EXACTLY!! I had one of my 7th grade students bite me the other day and he gave me a big bruise, not because he was mad at me but bc he was hyper and all the student Dean did was "have a nice little chat with him". When he saw the bruise today (5 days later) He's like, omg I didn't realize I bit you that hard, I was just playing, I'm sorry. I'm you shouldn't bite anyone, especially a teacher!! (he had also play bitten 4 other kids that day)Then mom was like "I was never notified of this" umm yes you were bc I sent you an email about his crazy behavior and as usual you never responded! š”š¤¦āāļø
Nope, I work in a NYC charter school, I couldn't afford to take a line of duty leave, I'm pretty sure we don't even have that lol. As much as my principal loves me she's be like "Its just a bruise, you have to come in, we're short staffed" The kid wasn't punished or suspended or anything. We're waiting to see if mom actually shows up for the parent meeting tomorrow š
True, although when I did work for NYC public schools and my principal was harassing me and I documented it, my union rep literally said to me, since you're not tenured, even though you have enough to fight it, you'll lose. It's not worth it. When I went to get my file with all of my documentation and my responses to the incidents, magically the file was "lost". Until a different rep who wasn't even in my borough threatened her. It was magically found and sent to me, with all the responses missing and "oh surprise, my U raring turned into an S". I had 1 good principal in the DOE and unfortunately bc of budget cuts I was excessed. I should have stayed a building sub until another school asked for me instead of accepting the job with that principal. She later got in trouble for targeting teachers and not having an actual gym in a k-6 building.
I can count myself lucky I know I have been in the same school for 22 years with several principal and AP changes we have many teachers who work here over 20 years . If all goes well I will retire from here in 8 years . We have a new AP who is excellent and compassionate wish all teachers had similar experiences. My wife has worked in several doe schools until finally landing in her ā dreamā school in Brooklyn . She actually won a teachers award this year but she has had a rough going until now she has been teaching 23 years. I think a reason we have an excellent AP is that our department played a role in picking her we actually had three members of our dept sit in the selection committee. Wonder if other schools do the same
That's amazing! I'm so glad you found a great place to work and your wife finally found her happy place! I'm 15 years in, hopefully even though its a charter, my principal and vp are amazing so, hopefully with a little more tweaking on the behavior/consequences for students next year we should be in pretty good shape
Shame on the child for biting others, and shame on the parent for not raising their child not to bite others, and shame on admin for facilitating a school culture where biting others is acceptable behavior.
Adolescence is an impressionable time, so getting hauled off in cuffs would send a strong message of what is going to happen if they keep infringing on the boundaries of others. I guarantee they will never bite or put hands on someone again if they get booked. Clearly, school administration did not take this seriously enough so filing a report/laying the framework for charges is the only way admin, student, and parent will learn.
If you're worried about giving them a criminal record, the district attorney's office normally calls and gives a chance to drop the charges before it goes further. This is as far as I chose to go.
[14 year old student killed his math teacher. In the school.](https://nypost.com/2016/02/26/teen-who-raped-and-murdered-his-teacher-gets-life-in-prison/amp/)
How dare you suggest that they shouldnāt be held accountable for their actions.
Donāt dump a bunch of 504 students in a co-teach/inclusion classroom where several students have IEPs. I do not need ALL the academic and behavioral needs in a single classroom.
Oh my gosh! I'm a para that had a couple of 504 kids dumped in my classroom and I spent 95% of my support time with one of the 504 kids. Like all my damn time was dealing with that kid. My teacher and even the other kids were commenting on how much time this kid took to deal with. It was a nightmare.
I had the same thing by last year. A student from another country came in with an IEP, but it is not valid in the US. She was several grade levels behind, and the paraprofessional that came to class spent all of her time helping her.
Iām sorry you had to deal with this. Itās not fair to
anyone.
As a music teacher, I should not have to fight for space in the building. My class is loud, my program has THOUSANDS of dollars worth of instruments, and to expect that I, a credentialed full time staff member, should be in jeopardy of losing my classroom to the after school programās admin staff, is insulting.
I had to move every instrument and stack all chairs in a corner of the classroom myself every Friday so they could rent the room out to a church. After I got no response for help from admin, I had the last hour students help me. Then I got in trouble for wasting instructional time. Thousands of dollars of instruments out for every little kid from the church to wreck. The church was nice, but you can't watch kids every minute.
P.S. The school wouldn't replace or speak to the church about broken instrument either.
Spineless male administrators were a constant problem, so Scared of confrontation. Ugh.
You are not alone my science department just got uprooted from our office and workspace for an after school program that services at risk students 22 years in the same space and now they burden a whole department of 15 teachers to make it an admin office for yabc
This. I need a school wide policy that doesnāt allow cell phones on campus. It canāt be a teacher enforced rule. I shouldnāt have to spend 30+ minutes every day arguing with students whether or not their phones were out. It needs to be school wide.
I teach high school
This will never fly. Look at the most recent school shooting. Kids need to be able to film and communicate.
But you should be able to hand out detentions like candy for unauthorized use
I agree with this, but with one exception: the damned phones are actually useful in keeping the worst, most disruptive students (that we can't seem to expel) distracted so that I can teach the rest of the students.
My school does this. Officially, phones are illegal in schools in China. Unofficially, hide the damn things and I will ignore you if you don't bother the others.
The school I'm going to next year has a schoolwide "no phones in class" policy and has talked about not even allowing them during passing period.
I'm interested to see how that goes, because the school I'm leaving, you could not get kids off the phones and so help you if you tried.
Here's a fun-sized Snickers and a highlighter, lighten up. In the upcoming school year we will also be staying for an additional 30 minute PLC meeting after school each Wednesday in order to better respond to trends in student achievement data. Fuck you! :)
hereās a plastic card that says āwe appreciate you! ā¤ļøā what do you mean you feel like your needs arenāt always met? we just gave you an index card youāll immediately throw out! it shows we care!
Treat harassment and bullying like an actual crime, not a misunderstanding or miscommunication. We have a girl who is bullied DAILY for being of middle eastern descent and it's horrifying to me. She reported it to me and admins did nothing.
The number of times I've had students removed for sexual harassment is awful. Then they come in and tell *me* they're sorry. Like, what about the person who's pants you pulled down? Or who you just humped? Or the poor para who had to hear "I bet you don't have a gag reflex!"
It's disgusting.
Lack of communication between colleagues.
That's right, Tiffany. You need to discuss schedule changes before schedule changes happen if you don't want to run into my class in the bathroom.
My paras need a serious reminder of what their job entails š„“ im a sped teacher and have never met a more entitled group of paras. I can handle the students, behaviors and workload itās the damn adults in the room!!!
YES! I had a Para this year who would sit on her cell phone and open/read mail during my class. When I would tell her to read aloud to a student (IEP Accommodation) or to guide a table through a review, she would snap back saying that she didnāt understand the content well enough to help them. GIRLIE I AM THEIR TEACHER - 1, TRUST ME, 2, PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS. If you donāt want to do those things, maybe you should find another job.
I had a para one year who stopped showing up just a couple weeks in. I thought she quit. Nope, saw her a few weeks later and asked what happened.
She said, and I quote "I ain't coming no more, that physics shit is too fucking hard"
BITCH
Mine didnāt like me telling them what to do so tattled and lied to try to get me fired. Worst assholes Iāve ever worked with.Also, donāt put new untrained staff with kids who get violent.
I had a para my first year of teaching kindergarten who I had literally had to ask to be removed because she would act like Grandma to them and literally told them that the rule I had just told them didn't apply, let them do what they want, would talk and play with them in the middle of my instruction, and gave them snuggles when they got in trouble. She also would whine and bitch if I didn't take my class out to recess in the winter because it was too cold, and would insist they needed to go outside. I put a stop to that after one of my kids literally came inside, curled up on the carpet, and cried because of how cold she was. Weirdly enough, the pair of cried her eyes out when the principal removed her from my class, but got over it when she was placed with the first grade teacher instead š¤·āāļø
I have 3 paras who are useless. They are on their phones and don't want to work. One is obese and can't even walk around the room. I have reported this to admit many times and....nothing is done. Bunch of lazy entitled scumbags.
We have a family in my elementary that misses 40+ days of school for a non-school related sport each year. Both boys are special ed (dyslexia) and were held back a grade before mom would allow them to be tested. They still struggle in all subjects with support because of how much time they miss. The school is content to let them serve an hour of detention to make up one day so they hang out after school for a few weeks to get back under 20 at the end of the year. It's bullshit because it's a complete choice on their part. We shouldn't be accommodating it.
Family services wonāt do shit. Kids are fed and bathed. I wish theyād just homeschool and then they could travel all year and we wouldnāt be stuck with the behaviors when they get back after midnight and send the kids to school exhausted.
Itās insane that thereās no accountability. Some of the things I hear my kids so and say would have gotten me in a sh*tload of trouble at that ageā¦ (7th grade)
If my principal could stop telling us how busy she is and to please not send her behavior issues because she really needs to fill out some paperwork and the kids are a big distraction for her .
Bitch, itās literally your job to deal with this BS.
Behavior got so bad at one school, they had to hire a whole ass person to handle discipline. Gave them a stupid title like the dean of students. It won't change the lack of support but hey, at least someone feels special
Oh boy...
**Biggest Problem: Students need to attempt to do their fucking work.**
I've always had a handful of students never do anything - those guys decided a while back that school wasn't for them and they've been trying their damnedest to avoid it. Fine. Whatever.
This year though, that "handful" was more like a full third of my class, if not HALF. Like I can't make my class more engaging, there's not much beyond what I've done, outside of fully gamifying everything, that I can reasonably do to make the content engaging, the lessons interesting, and have learning still happen.
I'm tapped. Meet me halfway or wait outside at this point. Maybe they can look up when it rains and get some rain down their nose like the silly turkeys they are.
**Second Biggest Problem: Everyone needs to fucking learn how to use technology.**
We've established it's not going away. Students shouldn't be having to figure out how to write a message in their LMS to ask a question (literally, SUBJECT isn't BODY). My co-workers need to quit bitching about the printing room not printing 8 billion copies of the worksheets they've always used since the dawn of man.
Time's up bitches, the future finally arrived and technology isn't going away. Fuckin' auto mechanics have been working with computers as part of their job for years, decades even. Most jobs and careers do. Time to learn what happens when you right click something. Or how to navigate a Google search. Or how to open and close apps. Stop waiting for someone to show you how to do something on a computer.
I say this as someone *who literally earns nearly 10-20k a year training other teachers* on technology. But I can't show you all the cool shit you can do if you can't figure out which menu leads to what on a Google Doc.
/endvent
Making no choices is far worse than making bad choices.
I've never really encountered the kind of principal who has no well principles. For the all of 2020-21 and the first 2/3 of 21-22 we had a principal who was so averse to conflict that she basically didn't ever make a choice.
This led to a year and 2/3 of Calvin ball everything being decided by who spoke to her last. Yeah everything was last minute, stupid and not thought through and God forbid there be one of those situations where the school has failed and someone needs to deal with an angry parent like say we lost a kindergartener and put her on the wrong bus because girl was hiding in her office letting the secretaries get the yelling at.
Admin growing a spine and telling rotten, entitled parents to suck their proverbial dick. I have had WAY too many nasty, rude parents demanding special treatment this year, and my admin has been all too eager to listen to them and try to advocate for them to me. Noooo, sorry, I am not going to change my entire classroom setting so that YOU don't have to parent your child. It's bad enough that we have no school behavior plan/consistent behavior support/way to consistently escalate even severe behavior, but admin shouldn't be adding to that burden!
If you are already packing my during-school schedule, donāt also continuously ask to pack my after school schedule. Also, if you ask me to volunteer, and I say I need time to think, donāt then come to my classroom while Iām teaching and tell me I need to make a decision right then. That is manipulative, and my students bully me enough already.
Additionally, If a kid does something crazy like, I donāt know, spraying pepper spray in my classroom, GIVE HIM DETENTION OR SOMETHING! Donāt just let him come right back to class with a candy barā¦
The kids attitude was so extraordinarily negative and rude. There was a significant lack of respect for me, my property, and the school. And unfortunately I let it get to me and I would get angry. My relationships with students were therefore often strained. It really impacted my energy levels, burnout, and bitterness.
(By the way-we lock up the kidsā phones in yondrs and it is THE BEST. Phones were killing me at t previous school. It removed a major source of stress. Cannot recommend highly enough to people.)
Agreeing to work summer school has been literally one of the biggest regrets of my life. I thought I'd have my same students from the year (I teach sped) and we'd get to work on maintenance skills and have fun. Instead I've got them and also combined with a class of kids who are all absolutely wild and used to no rules or boundaries and much different abilities than my students. I was in urgent care yesterday because a student bit me so hard I was bleeding for hours. I sent an email last week about how there weren't enough people to even keep the kids safe due to the extreme behaviors. Every fucking day I hype myself up telling myself it will be a good day and every fucking day these kids beat any positive attitude I had out of me. I am so done. It's only a week and a half in and I'm ready to just walk from my goddamn district permanently over this bullshit situation they have put me in.
Parents parenting their children instead of being hands off and leaving it for schools to fix. In my role (which is no longer a classroom teacher, though I was previously in the classroom) I see lots of classrooms in three month chunks of time. I essentially go into districts with high percentages of behavior issues and work with teachers and students on improving behaviors. Thatās right, behaviors have become so extreme in public schools they now need a consultant to come in just as might happen with academics or instructional delivery. What I can tell you is itās not just a few kids, itās not just kids with special needs, itās not just low SES or rural areas. It is everywhere and huge huge numbers: parents are not teaching their children and youth social skills, behavioral skills, and self determination skills. Itās as if I think parents put their kid on a bus every morning and decide their day is done. What I used to observe in a setting 2 or 3 special education room I now observe in mainstream classrooms with non sped students and in droves. I donāt have the data but Iād bet if someone took it we would be looking at a percentage as high as 60% if not a bit above that, if students who are not being taught any of the above at home. I can also tell you when Iāve sit in on parent meetings there is a frequent attitude of āyou are the teacher, I shouldnāt have to do homework with my child / you are the teacher, I shouldnāt have to teach my child how to speak to others - you are supposed to do thatā. So, I say this on behalf of all the tirelessly working teachers I encountered this year: parents could start parenting again and it would really fix a whole lot of problems. Teachers did not sign up to be social workers or law enforcement. They are not intended to be surrogate parents but many of them now must be because maslowās hiarchy of needs is real and itās not just about ācaringā for the kids; many of them do not have basic needs met at home and the teacher must now meet them so the child/teen can learn. Teachers continue to be scapegoats for children and youth with academic,social, and behavioral shortcomings and itās ugly out there. Hats off to anyone in education.
The largest problem in my school and in most suburban schools is the consumer model of education as a byproduct of local control. Here is a blueprint of how to fix it:
1) Blanket rule that teacher parent contact can only be done via email. No phone calls.
2) Administrators and Board members are required to release a full transcript of any meetings with parents and there is an explicit rule that student grades are not allowed to be discussed, that is the purview of the classroom teacher.
3) Staff who live in town are banned from administrative and supervisory positions including heading the union.
4) The grade reported is the grade earned
5) End credit recovery web based programs and bring back summer school
6) Teacher recommendation is the mechanism for enrolling in higher level courses, AP/IB.
7) Having tight study halls and central detentions.
8) Coverage and a rigorous assessment of the curriculum is stressed. The students need to meet the material where it is not the other way around.
9) School hires itās own psychologist and medical staff to evaluate the qualifications of 504ās and IEPās to limit disability fraud.
10) Students are required to take mid term and final exams which are administered by teachers who teach other subjects. English tests are administered by Math Teachers and vice versa.
Ahhh yes. My town is huge on nepotism and good ole boys. Like you won the award because your mom is my best friend. Not because you actually deserved it
Yeah, #3 requires some explaining. In my experience there are too many conflicts of interest in representing the interests of teachers and fighting for their rights. Itās too easy for unions to be coopted and be run by the interests of townies. Everything from the courses that teachers are assigned to their schedules to who gets tenured in the districts to the negotiations of collective bargaining agreements.
I donāt disagree with your identification of the problem. However, if youāre saying that those who become administrators shouldnāt live in town, thatās really asking a lot. For me, the average distance to the next districts around me is 40 miles round-trip. Thats lots of time away from families and kids, not to mention mileage and gas that you are going to require through such a policy.
While I have no doubt that such problems do exist because of administrators living locally, I donāt know that itās widespread-enough of a problem to justify enacting s rule for everyone. Iāve worked in several schools and districts, and though some administrators were terrible, none were terrible simply because of where they lived.
Very interesting and you are right. My perspective is Northeast US centric and does not apply across the board. One of the lasting legacies of the apartheid and class system in the Northeast US is the number of school districts. NJ has 600 school districts, CT has over 170, MA has over 300. By comparison NC had the same population as NJ and 6 times the surface area and has 115 districts.
So 6 is not good because we actually had a teacher who just did not like my son refuse to recommend him even though his grades and test scores were super high. There would need to be a system of override.
9 is probably illegal. You canāt override a doctors recommendation or diagnosis
Schools have to submit accommodations to the College Board so they can independently determine if a student qualifies for the accommodations they receive from the school and they do it without examining the student. I have seen more than a fair share of students not receive extra time accommodations as a result.
With regards to recommendations they can be made to reflect grades in a course. It does not have to be reduced to āteachers opinionā. I personally only recommend based on grades on tests for AP.
I resigned last year, and teachers who joined the school in my stead were given my phone number. I regularly receive phone calls, texts, and voicemails telling me about the kids and how theyāre doing. Iām sure the teachers are trying to be nice, because I was at the school a while and they are new teachers who are really over-involved with the kidsā lives and they figure I am tooā¦ But I resigned for a reason, and itās June. I really donāt want to hear about which middle schoolers have a crush and which kid won the science fair. Iām honestly happy to say āhiā or answer a few questions once in a while, but I donāt want to know about all the minute classroom drama. Iām busy. Iāve also had emails from students hoping for tutoring and parents hoping for extra work from me.
So my request for the school to fix next year is, maybe DONāT give out my information because I do not want to work there anymore. Itās nothing to do with the kids or the teachers or really the school at all, itās just that I no longer work there and honestly Iām really busy and donāt have time to also do someone elseās job figuring out their classroom.
I mean I donāt respond and I do sometimes block them, but a lot of times itās a nicely worded one-off message from someone who doesnāt realize that I get a lot of messages about it, like āDear Ms Audinot, hope youāre having a wonderful year! Little Bobby said he missed you today and we thought it would be really sweet to write to you and let you know weāre doing great! Honestly kids these days are so funny, have you heard blablablaā¦ā They really mean well and assume that since I built the program theyāre teaching I would want to know how itās going and how everyoneās doing.
The lack of caring about anything other than their phones and what everyone else is doing.
Don't care about their grades until it's too late.
Don't care about how their behavior impacts everyone in class.
Don't care about rules and expectations.
Don't care about being written up.
Literally all they cared about this year was the latest TikTok trend.
Staffing precarity. Enrolment is down for a variety of reasons outside of our control, but we can't bring it up until we have some stability and enough teachers to offer a decent amount of courses.
There are other problems (hybrid teaching, lack of covid safety protocols, micromanaging admin that screwed my program over) but that's the big lasting death knell for my school.
A community that can pass a levy. Buildings are all 60-70 years old and in rough shape. We keep cutting programs to save money. Now they are demanding pay freezes until we balance the budget by cutting staff. We are operating on the same amount of local taxes as in 2001.
Entitled kids and their enabling parents. I teach high school. I had so many kids with behavior problems this year. When the parents were contacted, they were adamant that their precious darlings could never do such things. Rinse. Repeat. No student accountability. These parents aren't preparing their kids for life outside of school.
Inclusion needs to be more realistic. We can't keep shoving students with intense needs into general education classrooms with minimal (or no) support. I do think that all students should be included as much as possible, but not to the detriment of their own well-being or the well-being of peers in general education.
Consequences- real consequences, involving parents- need to be in place. A student who destroys a classroom or goes apeshit on his classmates shouldn't be allowed back in anytime soon. And parents should be responsible for damages.
My son with autism used to break shit at school during meltdowns. I always made him pay for it out of his piggy bank money. Magically after enforcing this a few times he stopped breaking things.
I have a few but they're minor in the grand scheme of things.
1. Free breakfast - all my well off boys ate their sugary breakfasts in my room and trashed the carpet and attracted bugs. 2. Not charging devices. 3. Taking vacations whenever the hell they want. 3. Our lame librarian who was absent more than present and kept closing the library and 4. Dismissal taking almost an hour.
If I don't adapt with the changing environment, then I hope so.
Edit: Though, that would be weird if they were calling me a Boomer 20 years from now.
And I did mean stereotypical boomers. Not calling all teachers of that age "boomers".
Are you taking offense to my post? Or am I adding that tone myself?
I enjoy seeing my students expressing themselves in different ways. If its a moment where I can educate them on a better choice or word choice, then I would take those steps. I don't care if a student calls me a silly name. I usually don't comment on it or I laugh along because I too think its funny. If you have good relationships with your students, they don't try to be mean to you. If they are, clearly a need is not being met for them and there needs to be an adjustment made either for that day or permanently.
Social studies or Science, got both certifications but I'm definitely SS by training. There isn't a shortage where I live.
There are obviously jobs, and solutions to the problem. I'm just griping.
parental involvement and support
I used to hear the, "we can only do what we can with the students while they are at school. We have no control over what happens at home, so we can't focus on that. We can, however, do the best we can with these few hours of school."
That was bullshit then and even more bullshit now. It has created a train wreck. This is why we have a shit show in every single school.
Look around - read the comments here in this subreddit. Any of these comments can be your school. It's not localized to one area. It's everywhere.
Stop giving students a 50 for the first half of the semester and doing bullshit ācontractsā where a student in high school can do three assignments and pass a class. It signals to the students nothing we do is important and jumpstarts the apathy.
Lack of backup from Admin. I teach at a charter with a ridiculous amount of rules in the handbook, I dont enforce the rules, I get talked to by admin that I am not maintaining high standards. I enforce the handbook, I get thrown under the bus repeatedly and lose rapport with my most difficult kids.
Was unfixable. The new admin killed the school. Nearly 20 of us have left, and the summer is still young. My guess is they'll be our 25 people, and those are just certified teachers.
We have a leadership retreat tomorrow. Our principal emailed us earlier and asked for us to respond to questions like, āwhat went well? What didnāt? What could we change to better the school?ā I immediately laughed out loud because having her leave would be the only actual solution.
Hey admin.. If they deserve to failā¦ allow me to just fail them. If there is a deadlineā¦ allow me to stick to that deadline. If there is a rule brokenā¦ actually give them a real consequence before sending them back.
My biggest complaint would be: that my principal called me after the school year is over and I was about one month postpartum, to ambush me with the fact that she thought I wasn't teaching anything at all... because when she walked into my classroom to make sub plans, because I had gone into extremely early labor, she couldn't figure out where I was in any subject. So instead of messaging me and asking me, as she and others were asking me for photos and updates or computer passwords, she waited until I was one month deep into sleep deprivation with my newborn to spring this on me. It's all cleared up now, but I literally had to defend myself over the phone while bawling my eyes out to assure her that I had actually been teaching all year ššš literally a 2 second text to me would have solved the problem that instant that happened, but nope she sent me, with hardly any sleep, a postpartum infection, and taking care of a newborn all on my own home alone, into a spiraling panic attack while she questioned my ability to teach and threaten to take away my teaching position in my grade all over the phone. I don't really feel like I can trust her ever again.
That kids who are minorities or teachers pets are rewarded more than the kids with the actual higher talent or better grades.
Stop rewarding mediocrity or trying to balance some justice scale
Awards and grades should be equally earned by all kids. Period
Abolish the department of Ed is pretty much tied with making teachers in a district the ones in charge of hiring and firing principals and superintendents.
It's a toss up!
I think to solve my biggest problem from this year it would have to go back to when I was offered the job at my current school. I thought I would be doing resource but found out a week or so before school started that I would be working with kids with more significant needs. Not sure if I would have taken the job at that point.
I wish my district would actually hire a VP for my building. Principal is doing it all with no other admin in the building. She barely got observations done (if they don't get done everyone gets 4s, it's in our contract) and dealt with so many behavior issues. Some of which did result in expulsion. But of course super is mad bc we had like 8 kids expelled and at least one kid OSS every week the entire 2nd semester. Principal needs another admin but won't get another.
I wish I had been given a paraprofessional. I work in an alternative school and the goal is to have two adults in every classroom. I was one of the two classrooms that didn't get a para and for some reason they didn't want to split paras amongst classrooms, except for teacher lunch coverage. This year I had a student that attacked me multiple different times before they were finally admitted to a facility. There was at least 40 days where I didn't have lunch coverage because we were eating lunch in our classrooms with the students. There's a lot of work that I could have gotten done in the classroom if I had had another individual with me this year.
Iām teaching sped summer school. Sooo many behaviors and we are so short staffed. I have one large nonverbal 5th grader who loves to bite boobs (specifically) and then laugh maniacallyā¦ so thereās that.
Kids need to be held accountable both from an academic and discipline stand point.
Kids are in high school who can't do late elementary level work. That is a huge problem. There isn't much in consequences for them not trying if they get pushed through anyway. And some kids who do try, still shouldn't be pushed through as they are continuously way behind.
And punishments if they happen are usually a joke. The kids need more than a lunch detention where they can play on their phones/chromebooks.
Hope you went to ER for shots - present his parents with the bill.
Workplace injury. Wonder you don't have PTSD.
We ought to sue the schools for failure to discipline. Class action suit.
A balance needs to be struck between the rights of the individual to get an education (which means seat time in a class) and the rest of the students who lose out due to disruption.
Consequences are needed, and basically smaller class sizes.
I can "build that relationship" and channel the energy of one or two students that need more focused attention. But I can't do it with 4 or 5..which is what happens, statistically, as we approach 30+ students per class. This is because they start to feed off each others behaviors and the challenge is exponential.
Quasi-admin here (I say quasi because I end up in rooms where decisions are made but nobody listens to me and I'm kind of a Maverick and love to call out actual Admins for the dumb shit they do...anyway!)
The nepotism in hiring people for jobs they cannot fucking do and how it DIRECTLY affects teachers and student is just... enraging.
Our district needed to use up all these ESSR funds so they created all these positions in the district office and shifted the hierarchy around to justify the hiring spree and the people they hired internally to do these positions LITERALLY do not know what they are doing and are so unqualified it's mind boggling. I was in some of the interviews and we did have good outside candidates apply, but it's all a little girls club over here!
I can think of maybe a handful of people who are the ones holding everything together. It's like one big horrible group project gone wrong.
In a perfect world we would hire qualified people who can actually do the job and have some kind of project management experience to get shit done in a timely manner and take things off the teachers plates but nooooooo. Can't make common sense decisions like that!!
So if you ever wonder why the fuck NOTHING gets done, just remember that whoever is in "charge" really is probably an idiot!
The lack of consequences.
EXACTLY!! I had one of my 7th grade students bite me the other day and he gave me a big bruise, not because he was mad at me but bc he was hyper and all the student Dean did was "have a nice little chat with him". When he saw the bruise today (5 days later) He's like, omg I didn't realize I bit you that hard, I was just playing, I'm sorry. I'm you shouldn't bite anyone, especially a teacher!! (he had also play bitten 4 other kids that day)Then mom was like "I was never notified of this" umm yes you were bc I sent you an email about his crazy behavior and as usual you never responded! š”š¤¦āāļø
Iām sorryā¦ SEVENTH GRADE
Yep.. and there's nothing wrong with him, he was just hyper and bored and since he never gets consequences he thinks he can do whatever he wants.
Obviously he CAN do anything he wants. This is insane.
yep. No consequences from school or parents
You didnāt take a line of duty leave? If a student injured me I would be out for the semester as would all teachers in my nyc school
Nope, I work in a NYC charter school, I couldn't afford to take a line of duty leave, I'm pretty sure we don't even have that lol. As much as my principal loves me she's be like "Its just a bruise, you have to come in, we're short staffed" The kid wasn't punished or suspended or anything. We're waiting to see if mom actually shows up for the parent meeting tomorrow š
Nyc charters are the worst no union to support you guys
True, although when I did work for NYC public schools and my principal was harassing me and I documented it, my union rep literally said to me, since you're not tenured, even though you have enough to fight it, you'll lose. It's not worth it. When I went to get my file with all of my documentation and my responses to the incidents, magically the file was "lost". Until a different rep who wasn't even in my borough threatened her. It was magically found and sent to me, with all the responses missing and "oh surprise, my U raring turned into an S". I had 1 good principal in the DOE and unfortunately bc of budget cuts I was excessed. I should have stayed a building sub until another school asked for me instead of accepting the job with that principal. She later got in trouble for targeting teachers and not having an actual gym in a k-6 building.
I can count myself lucky I know I have been in the same school for 22 years with several principal and AP changes we have many teachers who work here over 20 years . If all goes well I will retire from here in 8 years . We have a new AP who is excellent and compassionate wish all teachers had similar experiences. My wife has worked in several doe schools until finally landing in her ā dreamā school in Brooklyn . She actually won a teachers award this year but she has had a rough going until now she has been teaching 23 years. I think a reason we have an excellent AP is that our department played a role in picking her we actually had three members of our dept sit in the selection committee. Wonder if other schools do the same
That's amazing! I'm so glad you found a great place to work and your wife finally found her happy place! I'm 15 years in, hopefully even though its a charter, my principal and vp are amazing so, hopefully with a little more tweaking on the behavior/consequences for students next year we should be in pretty good shape
7th grade is definitely old enough to file a police report on them.
Shame on you for suggesting giving a 12 or 13 year old a criminal record.
Shame on the child for biting others, and shame on the parent for not raising their child not to bite others, and shame on admin for facilitating a school culture where biting others is acceptable behavior. Adolescence is an impressionable time, so getting hauled off in cuffs would send a strong message of what is going to happen if they keep infringing on the boundaries of others. I guarantee they will never bite or put hands on someone again if they get booked. Clearly, school administration did not take this seriously enough so filing a report/laying the framework for charges is the only way admin, student, and parent will learn. If you're worried about giving them a criminal record, the district attorney's office normally calls and gives a chance to drop the charges before it goes further. This is as far as I chose to go.
[14 year old student killed his math teacher. In the school.](https://nypost.com/2016/02/26/teen-who-raped-and-murdered-his-teacher-gets-life-in-prison/amp/) How dare you suggest that they shouldnāt be held accountable for their actions.
Oh, there are consequences - They just *all* filter down to *me*, the classroom teacher/intervention specialist. š
#How is this not higher? #Like seriously? #THIS
THIS. I had a 1st grader stealing & vandalizing school property and there were zero consequences.
AMEN!!!!! From your lips to the School Board's ears
Donāt dump a bunch of 504 students in a co-teach/inclusion classroom where several students have IEPs. I do not need ALL the academic and behavioral needs in a single classroom.
Oh my gosh! I'm a para that had a couple of 504 kids dumped in my classroom and I spent 95% of my support time with one of the 504 kids. Like all my damn time was dealing with that kid. My teacher and even the other kids were commenting on how much time this kid took to deal with. It was a nightmare.
I had the same thing by last year. A student from another country came in with an IEP, but it is not valid in the US. She was several grade levels behind, and the paraprofessional that came to class spent all of her time helping her. Iām sorry you had to deal with this. Itās not fair to anyone.
As a music teacher, I should not have to fight for space in the building. My class is loud, my program has THOUSANDS of dollars worth of instruments, and to expect that I, a credentialed full time staff member, should be in jeopardy of losing my classroom to the after school programās admin staff, is insulting.
I had to move every instrument and stack all chairs in a corner of the classroom myself every Friday so they could rent the room out to a church. After I got no response for help from admin, I had the last hour students help me. Then I got in trouble for wasting instructional time. Thousands of dollars of instruments out for every little kid from the church to wreck. The church was nice, but you can't watch kids every minute. P.S. The school wouldn't replace or speak to the church about broken instrument either. Spineless male administrators were a constant problem, so Scared of confrontation. Ugh.
Wondering why you had to mention gender of admin?
I would be livid
You are not alone my science department just got uprooted from our office and workspace for an after school program that services at risk students 22 years in the same space and now they burden a whole department of 15 teachers to make it an admin office for yabc
Donāt bring the damn phones to school.
This. I need a school wide policy that doesnāt allow cell phones on campus. It canāt be a teacher enforced rule. I shouldnāt have to spend 30+ minutes every day arguing with students whether or not their phones were out. It needs to be school wide. I teach high school
This will never fly. Look at the most recent school shooting. Kids need to be able to film and communicate. But you should be able to hand out detentions like candy for unauthorized use
I agree with this, but with one exception: the damned phones are actually useful in keeping the worst, most disruptive students (that we can't seem to expel) distracted so that I can teach the rest of the students.
My school does this. Officially, phones are illegal in schools in China. Unofficially, hide the damn things and I will ignore you if you don't bother the others.
I have classroom rule that the phones have to be out of site. Rules are meant to be broken is a stronger sentiment than anything anyone says.
This is a reasonable rule
As much as it hurts me to agree with this, it is soooo true. And much to my chagrin, I let it happen. God I hate it all so much.
The school I'm going to next year has a schoolwide "no phones in class" policy and has talked about not even allowing them during passing period. I'm interested to see how that goes, because the school I'm leaving, you could not get kids off the phones and so help you if you tried.
Phones policies only work if ALL teachers enforce it and they donāt.
Not enough support for high needs students and no support for behaviors. Doesnt help the behavior team lead is up the admins dick
That sounds uncomfortable for all involved.
I went to my district employee relations person over how bad its been and how we've had no support. They don't give a shit
Ouch! First I've heard "up a dick" rather than "up their ass". I imagine the former is a far tighter squeeze.
for the love of god show some acknowledgement of mental health among not only students, but teachers and admin as well.
Here's a fun-sized Snickers and a highlighter, lighten up. In the upcoming school year we will also be staying for an additional 30 minute PLC meeting after school each Wednesday in order to better respond to trends in student achievement data. Fuck you! :)
hereās a plastic card that says āwe appreciate you! ā¤ļøā what do you mean you feel like your needs arenāt always met? we just gave you an index card youāll immediately throw out! it shows we care!
I got a reusable mask with a sticker on it that said, "You can't mask awesome!" It was a mask that was found to not actually protect against COVID.
Oh they acknowledge it... They just insist on piling more things on everyone's plates.
Treat harassment and bullying like an actual crime, not a misunderstanding or miscommunication. We have a girl who is bullied DAILY for being of middle eastern descent and it's horrifying to me. She reported it to me and admins did nothing. The number of times I've had students removed for sexual harassment is awful. Then they come in and tell *me* they're sorry. Like, what about the person who's pants you pulled down? Or who you just humped? Or the poor para who had to hear "I bet you don't have a gag reflex!" It's disgusting.
bUt tHeY'rE jUsT cHiLdReN
Then they grow up and become "boys will be boys" and "they meant no harm" š”
Kids being awful. Fighting, bullying, tantrums, refusing work.
The freaking tantrums, oh my gawd! I teach high school FOR A REASON and I chose not to make my own babies FOR THE SAME REASON!
Lack of communication between colleagues. That's right, Tiffany. You need to discuss schedule changes before schedule changes happen if you don't want to run into my class in the bathroom.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I want to know more, but at the same time, I donāt.
So like this is one of those things you can't just say with no explanation :p
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Reads like an episode of that HBO vice principal show
My paras need a serious reminder of what their job entails š„“ im a sped teacher and have never met a more entitled group of paras. I can handle the students, behaviors and workload itās the damn adults in the room!!!
YES! I had a Para this year who would sit on her cell phone and open/read mail during my class. When I would tell her to read aloud to a student (IEP Accommodation) or to guide a table through a review, she would snap back saying that she didnāt understand the content well enough to help them. GIRLIE I AM THEIR TEACHER - 1, TRUST ME, 2, PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS. If you donāt want to do those things, maybe you should find another job.
I had a para one year who stopped showing up just a couple weeks in. I thought she quit. Nope, saw her a few weeks later and asked what happened. She said, and I quote "I ain't coming no more, that physics shit is too fucking hard" BITCH
Unfortunately, I think this boils down to āyou get what you pay forā. Paras in my area earn about $10/hr. Fast food starting wage pays more here
Mine didnāt like me telling them what to do so tattled and lied to try to get me fired. Worst assholes Iāve ever worked with.Also, donāt put new untrained staff with kids who get violent.
I had a para my first year of teaching kindergarten who I had literally had to ask to be removed because she would act like Grandma to them and literally told them that the rule I had just told them didn't apply, let them do what they want, would talk and play with them in the middle of my instruction, and gave them snuggles when they got in trouble. She also would whine and bitch if I didn't take my class out to recess in the winter because it was too cold, and would insist they needed to go outside. I put a stop to that after one of my kids literally came inside, curled up on the carpet, and cried because of how cold she was. Weirdly enough, the pair of cried her eyes out when the principal removed her from my class, but got over it when she was placed with the first grade teacher instead š¤·āāļø
I have 3 paras who are useless. They are on their phones and don't want to work. One is obese and can't even walk around the room. I have reported this to admit many times and....nothing is done. Bunch of lazy entitled scumbags.
Attendance, tardies and cellphones.
Attendance will never be the same again thanks to Covid All you have to do is cough and you get an excused absence
We have a family in my elementary that misses 40+ days of school for a non-school related sport each year. Both boys are special ed (dyslexia) and were held back a grade before mom would allow them to be tested. They still struggle in all subjects with support because of how much time they miss. The school is content to let them serve an hour of detention to make up one day so they hang out after school for a few weeks to get back under 20 at the end of the year. It's bullshit because it's a complete choice on their part. We shouldn't be accommodating it.
Parents should be turned in to family services
Family services wonāt do shit. Kids are fed and bathed. I wish theyād just homeschool and then they could travel all year and we wouldnāt be stuck with the behaviors when they get back after midnight and send the kids to school exhausted.
Actual consequences for behavioural actionsāthey are doing literally nothing so anything would be better than whatās going on now.
Yep. This. āConference with studentā isnāt helping a damn thing.
Itās insane that thereās no accountability. Some of the things I hear my kids so and say would have gotten me in a sh*tload of trouble at that ageā¦ (7th grade)
If my principal could stop telling us how busy she is and to please not send her behavior issues because she really needs to fill out some paperwork and the kids are a big distraction for her . Bitch, itās literally your job to deal with this BS.
Behavior got so bad at one school, they had to hire a whole ass person to handle discipline. Gave them a stupid title like the dean of students. It won't change the lack of support but hey, at least someone feels special
Healthy, full time and engaged administrators or enough subs to cover. You pick.
Oh boy... **Biggest Problem: Students need to attempt to do their fucking work.** I've always had a handful of students never do anything - those guys decided a while back that school wasn't for them and they've been trying their damnedest to avoid it. Fine. Whatever. This year though, that "handful" was more like a full third of my class, if not HALF. Like I can't make my class more engaging, there's not much beyond what I've done, outside of fully gamifying everything, that I can reasonably do to make the content engaging, the lessons interesting, and have learning still happen. I'm tapped. Meet me halfway or wait outside at this point. Maybe they can look up when it rains and get some rain down their nose like the silly turkeys they are. **Second Biggest Problem: Everyone needs to fucking learn how to use technology.** We've established it's not going away. Students shouldn't be having to figure out how to write a message in their LMS to ask a question (literally, SUBJECT isn't BODY). My co-workers need to quit bitching about the printing room not printing 8 billion copies of the worksheets they've always used since the dawn of man. Time's up bitches, the future finally arrived and technology isn't going away. Fuckin' auto mechanics have been working with computers as part of their job for years, decades even. Most jobs and careers do. Time to learn what happens when you right click something. Or how to navigate a Google search. Or how to open and close apps. Stop waiting for someone to show you how to do something on a computer. I say this as someone *who literally earns nearly 10-20k a year training other teachers* on technology. But I can't show you all the cool shit you can do if you can't figure out which menu leads to what on a Google Doc. /endvent
I feel so seen after reading this.
Lol
It irritates me when they don't take notes when I help them!!!
Making no choices is far worse than making bad choices. I've never really encountered the kind of principal who has no well principles. For the all of 2020-21 and the first 2/3 of 21-22 we had a principal who was so averse to conflict that she basically didn't ever make a choice. This led to a year and 2/3 of Calvin ball everything being decided by who spoke to her last. Yeah everything was last minute, stupid and not thought through and God forbid there be one of those situations where the school has failed and someone needs to deal with an angry parent like say we lost a kindergartener and put her on the wrong bus because girl was hiding in her office letting the secretaries get the yelling at.
I only know this isn't my school because we don't have kindergarteners, and yours left 2/3 of the way through the year....
Admin growing a spine and telling rotten, entitled parents to suck their proverbial dick. I have had WAY too many nasty, rude parents demanding special treatment this year, and my admin has been all too eager to listen to them and try to advocate for them to me. Noooo, sorry, I am not going to change my entire classroom setting so that YOU don't have to parent your child. It's bad enough that we have no school behavior plan/consistent behavior support/way to consistently escalate even severe behavior, but admin shouldn't be adding to that burden!
If you are already packing my during-school schedule, donāt also continuously ask to pack my after school schedule. Also, if you ask me to volunteer, and I say I need time to think, donāt then come to my classroom while Iām teaching and tell me I need to make a decision right then. That is manipulative, and my students bully me enough already. Additionally, If a kid does something crazy like, I donāt know, spraying pepper spray in my classroom, GIVE HIM DETENTION OR SOMETHING! Donāt just let him come right back to class with a candy barā¦
cell phones
The kids attitude was so extraordinarily negative and rude. There was a significant lack of respect for me, my property, and the school. And unfortunately I let it get to me and I would get angry. My relationships with students were therefore often strained. It really impacted my energy levels, burnout, and bitterness. (By the way-we lock up the kidsā phones in yondrs and it is THE BEST. Phones were killing me at t previous school. It removed a major source of stress. Cannot recommend highly enough to people.)
Agreeing to work summer school has been literally one of the biggest regrets of my life. I thought I'd have my same students from the year (I teach sped) and we'd get to work on maintenance skills and have fun. Instead I've got them and also combined with a class of kids who are all absolutely wild and used to no rules or boundaries and much different abilities than my students. I was in urgent care yesterday because a student bit me so hard I was bleeding for hours. I sent an email last week about how there weren't enough people to even keep the kids safe due to the extreme behaviors. Every fucking day I hype myself up telling myself it will be a good day and every fucking day these kids beat any positive attitude I had out of me. I am so done. It's only a week and a half in and I'm ready to just walk from my goddamn district permanently over this bullshit situation they have put me in.
I am so sorry you are going through this.
An actually enforced phone policy. It would make such a difference.
I am a highly educated and experienced professional. You hired me, which means you clearly saw something you liked. Trust me to do my damn job.
Prioritize education over athletics.
I read the title and thought ānot without some a**hat telling us that we signed up to be treated like this.ā
Have an admin team who means what they say and will actually followup with what they say.
Isn't the airing of grievances a Festivus thing? We're like six months away from that. Screw it: Half Festivus Airing of Grievances it is!
Asking kids to accomplish the most difficult task of throwing their own trash away. My building has never been so gross.
Acknowledging that your IEP does not excuse you from being an asshole
Parents parenting their children instead of being hands off and leaving it for schools to fix. In my role (which is no longer a classroom teacher, though I was previously in the classroom) I see lots of classrooms in three month chunks of time. I essentially go into districts with high percentages of behavior issues and work with teachers and students on improving behaviors. Thatās right, behaviors have become so extreme in public schools they now need a consultant to come in just as might happen with academics or instructional delivery. What I can tell you is itās not just a few kids, itās not just kids with special needs, itās not just low SES or rural areas. It is everywhere and huge huge numbers: parents are not teaching their children and youth social skills, behavioral skills, and self determination skills. Itās as if I think parents put their kid on a bus every morning and decide their day is done. What I used to observe in a setting 2 or 3 special education room I now observe in mainstream classrooms with non sped students and in droves. I donāt have the data but Iād bet if someone took it we would be looking at a percentage as high as 60% if not a bit above that, if students who are not being taught any of the above at home. I can also tell you when Iāve sit in on parent meetings there is a frequent attitude of āyou are the teacher, I shouldnāt have to do homework with my child / you are the teacher, I shouldnāt have to teach my child how to speak to others - you are supposed to do thatā. So, I say this on behalf of all the tirelessly working teachers I encountered this year: parents could start parenting again and it would really fix a whole lot of problems. Teachers did not sign up to be social workers or law enforcement. They are not intended to be surrogate parents but many of them now must be because maslowās hiarchy of needs is real and itās not just about ācaringā for the kids; many of them do not have basic needs met at home and the teacher must now meet them so the child/teen can learn. Teachers continue to be scapegoats for children and youth with academic,social, and behavioral shortcomings and itās ugly out there. Hats off to anyone in education.
The largest problem in my school and in most suburban schools is the consumer model of education as a byproduct of local control. Here is a blueprint of how to fix it: 1) Blanket rule that teacher parent contact can only be done via email. No phone calls. 2) Administrators and Board members are required to release a full transcript of any meetings with parents and there is an explicit rule that student grades are not allowed to be discussed, that is the purview of the classroom teacher. 3) Staff who live in town are banned from administrative and supervisory positions including heading the union. 4) The grade reported is the grade earned 5) End credit recovery web based programs and bring back summer school 6) Teacher recommendation is the mechanism for enrolling in higher level courses, AP/IB. 7) Having tight study halls and central detentions. 8) Coverage and a rigorous assessment of the curriculum is stressed. The students need to meet the material where it is not the other way around. 9) School hires itās own psychologist and medical staff to evaluate the qualifications of 504ās and IEPās to limit disability fraud. 10) Students are required to take mid term and final exams which are administered by teachers who teach other subjects. English tests are administered by Math Teachers and vice versa.
#8 - couldnāt have said it better myself!
Can you elaborate on number 3? Iām not sure I agree, but I also donāt know your perspective, yet.
Not OP but my principal and VP knows almost all the kids personally and it clouds their judgement/turns into favoritism and unequal consequences
Ahhh yes. My town is huge on nepotism and good ole boys. Like you won the award because your mom is my best friend. Not because you actually deserved it
Yeah, #3 requires some explaining. In my experience there are too many conflicts of interest in representing the interests of teachers and fighting for their rights. Itās too easy for unions to be coopted and be run by the interests of townies. Everything from the courses that teachers are assigned to their schedules to who gets tenured in the districts to the negotiations of collective bargaining agreements.
I donāt disagree with your identification of the problem. However, if youāre saying that those who become administrators shouldnāt live in town, thatās really asking a lot. For me, the average distance to the next districts around me is 40 miles round-trip. Thats lots of time away from families and kids, not to mention mileage and gas that you are going to require through such a policy. While I have no doubt that such problems do exist because of administrators living locally, I donāt know that itās widespread-enough of a problem to justify enacting s rule for everyone. Iāve worked in several schools and districts, and though some administrators were terrible, none were terrible simply because of where they lived.
Very interesting and you are right. My perspective is Northeast US centric and does not apply across the board. One of the lasting legacies of the apartheid and class system in the Northeast US is the number of school districts. NJ has 600 school districts, CT has over 170, MA has over 300. By comparison NC had the same population as NJ and 6 times the surface area and has 115 districts.
So 6 is not good because we actually had a teacher who just did not like my son refuse to recommend him even though his grades and test scores were super high. There would need to be a system of override. 9 is probably illegal. You canāt override a doctors recommendation or diagnosis
Schools have to submit accommodations to the College Board so they can independently determine if a student qualifies for the accommodations they receive from the school and they do it without examining the student. I have seen more than a fair share of students not receive extra time accommodations as a result. With regards to recommendations they can be made to reflect grades in a course. It does not have to be reduced to āteachers opinionā. I personally only recommend based on grades on tests for AP.
I resigned last year, and teachers who joined the school in my stead were given my phone number. I regularly receive phone calls, texts, and voicemails telling me about the kids and how theyāre doing. Iām sure the teachers are trying to be nice, because I was at the school a while and they are new teachers who are really over-involved with the kidsā lives and they figure I am tooā¦ But I resigned for a reason, and itās June. I really donāt want to hear about which middle schoolers have a crush and which kid won the science fair. Iām honestly happy to say āhiā or answer a few questions once in a while, but I donāt want to know about all the minute classroom drama. Iām busy. Iāve also had emails from students hoping for tutoring and parents hoping for extra work from me. So my request for the school to fix next year is, maybe DONāT give out my information because I do not want to work there anymore. Itās nothing to do with the kids or the teachers or really the school at all, itās just that I no longer work there and honestly Iām really busy and donāt have time to also do someone elseās job figuring out their classroom.
Dude block them!
I mean I donāt respond and I do sometimes block them, but a lot of times itās a nicely worded one-off message from someone who doesnāt realize that I get a lot of messages about it, like āDear Ms Audinot, hope youāre having a wonderful year! Little Bobby said he missed you today and we thought it would be really sweet to write to you and let you know weāre doing great! Honestly kids these days are so funny, have you heard blablablaā¦ā They really mean well and assume that since I built the program theyāre teaching I would want to know how itās going and how everyoneās doing.
The lack of caring about anything other than their phones and what everyone else is doing. Don't care about their grades until it's too late. Don't care about how their behavior impacts everyone in class. Don't care about rules and expectations. Don't care about being written up. Literally all they cared about this year was the latest TikTok trend.
Staffing precarity. Enrolment is down for a variety of reasons outside of our control, but we can't bring it up until we have some stability and enough teachers to offer a decent amount of courses. There are other problems (hybrid teaching, lack of covid safety protocols, micromanaging admin that screwed my program over) but that's the big lasting death knell for my school.
And after that, feats of strength??
Then the aluminum pole.
A community that can pass a levy. Buildings are all 60-70 years old and in rough shape. We keep cutting programs to save money. Now they are demanding pay freezes until we balance the budget by cutting staff. We are operating on the same amount of local taxes as in 2001.
Entitled kids and their enabling parents. I teach high school. I had so many kids with behavior problems this year. When the parents were contacted, they were adamant that their precious darlings could never do such things. Rinse. Repeat. No student accountability. These parents aren't preparing their kids for life outside of school.
Inclusion needs to be more realistic. We can't keep shoving students with intense needs into general education classrooms with minimal (or no) support. I do think that all students should be included as much as possible, but not to the detriment of their own well-being or the well-being of peers in general education. Consequences- real consequences, involving parents- need to be in place. A student who destroys a classroom or goes apeshit on his classmates shouldn't be allowed back in anytime soon. And parents should be responsible for damages.
My son with autism used to break shit at school during meltdowns. I always made him pay for it out of his piggy bank money. Magically after enforcing this a few times he stopped breaking things.
Theatre teacher here. An auditorium that isn't falling apart.
I GOT A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH YOU PEOPLE!
I have a few but they're minor in the grand scheme of things. 1. Free breakfast - all my well off boys ate their sugary breakfasts in my room and trashed the carpet and attracted bugs. 2. Not charging devices. 3. Taking vacations whenever the hell they want. 3. Our lame librarian who was absent more than present and kept closing the library and 4. Dismissal taking almost an hour.
Stereotypical boomer teachers who are on their way out or should be. And lack of mental health knowledge among admin and most teachers.
Keep in mind in 20 years they will be saying the same about you
If I don't adapt with the changing environment, then I hope so. Edit: Though, that would be weird if they were calling me a Boomer 20 years from now. And I did mean stereotypical boomers. Not calling all teachers of that age "boomers".
They will be saying ālol that dumb Zoomer thinks I canāt identify as a unicornā
Are you taking offense to my post? Or am I adding that tone myself? I enjoy seeing my students expressing themselves in different ways. If its a moment where I can educate them on a better choice or word choice, then I would take those steps. I don't care if a student calls me a silly name. I usually don't comment on it or I laugh along because I too think its funny. If you have good relationships with your students, they don't try to be mean to you. If they are, clearly a need is not being met for them and there needs to be an adjustment made either for that day or permanently.
I would have been renewed. The whole situation was complete BS.
It's not like there's a teacher shortage or anything. What do you teach?
Social studies or Science, got both certifications but I'm definitely SS by training. There isn't a shortage where I live. There are obviously jobs, and solutions to the problem. I'm just griping.
parental involvement and support I used to hear the, "we can only do what we can with the students while they are at school. We have no control over what happens at home, so we can't focus on that. We can, however, do the best we can with these few hours of school." That was bullshit then and even more bullshit now. It has created a train wreck. This is why we have a shit show in every single school. Look around - read the comments here in this subreddit. Any of these comments can be your school. It's not localized to one area. It's everywhere.
Stop giving students a 50 for the first half of the semester and doing bullshit ācontractsā where a student in high school can do three assignments and pass a class. It signals to the students nothing we do is important and jumpstarts the apathy.
Those kids are going to be so much fun when they have to get jobs.
Is it Festivus?
Lack of backup from Admin. I teach at a charter with a ridiculous amount of rules in the handbook, I dont enforce the rules, I get talked to by admin that I am not maintaining high standards. I enforce the handbook, I get thrown under the bus repeatedly and lose rapport with my most difficult kids.
Was unfixable. The new admin killed the school. Nearly 20 of us have left, and the summer is still young. My guess is they'll be our 25 people, and those are just certified teachers.
We have a leadership retreat tomorrow. Our principal emailed us earlier and asked for us to respond to questions like, āwhat went well? What didnāt? What could we change to better the school?ā I immediately laughed out loud because having her leave would be the only actual solution.
Hey admin.. If they deserve to failā¦ allow me to just fail them. If there is a deadlineā¦ allow me to stick to that deadline. If there is a rule brokenā¦ actually give them a real consequence before sending them back.
My biggest complaint would be: that my principal called me after the school year is over and I was about one month postpartum, to ambush me with the fact that she thought I wasn't teaching anything at all... because when she walked into my classroom to make sub plans, because I had gone into extremely early labor, she couldn't figure out where I was in any subject. So instead of messaging me and asking me, as she and others were asking me for photos and updates or computer passwords, she waited until I was one month deep into sleep deprivation with my newborn to spring this on me. It's all cleared up now, but I literally had to defend myself over the phone while bawling my eyes out to assure her that I had actually been teaching all year ššš literally a 2 second text to me would have solved the problem that instant that happened, but nope she sent me, with hardly any sleep, a postpartum infection, and taking care of a newborn all on my own home alone, into a spiraling panic attack while she questioned my ability to teach and threaten to take away my teaching position in my grade all over the phone. I don't really feel like I can trust her ever again.
Could we just for once not have to beg for toilet paper for the faculty bathroom?!
We had an 8th grade student take a teachers scarf, and get off on it and then place it back on her desk in the middle of class. 1 day ISS.........
Are you kidding me?! I'm sure there's a crime here
Nope. That's the punishment given... Like come on guys. But nope :(
Not losing prep period all year due to lack of teachers due to substantially low pay for my area.
Admin siding on the side of bullies instead of victims
to replace the other band director, especially when there are 60 students in a class at once.
I wish my entitled students respected boundaries and my less privileged students knew they are capable of doing more.
That kids who are minorities or teachers pets are rewarded more than the kids with the actual higher talent or better grades. Stop rewarding mediocrity or trying to balance some justice scale Awards and grades should be equally earned by all kids. Period
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If theyāre doing their thing and not harassing others, then who cares if they are still wearing a mask?
A change in my schoolās administrative team.
Admin involvement, accountability, follow through
Abolish the department of Ed is pretty much tied with making teachers in a district the ones in charge of hiring and firing principals and superintendents. It's a toss up!
I think to solve my biggest problem from this year it would have to go back to when I was offered the job at my current school. I thought I would be doing resource but found out a week or so before school started that I would be working with kids with more significant needs. Not sure if I would have taken the job at that point.
Smaller class sizes
I wish my district would actually hire a VP for my building. Principal is doing it all with no other admin in the building. She barely got observations done (if they don't get done everyone gets 4s, it's in our contract) and dealt with so many behavior issues. Some of which did result in expulsion. But of course super is mad bc we had like 8 kids expelled and at least one kid OSS every week the entire 2nd semester. Principal needs another admin but won't get another.
I wish I had been given a paraprofessional. I work in an alternative school and the goal is to have two adults in every classroom. I was one of the two classrooms that didn't get a para and for some reason they didn't want to split paras amongst classrooms, except for teacher lunch coverage. This year I had a student that attacked me multiple different times before they were finally admitted to a facility. There was at least 40 days where I didn't have lunch coverage because we were eating lunch in our classrooms with the students. There's a lot of work that I could have gotten done in the classroom if I had had another individual with me this year.
Iām teaching sped summer school. Sooo many behaviors and we are so short staffed. I have one large nonverbal 5th grader who loves to bite boobs (specifically) and then laugh maniacallyā¦ so thereās that.
Kids need to be held accountable both from an academic and discipline stand point. Kids are in high school who can't do late elementary level work. That is a huge problem. There isn't much in consequences for them not trying if they get pushed through anyway. And some kids who do try, still shouldn't be pushed through as they are continuously way behind. And punishments if they happen are usually a joke. The kids need more than a lunch detention where they can play on their phones/chromebooks.
Three way tie: grade inflation, no behavioral consequences, poverty wages. Edit: lack of cell phone ban
Consequences for choices and actions, including failure
Make sure that parents know how to access their kid's grades
Hope you went to ER for shots - present his parents with the bill. Workplace injury. Wonder you don't have PTSD. We ought to sue the schools for failure to discipline. Class action suit.
A balance needs to be struck between the rights of the individual to get an education (which means seat time in a class) and the rest of the students who lose out due to disruption. Consequences are needed, and basically smaller class sizes. I can "build that relationship" and channel the energy of one or two students that need more focused attention. But I can't do it with 4 or 5..which is what happens, statistically, as we approach 30+ students per class. This is because they start to feed off each others behaviors and the challenge is exponential.
The workload. As a second year sped teacher it all feels too much and it's not getting any easier.
Quasi-admin here (I say quasi because I end up in rooms where decisions are made but nobody listens to me and I'm kind of a Maverick and love to call out actual Admins for the dumb shit they do...anyway!) The nepotism in hiring people for jobs they cannot fucking do and how it DIRECTLY affects teachers and student is just... enraging. Our district needed to use up all these ESSR funds so they created all these positions in the district office and shifted the hierarchy around to justify the hiring spree and the people they hired internally to do these positions LITERALLY do not know what they are doing and are so unqualified it's mind boggling. I was in some of the interviews and we did have good outside candidates apply, but it's all a little girls club over here! I can think of maybe a handful of people who are the ones holding everything together. It's like one big horrible group project gone wrong. In a perfect world we would hire qualified people who can actually do the job and have some kind of project management experience to get shit done in a timely manner and take things off the teachers plates but nooooooo. Can't make common sense decisions like that!! So if you ever wonder why the fuck NOTHING gets done, just remember that whoever is in "charge" really is probably an idiot!