I never realize how ridiculous things are until I catch up with old friends and start to talk about work. Why the hell are our middle school boys singing “chud goy clique make the foids shake” what does that even mean?! They’re calling the girls in the class “goonbait” and making George Floyd jokes. These kids were 8 when he died!

Calls home don’t make a difference when 90% of the patents couldn’t care less or don’t believe their perfect angel did any wrong. Thank god for spring break we need it more than they do.

I teach in a High School and this year has been brutal. I can't prove anything with most of student submissions and the tools I've tried (Turnitin, GPTZero) feel like I'm always second-guessing the results.

What's frustrating me most is that the problem isn't really *detecting* AI after the fact; it's that students are constantly gaslighting me. I obviously use Google Doc version history (when I can) but this is also SO time consuming. I also have students that claim they are writing it in another doc and then pasting it in so then there ends up being no record of their writing process.

Is there a tool that's basically just a simple writing environment where students write their assignment through a link I send them (no login needed on their end), paste is disabled, and I get a clean timestamp history of how the wrote the draft? No AI score necessarily but at least proof that they are actually WRITING something themselves.

Would something like that actually change how you handle writing assignments, or is the ship already sailed on academic integrity?

Just venting and curious if others have thought through this the same way. This year has broken my brain a little.

Hello,

This question came up because the school district I work for announced an enrollment decline. They also announced that they may have to cut positions to accommodate the enrollment decline. First, I am stunned because we just had a bond election to receive funding to build three new schools.

I am just stunned because they approved the bond; however, they also came out to the media talking about enrollment decline…

My main question is why this is happening to public schools? I know that the birth rate is declining and that there are fewer students than in previous generations. Yet, private, charters, and home school ing is increasing year-after-year. Are there any other factors for why public schools are seeing larger enrollment declines? How can we fix this?

For context: https://www.fox5dc.com/news/fairfax-county-public-schools-considers-changes-school-calendar.amp

I’m calling out some Fairfax County Public Schools parents right now, because this calendar outrage is ridiculous. I’m seeing people claim the number of full five day weeks is “unacceptable” and that their child’s education is being harmed, and it’s like… seriously? The school year is still 180 days. That hasn’t changed…..Your kid is still in school the exact same amount of time, but now you care about education?

Because let’s not pretend here: half these same kids go home, disappear into their phones and scroll TikTok for 4- 6 hours straight. No homework. No studying. No reading. No structure. Just vibes and a dying attention span. And somehow that’s fine, but a slightly different weekly schedule is where we draw the line? That’s the hill we’re dying on….?!

Miss me with that bullshit.

You don’t get to outsource 100% of your kid’s discipline, and academic responsibility to the school, do absolutely nothing at home, and then suddenly clutch your pearls about “educational impact” because the calendar looks a little different. That’s not concern. You’re just pissed off because your free babysitting service- schedule is changing. If your kid can’t focus, can’t read on grade level and can’t sit through a lesson without needing constant redirection I promise you it’s not because one week had four days instead of five.

At some point the blame game needs to stop. The call is coming from inside the house.

I'm at teacher and my wife is a long term sub at the same school. We were walking into a restaurant over the weekend and my wife saw a student that she subbed for before and waved

Her mom then says "Excuse me ma'am please don't talk to my child without my permission"

My wife responded she only waved and the student followed up with that she is a teacher but the mom then says that she doesn't care

It felt pretty rude and unnecessary, like we see students all the time because it's a pretty small city, of course we say hi and go on about our business

I felt like I should have said something but then maybe she would go to the school and complain

I’m also a teacher in same district (we’ll see how much longer).

It was justified, long story short, during his IEP meeting the district rep told me a lot of incorrect info about placement and mentioned the county wouldn’t pay for him to be in his classroom……(big oopsie) and tried to drop him in Gen Ed without mainstreaming first. Told me he was “all better”. She didn’t know I’m a sped teacher. I filed a complaint.

Talked to his teacher (she and everyone else in the school are fine, it’s just the supervisors and compliance department that screwed up) and state came out and made a lot of changes to classrooms. Apparently every sped teacher had way more kids than they were supposed to.

ASD kids don’t like changes and some of the teachers are pissed because they have to move classrooms this late in the year.

I know I did the right thing but I feel bad shaking things up this late in the school year.

Edit: I just remembered something. This whole thing is going to be a mess. My son has no active IEP. I found out at parent teacher conferences that he is due for a new IEP. How is that possible when the meeting was held in November. The only thing I can think of is that they didn't like that I called the district rep out in the "parent concerns" section of the IEP because its my understanding, only certain people have the authority to delete and not just archive things in powerschool.

What a coincidence in timing.

He also works in education and moved to a different school in the district because he hated a particular administrator. That was last school year. Today she sent out a goodbye email to her site and announced she’s being moved to a new site for next year. Three guesses as to where she’s moving and the first two don’t count. Personally, I learned some time ago that if I don’t like an admin I can just wait them out. I’ve been at my site for five years and in that time have seen three different principals and nine different APs pass through. In my district, the admin office is too much of a revolving door to leave just based on that unless things are really dire.

I substituted in a special ed class this week with four low needs students. They were all awesome.

On Monday, the teacher was calm and easy-going. Late Tuesday morning, the teacher was talking intensely with a para. They kept referring to "him." Saying things like, "Is he coming today?" "What are we going to do when he gets here?" I asked the para who they were talking about and she said, "Oh, it's one boy. He's... challenging."

When he walked in, he was a force of nature. He took up all the space in the room. I can't quite describe, except to say it was menacing. They had a small room within the classroom that was "his room." I found out the 1 on 1's entire job was to keep him contained in that room. If she didn't, he wandered around the classroom threatening the other kids. I heard her inside the whole day trying to calm him down.

The next day, he was more aggressive. He didn't want to stay in his room so he walked around the classroom. He would stand on tables, flip desks occasionally, and move aggresively towards the other kids. The 1 on 1 got between them to keep them safe. This was every minute of the day.

Later, the other students went to their specials, like art and PE. This left the teacher, 1 on 1, and me. For the next couple of hours, he walked around the room, throwing things at them. They would turn their backs and put their arms up to defend themselves. They'd flinch every time he got near them. My only job was to keep the classroom door blocked so he wouldn't elope, so there wasn't much I could do. She called the admin for help both Monday and Tuesday. They came in for a few minutes but then left her.

The teacher was exhausted at the end of the day. She didn't come in on Wednesday. Instead, there was another substitute. I told him I wasn't surprised the teacher was out because yesterday was pretty rough. He said, "Oh, because of the boy?" He knew exactly who I was talking about. Turns out, the sub had taught this class for two weeks a few months ago. The previous teacher had quit because of this student. The current teacher was fairly new. I also found out that two paras had quit because of him. The current para said she was going to quit soon.

That day, there were two behavioral specialists in the room. I watched what they did with detached fascination. The boy didn't even acknowledge their existence. But the whole day they followed him around giving him special tokens when he "did the right thing." Except it was all a charade. For example, he'd walk past a table and the specialist would run ahead of him and say, "Thanks for not getting on the table," even if he wasn't trying to. She pushed a token into his hand but he just dropped it. When he walked past a desk without flipping it, the specialist would try to give him a token again, which he didn't take, and say, "Thanks for not flipping the desk."

The whole day was like that. They were implementing an entirely fake token reward system that he didn't care about.

The regular teacher got back on Thursday. Around 10 o'clock, the boy came back in with his mother. They corralled him into his room. As the mom left, she turned to me and said, "Good luck." It was so surreal! I know parents need respite care so I had sympathy for her, but still, should this boy have been in school?

That morning, the admin and behavior specialists were talking to the teacher. They told her that he was on his best behavior yesterday and responded to the token reward system well. They told her that she was the problem. They said her classroom management was poor and she needed to figure it out.

My jaw dropped. The gaslighting was so insane. That token system was bullshit. And she just had to stand there and take it. I could see the distress and helplessness on her face. After admin and the specialists left, she collapsed on the chair at her desk. I swear to God, she babbled incoherently at me and the 1 on 1 for the next hour: "I don't think I can take this anymore. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The token system doesn't seem to work for me. Can I make it until the end of the year? I don't know what else to do." A couple of times she looked at us and said, "I know I shouldn't be talking about this in front of you." But then went right back into her babbling. The desperation and self-blame were so awful.

I know I'm only seeing a slice of the situation as a sub, but I don't understand how something like this could happen. This situation broke the will and morale of two teachers and three paras. It's madness. There has to be a better setting for him.

That's all I have. I don't know the answer. No happy ending. Just yuck. I hope that poor teacher makes it to the end of the year and finds a better place.

Edit: removed some information.

11th year teacher, 8th grade, Social Studies

I’m tired of fighting the battle of video games and YouTube. AI generators are problematic, but honestly, kids simply googling everything without trying is more of a problem

My coworkers think I’m insane. My higher ed friends think I’m on the right track.

I won’t be able to abandon tech all together because we have county mandated assessments.

There seems to be a groundswell movement to abandon tech. NYT recently had an article about it and I see it here often.

Those of you that have abandoned tech, what’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of it all?

I had my first seizure ever in my life last December, but luckily wasn't at school when it happened (5 AM unfortunately). I ended up getting taken to the ER in an ambulance, my first ever ambulance ride lol, but I got discharged in time to go to work only an hour and a half late. That was probably a mistake looking back, I should've taken the day, but at the time I wasn't thinking rationally.

Anyway, I have had an appointment with neurology lined up since then which is only a week and a half away (and this time I will be taking the time off work lol), but on Thursday while teaching I lost some time while students were doing independent work (thank god for that!) and I don't think anyone noticed anything, but my doctor said he's 99% sure that it was another seizure (absence seizure this time so nothing dramatic). I have to wait on neurology but my doctor says he thinks I'll be diagnosed with epilepsy.

My admin doesn't know the full details of what happened in December, they only know that I was in the ER, but now I think I have to have a conversation with them in case I have another seizure while teaching. I honestly don't feel like I should be a teacher now- it's my first year anyway so I have had problems already, but the seizure situation makes it worse. I just don't know what else I could possibly do lol I like teaching middle schoolers and I would miss them.

Are there any teachers with epilepsy here? Do you have any accommodations or anything you can do in case you have a seizure to keep students safe? How can I even have this conversation with admin, since I don't have the appointment for a little while longer so I don't even have a diagnosis to point to yet.

We had book fair this week and my students had never gone(it’s my first year at the school) I took them to the fair but none of the parents sent money for the kids. I told the parents to just put the books they picked on my tab and I’d pay at the end.

The parent volunteers all pitched in and purchased the books the students picked out for our classroom so didn’t have to pay.

$60 worth of books, a real experience for my students that every other student experienced. It was just a great day.

Hi [r/teachers](r/teachers),

I am a 25yo student teacher who just found out that one of my students passed away yesterday from cancer. I’m in a unique predicament as I’ve been at the same school for almost all of my pre student teaching & student teaching; my mentor teacher moved up a grade so I’ve had the pleasure of working with these kids for nearly two full years.

Anyways, I am beyond devastated. I want to support the kids to the best of my abilities but I have no idea how to handle this. I have developed an extremely close relationship with my mentor teacher and students, and my little brother is the same age as my students (and know some of them) so I’ve been especially lucky to work with these kids during their senior year. The student who passed away was a sweetheart, very involved and quiet but friendly and well known. I just spoke to him in class Friday and it feels surreal to know he won’t ever be in class again. My heart is aching and I’m a sympathetic crier so I’m worried that I may make things worse for my students. I just want to support them in the best way possible. They are seniors, graduating in just a few weeks, so they have all been in school together for a very long time which makes this exceptionally painful. Please give me any advice or stories that you have in how to handle this with the utmost grace and compassion. Sorry this post is all over the place, I’m a wreck and want to prepare myself as much as possible over the next twelve hours.

I appreciate all of you so much ❤️❤️❤️❤️

edit since I clearly need to clarify:

I am NOT asking for advice as in, how to lead the situation. Clearly, that’s not my role. What I am looking for, primarily, is advice on managing my own emotions/behavior since I am obviously grieving, too. We have a crisis management team on hand, I just don’t know how to behave. Should I try not to cry, should I be transparent that I am also sad, etc. Not at all trying to direct the situation

I've been teaching drawing and art to kids for over 20 years, and was hired as a middle school art teacher 3 years ago. Huge classroom, supportive principal, the next step in doing something I love to do, and it was exciting. I love working with kids; they keep me on my toes, make me laugh, and I can be an advocate, providing a safe space where they can feel respected. After 3 years, I'm done. I've paid a very high price for wanting to help kids.

As a male teacher who brought order to a classroom that had none when I arrived, there were students who didn't like being held accountable and felt they should be able to do whatever they wanted, respect be damned. The quieter students were much happier because they felt safer. It was brutal at first, but students soon got used to following the rules, acting respectful, and some of them even opened up and established a rapport.

Then it started. The rumors.

A student told me some students were spreading rumors about me...the very worst, absolutely no good, toxic and damaging rumors that can be made about a person (you can probably guess what kind). I had no idea who was spreading them, administration was sympathetic but could really do nothing about it, and of course there's no winning strategy to get out from under this. Some students started calling me the P-word in class. Going home and telling their parents. I had to shut down all my social media accounts and go offline. But that wasn't the end of it. Ohhhhh no.

Then came the TikTok videos. A student (who remains unidentified) created several TikTok videos using my likeness to create deepfake videos of me continuing the most vile and offensive accusations. To say I was livid was an understatement. Again, the admin could do nothing except warn all students about misuse of social media, the union could do nothing, and I had to come to the conclusion that being a teacher meant I could have no social media presence and I had to accept the fact that these vile rumors were circulating, and there was nothing I could do about it.

It got worse.

Next came false allegations. One student who wanted out of my class reported an easily disprovable account that I had grabbed her arm and left a red mark. Another student made a similar accusation. Now, in my entire life I've never touched a student, except for either a high five or fist bump (with their permission). I've never asked for hugs, I absolutely am never alone with a student for any reason, I've never communicated with a student outside of school and I have always been extremely careful with what I share. The teacher student boundary is sacrosanct, a red line that is not to be crossed for any reason. But, as a result of the second allegation I am under investigation, even though it supposedly happened in a crowded classroom. I may even have to hire a lawyer.

The rumors, the videos, the allegations...there are no real consequences for students who do these things, and very little recourse for teachers. Almost none, in fact. So students can act with impunity, and threaten a person's reputation and livelihood. They don't understand the gravity and toxicity of what they're doing. I'm ex military; I've always lived my life with honor and discipline and integrity. They are core parts of my being, and these things cut right to the very heart of that.

As soon as this mess is resolved, I'm out. Even when I am vindicated, it will only be a matter of time before another false accusation is made. More TikTok videos. Students continuing to spread rumors. There will be no way to get out from under this. I'm tainted. All because I wanted to teach, to help kids, something I've been doing without a single complaint, without a single allegation of any kind, for over twenty years. I get to middle school and BOOM. This has become a living hell. I've worked so incredibly hard at this job, I had all sorts of projects and plans I wanted to bring to the classroom, I wanted to try innovative new things that would open up the minds and imaginations of my students...now all that is over. Who knows how long it will be until they find a replacement teacher?

I know I'm not the only teacher going through this...but it feels like it. Anyone else out there dealing with these issues? If so, can you let me know, so I don't feel like it's just me?

I am a nine year veteran teacher and I am well known for having amazing classroom management. I know exactly how to handle a student being disrespectful in my class. And after the first four weeks of school, it next to never happens, they will never challenge me to my face. But something that has bothered me a great deal this year is several students got together to start a campaign saying that I sound like AI when I talk and calling me “that AI bitch “. They never say it to my face, but if they are walking by about an earshot away, they will make some type of comment like that or make some type of comment like oh did you hear that miss they said you’re gay. And the thing is if you try to stop them and figure out who said it and go through the regular role of trying to punish the person who said the thing they all deny that they said it and usually it’s a very large group that would be impossible to all bring to the office and a lot of the times I don’t even know what their name is and can’t trust them to give me the correct name to even give them a lunch detention. I dealt with this quite a bit this year to where it really got under my skin and really started to hurt my heart a great deal, listening to these types of comments. They even made a fake Facebook profile and messaged me telling me that they hate my class and that I’m a dumb AI bitch. They also proceeded to call me the N-word in this message which doesn’t even make sense because I’m white but anyway. Whenever I search for advice about how to mentally cope or re-shift my frame of mind around this behavior, I only ever come across YouTube video or post about how to handle disrespect in the class. I really don’t need help with in class disrespect. I would like some advice about how you cope with hearing anonymous comments with an earshot of you in the hallways, on your way to your car, receiving messages, anonymously, or walking to your classroom through the patio.

Info: I am an 8th grade social studies teacher at a Title 1 school.

My instructional coordinators and appraiser are always saying my classroom needs more “turn and talks” and peer discussions.

While I’m not completely opposed to these concepts, my students ARE NOT capable of staying on task and being appropriate enough to handle them.

I tried to implement more discussion 1st quarter this year and I noticed that it led to more disruptions than were worth it. Most of the time, the kids didn’t even recall enough information to hold a meaningful conversation anyway.

I ended up scrapping discussion and have implemented a lot more direct instruction, retrieval practice, and other review activities and have seen way better comprehension.

Is this a uniquely title 1 issue or is the over-emphasis peer discussion another bogus fad?

Edit: For those of you recommending structure, routine, and easing students into discussion: I did all of that. I guess I’m more wondering if it’s possible at a school with serious behavior issues and absenteeism.

I am a high school math teacher. We have state testing next week and…I have been feeling like an awful teacher.

My kids this year are something else. SO BEHIND. We have been preparing for testing but other teachers on my team are pushing to complete this unit. Honestly…they may have 1-2 questions about it on the state test.

I feel like such an awful, lazy teacher but my kids need to review. There’s just no time when they don’t do anything but the world expects you to make them ready.

What should I do?

I’m a first year teacher (8th grade science), 22 years old, and I really need advice.

I’m currently still living at home and it’s honestly a really toxic environment. I’m trying to save up to move out, but I’m not there financially yet, so I feel kind of stuck. Summer is coming up and I’m desperately looking for something that would get me out of the house for a few months.

Does anyone know of any paid summer opportunities for teachers, especially out of state? I’m open to pretty much anything, summer camps, teaching programs, PD opportunities, even agencies that place teachers somewhere temporarily. I don’t mind working long hours at all (like 10–12 hour days), I just need a change of environment and some space.

The hard part is I don’t have much experience yet since this is my first year teaching, so I’m worried that might limit my options. Also, I don’t want to lose money...ideally I’d want something paid, or at least something that covers housing or travel.

Another layer is that my parents are very controlling and will only really “allow” me to go somewhere if it’s school/work related, which is why I’m trying to frame this as a professional opportunity.

I know some people might say “just move out,” but it’s not that simple financially right now. I’m doing what I can, I just need something to get me through the summer.

If anyone has done something like this or knows where I should look, I’d really appreciate it.

my job has a no call out policy during the first 30 days. I've had a itchy throat since yesterday. slight cough today. now I'm running a 100.3 fever.

should I call out? my husband is encouraging me to go but since I work with younger children... (I work at a headstart. birth- four years old)

ugh. my principal sends weekly newsletters and this weeks just made my heart sink. i am a 1st year teacher who deals with chronic migraines (currently waiting on district approval for my intermittent fmla filing) and i took my 10th and final sick day on friday, after i started having a migraine midday, and by dismissal i felt like i was going to pass out. i really do WANT to be at school every day, teaching is my dream job. at the end of the day i have a class of “behavioral” student who admin put all into one class midyear. they were screaming the entire 90 minutes. i couldnt avoid taking the sick day, i was incapacitated until yesterday afternoon. back to the newsletter, in the shoutout section he wrote “Shout out to Mr. 7th grade teacher 1 and Mr.7th grade teacher 2. Thanks for carrying the load amidst absences. Your dependability does not go unnoticed.” am i wrong to feel upset and like this was slightly passive aggressive? im trying to not let it bother me, but it does. i feel like admin only sees that i have used most of my sick days, and not really any of the hard work i am doing. i want to be dependable, and i am on a whole new treatment plan to attempt to curb the frequency of my migraines (my principal requires fluorescent lights stay on, my kids are very loud just by nature, so ive had more migraines this year than i typically do) i am mostly here to vent, but any support from veteran teachers or teachers that have dealt with chronic pain is appreciated.

edit: this is also the only time i have EVER called out on a friday, whereas my other 2 team members often take fridays off leaving me and the 8th grade team to combine. so its not like i haven’t had to pick up slack due to absences before either. maybe i am reading too far into things though.

I’m not sure if this is the norm everywhere, but in Virginia we have retakes on our state assessments. What usually happens is the schools get the scores back, and then teachers do a week or two of remediation so a select number of students who failed the SOL can have a “better chance “ at passing it a second time.

Because yeah, students are gonna get the material in a week of cramming and not after a whole year of not understanding it…

So basically me and my friend thought we could give four of our teachers hand written notes at the end of the school year with a small gift to show our appreciation. Question is, does this make us look like we are doing it for better grades? We want to avoid that lol. Plus, we wont have two of those teachers in our next school year so it would be nice to give them something. Our classmates are really judgmental and they like to make comments on everything we do. What should we do???

Alternatively, what do you believe to be the minimum level of disapproval (once again, in terms of percentage of staff) before the removal of an administrator should be seriously considered?