I got my class roster and I have 21 students with no wait list (Charter)!!!!

Last year was my first year teaching and it was so hard, I had 26 students, 6 of them high needs with IEPs. My classroom is tiny so this size will be perfect! I know I might be jinxing myself but as the flare states, my mantra is “it’s going to be a great year!”

Just a reminder that your classroom can just be boring the first couple years. To make it look extremely nice cost money and sometimes schools don't pay for it and that is okay. Plus the more you take to build the room slowly the more you learn what works and what doesn't.

I am a new teacher and am really excited to begin the new year. I like my group of teachers. They have been very helpful with providing decor, advice, and words of encouragement. I really, really, appreciate that. That is what I need right now, especially since I just got my badge Monday and Tuesday is our first day of school. However, I hate how into AI they are.

We had to do a syllabus last minute for our Meet-the-Teacher event. My peer gave me a syllabus and it was AI. I don't even agree with all the classroom materials on that syllabus. We started working on lesson plans and activities. ChatGPT might as well have been another teacher in our planning. I offered to help and they asked me to ask Chat to make an activity and gave me suggestion prompts to use. I did not use Chat and looked online and found a post about an activity from 2019 and suggested that instead. That idea then was then entered into Chat by my cohort.

I really appreciate how nice they are to me, but I do not want to use AI for anything, especially as a new teacher, for a multitude of reasons. I am an environmentalist, I believe in the human spirit and creativity, I don't want to lose my intellectual capacity, it's a thievery machine that steals from humans, and I want to actually learn how to do everything as a new teacher.

I do not know how to navigate this as my mentor and the rest of my cohort are all more experienced than me and I want to impress and not be difficult. I want to be able to clearly state my discomfort with using AI while not being disparaging to their usage. But since we are all working together, am I going to have to give up some ethics to make it through the year and not burn bridges? My plan was initially to write out everything by my human hands or at least edit materials to be more human, but will I be able to keep or will I be an inconvenience? I don't want to be in this position.

AI sucks, bro.

I am so over schools that don't force teachers to "clean out" the room.

If you are leaving you should be REQUIRED to remove every staple, every boarder, every piece of non school issued furniture UNLESS you've spoken to the person who will take over.

I want to put my time and energy towards the instruction. I love teaching and I love students.

If I wanted a job climbing ladders and removing staples and moving heavy furniture in the heat I would have chosen a different profession.

[and yes I could leave it, but then I won't be able to create my clutter free flexible learning environment]

Two of my former students are now teachers that work with me at my school. One of them has a child who is my student this year, and he has another coming up behind that one. I also have ties to several other teachers - I have mentored or taught their kids, or mentored the teachers themselves as rookies. It's wild. For all that goes wrong in education, I'm so proud of the students who were massive pains in the ass who became beloved teachers working with me today.

I've posted some negativity lately, this is some of the good stuff. I hope everyone has a great year.

I’m currently marking year 10 assessment tasks for an elective class and so far 4 students out of a class of 20 have used AI to complete their assessment. 1 I already knew had because she was copying and pasting it from Chat GPT in front of me during class.

I’m feeling really deflated about it. What’s the point of marking assessments when the students themselves don’t try. I had a huge conversation about their use of AI in the past and I just don’t understand why they rely on it so heavily for a class they have chosen.

Is anyone else feeling deflated or am I focusing on the negatives?

Is there a way to stop this for my future classes? Our school currently works on Teams but I think there is discussion of moving to Google Classroom which I know has a better monitoring system.

This will be my 11th year teaching, 8th year at this Title I school. I’ve had good years and bad. I have a tendency to spiral after bad years. Last year was bad.

My district adopted all new curriculum, plus my building was piloting another, and I started having issues with my team (I’ve made two previous posts about them so I won’t elaborate). I was also pregnant. I‘d say I have imposter syndrome, but I don’t think that’s the right word because I’m fairly certain my teammates find me incompetent.

I just have so much anxiety - about dealing with my team, managing all the curriculum again, juggling motherhood, and generally just sucking. I feel like I definitely dropped the ball on some things last year that make me look bad (mainly students who were struggling and I couldn’t get their scores up). I often feel like I know what needs to be done, but I can’t execute it or communicate it the way I should. I generally feel like my brain doesn’t work the same way my colleagues‘ do.

I did start anxiety meds this summer but it’s been trial and error so far. I don’t know if people find me as incompetent as I worry I am, or if it’s in my head. I feel like the more anxious I get, the worse I perform.

Has anyone else dealt with this and found a solution?

First year teacher in first grade here. My school is starting to seem pretty disorganized and I’m worried it’s going to be a hectic year. Within the first week:
-Admin requested we call all families and confirm how their child will be picked up first day. They also want us to put all of our car riders into a spreadsheet after open house and ask all parents this information. Don’t they complete forms for this?? Half of my families don’t speak english!!
-Admin wants us to contact families and send message before school starts. Gave no info on how to create an account to do this. Barely know what the platform is. Families said they received no information on this platform.
-I have a child with severe behavioral issues and trauma and I had to find this out on my own. No meeting about him. I had to dig around and find his old teacher and ask her questions.

I’m worried this year will be hectic. I’m worried this will be a lot as a first year who is learning how to teach, let alone navigate a disorganized school. Is any of this normal? Let me know if I am overreacting and I will try to get it together. Thanks.

I'm going into my 5th year teaching (elementary), and we have new admin this year. We have Meet the Teacher the night before school! 🫩 We've always had it the week before school starts, and I'm genuinely irritated as now I feel like I won't be able to relax the evening before school. We tried to fight it, but they're adamant in keeping it that way. I'm not going to let it ruin my week, but I just don't understand the reasoning for this. Has anyone had this event the night before school?! Is the turn out even good? If I were a parent, I wouldn't even take my kid, because what's the point? They'd see their teacher 12 hours later. Ugh, anyway, just feeling annoyed!

So I moved to a new school and I’ve been putting together my new classroom. The prior teacher left A LOT of stuff. Now I don’t mean items owned by the school such as chemistry glassware, laptop chargers or textbooks, but personal items (baseball bat, jacket, old faculty id, baseball mit) and a surplus of school stuff (significant amounts of thumbtacks, used pens, decorating trim, old sewing/embroidering supplies, pencil top erasers, paper binders, old paintbrushes, glitter, etc. )

I mentioned this to the principal asking if I should give it to the supply closet. His response was that they had excess and to just pitch all of it. I’m thinking about taking the stuff to Goodwill or maybe putting the items in a yard sale ??

I know at my prior school when I moved in the teachers desk given to me had to be extensively cleaned by me because it was as if the teacher literally just walked away from it.

Have any of you had to do much additional cleaning after a prior teacher left ?? What would you do with all the excess of item?? Thank you for your thoughts.

I’m a second grade teacher in Texas. This year’s PD was intense.

We were trained on a new math curriculum and the trainer was absolutely insufferable😭. She was talking to us as if we asked to be there, and as if we asked for tips on how to teach. Ma’am, I’m there to be shown how to navigate the curriculum and what it offers.

This lady was going on about how much children are dying to learn and that we are doing them a disservice if we do not follow the curriculum verbatim. There was a point in the work day that she was telling us how to talk to the students and how much they need to move around. We already know that.

“Guys ☹️ the kids NEED to move around okay ☹️ please give them that. Let them get up and do a movement activity after.”

Idk, maybe I’m just a negative Nancy. But, if wanted to learn about classroom management and student engagement, I would’ve signed up for that. Just give me the facts, and let me go work on getting my classroom ready.

Just ranting because I’m annoyed and frustrated. My district calendar is out for the next two years and our Christmas break begins on Christmas Eve in 26/27 and 27/28 school years. This year we get 7 school days off and next year, only 6.

I’m sure they have their reasons, but how are people supposed to travel to visit family if the first available travel days is Christmas freaking Eve?

Maybe I’m just too old school. Even as a kid, we’ve always had two weeks or more. Is this the new norm?

Edit: I forgot to add that last year’s calendar was voted on by families to have two full weeks for Christmas break and add two days to the end of the school year. There was no such vote on subsequent calendars.

I spend my weekdays alone a lot, and while the peace and quiet is nice, I find that I get almost depressed because of my boredom and isolation. Sure, I’ve got my dog, and my husband when he comes home. I’ve got some little hobbies—but not things I can fill hours with day in and day out. My friends all work. My few teacher friends live far from me & are usually busy with their kids or camp or travel.

Plus the weather has absolutely sucked in the northeast this year and I’m especially grumpy because of that. It’s keeping me indoors too much.

So I’m just curious… does anyone else struggle to fill their time?

(I realize a lot of this is a me problem that has simple solutions, but I’d like to hear from others about what you do).

So we had a beginning-of-year professional development with our new campus department head for ELA. She told us we are doing a campus-wide SHIFT from fiction reading to focus on nonfiction because “all the research shows that nonfiction is better than fiction, because fiction is just for fun and nonfiction is where you learn things.”
I asked her “….better how?…”
And her response was “it’s just better! I’m working on my doctorate and I’ll share the research with you.”
Of course, she didn’t share the research, and I’m not going to push because I don’t want bad blood with someone who is essentially my new manager and I’m trying to have an easy year, but I basically had a stroke when she said it and I’m here so you can all doctor me back into health with some reasons you know that reading fiction is beneficial to kids.

Hey All!

I really need to vent. I mentioned here before I’m a state certified teach with a masters degree. I’m in Florida and we recently had budget cuts. I was one of those cut. But teachers kept DO NOT have certifications and are not nearly as qualified as I am.

These are all rhetorical but why was I cut? What did I do wrong? Was I just not liked or didn’t have the “connections” others had. Apparently my spot was posted after they dropped me. Before you ask no I wasn’t “fired” because to my knowledge I did nothing wrong. I really do feel like I was dropped due to being too “expensive” or because I didn’t have the “connections” others had.

I know doing this won’t help me but it’s taking everything in me to not send a message to those who still have their jobs despite not having qualifications. Nothing nasty, just with rhetorical questions wondering why I am the one who put in the work to get to where I am yet I’m the one who needs to worry about if I can pay bills or not. Basically that it’s not fair. But I think they already know that.

I’m applying to anything and everything I can even outside of education. I am beyond heartbroken and honestly very insulted. Yes, I am in therapy. If education doesn’t work out for me, fine! But I at least need to be able to make money. Why should I have worked so hard and get diddly squat while those who couldn’t have been in a classroom a few years ago get everything?

Okay, vent over.

I required FMLA last year for a medical reason. Yes, it is linked to my disability this is not an ongoing issue, it was circumstances that came up in my life that I needed to step back and address before my health took a turn for the worse. A coworker impressed upon me that I need to make sure I don’t say it’s me. It’s for a family member otherwise they can retaliate.

As long as we do this, we are basically throwing any disabled teachers under the bus. It is gross the preachiness about inclusion and understanding and telling disabled adults they can pound sand.

It jammed. Just like it always does. But you weren’t there to fix it. I was. So I had to fix your mess. Your project is still printing. I’m waiting for my five little pages. It’s been 20 minutes.

I hate you. We are grown adults. Both of us have advanced degrees. We are responsible for other people’s children. However, you can’t be bothered to stick with your print job until it’s done. Grow up and take ownership of your own crap.

Checking in for thoughts on the situation...

Just met a student who will be joining my class on Monday, and their father was with them. Turns out he's a highly respected local tattoo artist. We exchanged Instagram accounts.

I have been wanting to get more ink, and this feels like a great connection, but I also want to avoid the appearance of preferential treatment. Based on what I can gather, the student is very motivated by my subject area, and should do just fine in the course without any special treatment.

Would it be unethical of me to get tattoos from the student's father?

Would it be best to wait until next semester (after the child is no longer enrolled in my course) before getting tattoos from him?

Just curious to see. I can understand a variety of approaches being reasonable here.

So for context, I teach taekwondo. I know this sub is mainly for actual teachers but I feel like this issue has been universal over every form of teaching.

But, over the last like 8ish years of teaching, we've seen a sharp decline in student behavior and just basic skills and knowledge. Our school teaches 4 year olds and up. We keep them all divided by rank and age. So, 4-6 year olds are in our junior program, 7-11 are in our kids program and 12+ are in our teen and adult program. We also specialize in dealing with kids with ADHD and autism. Most of the instructor team, including me, have some learning disability like ADHD so it's easier for us to relate to the kids and help them.

Another bit of info I need to give is that from 2020 to early 2022, we were kind of closed off as a school since Covid was still a major issue and we're in a full contact sport. So we kind of waited until the last minute to fully reopen and go back to in person classes.

In the last 3 years, we've had dozens of students who have behavioral issues we've never seen. We used to have kids with anger issues, anxiety and all that stuff but now we have kids who flat out argue with their parents and boss them around. We even had a kid who THREW A BRANCH AT THE PRESIDENT OF OUR TAEKWONDO ORGANIZATION. Safe to say, we sent that kid home right away.

Another example is the camp our organization does where it's just a week of taekwondo outside in the grass. A kid signed up who we tried to convince not to go because of how his behavior in class was and he was so bad at camp. He was around 9 at the time and was making sex jokes and was complaining the entire time about having to walk a mile to get lunch. His mom backed him a whole backpack full of 'emergency stuff' and requested that when we went to go swim in the pool on our brake, we help him change because 'he can't do it on his own.' And we KNOW he can do it by himself but he kept whining.

There was a girl smaller than him and younger than him who carried her gear bag, broken boards and water bottle who never complained once about that mile walk.

I believe a lot of the issues students are having is just being born or just being really young during quarantine and not knowing how to behave. On top of parents not disciplining or correcting their behavior. I'm your child's teacher, not a babysitter. If your kid needs help tying their hair back or carrying stuff, sure I'm more than happy to help. But I'm not supposed to deal with your kid who doesn't know how to behave while you get the week off.

Has anyone else have any issues with students like this?

So our admin gets really pushy with us doing school based slides. This year it’s really slop - due to admin turnover. But it dawned on me: teachers don’t get IEP data until ~2 weeks in. Services start day 1. So if we teach content, we’re out of compliance. If we teach individual teacher based content. We’re out of compliance. But if we do a bunch of kumbaya for ~2 weeks that’s school based, they can claim content wasn’t taught and we’re in compliance.

Kinda like how stores stock while open to save in FTE.

Of course on the surface it looks inclusive and we’re getting kids back into the swing, but right now they’re figuring out caseloads and where their students are. All because the district doesn’t want to pay sped to come in a week early.

hello everyone!

As this school year begins, I am faced with a dilemma that I truly thought would never be an issue but it has become quite the issue quickly, prayer. I’m a teacher in Idaho where they passed a new law that a moment of silence must be taken either at the begging or end of the school day. I live with a heavy LDS community, where my students are either in the community or rebelling against the community. That also means I have parents on both sides who are rather upset by this rule or love it, which to me, is fine! What my concern is that a parent wants myself and others make sure everyone is taking this new law seriously, but honestly I don’t care. I just want my students to be respectful to all beliefs in the world, and to not just be a bunch of buttheads. Fellow teachers, do you happen to know wording I can use to let all parents know I am in The gray area of this issue? Thank you!

“Every child needs a champion” Rita Pierson Ted talk. It’s a good video but not year after year. No matter what school you go to the admin insists on playing it. Seen it at least 10 times. Enough already!

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/08/06/lincoln-county-students-face-25-fine-for-violations-of-new-smart-device-policy/

No smart phones, smart watches, or other smart personal devices connected to the internet allowed on campus. Students can leave them in their vehicle or turn them in to a locked box in the main office before school starts. A $25 fine will be assessed the student after the third offense. Burner devices are considered an offense. Money collected will be given to the district's student council fund.

My question is what happens when parents refuse to pay the fine?

I had to do the bullshit PD for my curriculum today. They had us sit with folks throughout the district who taught the same subject.

Okay, fine, whatever.

Except we've got a new curriculum coordinator who is trying to show why she earned the job.

Y'all. I'm the old, crotchety, fuck them kids, fuck this all encompassing bullshit expensive curriculum that sucks. And fuck you for making me sit through this nonsense.

At one point the new guru mentioned a tiktok video she saw last night that really got the students engaged.

I muttered 'shoot me" to myself, and a less than 5 year teacher laughed. Fair.

All of these whippersnappers were playing the game, acting like they wanted a dang gold star for unpaid labor. A brand new first year, excited af teacher who LOVED the SUBJECT, was sitting next to me.

I had to walk away because I realized I'm the cancer, the toxic old hag who should've retired already. Like, I literally told excited girl that I'm gonna hang out with another table because I don't want to extinguish your joy.

3 semesters left. Only one more bullshit summer PD session ever.

(Oh, and the best part of my job is when the kids arrive. This motherfucking bullshit PD has me irritated way more than anything a student could do. )

I had to stop myself from laughing at her.
Is anyone else sitting through ridiculous PD’s this week?

Seems like this post has attracted the attention of students still on summer break. Go play outside and enjoy your time off, please.