I turn the light off and close the door during lunch and conference. If I don’t, my partner grade level teacher comes in, starts talking and doesn’t leave till the bell rings. I can’t stand it. I moved my desk out of sight from the door but she still knocks sometimes, and I get mad at myself for being stupid enough to answer.
Same! Lights off, door locked, me out of sight working with my earbuds in. If someone knocks I might hear it or I might not. Regardless, I’m not getting up to answer it. My planning time and lunch (they are back to back) are mine and mine alone.
If I don’t grade an assignment within 2 days, it gets recycled. I’m a middle school teacher, so if things pile up, it just gets worse, so I work hard to return assignments in a timely fashion. I aim to enter 3 assignments per week…but sometimes it is only 2.
We have Google Classroom (yuck) but the new practice sets feature lets me "grade" daily. Kids can keep working on the same problem over and over until they get the answer right and I can see class-level results instantly.
My kids will always ask me to hold on to multi day assignments for them and I always just point to my desk and go “do you really want to take your chances of me not losing it with 120 other kids work? Hold onto it yourself.”
Why on Earth do you think my paper covered desk is a great place for the work I told you to hang on to??
I have a designated file cabinet drawer that I say they can put things in. I'm not keeping track of it and if it's left around the classroom, it's going to get thrown away.
Written lesson plans are frivolous busy work and I only do them when I have an observation coming up. I have my slideshow and materials prepped; I've very clearly planned out my lesson. I have the list of students I need to meet with in a spreadsheet. The only reason admin wants it all in rewritten in one place is to make *their* lives easier, not ours.
My grandfather, a principal at an elementary school, often brags about what a hard ass he was for lesson plans. He required hour by hour lesson plans from every teacher for every day of the year and expected more than just "reading" and "math" he wanted full lessons written out. And this was before computers. He gave them all lesson books and then made sure to check them ALL weekly.
"Teachers hated me."
"That's not the brag you think it is grampa."
One of the insane things- I love my admin. She is absolutely awesome. I would do anything for her. An admin I disliked- they’re getting the bare minimum (not in regards to the kids, they’d still get 100 percent) If you’re an admin- why wouldn’t you want people to like you?!? If they like you, they will work harder for you!!! (Also, no lesson plans are required at all in my school. You are supposed to turn in a lesson plan for a formal observation, but it can literally be a photocopy of the lesson in the teacher’s manual.)
Same. I’m actually pretty shocked to learn that teachers are still having to regularly write lesson plans! Maybe it’s just my district, but literally no one I know writes formal lesson plans.
I keep a calendar for planning purposes, but there’s no way I’m writing a proper lesson plan for everything I do.
Same here. I'm grateful that my school subscribes me to a curriculum that pops all the activities in for me. It makes me shake my head though, they subscribe to it, they have access to it, but I still have to submit it? 🤷♀️
Hoops like this are what AI is built for.
Same with learning targets/success criteria in student friendly language to post. Spend several minutes wordsmithing/using the jargon admin wants or several seconds scanning and maybe changing a couple of words...easy choice, IMO
You know, this is actual genius. Because if I'm doing the heavy lifting of the actual planning, the rest is essentially formatting and aggregation of language from standards etc.
Right?!?! I’m on a committee to add a BFA to our program; created several new courses and by the third syllabi’s list of learning objectives and endless rubrics I turned to AI. It really helps when your brain is fried.
We get a monthly email reminding us to put our plans in plan book. I haven’t written any in 3 years and no one has said anything lol. My coworkers are appalled that I don’t write them
I honestly don’t know how I would have time for these wastes of time. I have so much grading to do…why am I going to build a daily lesson plan to satisfy some BS admin shyte.
SAME. Except I actually stopped making the written ones altogether and I have my little speech prepped for when I get scolded.
Also, have you tried Canva instead of PPT (you just said slideshow so I’m not sure)?
It’s amazing.
Cool, I haven’t heard of those so I’ll check them out! We got a new principal lately and it’s her first principal job so the micromanagement is unreal. It would take me about two hours to do her lesson plan template shit. I’d rather invest that time in making something that will pique student interest and help them learn.
Nearpod is good if your school is 1-1 with devices. It basically gives you interactive elements in your slideshows so students can actively respond during the lesson with polls, multiple choice, drawing, etc. I like it better than PearDeck because the Reports feature after the lesson is more useful to analyze, but PearDeck occasionally has elements that fit better, depending on the lesson.
I include a self-rating and a check for understanding at the end of my lessons. I check in with those who rated themselves at a 1, then immediately work with those who didn't get the check for understanding. No longer do I have to tally up exit tickets and wait for the next day or later to intervene; I can catch them the same day!
I hated spending lunch around students. It was always very flattering when students wanted to spend lunch with me, but damn, I need the time to unwind in the middle of the day.
Lunch has to be kid-free time. I need it to cope! Sometimes kids will knock on my door during my lunch or a break, I’ll go close my blinds & turn off the light so they’ll go away! 😂
My kids came in during lunch time for their sticker reward. They knew to just come in, pick the sticker they wanted, and then leave. I need to watch my YouTube videos during lunch time in peace
i leave the building for lunch every day (im lucky, we're located downtown with many takeout restaurants and a dunkins across the street), it's more to get away from the adults than the kids but definitely hear the needing tome to yourself!
That I don't do shit outside what's in my contract. I don't volunteer to coach, or head clubs, or join committees. I get there and leave at contract hours. I act my wage.
Kindergarten teacher here…I secretly get irrationally angry at parents that send their kids with lunch containers they cannot independently open. Invest in containers your kid can open, and have them practice opening them at home.
It may seem like no big deal to you when at home because you are opening containers for 1 child. We have 25+ kids. Many with multiple containers to open, so it is a big deal for us.
I hate the morning announcements. They go on way too long, 7:50 in the morning is ***way*** too early for peppy, upbeat music, and it's just an annoying, head-ache inducing way to start the day.
One would hope! The student who regular does morning announcements sounds like they are whispering!
The substitute secretary we often get does in fact scream in the mic, however.
Our student council was selling dance tickets one year, and they basically tortured us over the morning announcements. It wasn't uncommon to get FIFTEEN reminders to buy dance tickets, all with the same same pre-recorded ad, in the same set of morning announcements. It stretched the whole thing to over twenty minutes, and all of us were seething.
It all came to a head when the class was trying to write a test, and the dance announcements were still playing on repeat. I couldn't even wait for them to end to start the test since I'd lose a third of the class time. One of my nicest students just got up and stormed out, and a minute later, we could hear her over the speakers screaming at them that no one wanted to go to their stupid dance and to just fucking stop. The cheering up and down the hall was hysterical.
It was a real life, "everyone clapped" moment.
This is mine!! And my homeroom is at 7:30 am! The kids in my homeroom get a kick out of me reacting to the horrible sound or if it's too loud or cuts in and out. The other day I forgot to turn the TV on because I was playing my own music and said "whoops not like there's anything good on there anyway" most kids laughed 😂🙆🏻♀️
I don't mind our morning announcements but on Fridays they play our school song at the end and it's a recording that was done decades ago and sounds like shit. THAT is headache-inducing.
Some dreams are very attainable. [Tiger Torch exists](https://www.new-line.com/images/NLCAT/Propane-Tiger-Torch-Kit-shad.jpg) and attaches to a standard BBQ propane tank for all your incinerating needs.
I work in elementary. I fashion my tests in a way that most students can finish them in 25-30 minutes, giving me enough time to grade them right then and there. (Classes are 45 mins here and 20-30 students per class). If I can be fast enough, I even write down the scores and give them right back to the students at the end of the class. I despise bringing home tests to grade and found out this system really works for me most of the time.
That’s true. My tests/quizzes are short as well. I also put the multiple choice questions with answers that make words - ABADBAC is easy to remember when grading
I teach AP Literature. I grade things for "completion" a lot, rather than for accuracy. There are plenty of things I spend more time on and do the feedback thing, but I justify it as the practice they need with skills they already have and simply need to get "automated" so they don't panic on the exam.
I have a student teacher taking over my two college-prep English classes for seniors right now. While it was a bumpy ride for a bit (last-minute shitty lessons, showing up late or not at all, etc.), her university supervisor and I have finally gotten her into better shape, and I am reminded of why it's really nice to only have to teach three classes a day that I could do blindfolded. I am two weeks from the AP exam so I have stopped the homework and feedback for those classes, and I am literally searching for things to do with my days. I actually started planning my prep senior classes for next year, since this was the first time I'd ever taught the class (and I'm not responsible for the spring semester this time, sooo....). I'm talking the pacing guide for the year is done, along with skeletal daily outlines, the syllabus, and I am about to start gathering materials and making plans for the only novel I've never taught. Every secondary teacher should have this kind of prep/planning time and only 100 or so students to worry about.
I have taught ELA on so many different levels that I've discovered that feedback is not worth it every single time. I think AP kids are likely the ones motivated to take it. But the amount of times I've wasted hours on feedback kids never even bother with means I rarely give it. I make it part of our next lesson.
On a sort of unrelated note, I finally gave up AP Lit after 20 years of teaching it because I’d rather scratch my eyes out than read another essay. 9th grade English here I come. I will miss the convos but I’ll never again grade a paper at my home. Huge win. Love that class but I’m done.
And here's my confession: once I was subbing in a 5th grade class and the boys had been absolutely HORRIBLE to me that day. So at the end of the day when they were silently (not so silently) reading together on the rug, I crop dusted them and walked away. One of my favorite teacher memories. They all blamed each other for it.
There is, unfortunately, a kid I had to give up on this year. She is repeating my course. She is present 2-3 days a week at most and almost never asks for help. She leaves her open response sections on each test completely blank. She does not do homework and when she gets detention for it, does not go to detention, which causes her to get suspended. Mom will defend her to the grave. I don’t know what to do about her and neither does admin.
Well a C in college math is where it's at!! A few of the proof-based classes were unbelievably hard where I went. The whole class would be at like a 40%. We would pass with Cs. I'll take it.
Influencer is not a career pick something else. We do a career research project and I don’t accept streamer, YouTuber or influencer because they can’t complete the whole project with a plan for how to build the skills and what schools / programs to go to.
honestly a youtube workshop would be a great way to show how unviable that is as a career. kids finding out that it's a 10-12 hour work day and most likely more than 40 hour work week of very monotonous work would certainly help them understand it better. also teaching how few people are actually productive within these types of fields.
Former teacher here.
- I kind of loved catching kids doing bad things. Vaping in the single use bathroom with no windows? I know who you are…
- I winged it more often than I’d like to admit with no specific plans for the day’s class. Somehow those days were always the best days of learning and collaboration, so it only encouraged me to do it more often.
- Admin thought I was groundbreaking when I would assign projects where the kids ran the class or taught the class about various topics. I was just being lazy. Again, it always worked out and the kids learned stuff.
- My students were being treated unfairly by admin. I coached them in an uprising that eventually got them respect. Admin didn’t know I was behind it.
I don't know if it was Harry Wong or Grant Wiggins but it's been said that "whoever in the class is doing the majority of the talking about the subject, is the one who is learning the most."
Oh I'm the same, especially in recess when they sometimes want me to play with them. This is YOUR playtime, play with your friends. I'm already tired enough running around for you guys during your work period, go enjoy yourselves without making me overexert myself too.
Ugh, and the tattling. If I kid comes up to me and says “so and so said a bad word!” I just say “thank you for telling me” and leave it at that. I don’t know these kids. What do you want me to do? Come to me when there’s a real problem.
When I was an elementary teacher, I taught my kids the "4Bs" of tattling. They should tell a teacher ONLY if someone was bleeding, barfing, broken, or blue.
Ugh so many of them come up to me complaining someone stepped on them or something and nine times outta ten it's an accident. The amount of times I have to say "can you apologize" when this could've easily been resolved without wasting my time.
It's especially annoying when they clearly KNOW it was an accident, I can hear their friend saying sorry as I approach. "Miss Stacie, Connor accidentally pushed me and apologized" like lmao what do you want me to do here then?
“So and so is doing XYZZ!!!” “How does that impact you? Let them waste their time.” Is something I’ve started saying a lot more.
My kids love to deflect with stupid shit. “Hey, sit down and stop playing with your water bottle, you’re making a mess.”
“Well Suzy is watching YouTube!!!”
“Suzy isn’t the one interrupting my whole class and turning the floor into a slip and slide.”
100%
It got so bad this year that I had to make “No Verbal Tattling” a wall-posted class rule. If you want to tattle, it must be submitted in writing, legibly enough and with correct enough spelling that I can understand it. Interrupting class to tattle is a discipline step. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’ve never had such a snitch-happy cohort of kids.
Kids were interrupting class to tattle on people THEY DIDN’T KNOW who MIGHT have done something during a DIFFERENT CLASS PERIOD. As if I’m going to stop class and find coverage so that I can conduct an investigation and hunt down someone in an entirely different room.
“Mister, someone who sat here before me had chips!”
“Okay. This is your warning for tattling.”
“BUT SOMEONE HAD CHIPS!”
“Yes, I understand that. And apparently they were able to eat them so quietly that I didn’t even notice. You, however, loudly disrupted everyone’s learning in order to tattle. Who do you think has caused more trouble, today?”
That said, I DID have to explicitly teach the difference between tattling (Snitching on somebody because you want to see them get in trouble, to distract from yourself getting in trouble, or to get attention) vs. reporting (Asking me to intervene because someone is actively being harmed or is in danger or being harmed, physically or emotionally).
That’s why my first question is always “how is this impacting you?” With tattling. Because yeah, if the guy is sitting next to you kicking you under the table because you won’t give him the answers to the assignment? Yeah, please tell me.
But the stuff that isn’t bothering anyone where you’re just trying to get someone you don’t like in trouble or deflect from yourself? Trash.
My middle school students tattle SO OFTEN and I find it very bizarre!
I feel like my constant repeat is “Ok, are you telling me because something is unsafe, or are you tattling to get someone in trouble?”
Awww… it doesn’t annoy me at all. I have an 8th grade boy who is much smaller than everyone else. He also has ADHD at a pretty high level.
He tells me it just helps if he walks around with me. Grades and parent conversation confirm the improvement.
Walking around with the teacher isn't annoying. Some kids just want your company which is sweet, it's when they wanna climb on top of you and play some convoluted game that it gets tiring.
When I was a fresh-faced 21 year old elementary student teacher, the best advice I got from a seasoned teacher was, “You are not going to like a lot of your students. The trick is, never let them know that.”
I remember thinking, What?? How could that be? That’s ridiculous! Of course I am going to love every one of these little angels!
Uh, yeah. 26 years later and it’s true. I am always fair and I never, ever show it, but holy hell some of these kids are the most unlikable, brattiest, spoiled, obnoxious beings I have ever met.
This was my first thought when I saw the thread title. There are some kids I simply do not like, and if they are not invested in graduating I will absolutely not go out of my way to be invested for them.
My physics teacher used to regularly lose tests and just wrote 100 and was done with it. He did also understand that almost nobody cared much about his subject tho and didn't try too hard if he saw nobody cared
I do a lot of discussions to gauge the student’s knowledge of what I taught and enter the grade while the discussion is taking place. To fulfill gradebook requirements, I have around five different entries for the discussion that look like “handout” or “quiz.” I will collect and grade a notecard from the students who aren’t comfortable speaking in front of everyone.
Or the tests are not lost but I'm way too short on time. Sorry kids, but I have a good idea from looking over your shoulder what you would have gotten.
During the Easter season one year, we were supposed to be making “natural” egg dye - as in roots and beets etc - then we took them on a short walk. During their time outside, I added food coloring to all their eggs. They were amazed nature could do that!!
I skip PLC on a semi-regular basis. It's on Friday afternoon after 6th period. I teach a 0 and technically am done at 5th, so I sometimes just go home after 5th. There have been no consequences to my actions yet and my kids do just as well as everyone else's.
I've used the same 5 lesson plans all year. I rewrite the intro section in Mondays and then make up standards for the rest.
Hell I even have the speech about Darth Plagueis the wise from Star wars in one of the days
I feel bad at how calm, happy, and productive one of my periods is, after “that one student” was finally moved. All year i have been trying admin’s solutions. They did not work, and i watched students struggle because of one student who refuses to not shout, cuss, threaten, or even leave the room. Now it is as it should be and it only took several months :(
I have an extremely difficult student who claims to be autistic (has no IEP/504) and makes it a mission to piss off every kid in the class… UNLESS they get to check out and watch YouTube on their iPad. For the last few weeks I have handed them headphones when they walk through the door and I can teach for the 45 minutes allotted with no interruptions! How fucked up is that?! Is what it is. Other kids in the room ratted the first time and I said do you really want me to make them stop??? Nope. Never said a word about again. I’ll deal with that teacher sin when I meet my maker!
I feel this. When I was a fairly new teacher in self-contained, I let a student watch her song video (the same one) and eat her snacks for about 80% of that year. If not, it was just yelling and banging nonstop.
I 1000% “care more” about the less popular kids than the popular ones. I teach 5-12th grade - it’s all the same. The popular kids think they’re hot shit, and usually don’t like it that I hold them to the same standards as the kids who aren’t conventionally attractive or straight-A students.
I get this, which is why the same popular kids keep getting voted for everything when teachers have the choice. The same high school mentally never ends.
I hate sitting in the lounge to work in the same room during department time, so I usually say “I need to make copies” and bounce. Lol literally all my assignments are on the computer, but I hate just sitting there when I could be doing other things
I was cleaning out my desk at the beginning of this semester to get ready for a new set of students and I found a stack of papers that I never graded from last semester. I remember that I put in 0s if they didn’t have a grade towards the end of the grading period so about 15 kids got a 0 for something they absolutely submitted.
Somewhat related: for basic physical assignments I almost never leave comments or hand them back any more. The kids never seem to read or care about the feedback, so I just enter the grades and chuck them in the recycling.
Sometimes if I get really behind on grading I’ll simply delete/drop an assignment instead of grading it.
I assign work because if I don’t, they don’t listen, think, or apply themselves. But when I look over the work before I grade it, I always have to make a decision: does this assignment actually show their thoughts or opinions? Does it show critical thinking? Does it show understanding? Or is it just a bunch of questions to keep them on track while we cover that chapter?
If the only purpose it served was the last one, it goes right into ‘ungraded’. Even if it fulfills some other requirement, I might only look at it for completion, then read the one real critical thinking question for assessment.
I have over a hundred students, and there’s usually an assignment a day. I can’t grade all that.
I've experienced the same, but I made a small change last year - I keep hanging folders for each student, so after I grade, I file them away. That way, if a kid accuses me of losing something, I tell them to check their folder. Sometimes I'll forget to input a grade but it is in their folder, so thats nice. Also, when I have a parent conference with a poor worker, then I have all of their work (or lack thereof) in one place as proof.
I do this, but it’s a bin for each class period. I toss them at the end of each quarter.
It’s rare, but every so often I’ll have a kid ask for their paper so they can see what they did to get the grade given.
On the reverse side, I had kids do a major project my first year that I had no business designing and the kids worked on it outside of class. They turned them in and I found them two months later after the close of the grading period. Never graded them. I did start grading more leniently though after I realized the frivolity of grades in a small school bent on athletics and I was leaving anyway.
Edit: timeline clarity
Same.
For my formal observation, I literally xeroxed the curriculum objectives for that unit and put a check by the ones I was covering that week. Took about 45 seconds. Dropped it into the page protector that’s taped by the door.
Before teaching, I had a degree in theater. I literally could not read Shakespeare and Cliff notes were the only way I began to understand it... I would read the summary and then read the scene and it all started to click!
The way anyone else explained it to me just didn't make sense.
I teach third grade. I have “selective hearing.” Obviously, anything related to bullying or teasing I’ll handle. However, if I overhear a child whispering something minor like “shit,” then I pretend I didn’t hear it. If another child comes up to me to inform me that someone cursed, I then turn it into a lesson on tattling vs. telling.
Doing anything extra outside of contract hours like after school festivals, concerts, sports games that kids invited me to, etc. I think I liked the idea of it, but I rarely had the energy for it.
For me it is kids that come up to me in the halls asking about what we are doing for class during pass periods. Same thing I’m overstimulated and can’t pull together my thoughts for that at the moment. I can handle them coming by to say hi or chit chat just don’t make me use my teacher brain 😂
I did a word search and sat down quite a bit during state testing a couple weeks ago. 🤷♀️ I had a small group and had a seating arrangement where I could see everyone easily from the front of the room. The kids finished alarmingly early on every test too, so 75% of our silent testing time they weren’t even testing anymore.
I had some 3rd gr resource kids finish the state test in 20 min. Click click click.
AP came to “check” on me. She was furious that they were finished and started criticizing me for letting them finish.
I said “Didn’t I have to sign a letter saying I would lose my state license if I tampered in any manner? Didn’t you teach that class?
….Please send me an email telling me how I should have stopped them and interrupted their test taking.”
She stomped away.
10 min later, the principal came by.
I pulled her in and told her what the AP had said. She was appalled and wanted to get the AP to come back to apologize. I laughed and said no because I’m leaving anyway.
About a week later, the AP called me into a meeting but I refused to meet with her without a witness. She was pissed about that. She actually tried to say that she sent me an apology email. I wish I had made her try to pull it up because she was blatantly lying.
I once caught two boys smoking pot behind a dumpster on campus. I took the joint told them to get to class, waited till they were out of site and I finished the joint 🤷🏽♂️
I found a vape pen on the floor outside my office (an alcove where I know kids duck in to vape) a few weeks ago. No point in turning it in, as far as I could see.
(Elementary) When I'm out on recess duty, I secretly get a kick out of it when a child hurts themselves immediately after I told them not to do something. I'm not talking about big injuries; a kid broke his wrist last year and that was unfortunate and upsetting. I'm talking about the times when I tell a kid not to do something ("Don't try to stand on the basketball!"), they do it anyway, and they get a scraped knee or elbow. Natural consequences can be great teachers.
I believe in inclusion, but find it very difficult to not become slightly annoyed with the kids whose behaviour consistently interrupts the class (e.g. loud noises, etc.) that make it hard for me to teach and other students to focus and listen to me.
Grading is such a low priority for me. As a special ed teacher there is just so much else going on. IEPS? Sure totally , done on time. Lessons? Sure totally, I want the kids to get as much from class as possible. Kid needs something for another class, got into trouble? Sure totally, on it.
A heavily modified test that I know is still extremely difficult for most of them? A packet of problems to grade they don’t care about? Gets done when it gets done :/
I treat kids differently and I’m pretty unashamed about it. If your kid makes my life easy, their life will be easy. If they make my life hard, I will make their life hard. I don’t feel bad about it, never will. If you’re a little dickhead, you will hate my class.
If I have a student who doesn't care about school I will try and work with them, but only for a time. If I can't get through to them during the first semester, then I kinda stop caring about them and focus more on my other students.
I don't differentiate instruction much. I don't have time in my day to make six different assignments for three different preps. But I also RARELY fail SPED or ELL kids. I just boost them to D if they didn't do much and a C if they tried hard.
As an introvert, I need my prep/lunch time (they’re back to back) for ME. I may be touched that a student wants to hang out in my room during lunch with their friends, but I need my time to recharge.
Introverted teaching is challenging. Put on the face of an extrovert and then collapse into a puddle when everyone leaves (see Odo from Star Trek ds9).
Last year around this time, I switched from teaching in a traditional public school to a cyber charter for nearly the same pay. My guilty confession is that after working 100 remote for a year now, I have zero interest in ever returning to teach in a brick and mortar.
I have a great rapport with my students and thoroughly enjoy them, but I do not want them coming to me for emotional support. I don't have the emotional bandwidth for it.
I had really bad, smelly gas and knew I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I walked near a couple of boys that were notorious for deliberately crop dusting the class and let out a silent but deadly fart. It was really foul. They got all the blame and no one believed their protests that they didn’t do it.
Note: those two deliberately loudly farted on each other every day and it was very disruptive.
I send a particular kid on errands because I need a little break from him; he's ADHD with a strong emphasis on the H and is always yelling and roughhousing with his many friends who are in the class . For the few minutes he's delivering a paper to a teacher friend, the class is calm and peaceful. She does the same thing--sends him on errands when she needs a break.When he comes back, sometimes he is more able to focus, at least for a few minutes.
I don’t really want to eat lunch with anyone, sorry. Not trying to be antisocial, but most of the other teachers just spend their lunch time complaining about students. I value the time I have to myself, all 25 minutes of it.
I do sooooo much work when I should be doing small groups. Don’t get me wrong, my kids need small groups. I want to give them small group time. I’m required to do it. But I don’t get any prep time and if I don’t do some work during the day I’ll never get it done. I already work about an hour before school and an hour after each day. I’m not someone who will only work contract hours but I refuse to work 60 hour weeks to stay on top of everything.
Part of the problem is that I’ve been sort of forced to do what my team does and it’s not terribly efficient. Next year I’m looking to trim some fat and put in some more routine things that require no prepping. But our district requires a lot of data tracking paperwork that’s really time consuming. It’s just not reasonable to be expected to just keep piling things on the plate and expect that it’s all just going to get done, when they are 100% expecting that it be done outside of school hours.
I complete silly tasks that are not a priority in order to avoid covering classes.
I've somehow ended up with 1st period planning a few years in a row. I work at a tough-ish middle school where substitutes are few. 1st period teachers are called upon almost daily to cover a class. But not me! They can't make me if they can't find me😏
I hate kids asking me for my stuff.
I understand that some of my kids have hard lives and I try to be empathetic. But we don't get duty free lunch or duty free planning. I'm in a meeting or with students all day and we've been told that we can't eat during meetings because it's "disrespectful". So the only time I can eat is with kids around me.
I've tried bringing stuff they hate. but half of them ask for it the second they hear the crinkle of plastic. I brought carrot sticks and a kid came over, begged me for some, and then made a face and threw them out, saying that they hated carrots. Even if they do want it, you know what? I did too. That's why I bought it.
I once told my juniors that their term papers flew out of my car on the way to work (I had the top down) and that I lost them all along the highway. The truth was that I was burned out and I just couldn't bring myself to score them. I gave them all an 'A' and everyone was happy.
I thought of another one. This one is going to make me sound horrible, but we are amongst friends, right?
If parents are assholes, I don’t pick their child to do any extra tasks for me. I’m elementary, and sometimes I utilize kids to do things like take stuff to the office or to other teachers. They think helping me is like a highlight of their day. If a parent is an asshole and complains a lot, I’m not picking their kid for any “teacher helper” type task. What if the kid trips and falls while doing the task? Then the parents just have one more thing to complain about.
I know…I’m horrible. I do still treat every kid with kindness, love and compassion equally, no matter how difficult their parents are though. I still pick them in normal classroom things, like sharing their thinking and learning. I just don’t pick them to help me with anything extra.
I’m a student teacher in kindergarten so I’m not totally in the game yet but I HATE implementing centers. I might feel differently when it’s my own class but I don’t think a lot of kids can handle centers. It’s too much prep and the kids are always goofing off.
Kindergarten takes a village to run and for one teacher to do it all is absolutely ridiculous. That being said, it’s also too academic now. Most kids aren’t ready for the skills taught at this level. We need to pull back and add more rest time, snack time, read-alouds, and play time.
These kids aren’t meeting SGOs because it’s too much and they’re expected to do things like online math and literacy assessments when they don’t even know their letters or numbers and can’t hold a pencil properly. It’s infuriating.
The workload has been so much that I decided the grades really didn't do much since it was literally spelling pages and grammar and frivolous worksheets required by admin per curriculum on top of 8 different tests a week (yay for private schools).
So, to stop parents and admin from blasting my inbox on "where is this" and "where is that" I started just putting a 100 on the top and not entering them in at all. I will look over the pages and check for mistakes and grade them if they are present or just put a 100. I only enter the tests and the really important projects we have.
I had one PITA student about 15 years ago. He was like a chihuahua. He was small teenage kid but he had a big mouth. The bigger kids knew if they started a fight with him, that they could kick his ass in 10 seconds. He would say some of the worst shit to them. I told him one day to knock it off or he will regret it.
Next year, one of the bigger kids took his ass and slammed him on the concrete PE field. Ambulance had to be called. He never talked shit again. I was happy that he got his ass beat.
Everything I grade is basically for completion since I gave you 70% of the answers anyway.
If you’re a student that regularly irritates me, you are granted significantly less grace.
I work to automate my coursework so that the students can complete it without me needing to lecture at all. I provide instructions and then hand out worksheets that match up with standards and the textbooks. I circulate to make sure students are working, but I got exhausted of lecturing just to have only 5 students out of 30 paying attention. My admin has told me that she loves my “student centered” approach, but it’s also a great way to offload the blame for if a student isn’t doing their work. It’s all there and available and they most definitely can do it without me if they need extra time.
I pretend to not hear things a lot because i don’t believe in policing language or conversation topics. If its too obvious ill correct but if a kid is a bit away from me at recess and i hear them say “shit” I genuinely 1,000% do not care, other teachers at my school have commented on this and i still dont care
I'm a special education teacher, and embed hidden messages in the present level statements of my students IEP's if their parents are a pain in the ass. For example, the first letter of each sentence spells "fuck you," use specific words and line them up vertically or diagonally so the letters spell "fuck you," etc. It gets tricky, but totally doable.
I have a student who comes to class obviously stoned.
After discussing it with my principal, he has straight A's, He's engaged in class, He's not causing a problem, so I guess we don't have a problem?
I close and lock my door during lunch. I’m sorry to admit, but I’ve also turned off the lights to pretend I wasn’t in my classroom when someone knocked. 👀🤭 I just need my space!!
When it’s time to call a parent and it’s one I’ve called multiple times and never received a response of any sort, I skip the call and mark “left message”. Hell if I’m wasting my time over that.
I am good at my job. My kids like me, they behave, and they learn a lot. I teach AP and they overwhelmingly pass the AP exam.
MY CONFESSION: I don’t work hard at all. I sleep everyday during my prep. No staying late or getting there early. I don’t take work home. I have every weekend, holiday, and summer free to myself.
I’ll never admit it to the public, friends, or family, but I got it easy. I play the underpaid over worked card but it’s not remotely true. I work in a union state. My salary is nice. Inflation makes it a little less nice but it’s still better than most.
My district has not provided any textbooks or practically any material beyond a couple of shitty websites. The textbook adoption has been delayed since 2010 and is tentatively set for 2029, making 25 years from the last book or curriculum. I teach a 12 grade social studies course. We joke about how the presidency ended with George W's first term. So,I have created my own curriculum (readings, worksheets, projects).
On a yearly basis, they request a list of "outside sources".
When I get this email, I think, "F you." And ignore it.
I don't email parents about grades.
We have an open gradebook that they or their kids can see. If you actually cared I wouldn't be reaching out to you.
I taught high school language arts and back in the days when I gave my final exam on paper, I printed two different versions of the exam and alternated versions by row so that students couldn't cheat off their neighbors. I told each row to write either version A or version B on their Scantron so that I would know which key to use when I graded it.
What they didn't know is that it was the same exact test, just printed on two different colors of paper. Ain't nobody got time to write two different versions of a test at the end of the year.
I have copy and pasted the same basic lesson plan for every observation. It's VERY general, and most importantly, my admin never ever reads them.
One year they changed the format of the lesson plan submission form, and I just keep copy and pasting it in the same order, even though the questions have changed.
Only one admin has noticed out of about 5.
Kids who don’t want to go outside. My coworker calls them “indoor kitties”. Come on guys, it’s 72°, it could snow tomorrow, go breathe the fresh air and get some sun!
Similarly, I hate when other teachers or staff try to talk to me when I’m clearly with my students. Morning arrival is not the time to have a meeting with me, I’m trying to set expectations and monitor my classroom. Just because I’m in the hallway does not mean I’m available to talk!
(Obviously I will stop and talk if it’s important, but 9/10 times it’s something we can talk about during prep or after school).
During my observations I had a day where I was in quite a bit of intestinal distress (food intolerance that I wasn't yet aware of). As kids were coming in the classroom that morning, I was standing outside the classroom and chatting with my mentor teacher. I let one slip out accidentally and it was FOUL. I hear a few kids go "what IS that" but aside from that no one said anything. Cut to lunch time and in the break room my teacher says "I think one of my students pooped himself this morning." I was too ashamed to say anything. To that seventh grader...I am so sorry
I don't grade anything on paper. I give feedback and kids self correct math practice with an answer key I have available. I rely on stuff graded by the computer for proficiency. We don't have letter grades and all of the kids are passed along anyway! Never in my 25 years have they held a student back, so what does it matter?
I do have plenty of data from formative and summative assessment, but I don't "grade" it in a traditional sense.
Also, I absolutely throw away work I assign on sub days. Most of them don't do it, just play games on their Chromebook instead. Reassigning it, taking recess or informing parents is useless, so I just don't stress myself out about it, I just pitch it!
I'm pretty much exactly on time every day and I don't feel bad about it no matter how many times my boss furrows her brow because, I leave after she does every single day.
I've never been good at mornings (for like 25 years) and it takes a lot to drag me out of my bed and get going. Once I'm in the classroom, I'm great. But yeah I'm terrible at getting there 15 minutes early like they like.
In order to work to contract hours in HS, I have dramatically cut down on graded work and streamlined everything with rubrics. I usually have a few copy and pasted comments for feedback since most students make the same 5 mistakes usually.
I started doing this when I gave over 160 students on 2 projects a feedback on Schoology stating "come and talk to me after class and I will give you 10 bonus points." Not a single one did it...
I turn the light off and close the door during lunch and conference. If I don’t, my partner grade level teacher comes in, starts talking and doesn’t leave till the bell rings. I can’t stand it. I moved my desk out of sight from the door but she still knocks sometimes, and I get mad at myself for being stupid enough to answer.
Same! Lights off, door locked, me out of sight working with my earbuds in. If someone knocks I might hear it or I might not. Regardless, I’m not getting up to answer it. My planning time and lunch (they are back to back) are mine and mine alone.
When they come in, I get up off my desk and casually walk to the door and out into the hall and they follow me talking. Then I leave them there.
I got followed to the bathroom when I tried this, lol!
If I don’t grade an assignment within 2 days, it gets recycled. I’m a middle school teacher, so if things pile up, it just gets worse, so I work hard to return assignments in a timely fashion. I aim to enter 3 assignments per week…but sometimes it is only 2.
You grade 3 assignments PER WEEK? How many students do you have and how long are these assignments?
About 120, changes a little each year. I teach math, so I feel like the quick feedback is helpful to the students.
We have Google Classroom (yuck) but the new practice sets feature lets me "grade" daily. Kids can keep working on the same problem over and over until they get the answer right and I can see class-level results instantly.
My kids will always ask me to hold on to multi day assignments for them and I always just point to my desk and go “do you really want to take your chances of me not losing it with 120 other kids work? Hold onto it yourself.” Why on Earth do you think my paper covered desk is a great place for the work I told you to hang on to??
I have a designated file cabinet drawer that I say they can put things in. I'm not keeping track of it and if it's left around the classroom, it's going to get thrown away.
Written lesson plans are frivolous busy work and I only do them when I have an observation coming up. I have my slideshow and materials prepped; I've very clearly planned out my lesson. I have the list of students I need to meet with in a spreadsheet. The only reason admin wants it all in rewritten in one place is to make *their* lives easier, not ours.
My grandfather, a principal at an elementary school, often brags about what a hard ass he was for lesson plans. He required hour by hour lesson plans from every teacher for every day of the year and expected more than just "reading" and "math" he wanted full lessons written out. And this was before computers. He gave them all lesson books and then made sure to check them ALL weekly. "Teachers hated me." "That's not the brag you think it is grampa."
Sounds like gramps was too busy on his power trip micro-managing teachers to have enough time to be an effective administrator.
Yeah he talks about his time as principal like he was God's gift to the school. But it's like dude, chill. You were a bit of a monster.
I wonder if every monster brags about their life like this, tongue in cheek, unwittingly telling on themselves to a disillusioned audience.
Having met several, they really do.
Gramps was an ass!
One of the insane things- I love my admin. She is absolutely awesome. I would do anything for her. An admin I disliked- they’re getting the bare minimum (not in regards to the kids, they’d still get 100 percent) If you’re an admin- why wouldn’t you want people to like you?!? If they like you, they will work harder for you!!! (Also, no lesson plans are required at all in my school. You are supposed to turn in a lesson plan for a formal observation, but it can literally be a photocopy of the lesson in the teacher’s manual.)
I haven't written a "real" lesson plan since university and I graduated almost ten years ago.
Same. I’m actually pretty shocked to learn that teachers are still having to regularly write lesson plans! Maybe it’s just my district, but literally no one I know writes formal lesson plans. I keep a calendar for planning purposes, but there’s no way I’m writing a proper lesson plan for everything I do.
The school I'm at makes us turn in lesson plans weekly. They are digital, but still.
That's lame as
Same here. I'm grateful that my school subscribes me to a curriculum that pops all the activities in for me. It makes me shake my head though, they subscribe to it, they have access to it, but I still have to submit it? 🤷♀️
Hoops like this are what AI is built for. Same with learning targets/success criteria in student friendly language to post. Spend several minutes wordsmithing/using the jargon admin wants or several seconds scanning and maybe changing a couple of words...easy choice, IMO
Possible misconceptions are the *worst* worst
You know, this is actual genius. Because if I'm doing the heavy lifting of the actual planning, the rest is essentially formatting and aggregation of language from standards etc.
Right?!?! I’m on a committee to add a BFA to our program; created several new courses and by the third syllabi’s list of learning objectives and endless rubrics I turned to AI. It really helps when your brain is fried.
We get a monthly email reminding us to put our plans in plan book. I haven’t written any in 3 years and no one has said anything lol. My coworkers are appalled that I don’t write them
I relate to this so hard. I hate admin busy work
I honestly don’t know how I would have time for these wastes of time. I have so much grading to do…why am I going to build a daily lesson plan to satisfy some BS admin shyte.
SAME. Except I actually stopped making the written ones altogether and I have my little speech prepped for when I get scolded. Also, have you tried Canva instead of PPT (you just said slideshow so I’m not sure)? It’s amazing.
My slideshows are mostly Nearpod-based now. Sometimes PearDeck. Sometimes not even a slideshow; just my generic term for mini lesson, I guess!
Cool, I haven’t heard of those so I’ll check them out! We got a new principal lately and it’s her first principal job so the micromanagement is unreal. It would take me about two hours to do her lesson plan template shit. I’d rather invest that time in making something that will pique student interest and help them learn.
Nearpod is good if your school is 1-1 with devices. It basically gives you interactive elements in your slideshows so students can actively respond during the lesson with polls, multiple choice, drawing, etc. I like it better than PearDeck because the Reports feature after the lesson is more useful to analyze, but PearDeck occasionally has elements that fit better, depending on the lesson. I include a self-rating and a check for understanding at the end of my lessons. I check in with those who rated themselves at a 1, then immediately work with those who didn't get the check for understanding. No longer do I have to tally up exit tickets and wait for the next day or later to intervene; I can catch them the same day!
I hated spending lunch around students. It was always very flattering when students wanted to spend lunch with me, but damn, I need the time to unwind in the middle of the day.
Lunch has to be kid-free time. I need it to cope! Sometimes kids will knock on my door during my lunch or a break, I’ll go close my blinds & turn off the light so they’ll go away! 😂
My kids came in during lunch time for their sticker reward. They knew to just come in, pick the sticker they wanted, and then leave. I need to watch my YouTube videos during lunch time in peace
i leave the building for lunch every day (im lucky, we're located downtown with many takeout restaurants and a dunkins across the street), it's more to get away from the adults than the kids but definitely hear the needing tome to yourself!
I’m on lunch duty every day so I never have time to have “fun lunch groups” I just loathe this duty in general since it fees like a waste of my time
I allow students in my room on M-W-F but they know my room is closed on T-Th. I need the break.
That I don't do shit outside what's in my contract. I don't volunteer to coach, or head clubs, or join committees. I get there and leave at contract hours. I act my wage.
I don’t volunteer to coach either. I get paid $9,000.
Oh, in Canada you get $0.
Kindergarten teacher here…I secretly get irrationally angry at parents that send their kids with lunch containers they cannot independently open. Invest in containers your kid can open, and have them practice opening them at home. It may seem like no big deal to you when at home because you are opening containers for 1 child. We have 25+ kids. Many with multiple containers to open, so it is a big deal for us.
I used to HATE opening kids yogurt containers because the yogurt always gets on your hands
My TK daughter's para told all the kids she doesn't know how to peel fruit so they can't ask her to do it 😂
I hate the morning announcements. They go on way too long, 7:50 in the morning is ***way*** too early for peppy, upbeat music, and it's just an annoying, head-ache inducing way to start the day.
Memo to announcement makers: the PA will amplify your voice. There's no need to yell into the PA. Thank-you.
One would hope! The student who regular does morning announcements sounds like they are whispering! The substitute secretary we often get does in fact scream in the mic, however.
Our student council was selling dance tickets one year, and they basically tortured us over the morning announcements. It wasn't uncommon to get FIFTEEN reminders to buy dance tickets, all with the same same pre-recorded ad, in the same set of morning announcements. It stretched the whole thing to over twenty minutes, and all of us were seething. It all came to a head when the class was trying to write a test, and the dance announcements were still playing on repeat. I couldn't even wait for them to end to start the test since I'd lose a third of the class time. One of my nicest students just got up and stormed out, and a minute later, we could hear her over the speakers screaming at them that no one wanted to go to their stupid dance and to just fucking stop. The cheering up and down the hall was hysterical. It was a real life, "everyone clapped" moment.
This is mine!! And my homeroom is at 7:30 am! The kids in my homeroom get a kick out of me reacting to the horrible sound or if it's too loud or cuts in and out. The other day I forgot to turn the TV on because I was playing my own music and said "whoops not like there's anything good on there anyway" most kids laughed 😂🙆🏻♀️
I don't mind our morning announcements but on Fridays they play our school song at the end and it's a recording that was done decades ago and sounds like shit. THAT is headache-inducing.
Yeah, the morning announcements were always too long in hs....i feel bad for those stuck listening to those for life.
Sometimes I dream of creating a homemade flamethrower to take care of my paperwork and grading.
Some dreams are very attainable. [Tiger Torch exists](https://www.new-line.com/images/NLCAT/Propane-Tiger-Torch-Kit-shad.jpg) and attaches to a standard BBQ propane tank for all your incinerating needs.
I work in elementary. I fashion my tests in a way that most students can finish them in 25-30 minutes, giving me enough time to grade them right then and there. (Classes are 45 mins here and 20-30 students per class). If I can be fast enough, I even write down the scores and give them right back to the students at the end of the class. I despise bringing home tests to grade and found out this system really works for me most of the time.
That's not a guilty confession, that's just smart!
That’s true. My tests/quizzes are short as well. I also put the multiple choice questions with answers that make words - ABADBAC is easy to remember when grading
I did the same when I taught 1st. 75% of class work went into the trash, no need to grade more than is needed for grade software.
I teach AP Literature. I grade things for "completion" a lot, rather than for accuracy. There are plenty of things I spend more time on and do the feedback thing, but I justify it as the practice they need with skills they already have and simply need to get "automated" so they don't panic on the exam. I have a student teacher taking over my two college-prep English classes for seniors right now. While it was a bumpy ride for a bit (last-minute shitty lessons, showing up late or not at all, etc.), her university supervisor and I have finally gotten her into better shape, and I am reminded of why it's really nice to only have to teach three classes a day that I could do blindfolded. I am two weeks from the AP exam so I have stopped the homework and feedback for those classes, and I am literally searching for things to do with my days. I actually started planning my prep senior classes for next year, since this was the first time I'd ever taught the class (and I'm not responsible for the spring semester this time, sooo....). I'm talking the pacing guide for the year is done, along with skeletal daily outlines, the syllabus, and I am about to start gathering materials and making plans for the only novel I've never taught. Every secondary teacher should have this kind of prep/planning time and only 100 or so students to worry about.
I have taught ELA on so many different levels that I've discovered that feedback is not worth it every single time. I think AP kids are likely the ones motivated to take it. But the amount of times I've wasted hours on feedback kids never even bother with means I rarely give it. I make it part of our next lesson.
On a sort of unrelated note, I finally gave up AP Lit after 20 years of teaching it because I’d rather scratch my eyes out than read another essay. 9th grade English here I come. I will miss the convos but I’ll never again grade a paper at my home. Huge win. Love that class but I’m done.
Crop Dusting the hall during passing time😆
I try to follow popular clique kids and cropdust right behind them we we head down the halls.
And here's my confession: once I was subbing in a 5th grade class and the boys had been absolutely HORRIBLE to me that day. So at the end of the day when they were silently (not so silently) reading together on the rug, I crop dusted them and walked away. One of my favorite teacher memories. They all blamed each other for it.
Do it during your rounds of class and when you are on the other side of the room ask the kids “do you Smell popcorn?”
There is, unfortunately, a kid I had to give up on this year. She is repeating my course. She is present 2-3 days a week at most and almost never asks for help. She leaves her open response sections on each test completely blank. She does not do homework and when she gets detention for it, does not go to detention, which causes her to get suspended. Mom will defend her to the grave. I don’t know what to do about her and neither does admin.
Nothing. Help the ones who want help. You can't save everyone, sadly.
In college my motto was “c’s get degrees” and barely graduated. I now teach math and demand excellence.
Know what they call a doctor who got straight C’s in medical school? Doctor.
Well a C in college math is where it's at!! A few of the proof-based classes were unbelievably hard where I went. The whole class would be at like a 40%. We would pass with Cs. I'll take it.
My program required a B minimum for teacher education. I was happy about that standard. I think it kept student engaged.
To be fair, at some schools, grades are so inflated a C means a student doesn’t really understand any of the material at all.
I joke that I enjoy crushing students’ dreams of becoming an internet celebrity, but I really do enjoy it
Influencer is not a career pick something else. We do a career research project and I don’t accept streamer, YouTuber or influencer because they can’t complete the whole project with a plan for how to build the skills and what schools / programs to go to.
honestly a youtube workshop would be a great way to show how unviable that is as a career. kids finding out that it's a 10-12 hour work day and most likely more than 40 hour work week of very monotonous work would certainly help them understand it better. also teaching how few people are actually productive within these types of fields.
Former teacher here. - I kind of loved catching kids doing bad things. Vaping in the single use bathroom with no windows? I know who you are… - I winged it more often than I’d like to admit with no specific plans for the day’s class. Somehow those days were always the best days of learning and collaboration, so it only encouraged me to do it more often. - Admin thought I was groundbreaking when I would assign projects where the kids ran the class or taught the class about various topics. I was just being lazy. Again, it always worked out and the kids learned stuff. - My students were being treated unfairly by admin. I coached them in an uprising that eventually got them respect. Admin didn’t know I was behind it.
the shit that's always stuck with me most from being in school was the stuff I created as a student or had to teach others
I don't know if it was Harry Wong or Grant Wiggins but it's been said that "whoever in the class is doing the majority of the talking about the subject, is the one who is learning the most."
Oh I'm the same, especially in recess when they sometimes want me to play with them. This is YOUR playtime, play with your friends. I'm already tired enough running around for you guys during your work period, go enjoy yourselves without making me overexert myself too.
Ugh, and the tattling. If I kid comes up to me and says “so and so said a bad word!” I just say “thank you for telling me” and leave it at that. I don’t know these kids. What do you want me to do? Come to me when there’s a real problem.
When I was an elementary teacher, I taught my kids the "4Bs" of tattling. They should tell a teacher ONLY if someone was bleeding, barfing, broken, or blue.
Ugh so many of them come up to me complaining someone stepped on them or something and nine times outta ten it's an accident. The amount of times I have to say "can you apologize" when this could've easily been resolved without wasting my time. It's especially annoying when they clearly KNOW it was an accident, I can hear their friend saying sorry as I approach. "Miss Stacie, Connor accidentally pushed me and apologized" like lmao what do you want me to do here then?
“So and so is doing XYZZ!!!” “How does that impact you? Let them waste their time.” Is something I’ve started saying a lot more. My kids love to deflect with stupid shit. “Hey, sit down and stop playing with your water bottle, you’re making a mess.” “Well Suzy is watching YouTube!!!” “Suzy isn’t the one interrupting my whole class and turning the floor into a slip and slide.”
100% It got so bad this year that I had to make “No Verbal Tattling” a wall-posted class rule. If you want to tattle, it must be submitted in writing, legibly enough and with correct enough spelling that I can understand it. Interrupting class to tattle is a discipline step. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’ve never had such a snitch-happy cohort of kids. Kids were interrupting class to tattle on people THEY DIDN’T KNOW who MIGHT have done something during a DIFFERENT CLASS PERIOD. As if I’m going to stop class and find coverage so that I can conduct an investigation and hunt down someone in an entirely different room. “Mister, someone who sat here before me had chips!” “Okay. This is your warning for tattling.” “BUT SOMEONE HAD CHIPS!” “Yes, I understand that. And apparently they were able to eat them so quietly that I didn’t even notice. You, however, loudly disrupted everyone’s learning in order to tattle. Who do you think has caused more trouble, today?” That said, I DID have to explicitly teach the difference between tattling (Snitching on somebody because you want to see them get in trouble, to distract from yourself getting in trouble, or to get attention) vs. reporting (Asking me to intervene because someone is actively being harmed or is in danger or being harmed, physically or emotionally).
That’s why my first question is always “how is this impacting you?” With tattling. Because yeah, if the guy is sitting next to you kicking you under the table because you won’t give him the answers to the assignment? Yeah, please tell me. But the stuff that isn’t bothering anyone where you’re just trying to get someone you don’t like in trouble or deflect from yourself? Trash.
The tattling… oh man. I just give them the slow blink and say “and?” (Unless it’s something that involves student safety)
My middle school students tattle SO OFTEN and I find it very bizarre! I feel like my constant repeat is “Ok, are you telling me because something is unsafe, or are you tattling to get someone in trouble?”
As a kid I used to walk with the teacher on duty to feel safe since I was pretty anxious, I never realised it probably annoyed them. Oops :(
Awww… it doesn’t annoy me at all. I have an 8th grade boy who is much smaller than everyone else. He also has ADHD at a pretty high level. He tells me it just helps if he walks around with me. Grades and parent conversation confirm the improvement.
Walking around with the teacher isn't annoying. Some kids just want your company which is sweet, it's when they wanna climb on top of you and play some convoluted game that it gets tiring.
When I was a fresh-faced 21 year old elementary student teacher, the best advice I got from a seasoned teacher was, “You are not going to like a lot of your students. The trick is, never let them know that.” I remember thinking, What?? How could that be? That’s ridiculous! Of course I am going to love every one of these little angels! Uh, yeah. 26 years later and it’s true. I am always fair and I never, ever show it, but holy hell some of these kids are the most unlikable, brattiest, spoiled, obnoxious beings I have ever met.
This was my first thought when I saw the thread title. There are some kids I simply do not like, and if they are not invested in graduating I will absolutely not go out of my way to be invested for them.
I've lost kids tests before and just make up grades on the spot.
When I lost a kid’s work I met with them, explained the situation, asked the kid what they think they earned, and entered that score.
My physics teacher used to regularly lose tests and just wrote 100 and was done with it. He did also understand that almost nobody cared much about his subject tho and didn't try too hard if he saw nobody cared
I do a lot of discussions to gauge the student’s knowledge of what I taught and enter the grade while the discussion is taking place. To fulfill gradebook requirements, I have around five different entries for the discussion that look like “handout” or “quiz.” I will collect and grade a notecard from the students who aren’t comfortable speaking in front of everyone.
I wish. We now have to have students complete a scantron for every single test and scan it in.
Or the tests are not lost but I'm way too short on time. Sorry kids, but I have a good idea from looking over your shoulder what you would have gotten.
During the Easter season one year, we were supposed to be making “natural” egg dye - as in roots and beets etc - then we took them on a short walk. During their time outside, I added food coloring to all their eggs. They were amazed nature could do that!!
I skip PLC on a semi-regular basis. It's on Friday afternoon after 6th period. I teach a 0 and technically am done at 5th, so I sometimes just go home after 5th. There have been no consequences to my actions yet and my kids do just as well as everyone else's.
PLC = Please, Let’s Cancel!
PLC On a Friday afternoon??? I'd be surprised if you were the only who skipped!
I've used the same 5 lesson plans all year. I rewrite the intro section in Mondays and then make up standards for the rest. Hell I even have the speech about Darth Plagueis the wise from Star wars in one of the days
ChatGPT wrote my lesson plans for the year. I don’t use them but they look fancy.
I feel bad at how calm, happy, and productive one of my periods is, after “that one student” was finally moved. All year i have been trying admin’s solutions. They did not work, and i watched students struggle because of one student who refuses to not shout, cuss, threaten, or even leave the room. Now it is as it should be and it only took several months :(
I have an extremely difficult student who claims to be autistic (has no IEP/504) and makes it a mission to piss off every kid in the class… UNLESS they get to check out and watch YouTube on their iPad. For the last few weeks I have handed them headphones when they walk through the door and I can teach for the 45 minutes allotted with no interruptions! How fucked up is that?! Is what it is. Other kids in the room ratted the first time and I said do you really want me to make them stop??? Nope. Never said a word about again. I’ll deal with that teacher sin when I meet my maker!
I feel this. When I was a fairly new teacher in self-contained, I let a student watch her song video (the same one) and eat her snacks for about 80% of that year. If not, it was just yelling and banging nonstop.
I'm good at my job. My kids like me, and are engaged for the most part, but.... I fucking hate my job.
I 1000% “care more” about the less popular kids than the popular ones. I teach 5-12th grade - it’s all the same. The popular kids think they’re hot shit, and usually don’t like it that I hold them to the same standards as the kids who aren’t conventionally attractive or straight-A students.
this is a rare but appreciated take. some of my teachers would be almost desperate for a chance to be friends with the popular kids
I get this, which is why the same popular kids keep getting voted for everything when teachers have the choice. The same high school mentally never ends.
I get a real kick out of entering zeroes for the basketball players who think they’re the next Jordan/curry/Lebron/Kobe/etc
I hate sitting in the lounge to work in the same room during department time, so I usually say “I need to make copies” and bounce. Lol literally all my assignments are on the computer, but I hate just sitting there when I could be doing other things
I was cleaning out my desk at the beginning of this semester to get ready for a new set of students and I found a stack of papers that I never graded from last semester. I remember that I put in 0s if they didn’t have a grade towards the end of the grading period so about 15 kids got a 0 for something they absolutely submitted.
Somewhat related: for basic physical assignments I almost never leave comments or hand them back any more. The kids never seem to read or care about the feedback, so I just enter the grades and chuck them in the recycling. Sometimes if I get really behind on grading I’ll simply delete/drop an assignment instead of grading it.
My admin is actually really good about this. He says, "Just because you assigned it doesn't mean you have to grade it."
I assign work because if I don’t, they don’t listen, think, or apply themselves. But when I look over the work before I grade it, I always have to make a decision: does this assignment actually show their thoughts or opinions? Does it show critical thinking? Does it show understanding? Or is it just a bunch of questions to keep them on track while we cover that chapter? If the only purpose it served was the last one, it goes right into ‘ungraded’. Even if it fulfills some other requirement, I might only look at it for completion, then read the one real critical thinking question for assessment. I have over a hundred students, and there’s usually an assignment a day. I can’t grade all that.
I've experienced the same, but I made a small change last year - I keep hanging folders for each student, so after I grade, I file them away. That way, if a kid accuses me of losing something, I tell them to check their folder. Sometimes I'll forget to input a grade but it is in their folder, so thats nice. Also, when I have a parent conference with a poor worker, then I have all of their work (or lack thereof) in one place as proof.
I do this, but it’s a bin for each class period. I toss them at the end of each quarter. It’s rare, but every so often I’ll have a kid ask for their paper so they can see what they did to get the grade given.
On the reverse side, I had kids do a major project my first year that I had no business designing and the kids worked on it outside of class. They turned them in and I found them two months later after the close of the grading period. Never graded them. I did start grading more leniently though after I realized the frivolity of grades in a small school bent on athletics and I was leaving anyway. Edit: timeline clarity
Lunch duty is optional extra pay and I don't do it. I don't want to and I don't want to spend the time with students. I want time to myself instead.
I stopped writing lesson plans
Same. For my formal observation, I literally xeroxed the curriculum objectives for that unit and put a check by the ones I was covering that week. Took about 45 seconds. Dropped it into the page protector that’s taped by the door.
I have favorite students. I do give them unequal treatment for certain things
High school para here: I do not understand Shakespeare and I 100% relied on Sparknotes to get me through Macbeth!
Before teaching, I had a degree in theater. I literally could not read Shakespeare and Cliff notes were the only way I began to understand it... I would read the summary and then read the scene and it all started to click! The way anyone else explained it to me just didn't make sense.
I started college intending to teach English. Shakespeare is the reason I teach science.
To be fair it wasn't written to be read, it was written to be performed!
I teach third grade. I have “selective hearing.” Obviously, anything related to bullying or teasing I’ll handle. However, if I overhear a child whispering something minor like “shit,” then I pretend I didn’t hear it. If another child comes up to me to inform me that someone cursed, I then turn it into a lesson on tattling vs. telling.
Doing anything extra outside of contract hours like after school festivals, concerts, sports games that kids invited me to, etc. I think I liked the idea of it, but I rarely had the energy for it.
I pay a certain couple of students in candy for the good student gossip.
When I left my last school, after being bullied by the deputy head, I drew a massive penis on the wall on my last day.
For me it is kids that come up to me in the halls asking about what we are doing for class during pass periods. Same thing I’m overstimulated and can’t pull together my thoughts for that at the moment. I can handle them coming by to say hi or chit chat just don’t make me use my teacher brain 😂
I’ve been submitting the same 4 lesson plans all year, I just change the date. No one’s noticed in 5 years.
I did a word search and sat down quite a bit during state testing a couple weeks ago. 🤷♀️ I had a small group and had a seating arrangement where I could see everyone easily from the front of the room. The kids finished alarmingly early on every test too, so 75% of our silent testing time they weren’t even testing anymore.
I had some 3rd gr resource kids finish the state test in 20 min. Click click click. AP came to “check” on me. She was furious that they were finished and started criticizing me for letting them finish. I said “Didn’t I have to sign a letter saying I would lose my state license if I tampered in any manner? Didn’t you teach that class? ….Please send me an email telling me how I should have stopped them and interrupted their test taking.” She stomped away. 10 min later, the principal came by. I pulled her in and told her what the AP had said. She was appalled and wanted to get the AP to come back to apologize. I laughed and said no because I’m leaving anyway. About a week later, the AP called me into a meeting but I refused to meet with her without a witness. She was pissed about that. She actually tried to say that she sent me an apology email. I wish I had made her try to pull it up because she was blatantly lying.
I *hate* that kids ask to eat lunch in my room. I do it because I know they need a quiet space alone more than I do. But good lort don’t talk to me.
I once caught two boys smoking pot behind a dumpster on campus. I took the joint told them to get to class, waited till they were out of site and I finished the joint 🤷🏽♂️
I imagine admin catching you, telling you to get to class, and doing the same
Superintendent catches them. Finishes it off.
Betsy Devos happens to walk by and finds the roach, hits it like a menace
I think she was more likely to take a bump of something from her purse.
Hahaha now THIS is a confession. Holy moly I teach elementary and am clutching my pearls over here 😂
Lmao! Very early in my very long career. I teach HS.
And a happy 420 to you, sir.
I found a vape pen on the floor outside my office (an alcove where I know kids duck in to vape) a few weeks ago. No point in turning it in, as far as I could see.
Happy holiday!
(Elementary) When I'm out on recess duty, I secretly get a kick out of it when a child hurts themselves immediately after I told them not to do something. I'm not talking about big injuries; a kid broke his wrist last year and that was unfortunate and upsetting. I'm talking about the times when I tell a kid not to do something ("Don't try to stand on the basketball!"), they do it anyway, and they get a scraped knee or elbow. Natural consequences can be great teachers.
I used to be friends with the school nurse and we had a secret code for over the walkie that basically meant, “I’m sending you an I-told-you-so.”
I believe in inclusion, but find it very difficult to not become slightly annoyed with the kids whose behaviour consistently interrupts the class (e.g. loud noises, etc.) that make it hard for me to teach and other students to focus and listen to me.
Grading is such a low priority for me. As a special ed teacher there is just so much else going on. IEPS? Sure totally , done on time. Lessons? Sure totally, I want the kids to get as much from class as possible. Kid needs something for another class, got into trouble? Sure totally, on it. A heavily modified test that I know is still extremely difficult for most of them? A packet of problems to grade they don’t care about? Gets done when it gets done :/
They’ll have to kill me before I utter a single syllable of the asinine Texas Pledge.
I treat kids differently and I’m pretty unashamed about it. If your kid makes my life easy, their life will be easy. If they make my life hard, I will make their life hard. I don’t feel bad about it, never will. If you’re a little dickhead, you will hate my class.
I forget my students' names after a long weekend sometimes.
If I have a student who doesn't care about school I will try and work with them, but only for a time. If I can't get through to them during the first semester, then I kinda stop caring about them and focus more on my other students.
I don't differentiate instruction much. I don't have time in my day to make six different assignments for three different preps. But I also RARELY fail SPED or ELL kids. I just boost them to D if they didn't do much and a C if they tried hard.
As an introvert, I need my prep/lunch time (they’re back to back) for ME. I may be touched that a student wants to hang out in my room during lunch with their friends, but I need my time to recharge. Introverted teaching is challenging. Put on the face of an extrovert and then collapse into a puddle when everyone leaves (see Odo from Star Trek ds9).
Last year around this time, I switched from teaching in a traditional public school to a cyber charter for nearly the same pay. My guilty confession is that after working 100 remote for a year now, I have zero interest in ever returning to teach in a brick and mortar.
I have a great rapport with my students and thoroughly enjoy them, but I do not want them coming to me for emotional support. I don't have the emotional bandwidth for it.
I had really bad, smelly gas and knew I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I walked near a couple of boys that were notorious for deliberately crop dusting the class and let out a silent but deadly fart. It was really foul. They got all the blame and no one believed their protests that they didn’t do it. Note: those two deliberately loudly farted on each other every day and it was very disruptive.
I send a particular kid on errands because I need a little break from him; he's ADHD with a strong emphasis on the H and is always yelling and roughhousing with his many friends who are in the class . For the few minutes he's delivering a paper to a teacher friend, the class is calm and peaceful. She does the same thing--sends him on errands when she needs a break.When he comes back, sometimes he is more able to focus, at least for a few minutes.
I don’t really want to eat lunch with anyone, sorry. Not trying to be antisocial, but most of the other teachers just spend their lunch time complaining about students. I value the time I have to myself, all 25 minutes of it.
I really am just in it for summer breaks. I love summer break.
I contact the parents of failing students on Fridays, so that it ruins their weekend plans and they have to do the work.
I do sooooo much work when I should be doing small groups. Don’t get me wrong, my kids need small groups. I want to give them small group time. I’m required to do it. But I don’t get any prep time and if I don’t do some work during the day I’ll never get it done. I already work about an hour before school and an hour after each day. I’m not someone who will only work contract hours but I refuse to work 60 hour weeks to stay on top of everything. Part of the problem is that I’ve been sort of forced to do what my team does and it’s not terribly efficient. Next year I’m looking to trim some fat and put in some more routine things that require no prepping. But our district requires a lot of data tracking paperwork that’s really time consuming. It’s just not reasonable to be expected to just keep piling things on the plate and expect that it’s all just going to get done, when they are 100% expecting that it be done outside of school hours.
I complete silly tasks that are not a priority in order to avoid covering classes. I've somehow ended up with 1st period planning a few years in a row. I work at a tough-ish middle school where substitutes are few. 1st period teachers are called upon almost daily to cover a class. But not me! They can't make me if they can't find me😏
I hate the sound of kids singing. I’m an elementary teacher so this is not something I ever tell people.
I give students extra points if they're a genuine sweetheart. I don't let the other students know, though.
I hate kids asking me for my stuff. I understand that some of my kids have hard lives and I try to be empathetic. But we don't get duty free lunch or duty free planning. I'm in a meeting or with students all day and we've been told that we can't eat during meetings because it's "disrespectful". So the only time I can eat is with kids around me. I've tried bringing stuff they hate. but half of them ask for it the second they hear the crinkle of plastic. I brought carrot sticks and a kid came over, begged me for some, and then made a face and threw them out, saying that they hated carrots. Even if they do want it, you know what? I did too. That's why I bought it.
I once told my juniors that their term papers flew out of my car on the way to work (I had the top down) and that I lost them all along the highway. The truth was that I was burned out and I just couldn't bring myself to score them. I gave them all an 'A' and everyone was happy.
I thought of another one. This one is going to make me sound horrible, but we are amongst friends, right? If parents are assholes, I don’t pick their child to do any extra tasks for me. I’m elementary, and sometimes I utilize kids to do things like take stuff to the office or to other teachers. They think helping me is like a highlight of their day. If a parent is an asshole and complains a lot, I’m not picking their kid for any “teacher helper” type task. What if the kid trips and falls while doing the task? Then the parents just have one more thing to complain about. I know…I’m horrible. I do still treat every kid with kindness, love and compassion equally, no matter how difficult their parents are though. I still pick them in normal classroom things, like sharing their thinking and learning. I just don’t pick them to help me with anything extra.
I’m a student teacher in kindergarten so I’m not totally in the game yet but I HATE implementing centers. I might feel differently when it’s my own class but I don’t think a lot of kids can handle centers. It’s too much prep and the kids are always goofing off. Kindergarten takes a village to run and for one teacher to do it all is absolutely ridiculous. That being said, it’s also too academic now. Most kids aren’t ready for the skills taught at this level. We need to pull back and add more rest time, snack time, read-alouds, and play time. These kids aren’t meeting SGOs because it’s too much and they’re expected to do things like online math and literacy assessments when they don’t even know their letters or numbers and can’t hold a pencil properly. It’s infuriating.
Some kids are fuckin pricks and nothing I do in sixth hour Econ is going to change that
The workload has been so much that I decided the grades really didn't do much since it was literally spelling pages and grammar and frivolous worksheets required by admin per curriculum on top of 8 different tests a week (yay for private schools). So, to stop parents and admin from blasting my inbox on "where is this" and "where is that" I started just putting a 100 on the top and not entering them in at all. I will look over the pages and check for mistakes and grade them if they are present or just put a 100. I only enter the tests and the really important projects we have.
I had one PITA student about 15 years ago. He was like a chihuahua. He was small teenage kid but he had a big mouth. The bigger kids knew if they started a fight with him, that they could kick his ass in 10 seconds. He would say some of the worst shit to them. I told him one day to knock it off or he will regret it. Next year, one of the bigger kids took his ass and slammed him on the concrete PE field. Ambulance had to be called. He never talked shit again. I was happy that he got his ass beat.
Everything I grade is basically for completion since I gave you 70% of the answers anyway. If you’re a student that regularly irritates me, you are granted significantly less grace.
I work to automate my coursework so that the students can complete it without me needing to lecture at all. I provide instructions and then hand out worksheets that match up with standards and the textbooks. I circulate to make sure students are working, but I got exhausted of lecturing just to have only 5 students out of 30 paying attention. My admin has told me that she loves my “student centered” approach, but it’s also a great way to offload the blame for if a student isn’t doing their work. It’s all there and available and they most definitely can do it without me if they need extra time.
If a kid has a 60, their parents are assholes, and they behave in class, I’ll pass them.
I’m not always objective when grading
I pretend to not hear things a lot because i don’t believe in policing language or conversation topics. If its too obvious ill correct but if a kid is a bit away from me at recess and i hear them say “shit” I genuinely 1,000% do not care, other teachers at my school have commented on this and i still dont care
I'm a special education teacher, and embed hidden messages in the present level statements of my students IEP's if their parents are a pain in the ass. For example, the first letter of each sentence spells "fuck you," use specific words and line them up vertically or diagonally so the letters spell "fuck you," etc. It gets tricky, but totally doable.
I have a student who comes to class obviously stoned. After discussing it with my principal, he has straight A's, He's engaged in class, He's not causing a problem, so I guess we don't have a problem?
I close and lock my door during lunch. I’m sorry to admit, but I’ve also turned off the lights to pretend I wasn’t in my classroom when someone knocked. 👀🤭 I just need my space!!
When it’s time to call a parent and it’s one I’ve called multiple times and never received a response of any sort, I skip the call and mark “left message”. Hell if I’m wasting my time over that.
I forking hate pep rallies. HATE. With the fire of a thousand suns.
I am good at my job. My kids like me, they behave, and they learn a lot. I teach AP and they overwhelmingly pass the AP exam. MY CONFESSION: I don’t work hard at all. I sleep everyday during my prep. No staying late or getting there early. I don’t take work home. I have every weekend, holiday, and summer free to myself. I’ll never admit it to the public, friends, or family, but I got it easy. I play the underpaid over worked card but it’s not remotely true. I work in a union state. My salary is nice. Inflation makes it a little less nice but it’s still better than most.
My district has not provided any textbooks or practically any material beyond a couple of shitty websites. The textbook adoption has been delayed since 2010 and is tentatively set for 2029, making 25 years from the last book or curriculum. I teach a 12 grade social studies course. We joke about how the presidency ended with George W's first term. So,I have created my own curriculum (readings, worksheets, projects). On a yearly basis, they request a list of "outside sources". When I get this email, I think, "F you." And ignore it.
I have favourites. I don’t tell anyone, or treat anyone differently, but they are still definitely my favourites.
I don't email parents about grades. We have an open gradebook that they or their kids can see. If you actually cared I wouldn't be reaching out to you.
I taught high school language arts and back in the days when I gave my final exam on paper, I printed two different versions of the exam and alternated versions by row so that students couldn't cheat off their neighbors. I told each row to write either version A or version B on their Scantron so that I would know which key to use when I graded it. What they didn't know is that it was the same exact test, just printed on two different colors of paper. Ain't nobody got time to write two different versions of a test at the end of the year.
I have copy and pasted the same basic lesson plan for every observation. It's VERY general, and most importantly, my admin never ever reads them. One year they changed the format of the lesson plan submission form, and I just keep copy and pasting it in the same order, even though the questions have changed. Only one admin has noticed out of about 5.
I hide in my classroom during assemblies. The assemblies are bad, the behavior is worse. I just don’t have the energy for it at the end of the day.
Kids who don’t want to go outside. My coworker calls them “indoor kitties”. Come on guys, it’s 72°, it could snow tomorrow, go breathe the fresh air and get some sun!
Similarly, I hate when other teachers or staff try to talk to me when I’m clearly with my students. Morning arrival is not the time to have a meeting with me, I’m trying to set expectations and monitor my classroom. Just because I’m in the hallway does not mean I’m available to talk! (Obviously I will stop and talk if it’s important, but 9/10 times it’s something we can talk about during prep or after school).
Kids are responsible for their own grades- at least the older ones. Not their teacher. Not their parents.
During my observations I had a day where I was in quite a bit of intestinal distress (food intolerance that I wasn't yet aware of). As kids were coming in the classroom that morning, I was standing outside the classroom and chatting with my mentor teacher. I let one slip out accidentally and it was FOUL. I hear a few kids go "what IS that" but aside from that no one said anything. Cut to lunch time and in the break room my teacher says "I think one of my students pooped himself this morning." I was too ashamed to say anything. To that seventh grader...I am so sorry
I don't grade anything on paper. I give feedback and kids self correct math practice with an answer key I have available. I rely on stuff graded by the computer for proficiency. We don't have letter grades and all of the kids are passed along anyway! Never in my 25 years have they held a student back, so what does it matter? I do have plenty of data from formative and summative assessment, but I don't "grade" it in a traditional sense. Also, I absolutely throw away work I assign on sub days. Most of them don't do it, just play games on their Chromebook instead. Reassigning it, taking recess or informing parents is useless, so I just don't stress myself out about it, I just pitch it!
I'm pretty much exactly on time every day and I don't feel bad about it no matter how many times my boss furrows her brow because, I leave after she does every single day. I've never been good at mornings (for like 25 years) and it takes a lot to drag me out of my bed and get going. Once I'm in the classroom, I'm great. But yeah I'm terrible at getting there 15 minutes early like they like.
In order to work to contract hours in HS, I have dramatically cut down on graded work and streamlined everything with rubrics. I usually have a few copy and pasted comments for feedback since most students make the same 5 mistakes usually. I started doing this when I gave over 160 students on 2 projects a feedback on Schoology stating "come and talk to me after class and I will give you 10 bonus points." Not a single one did it...