I work with suggested that we give everyone a strike, and I said we could take away Fun Friday. We have been working well together, and as a new teacher I have learned that maybe I have been a little too lenient with the kids. I didn't think on it much and just made that decision and kind of felt like this was my chance to lock down. She agreed, and we told the class when they came back from lunch. In hindsight I wish that I just left a paper for the para to write down specific kids instead of punishing the whole class.

Anyway, the mom sent me an email saying how unfair it was and that the psychological damage is irreversible. She pretty much said that teachers everywhere are problematic and her kid hates school (which I don't think is true). She also scolded me for not replying to her in an email about something else that we verbally connected about months ago.

I may allow fun Friday for some kids if they can get it together tomorrow. In the moment I kind of just made a rash decision, but I think the parent was way out of line with her email as well.

Thank you for reading, any 2 cents is helpful especially when dealing with this kind of parent.

I am a first year middle school ELA teacher (while finishing my teaching credential) seeking advice. Before going into education, I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted a job where I could positively impact teenagers and help to give them the skills they need to be successful young adults. Obviously I am not a magician, but my hope was to add to the skills and encouragement they have received from the teachers before me to be a small part of their success.

I anticipated a significant learning curve the first few years, but I’ve realized that I don’t know how to love kids as more than just a concept. I want them to be successful, but I have a hard time getting past their moodiness, apathy towards school, and overall lack of accountability to try to give them unconditional positive regard. Has anyone struggled with this? Do you have any tips that help you connect and genuinely invest in their success?

Thank you ahead of time!

I’m only in my 3rd year teaching but have noticed how bizarre administrators are. I would love to know how those who have been in education longer than I have feel about this.

In my district, most seem to have started out as teachers, then became instructional coaches, athletic directors, testing coordinators, or something similar. Basically, a non teaching role without administrative power.

Then, they become admin, and then they move on to being a principal or go work for the district.

I assume some people out there have great admin, but that isn’t the case for me, or for most people, it seems.

Mine say all the usual shit: Creating a seating chart will solve all of your behavioral issues! Have you tried forming relationships with the kids? What small grouping strategies will you be using during “FLEX to success” time? Remember your why!

They will talk about when they were classroom teachers. For some, it’s been so long that being a teacher is something completely different now than it was when they were teaching. For others, it will have been more recent, but still not recent enough for them to understand what the job is like currently.

They just seem so fake. They act like they are sooo busy and important, and I do believe they have a lot of work to do, but I just know it isn’t like what we teachers do. They want us to believe that they hold kids accountable for discipline, that everything is fine, etc. I see through it all. They seem unwilling to acknowledge the state the education system is in. It is just so much constant bullshit that it makes you think maybe these people really are just delusional and detached from reality.

So I’m wondering, how long do you think it takes a former teacher turned admin/instructional coach/principal/district person to become this way? Why do they become this way? DO they become this way, or were they like this all along? How many do you think started well intentioned, hoping to really make a difference in education as admin, versus just wanted to “escape” teaching?

Hey I'm a Ta for my schools first year seminar class. In a couple of weeks we have a lesson on community service and civic engagement. In the past we did cards for patients, I want to do somethign new this year. So what are some ideas or things that worked in the past?

It just has to be something we can do in the classroom!

I am 39 years old and switching careers from stay at home mom and then small business owner to teaching. I have been taking courses to get my elementary school (and possibly SPED) teaching degree. I'm worried I'm making a mistake though. I see posts and videos every day of happy teachers absolutely loving their jobs and doing great at it. Obviously they are showing the best of the best. I see posts and videos of teachers absolutely HATING their jobs. And obviously there will be people who love and hate their jobs in every profession, but these teachers don't just hate their jobs, they're having mental breakdowns over it. I've never felt more uncertain about what to do in my life.

I have worked at daycares and in preschool classrooms as an assistant teacher and I have worked at the local elementary school as a monitor and one on one aide for a special education student. I love working with kids so much. I love the sense of community I felt when I was working at the elementary school. I love the teacher hours.

I worry about being bad at teaching because I have ADHD and can't stick to a system to save my life. I worry about finishing school because I'm perimenopausal and struggling with focus and brain fog. I worry about needing to get my graduate degree while working as a new teacher. I'm also still raising my own kids (5 year old and 8 years old), so it's not easy. I'm worried about putting a bunch of time and money into getting a degree for a job that I might hate in 5 years and doesn't pay much.

I know nobody can tell me what to do here. There is no right or wrong answer. Any thoughts or experiences you can share?

I teach high school (11th grade). I’ve noticed that this year’s group of students are a lot more collaborative in terms of group work, and have really good relationships with each other. But they do not read long blocks of text at all when I ask them to work independently after teaching a mini-lesson. There’s a lot of avoidance. They apparently did not have to do this in English class last year. I have them working on a handout/note catcher as they read, but a lot of them still don’t (my lower performing students try to copy off of their friends).

I get not liking reading, especially since we have a canned curriculum this year. I’m trying to make it interesting. But they just don’t. This is the beginning of my fourth year teaching (I started in 2023, so I suppose it’s my third calendar year). I’ve never seen anything quite like this before though.

Are there any strategies that help?

So I am a student teacher, and I recently taught an end of the module reading lesson and students did not do so well on their writing task.

The kids who usually do good in writing did not do so well…..

I am feeling devastated because my mentor will use those writing tasks as an example for conferences. And I don’t know how she’s feeling about it.

Timothy will be my last day. And I feel sad I didn’t do a good job at guiding the students.

This was a horrible lesson. I didn’t write it, but I think it’s because of my teaching that it went bad

Not retired yet but getting close. I am about to be 60 and do not feel ready to be done but not sure I want the daily grind of all this stuff. What are suggestions for part time jobs? I have grandchildren in school so I am spoiled and want their schedule.

High school science, year 11 teaching. I can get students to copy almost anything. Cornell format, guided notes, two column notes, vocabulary boxes. Compliance is not the issue.

Two weeks later a large chunk of them look at the same page like someone else wrote it. Meanwhile a few students who barely write half a page can explain the concept cold because they actually stop and retrieve it.

I am less interested in prettier notes and more interested in a routine that makes the notes do something after class. If you have a best note taking app, retrieval routine, or classroom structure that students kept using past the novelty week, I would love specifics. Thanks for any recommendations.

I am a fifth year teacher. I have one class this year (high school seniors) that I can’t control for the life of me. It is just the wrong combination of students in one room. They always talk when I am talking. I have one student who lacks impulse control and makes faces at others. The other students get irritated by it. It doesn’t matter where I sit everyone. I have done the following:
1.) Contacted parents, given teacher detentions
2.) Kicked students out of class
3.) Moved seats
4.) Stopped talking when they were talking
5.) Stopped half way in the middle of class and told students they will work by themselves and I wasn’t going to keep talking over them.

What are some other strategies you recommend?

I didn’t know what flair to add… but any teachers work in a district with no union or a union that is basically does so little that you hear NOTHING about them?

I’m just curious because my district has a “union” but they do nothing. Many teachers stopped paying their dues because the union doesn’t show up for us at all.

I know sellers are having trouble with TPT, but I just bought a resource and went to add it to my drive. The only way I can add it is to give TPT access to all my Google Dive files and to view everyone I’ve shared files with. How are they even allowed to do that?! Regretting this purchase that I can’t open now.

Labeled as rant because nothing else seemed to fit. I was going over some ACT stuff with seniors this morning and started thinking about how different ACT is from when I was in high school.

Back then, we registered, showed up on Saturday, took a test, and got a score back.

Now, there's online vs. paper,writing options, science options, breaking down and analyzing the score from each section, super scoring, etc. In my state/district, it's tied in with class scheduling and graduation requirements.

I’m an elementary school teacher and between personal tragedies and family health struggles my mental health has been in the gutter. This year at school has only made it worse with pressuring admin and unruly kids. I honestly feel like I’m going to snap. I don’t sleep, I don’t eat. I’ve lost 15 pounds in 7 weeks. I have heart palpitations every morning before work and feel like I’m having a panic attack every morning on the drive in. I cry every single day. The guilt that comes from the thought of leaving the kids only makes these feelings worse, but I honestly think I’m going to pull the steering wheel if this keeps going. Does anyone have any similar experiences or advice for suddenly resigning for mental health reasons? I’ve read my contract and agreement and know there would be penalties, but I really don’t care. I’m willing to pay any fine or have my license revoked at this point because the thought of going back is killing me.

Hi, I'm coming on here to see if anyone has ever taught Spanish at an elementary level? I got a new job at a charter school that offers a dual-language curriculum. However, the school didn't give me a set curriculum and basically left me to fend for myself. I tested the students for this levels in Spanish, but it's all over the place. Some of my students are high in reading and able to understand it, while majority of the class have either a basic understand level or don't understand or can't read in Spanish. I was wondering if anyone has any tips or a place online where I can get lessons or resources in Spanish so I'm able to teach my students? My students are 4th graders, but I do want them to able to write, read, and understand Spanish. Or at least improve on it. If anyone can help out, that would be much appreciated!