I met up with a relative of mine recently who has a toddler. We were discussing the near future and the topic of school came up. To each their own, of course, but she’d told me about her plans to put her child into a Catholic school because “they don’t teach their students about being gay or transgender.” But I’m struggling to understand why she thinks that public schools do teach that? Or why it’s such a common sentiment? I was baffled.

Obviously, distrust between educators and parents has been growing for quite some time. Certainly today’s political climate doesn’t help, but how do parents truly believe that elementary school teachers are telling their students about sexuality/gender identity? I have students who can’t write their name, nevermind who have any concept of identity.

Hello,

5th grade teacher here

I have two students with a diagnosed Oppositional Defiance Disorder, and it means there are things that student does that I'm supposed to ignore or redirect kindly, and I feel that it sets a precedent in my class that it's ok to undermine me and ignore my directions.

Other children have expressed that it's unfair in their eyes when they get reprimanded or get an office call while this other kid gets gentle affirmative redirection that doesn't work.

Please help

I got a job teaching 5th grade science here in Florida.
I had great difficulty with discipline in 3 of my 4 classes. I was hired in February and fired this Friday.
The students in one class decided it was their mission to get me fired after I accidentally said ‘hell’ in frustration. They ran out and complained I don’t know who but I was made to sign a paper stating I would never say’hell’ Or ‘damn (never said it but I admit the hell. I take responsibility for that but coming in to the classes at the tail end of the term proved very difficult. Part of my problem is I am small and my voice doesn’t carry well even though I got a microphone. They ran circles around me so I would spend 80% of my time negotiating to get them to sit and take notes (I bought many of them notebooks and folders to keep them more organized but you can imagine how that played out.
My mentor was helpful but was extremely abrasive to the point I didn’t want to ask her questions. The assistant principal came down the hallway because about 5 of my students were walking the hallway-I agree that should not have happened but there was just so much chaos in that room I didn’t really notice they were gone. I did a lot of research on classroom management but this broke the camel’s back. The AP chewed me out in front of all my students, stating this was my responsibility (I agree) but it seems the admin always sides with the kids and never gets the teacher’s side. I had hoped to finish the year as I would get payed through June but I was fired at the end of the day, walking through the hall of shame as kids were lined up in the hall and they heard my name called several times over the speakers. Kids are testing now but I was totally cut out of that and given no information as to what to do with students for two months.
I tried to take a positive approach and email parents about how great their kid was doing in school- mainly because the paperwork to get anything accomplished discipline-wise would take enormous amounts of time.
Question is: why not let me finish out the year? I suppose students will get a substitute for the remainder of the term- they have had subs since last November, but was I that bad that they couldn’t keep me around until the end of the term? I tried desperately and did complete the school standards. Pretty sure this AP never liked me and was described as mysoginistic by several women.
I know I wasn’t perfect but some support, and perhaps asking me about things that happened in the classroom, would have help me.
I was less than two months in and already had an evaluation which was mixed. With some help or suggestions I would have improved. Instead I got chewed out by the AP and since Florida is a right-to-work state, I wasn’t given a reason for getting fired.
Any opinions on this? I was very upset but realize also teachers control kids with candy.
I didn’t allow food or candy in the science class and feel that giving out candy then sending them to my room made things a lot harder for me.
I accept criticism and try to improve but was never given the chance.
What could I have done differently?

I think I miswrote. The students didn’t sneak out without me noticing. They told me they needed to do different things in different places and I was hoodwinked. My bad still.

One of my freshmen- the kind who complains every time you ask him to do anything remotely academic- told me school is “basically slavery.”

This is a kid who acts personally oppressed when you ask him to close a gaming tab or stop doom-scrolling long enough to open his assignment. I asked him to start the classwork, and he hit me with:

“Man, this is basically slavery.”

So I said: “No, slavery doesn’t come with field trips, free Wi-Fi, Chromebooks, iPads, or teachers holding your hand through everything. People pay tens of thousands of dollars to learn what you’re getting for free- and you’re mad because it’s cutting into your screen time?”

He went quiet.

Then he tried the classic fallback: “Yeah but, when am I ever going to use math?”

And I told him: “Maybe never. But school isn’t about memorizing formulas- it’s about proving you can learn something hard and boring and stick with it. Most employers don’t care if you know the quadratic formula. They care if you can handle doing stuff that isn’t fun without falling apart. Failing math in a system this forgiving doesn’t mean math isn’t useful. It means you can’t even pass with help- and that’s the real problem.”

Silence. Just blinking. Like I short-circuited the part of his brain where the excuses live.

No more complaints for the rest of class. He either gave up or there might’ve been an aha moment.

Either way? He was the quietest he’s ever been. I might frame the moment.

Edit for clarity and boundaries:

I’m open to discussion, critique, and even disagreement- but I’m not here to entertain personal attacks, ableist comments, or hyperbolic comparisons that derail the point (mods have been awesome about it thank you).

If you're here to genuinely talk about what’s broken in education, I'm listening. If you're here to posture, provoke, or mock—especially by targeting my identity- you’re not owed my time or energy.

Let’s keep this grounded and respectful.

I teach highschool French and I have three students in my class from Haiti. I found out yesterday that their protected status is being revoked and they have two weeks to leave the US.

These kids are seniors, they all have jobs and are just out here to survive. Now they are forced to go back to Haiti where they said it's not safe for them. I wanted to see them graduate, now they'll never be able to walk across the stage. I've been crying for hours yesterday but there's nothing I can do about it.

And it hurts me more that the majority of my schools teachers voted for this (super red state). It's disgusting.

What am I supposed to tell the class one they notice our students are missing? We aren't allowed to talk politics really, but I can't lie to them. I'm 22, it's my first year teaching, I never thought I'd have to encounter a situation like this. America needs to do better for our children.

Edit: Thank you all for the support, I think my students need it more than I do but I appreciate it none the less.

Some comments mentioned the idea of setting up a fund. I LOVE the idea, but I'll be honest I have no idea how to put something like that in action. If anyone knows how to create something like that please reach out. Thank you again.

TLDR: First summer "off", share with me your tips, Veterans.

I've been teaching for almost 2 decades but the majority of years have worked summer school or summer camp. In past years, I would then use my summer school money to fund my travel for the remainder of the summer.

3 years ago, I didn't work summer school because I gave birth to twins. The following year I was taking care of my babies. Last year I worked summer school and then started a job at a new school teaching a brand new subject with new preps. This year I have decided in a preservation of sanity, that I'm not going to work summer school.

My kids go to a 12-month daycare so I'll be paying for them to go to preschool whether or not they show up, so my plan was to have them go for the majority of the time.

So, I'll basically have from 930-330.

There will be some vegging for sure and some planning for next year, but I'm trying to figure out how to make a good use of my time.

So veterans, do you make a big list and slowly tackle things? Do you have a set schedule or just go with flow? What advice would you give someone with a "summer off"? Are there rookie mistakes I should avoid?

I want to spend some time recharging but also set myself up for the next year.

Thanks in advance

I’m an African American woman stepping into a new role at a nonprofit where I’ll be doing a lot of public-facing work—virtual meetings, networking events, breakfasts—with potential donors from both corporate and academic spaces.

I love switching up my hairstyles—braids, twists, natural looks—and it’s always been a way I express myself confidently. But I was recently asked to “tone down” the beads in my braids, and it got me thinking: In a role where I’m representing the organization, is frequently changing my hair—or wearing culturally expressive styles—likely to be seen as unprofessional?

I want to bring my full, authentic self to this work, but I also want to be strategic in how I’m perceived. Has anyone else had to navigate this balance in a donor-facing or public nonprofit role? How would you handle it?

On April 3, 2025, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman and Senator Chris Van Hollen reintroduced the IDEA Full Funding Act, aiming to ensure that all children with disabilities receive a free, high-quality public education. Originally, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) committed the federal government to cover 40% of the average per-pupil expenditure for special education. However, current funding falls below 13%. This legislation proposes mandatory increases in IDEA spending to fulfill the original 40% commitment.

https://huffman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The only sink in my HIGH SCHOOL classroom, which has existed peacefully for the last three years, was broken on Friday. I couldn’t believe it, but someone RIPPED OFF THE HANDLE to the faucet. Ripped it off and broke it. I can’t tell if it was vandalism or sheer stupidity.

Luckily it is a cold water only line, so I can attach the cold water hose to the hot water side, but it’s still unbelievable to me.

If it was vandalism- like, why go for the most useful thing in my freaking classroom?

If it was something else- how in the F**K does a high schooler forget how a faucet works?!?!??! It only goes two directions??????????????

I just don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t believe a broken sink handle is what did it for me. I can’t be around other peoples’ kids who can’t be bothered to put a paint brush back in a water cup or to not break a faucet handle.

I couldn’t even look at the kids for the rest of the day. I couldn’t be bothered to care what they did.

It’s not like our class is boring, either. We have done wire sculpture, ceramics, scale models, cardboard sculptures, this semester alone, for ART ONE. And for what? They don’t care.

I was helping a student with Geometry classwork, looked up at the board and I had accidentally projected the solved problems. Oh well, I printed and handed out the solutions and said “everyone should get a 100 on this one.” I just finished grading two of the students only finished a fraction of the problems (not the biggest problem), but about half were done wrong. I had undiagnosed ADHD in high school, and I still don’t understand what’s going on with them.

I have had a terrible year. Many reasons for it but one of them was that I had a sped inclusion para ( I teach gen ed and have students who are mainstreamed kinders who are nonverbal and still in diapers with very severe needs) who was drama (was often on her phone or socializing with other paras and not wanting to be focused on the kids she was assigned to, and would just flat out not do what I asked her to do, would interfere with students she wasn’t assigned to, she would let her students make huge messes like get paint everywhere and not clean it up, wouldn’t properly supervise her students leaving me to be the one on the look out for elopement and aggressive behavior and be the one to stop it, wouldn’t use any of the support tools like visuals and token boards and first/then boards to help her kids understand routines and expectations and when I tried to address this she would complain to admin who she was personal friends with and say I was being rude or targeting her,-a lot stuff).

She was not supposed to be the para for my room and was just pulled to do it because they needed to hire someone because the school “wasn’t previously aware how intense the students needs were”. For 7 months this went on. I ended up just letting her do whatever she wanted just to limit the drama and attitude and complaints to the principal even if it didn’t serve students and made my job very hard.

Well finally I got my new para and she is great! No more of this nonsense -she is just on it and doing the job. My students have improved more in 2 weeks than I would have believed possible. I feel like a mountain of stress has been lifted off my shoulders. I wanted to tell her how much I appreciate her and that she is doing great and she tells me, “when I was shadowing a few weeks ago I noticed the strange dynamic of the para not working with her students much and kind of letting them run wild so I’m glad your happy that I don’t do that because I just couldnt do that since it doesn’t seem right. Also I know im not that chatty so please don’t think I’m unfriendly I just like to be mainly focused on my job and I know that the last girl was very social. There seemed to be a strange dynamic in here and I was worried”. I told her the strange dynamic was real but very much not what I wanted and that I was thrilled to have her and her professionalism.

In 3 days of shadowing she clocked all the issues (that admin couldn’t see in 7 months 🤦🏽‍♀️) and immediately planned to fix them. I am back to feeling so much happier in general and more at ease going to work again. I love this woman. I had spent months feeling trapped between an ineffective and catty para and an admin who is her friend who refused to see her friend doing anything wrong and running myself ragged dealing with not having real support for my very severe and nonverbal but mainstreamed kids and finally I feel like I’m out of the trap. Yes the school still has issues that suck but it’s all so much easier to deal with the other things when I have support in my room and less drama and not feeling like my students aren’t being properly served.

You can see my original post here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/s/eMKcqs40Ja

4 weeks ago, Teflon Thomas and another student, Sacred Steven, picked a smaller student, “Aiden” up during class change from PE to HR and threw him in the dumpster.

“Aiden” suffered a broken wrist and broken ribs and finally Thomas was sent to the alternative school, but not before, as I predicted, he seriously injured someone. (Steven went also but he’s not my student). Aiden’s parents insisted that charges be brought against both boys.

About two weeks before this incident, Thomas made a gun with his fingers , touched them to a gay male teacher’s head and threatened to kill his “fa$$ot ass” and went to tribunal. Our superintendent declined to send him to alternative school after “hearing both sides of the story.”

I'm pretty nervous. The site used was Soap2Day to watch Severance but some explicit ads and pop ups that I rapidly clicked out of show up on my history. It wasn't on my work device, and it wasn't at work, but I'm still freaked out that the district might see and penalize me. Can they see? If so, what usually happens proceeding forward?

Curious how many of you have some passive income that earns about $500 or more a month. I've been trying to find something but it seems like everyone says buying real estate is the best solution but I refuse to have any part of being a landlord nor can I buy property for the foreseeable future. Is this just a pipe dream?

Middle age male career switcher trying to go into elementary. My dream is to teach in the urban district I live in, but they get a stack of applications for any open position because the pay scale’s great (starts at 70k w no MA, surrounding districts about 8k less). I’m finishing my student teaching and will be on the market this summer. I can either sub for a year in my district, using that time to make connections and get feet in the door. Or I could take any job I can get in the surrounding districts. Less pay, more commute, but achievable.

Daily sub rate here is $200 and there are so many gigs I could work every day. Also if I get a long term sub job the pay doubles. I could survive subbing, and I have savings. I feel like if I’m subbing, then I’m available for unexpected opportunities… like If a job in my district opens up mid year for some reason, I’d be one of a smaller number of teachers not under contract… so maybe that’s a way in? At minimum I’d meet admins, make friends, and get practical classroom experience with a range of ages and schools. Honestly the low-stakes classroom management practice is appealing to me, my student teaching has been great but I don’t feel as prepared for the big leagues as I’d like to be.

Down sides are that maybe the mental load of a hundred different classrooms over the year would wear me down a lot. There aren’t few high school sub jobs so it would be a lot of middle school and elementary. I Would be making ends meet but just barely. And if a recession is about to start, maybe it would be foolish not to be jumping on to the ladder as soon as possible, even if it means a 40 min commute for less money.

Obviously weight these choices depends on one’s personal priorities but I’m interested in any and all’s thoughts or advice.

For some context behind this question, the school board in my hometown just made the ridiculous decision to close all the middle schools. They also fired several of the high school principals who were beloved and had great test scores, and coincidentally had spoken out against the middle school closure and preceding district-level financial mismanagement.

I’m absolutely livid. All of the parents in the local Facebook groups are beside themselves.

I’m also from California, where we’ve seen a steady decline in school funding over the past 30 years. I remember my high school had an empty building that was supposed to be where the career advisor met with students. When I was a student there 2004-2008, I asked the counselor how I could meet with the career advisor, and they just laughed and said we haven’t had that position in 10 years. And I went to the “good” high school.

So anyway, recently I was looking up who will be leading my alma mater high school now that the beloved principal is being axed. And I noticed that the administrative team is larger than it was when I went there 15 years ago. So here are the stats:

2007-2008: HS had 1200 students across 4 grades; 1 Principal, 1 Vice Principal

2024-2025: HS has 1600 students across 4 grades; 1 Principal, 1 Vice Principal; 2 Assistant Principals

And honestly, I’m a bit shocked. I don’t know what the purpose of those two extra administrators is. I know the teachers have been crying out for raises for years. It sounds like they’ve had those two APs for a few years now. I guess they’ll come in handy when the school has to add 7th and 8th graders in fall 2025.

I suspect the administrators are meant to deal with the additional administrative burden from the district and the state? Is this correct? Has this trend taken place at other schools?

ETA: Wow, I had no idea the discipline issues APs are dealing with! That blows my mind. In 2005, my brother casually threatened to kill another student who had been bullying him (literally he said to her friend, “I’m so mad, I could just kill her,” picked up a rubber prop knife because of course they were theater kids and standing backstage when this happened, promptly put down the knife, and walked away). The girl’s friend ran to a teacher who immediately called in admins. My brother was suspended that day and expelled after a 6-month-long trial where he was berated by every administrator the district could produce. As horrible as the trial was, it was all ultimately for the best; he learned some valuable lessons about why you don’t threaten rich white girls, and he THRIVED at his next school, which was much more his vibe. But it sounds like today kids can do basically anything and get zero discipline. How are we expecting the next generation to behave in society if there are no boundaries for them at school???

Like many teachers, our school has several students with ODD. One recently jumped the fence around the school and had to be returned by the police. Another actually CALLED the police to come when they were redirected.

The more I see situations like this, I have to wonder—what happens to these kids as adults? And given the sheer amount of students receiving this diagnosis, what will our future look like?

Hey! Second year teacher here :), in art class I was teaching the technic called etching, and some students started to say ohhh we are gonna learn how to edge, edging, and of course they just continue laughing for all the class about that, I wasn't sure how to handle the situation, I just looked at them like "really -.-", even one student ask me if I had edge sometime like making this word game.... I'm really easy going with that class so there's some kind of trust with them and even it wasn't so bad, I got the question of how to deal with this type of porn/sexual references... Do you have similar situation? How you deal with that?

Next year, I will be working on a team with people who are much younger than I am (20-year gap). I am nervous about possible differences in teaching philosophy and just fitting in. Can you give me some things to consider so I can gain some optimism?

Let me clarify.

On Friday, I assigned an Edpuzzle for the students to do in class as I needed to do reading assessments for the month and it was the easiest way to do so. The video was 27 minutes long. It was me reading the chapter of our book to them and discussing plot elements with 2 multiple choice and 6 short answer questions mixed in. My class periods are almost an hour long so I figured when they finished with it, they could work on the outline of their essay that is due this Friday. No biggie, right?

Only 22 of my almost 80 students turned in the edpuzzle. I am losing my mind because I don't know what to do here. Should I give them tomorrow in class to finish it. This week was supposed to be finishing up two more chapters, submitting their draft of the essay, peer review, and final edits, but now I am questioning if I should give them more inclass time to submit this assignment. I want to go in and give them zeros now but I have to wait until 8 am tomorrow. I am just so pissed off that I have to worry about this on my weekend and they aren't even trying.

If you remember my last post, this is my update.

Well. Not the update I wanted to give, but I should’ve expected to see this behavior from grown catty 20something teachers.. and admin.

I was ignored by admin. Made eye contact and they straight up didn’t acknowledge me. I even smiled at them, said good morning. Nothing. Then I had the counselor sit in class with me to observe the behaviors. And probably to monitor what I was saying (it’s probably more this than anything else). Other teachers in the same grade level made faces at me, and didn’t speak to me either.

I briefly apologized as to clarify with my students, and that same student was incredibly smug and nonchalant in the back. Standing up and talking to the counselor and roaming, STILL.

I played bingo with my class (to bond with them), bought some little prizes. I had a student complain that he wasn’t going to win. He was one away on his card and someone else won. He obviously made comments in front of the counselor to see if he could get a reaction out of me. And those of you that will probably say… “kids don’t know any better.” This one does. This one 110% does. These kids are not used to losing, I guess. They all want to be winners. And that’s fine, but put in the work in order to get there. (Also bingo is very much luck/chance based? Sigh.)

At the end of the day I cried in the car and cried on the couch at home.

I’m about to graduate college and got a job offer but it’s 50 minutes away. I’ve talked to over 10 teachers at the school I’m student teaching at who say to take it. I would be living with family and not paying for rent or utilities during this time. I would be making 40k starting. And I’ve been accepted to grad school and am taking a class in the summer to start helping me gain credit hours. Do you think the 50 minute commute is worth it???

A while ago I read in something in this sub about using version history to see if a student used chatgpt (or other ai) to produce a text.

How does this work? Would I need to see the student’s laptop? Or?

Edit: my school uses MS Word.

I made a huge leap from teaching charter school pre-k to self-paced 10th grade alt-school mid-year. It has been intensely interesting. The hardest part is of course keeping them awake and on task; especially since these are the kids who eventually get kicked from their home school for truancy and come to us.

When I started kids would barely talk to me (or each other), and most of them were sleeping or scrolling. I'm still working on our coursework progress, but my classroom culture has improved so much. These kids are a hoot. Lazier than I could have possibly imagined, but they're making friends and actually sharing thoughts within conversations.

I started doing fun Friday as a way to try and get a tiny bit of enthusiasm and make this place less monotonous. After lunch we play some sort of friendly competition activity and the winner/s get a voucher for one hour of phone/free time. I was terrified no one would play since I am committed to keeping it optional. The first week only 6 participated. Since then there are usually around 15 who play and 5-7 who sit out.

This Friday EVERY SINGLE KID played in our cup pong team tournament!! When I type it out it probably sounds trivial, but it meant a lot to me. They all had at least a tiny bit of fun, and we got to let loose a bit and enjoy being together.

So I have an interview for a high school English position and I would love some reasonable advice for interviews.

I would really like to make the jump from middle school to high school as I student taught in high school and loved it but never applied to a high school after college. My main goal is to have high school experience in addition to my middle school experience for future jobs I would like to have. I want to do the best I can on this interview so any advice is helpful!