I feel like I need a *despair* tag.

Today, one of the students I also taught 3 years ago, who is now a HS senior, informed me that he has never read a book. I, attempting clarify, asked if he had never read a picture book as a kid. He said no, and six of the kids around him (10th-11th grade) nodded their heads in agreement. I am pretty good at identifying BS 24 years I to my career. This... wasn't it.

So I now plan to read subject matter picture books to my 15-18 year olds, while sitting on my front lab bench and holding the pictures out for all to see like it's freaking library story time, b/c maybe they'll remember and read to their own kids sometime in the future

WTF

I’m in my 10th year of teaching and I’m just over it. These kids are so goddamn low, it’s genuinely frustrating. They can’t retain anything, they refuse to try whatsoever, they give the most minimal effort imaginable and we’re supposed to just pass them through.

Freshmen had to research an interesting person in history and do a presentation on them yesterday. It was simply embarrassing. These kids can barely speak let alone read or spell. The spelling is absolutely horrendous. When they clearly copy and pasted an AI response, they couldn’t even read what they copied on the slide. This isn’t just one or two students. This is every kid. Then, they laugh about it like it’s something to be proud of. 9th graders having 3rd grade reading levels. What the hell are you supposed to do?

Never mind, their parents are fucking idiots and can’t read themselves. Yet, we’re supposed to be open to them 24/7 and cater to their every whim or complaint. All they care about is if they can throw a ball or run really fast. Admin doesn’t do anything and our task list to appease all of these people is getting longer and longer. I just don’t want to live like this anymore. I’m miserable and my body is exhausted. I’m sick constantly because they’re always sick.

This is our future. Actually, this is our present and it’s terrifying. How the fuck am I going to make it to June? Please tell me, those that have left teaching, what are you doing now? Is there anything else that I can do?

Marking it as humor because it’s absurd.

I teach at a private Christian school. I teach Bible, and the Bible teachers are typically expected to be “faith leaders” as well as having ethics be taught by our department.
I recently caught a staff member breaking the schools (very weak) AI policy for a devotion&prayer to students. I reported this person in accordance with the staff handbook and ended up having a meeting with the 3rd in command at the school who heavily favors this person and has previously attempted to get rid of me. It went super well and they even texted my principal to commend me and say the same. At this meeting I was told I’d be looped in on follow up but I never was (Worth noting that this exact devotion was given to students again 1.5 weeks later).

Well at the end of last week my department needed to refresh a bulletin board and I (half joking) suggested we just put “AI IS BAD FOR KIDS” and “suggested readings” on the board. One of the ethics teachers has been reading the pope’s spring encyclical with their class and said “hell yeah, I’m in.” A third teacher ended up putting it up, and the 4th in the department knew about it but wasn’t involved. The aim was at all the ai “art” in the hallways and not about my previous meeting, though it was in my head. We were about to include the MIT study as well.

Today we all got in email from the head of the school that it was removed and offering us a meeting to “discuss concerns.” I was the first (and so far only) to respond to the email and say I’d meet, so was told that a) we will meet next week and b) because of my previous meeting this seemed “deliberate and disrespectful and will not be tolerated.” My whole department now plans to attend the meeting to say it was a group effort and not just me, but I know I’ll get heat (I’m a known troublemaker).

I’m sure my principal will be pissed tomorrow upon return from vacation.

High School.

Most classes at my school follow the same system. 1 test, 1 midterm, a 2nd test, a project and then the final. It's a semester long class so we are currently a few weeks post midterm approaching where test 2 would normally go. Lately the admin wants the CTE classes to have the students doing more hands-on work so they suggested we exchange 1 of our tests for a 2nd project. I love that idea.

In class today, I outlined the 1st project to the students. Some jokingly complain and I laugh it off. I get them going on the 1st part letting them work in small groups to think about their projects focuses. A student comes to me and tells me he doesn't want to do the project. I tell him I acknowledge that, but this is what's assigned. He tells me he's "too busy for this mess" and would rather just take the test. I tell him that's not an option and ask if he needs help brainstorming. He rolls his eyes. I move on. Done? Of course not.

I later get an email telling me he's going to have his mom email me because he shouldn't have to do this. I say okay. Mom emails me and my admin saying it's not fair he didn't get a choice between the project and a test. I'm so confused. In what world would you expect to get that choice? I show the project expectations to the admin and we all agree that the project can actually be completed (as I've intended all along) within class time. The parent the complains that this would require the child to come to class each day. Ohhh no, consistent attendance, we can't have that! /s

I'm so sick of entitled parents and students. It's my class. Do the work I assign... Or don't. But complaining to me about not getting to dictate your assignments is crazy.

As I sit in a lockdown drill with my elementary school kids and I hear someone rattling the door handle to our classroom I am reminded of just how dumb we are for a nation who thinks we are the best.

We’ve failed this generation of kids 🤦‍♂️

A sad dad and 5th grade teacher

Edit: lockdown drill

Recently, I had dinner with some old friends who aren’t in education. One, in particular, is pretty successful in marketing/PR. I was telling a story about a disagreement I recently got into with a coworker and the absurd, passive aggressive text she sent me after. My friend looked at it, didn’t even bother to read the entire thing, and said, “I wouldn’t even respond. Or if I did, I would say, “This is not my problem.”

I said, well, I have to work with these people every day. And some of them treat it like we are the ones in school. She shook her head and was like, “No, a job is a job. I don’t need everyone to like me.” I explained the whole grade level team dynamics and she was so off put by it. This led to a conversation in which she could not BELIEVE the following aspects of my job:

- that I’m required to respond to parent emails within 24 hours. “Even if it’s dumb or they could find the answer themselves?”

- that I have to actually make myself look presentable every day and can’t just work from home if I’m under the weather “Make up and an outfit EVERY DAY?”

- that I have to strategically plan my bathroom usage because I can’t leave my kids unsupervised

- that I have to give back to school night presentations to parents

- that I get 10 sick days a year “But what if you get sick not in the summer?”

- that it’s my responsibility to create sub plans if I wake up sick “Then what’s the point of using one of your days?”

And so on and so forth. Do you ever think your job isn’t that bad until someone comes along and shows you the light? There are people out there who have MUCH easier lives than we do. Sometimes I feel like we have been brainwashed to think we have it so good (especially in higher paying, pro-union areas), but the realities of our day-to-day are unfathomable to people on the outside.

1. Put up tenets of other ideologies right next to it, ex. Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto, Ten Point Program of the Black Panthers 
2. Print out large excerpts from an article discussing the legality of it, and put it around the poster of the Ten Commandments
3. Write: "Examples of the government not separating church and state" in big letters, with a giant arrow pointing to the Ten Commandments
4. The law says "include only the text of the Ten Commandments" but one could argue that pictures are acceptable, as it does not specifically state that pictures are prohibited. So you could find a picture of, oh I don't know, two roommates holding hands or something 
5. Write the letters in rainbow colors 
6. Put a rainbow background behind the text
7. Explain the significance of the law in a way your students will understand. Then ask students to write about their opinion on the law, and hang up their opinions around the commandments. This could show multiple perspectives and is a good practice in critical thinking.

edit:

Some of these suggestions are merely meant to emphasize the ridiculousness of the law and are not things I would actually do.

But I think it is important to draw attention to the law. I do not think it should go unnoticed.

I don't live in Texas and just found about this law yesterday.

However, I used to teach in Texas and if I still did I would create an open discussion with students about it.

I would use it as an example of the powers state governments have, and provide arguments for and against the law. I would also encourage students to examine the law within a broader historical context of the separation of church and state, and of the role politics plays in education.

Kids should learn about what is going on in the world around them.

Does anyone else get this stupid line whenever you talk about the challenges in teaching? I’m not in the classroom for now, and a coworker said this to me when asking about the teaching profession and why I left.

TLDR: elementary school destroyed overnight. 600 students displaced. 75 educators lost everything. As teachers what matters most to you and your classroom… the little things. The things that made the difference in your classroom and impacted students the most.

One of the two elementary schools in my local town caught fire this weekend and will need to be torn down.

I am contracted through a different school district and my organization has over 20 high schools they work with.

Over 600 students have lost their school. The district has already implemented plans for these students to be back in a local school setting eight days after the total loss.

I am looking for suggestions on how to support these students and teachers, utilizing the outside organization I work for.

Obviously the school has insurance and the state will help with funds to build a new school. My organization has teachers in schools throughout the state and I’d like to capitalize on that.

I think it makes the most sense to raise funds or collect resources for the teachers who lost everything (assuming the building and school supplies will be funded by the state).

Just curious how teachers would feel if their school was destroyed and what they feel is most important. Would you prefer funds to restock your room? Would you like certain items to be donated?

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. Ideally I’d like to come up with a fundraiser of some sort that my organization can back and implement in over 20 schools. I think this is an opportunity to resource A LOT of resources and I want to make sure I do it right.

Thank you in advance!

DMs OPEN

I knew this would happen eventually in my career because I've heard of it happening to virtually every male preschool teacher I've encountered. But it still hurts.

Me and my team dedicated the first two months of school simply to helping the kids get comfortable in the school environment and help them learn to trust us. Like we do every year. I'd actually built up an excellent rapport and bond with the particular child and had great chats with both the parents at our get-to-know-you-evening (an event the school throws). I woke up this morning to an email saying they'd prefer I not take them to the potty anymore and that they've already explained it to the child in question.

And just like that, all that work getting them comfortable is out the window. They told their child not to go to the potty with me. In the kid's eyes, I am no longer a safe grownup. They won't play with me. They won't let me help open their snacks during snacktime. At one point, they told me, "Don't look at me," when they were washing their hands in our in-classroom sink. Their experience in our class is going to be irreparably damaged because they've been told by their parents not to trust me. It will take SO long to build up trust with them again, to get them comfortable, so they can actually have fun and start LEARNING in meaningful ways again.

And all because I'm a man who dedicated his life to early childhood education. I'm honestly so upset.

At my school we have our own set of critical days as in do not dare take them off or have a really good reason. I swear I used to work in retail and I had less blackout days or critical days and Retail than I do now is a teacher. I wish I could post the photo of our calendar here most of it's blacked out

Looking for advice how to handle the mean girls in my class? They don’t care about most consequences and only one of the fours mothers even responds to my messages. One of them when I messaged dad about her upcoming parent teacher conference he straight up replied “we don’t go to those but thanks for the offer.” So clearly I can’t use moms and dads to get them sorted out. It’s not just mean towards other students and super disrespectful during lessons and class time but also rude and belligerent to myself and other staff, but if it’s teachers with more seniority they never do it and are more respectful but it’s like they know I have no real pull since I’m new. I need advice. Grade 6. I’m not opposed to humbling them.

Just venting. I was out at happy hour after school talking to someone who was a parent in my district years before. He said, “I hate to say this, but you guys are seen as glorified babysitters.” I’ve been in education for around a decade, a teacher for 3 years. When did this shift from educator to babysitter start? When did parents forget that their education is what built the foundation of their lives!? I would understand if it came from snobby professionals without children, but this is from a parent. Why is school just an inconvenience for families rather than a foundational institution that prepares their children for the rest of their lives!? I’ve heard it more than once, but this time it really stuck with me because I was out with my team. It’s hard enough to deal with the behaviors, but now that parents are siding with their children over siding with the institution designed by the government to support their children, I’m becoming disillusioned. I could move past it if it wasn’t a common sentiment, buts I’ve heard it so much more recently. Convince me I’m not wasting my life and career.

European high school science teacher here. The requirements for the video assignment is a 6 minute video in which the student talks about specific stuff we did in class. No form requirements, they can do it exactly as the video in which my student explains that she doesn't know how to. I have been very clear about this.

Also no, it is not required that their face is shown - I usually recommend that they record a piece of paper while drawing the things they explain.

....I give up 🫣

Edit to clarify that this is a rant and not a question of how to handle the situation.

In year 6 of the same school I started my career at. Good school overall. This year has been a blessing to be honest. Student behaviors are pretty minimal compared to other years. However...

We have one freshman who is extremely entitled. I happened to catch him and another student in the teacher's lounge on my way to make copies. I asked what they were doing. One of them stayed to explain, the other just began walking away like nothing happened. I said "I am still talking to you". No response. I stated again "Excuse me but I am trying to speak with you". Student responds with "I heard ya". And sat down at the student commons he was working at before. I walked down and raised my voice for the first real time in probably three years. I just haven't had to until now. I'm never a fan of yelling if I can help it, but certain situations do require it. He said he was sorry and should not have been so disrespectful.

He's done this to several other staff and it's getting really old. Not really looking for advice, but I needed to vent. Like how do you just not even give someone the time of day?

Hi, so we just had Family Night, and I had a situation with a parent of one of my homeroom students. The student is currently failing all his subjects, and I was the one who handed his mom his new schedule. She was frustrated and wanted to know why his schedule had been changed. I explained that it was based on his behavior and the environment in which he could work better.

She then asked who made that decision, and I told her that it was we, his teachers. After that, she started asking a lot of follow-up questions, like whether his behavior alone was the reason for the schedule change and other things along those lines. Honestly, I didn't know how to answer all her questions because I'm still a new teacher, and I'm not entirely familiar with all the details behind the decision.

So, I told her that we could speak with the assistant principal, who would be able to explain the situation more thoroughly. She then told me that she wanted me removed from her son's class because I couldn't even explain such a simple question. I just said, “Sure, ma'am. We can discuss that as well. Let me walk you to the assistant principal's office.”

To be honest, I don't really want to deal with either her or her son anymore, anyway. But the whole situation is stressing me out, and I'm worried. Could this incident put my job at risk or even get me fired?

I'm six months pregnant.

So far this year she:

-has admitted she was not familiar with the text book

-has shown up late and left early multiple times

- has not planned anything

- has told the kids something completely different or told them that they need to ask the teacher

- has no idea what we're doing

- told my intern to leave without asking me.

-talked when I'm teaching

- given the kids every answer

-told me she cannot input grades because she doesn't know how to weight them properly (later sent an email saying that she knows how to do this when I emailed her offering further help)

- had no idea there were strands in the curriculum we needed to cover (but again in email claimed to be super familiar).

- claimed an AI generated assignment I gave her (I didn't even look at it) as her own. It has a ton of errors but at this point I'm not correcting it.

-keeps making passive aggressive comments since I asked her to lead a lesson.

i’m a first year teacher, and my first observation was so bad. i went into it with full confidence and a well planned lesson… which turned into a complete flop. there isn’t a single positive on the write up.
my union says to just sign it and it’s not a big deal. but i feel like my whole identity and career path has been questioned. how do i NOT fall apart right now?

7th grade. The ADHD kid said a butthead thing that triggered a big emotional reaction from an autistic student that triggered the AUDHD kid that triggered another kid that I am so glad the bipolar kid was finally out of her manic phase...

...of which I helped lead each kid to use their tools we helped explore to fix each problem.

I did this with the VP walking by me in the hallway using restorative practices...Somehow, everything ended better than I expected...

I sit down at my desk, tell the kid with autism and a history of big traumas that no, they were NOT in trouble (I had to sit to remove the height differentiation), and the VP walked in while I was handling m THIS conversationand told me the ELL kid with an A in my class thad did the assignment for the day and later told me they did 3 missing assingments was... playing videogames...

Dude...timing...

...

We have a particularly challenging 7th grade class that has been difficult for their entire student careers. With that said, I would say we've had troubled classes before that were likely just as bad. The principal just sent out a long email explaining it's from experiencing lockdowns in kindergarten. I don't know if I can agree that Covid is still a valid excuse for terrible behavior as an entire class in 2026. What is your opinion concerning the validity of Covid as an excuse for terrible behavior at this point?

East coast high school ELA teacher here. Just found out yesterday we have to give ANOTHER standardized test, and we have to give it three times this year, starting next week. This is on top of the 3 existing literacy tests and 2 enormous state tests that we already have to give each year.

When I brought up in PLC that my students probably won’t show up because grades are closing this Friday and they often take a little break after all the overload of tests and projects, I was told “that’s on them.” Mind you, we’re required to make this new test a grade.

How much “data driven instruction” does one teacher need? I get enormous data from class work and assessments… I’d just like to occasionally give instruction without the over testing looming over my schedule.

Is it okay to wear leggings during spirit week? I’m a fourth grade teacher and the school I work at is doing workout gear next week. Some of the teachers dress for spirit days, some don’t. Some wear leggings, some don’t. None of the teachers did on pj day, which makes sense, but I’m scared I’ll show up and no one is in workout gear except me.

I teach 5th grade homeroom, so I'm teaching all subjects. I have many students in my class who are EIP, literally half. So the grade level EIP teacher pushes into my class for about half of the day. They were a first year teacher last year and did student teaching at this school the year before that. I'm a first year teacher this year. They were homeroom and moved to the EIP because they could not handle doing homeroom after one year of it, these are their words and not mine.

For the first 2 months they did absolutely nothing to support their EIP students because "I don't know who is on my case load" and when I said that we didn't need a caseload to know who was struggling they shrugged and continued to do nothing. They did not help with behaviors, of which there were/are MANY, until I was at a breaking point and nearly crying.

In the last month they have started actually doing things to support the students on their caseload, graphic organizers and sentence frame notes, etc. However, when we do work and a student who is not on their caseload asks for help they will say, "I can't help you. I have to help the kids I work with." Meanwhile, I'm obviously helping all of the students in the class and am completely overwhelmed. They do not pull small groups but mostly sit at the back table and work on their computer until they feel like contributing or getting up to help students on their caseload. I could go on and on about how frustrating this is.

When I've tried to do planning with them they will agree to a day/time and then never show up and completely ghost me. There is zero collaboration happening. I've tried talking to my team lead about this and they say that EIP teacher has been here long enough that they know what they're doing and they can't stay after school because of their second job. But that does not explain why they cannot collaborate during our SHARED planned period or where they disappear to during the time we scheduled. Admin loves them and only talks about how wonderful they are and all of the great things they did last year.

Today, I hit a new breaking point. Admin was talking to us during planning about how we can help engage students in listening during ELA so they can perform better on tests. EIP teacher says, "they need to take more notes. I give MY KIDS a paper with lines to take notes on and they write circles around everyone else while taking notes." I tried to point out that while reading a book (chapter books) they are getting lost because they're writing something down and not actually keeping up with the story. Admin said that on tests they can pause and go back so it's a helpful skill to have developed. I agreed with that but said it's not actually helpful during our ELA time. I said, "it's get that they're taking notes but when it comes time to answer questions and have a classroom discussion those same kids that were writing are not raising their hand or engaging in the conversation at all." To which the EIP teacher said, "they're not getting enough response time " and all I could do was stare at them. Because we both know that I will ask a question and stand in silence for so long I will have students ask me to ask the question again, stand in silence and then rephrase the question until someone can answer it. When that doesn't happen and someone raises their hand right away it's never one of "her kids" that are taking notes and they do not add to the conversation after the first student has started responding or discussing it.

I just feel so crazy because nobody is seeing what I'm seeing and praising the EIP teachers every move. Obviously when an admin comes in of an observation the EIP teacher will do what they're supposed to do, circulate the room and help me teach the lesson, engage with ALL of the students, etc.

And yes, I'm willing to acknowledge that part of me is very bitter because I am absolutely drowning in everything. The work, the paperwork, the teaching, the behaviors, classroom management, everything. And nobody, not a single person has said a positive thing to or about me or acknowledged me in any way. So I am bitter and frustrated that someone who is only putting on a show for admin is getting all of the praise and I'm pouring whatever I have left into this and trying so hard and get absolutely nothing. I don't even get the support I need with behaviors because everything is fine when they come in to observe because I actually am getting support from the other teacher in the room, imagine that.

I'm so at my wits end with everything I've been doing research into how serious it really is to break contract. If the EIP teacher is so fantastic give them back the homeroom job, clearly they're better at it than I am. I'm miserable. It took 3 months for me to no longer find joy in teaching. Something that once felt so natural to me and came so easy feels impossible and like I am an absolute failure. I'm falling myself and I'm failing these kids. They deserve better and it simply isn't me.

Thanks for letting me dump my thoughts somewhere. I don't really know if I need or want advice. I just needed someone to tell all of this to.