Teachers/Educators Thread • Page 23

I used to teach preschool and have an old friend who works in elementary schools and she can be kinda judgemental about it, like pre-k is not real teaching or something. Kids didn't just pick their noses and finger paint all day. I had 20 kids and each kid needed to have 3 goals a month and every lesson plan had to show how it was addressing each kids goals and I had to constantly document all day long how they were meeting those goals. We followed a curriculum. The area I was in meant most of the kids were at risk and high needs. There was no ability to try and spread those kids out between multiple classrooms. Not to mention preschool is the first time many kids socialize with other kids outside of their home or family and the first time many have had a structured environment. It was our job to start at square 1 and teach them the basics of following a schedule, transitions, and social emotional learning. No I didn't have a masters degree but it was intense. And due to the lack of support because we didn't have school counselors or a principals office, we'd regularly get assaulted by children every day. I would legit get bitten, punched in the face, called a bitch, had tables and chairs thrown at me, etc. We weren't allowed to suspend or expel students either, or ask for them to be picked up early if they were dysregulated.

Anyway, just venting because it was frustrating. I'm not a teacher anymore so I won't infiltrate the thread anymore but it's massively helpful experience in my current job and I'm very glad I did it. Even though I sometimes still have nightmares that I am suddenly teaching again but am unprepared and haven't prepped and don't know the students lol

 

Tomorrow is senior skip day. Good choice, kids.

 

200 IQ level play. Well done, seniors.

 

Our hockey team has a playoff game and basketball has senior night so those are prob the only seniors that will be on campus so they can play.

 

Six more weeks until spring break.

 

p much. at least weather is spring-like

 

Full days = 24
Half days = 4

Not counting.
(Assuming perfect attendance, of course.)

 

Superintendent had an hour long meeting at our in-service... She said perception of success needs to improve among staff. Then told us that our school was like an iceberg (not the good kind) and that working there was like having landmines everywhere. Emphasized that a lot of staff left mid-year. Said they're working on giving the younger grades extra help to help the district. Then told us she's only interim so who knows the next person might do it totally differently. My perception of success is not improved.

She's well spoken, but it really seemed like the text of a pessimistic Michael Scott speech.

 

My promotion was announced today. In classic education fashion, I know what my new responsibilities are but haven’t been informed yet what is coming off my plate to accommodate the new stuff or any adjustment in compensation…

 

I’ve been looking to get more involved in our union so I’m on the contract negotiations team. We’re gonna be spending the first few meetings doing language stuff before we get to numbers. I know for my first two contracts+years before me, the raises on local pay have come in under inflation rates, for example the raises on our latest contract that is in year 4 now have been 1.5% or lower. So yeah. Anxious to see what they’re offering/their reaction to our proposal when we get there

 

Last day of the school year (not counting finals), told the kids in this class I'll put a movie on if they want. Gave them a ton of options. Eventually they saw The Sandlot in the suggestions and insisted loudly and multiple times that's what we pick. So I said yeah sure love that movie.

After all that begging for me to put it on, zero of them are actually watching lol. They're all just sitting on their phones watching/doing other stuff. Though a couple just looked up for the "Benny teaches Smalls how to catch" moment.

 

Take those phones David

 

next year our building is going to a model where they have to all put them in a shoe rack/pocket thingy at the start of class and collect them at the end of class

 

I'm so jealous. my district is too afraid to do anything about phones.

 

We’ve been doing the shoe racks for years. It only works if every teacher does it, so since we can’t count on colleagues doing their part, it’s been a pain. It also doesn’t give adequate separation for their attention to really divorce attention from the phone.

Next year we will have kids turn them in at the start of the day to their homeroom teacher and pick them up at the end of the day to eliminate the classroom to classroom variance and also provide the distance needed.

 

We make our kids keep them in the lockers

 

8 more school days!

 

I just got hired as a 7th grade teacher in ELA/Social Studies in a private school. It's my first time (I'm pursuing my Masters in Secondary Ed currently) and as September gets closer, my anxiety and excitement is growing, haha.

 

Congratulations!

I've been teaching seventh grade ELA for the last sixteen years (sixth and eighth grades before that). They're by far the weirdest little humans, but I wouldn't do anything else.

Might be a little different in a private school than a public one where I am, but kids are kids. Good luck!

 

I was initially offered 3rd grade at another school which freaked me out a bit, haha. Two of my sisters teach Kindergarten and once they started talking to me about it, I wasn't sure if it was the right fit for me. Once the other school offered me 7th/8th grade, I was so relieved. I know it might be a little more work with kids that age, but that's where I think I'd be feel rewarded. What advice do you have for a first-year teacher at that age?

 

Don't react to anything, learn how to brush things off. They'll test you. lol. Do make appropriate jokes, hands on stuff, play trivia games. Take time to talk about their sports, hobbies, families in a general way. They act like they want to be high schoolers but really want to be 4th graders so if they dont seem pumped about something at first they'll get into it. Be a mentor not a friend. If you care they'll respect you, but also don't be worried about being "mean" or "laying down the law" when you got to. Just do it. If you make a threat or say you will do something, you 100% have to. The teachers that get run out are the ones that are like "I'ma call your parent" then don't. They got your number then. For me, I make sure to make an example early of misbehavior so the kids know I'm not playing. It sounds bad reading that but really I'm the kindest, nicest teacher and all the kids would tell you that so if you get in trouble with me you gone done bad lol. Your syllabus is important, go over the rules as often as you need to. Middle schoolers fight structure and love structure at the same time. Find some useful rewards to motivate. Last but not least, I always have Kahoots made up prior so if there's nothing to do/lesson is finished, we Kahoot. Kids love it.

 

Thank you so much for this. I've been hearing a lot about some of this from teachers I know, especially about structure and keeping to your word when it comes to rules and discipline.

 

I'll reiterate a lot of the above. Structure is huge -- I teach ninety minute classes, and I break those into four to five segments of 15-20 minutes apiece. I'd also recommend overpreparing, which will be much easier when you find out their pace. For a ninety minute class, I'll typically have about two hours of material (while avoiding busywork).

In terms of discipline, you'll have to find a system that works for you. I use a combination of a class-wide reward system and some "soft" consequences (reset walks, relocation to other teachers' rooms), and I haven't had any real discipline issues in years. The worst teachers in our school either don't do anything to curb discipline or they'll call home for every single thing, not giving kids a chance. I almost feel that's worse.

 

The more you over-prepare in your first few years, the less you have to prepare after year 5.

Listen to people who tell you to plan backwards. This will be hard to do in Year 1. Find other teachers who have strong unit plans and get some pointers. Planning for each day is a recipe for stress and an unfocused classroom. I spent far too long getting to work early so I could put together my lessons for the day. Having a clear idea of your unit from start to finish is extremely important. Now I show up to work on Monday and I have the entire week/rest of unit outlined in my head. My lesson plans are on post-its at this point.

Try to incorporate choice into your planning, too. It's one of those education buzzwords but it really does make a difference in student investment. Plus, I'd rather grade 150 essays all about different things unique to each student than 150 of the same thing. I am an English teacher, so not sure how much this applies to social studies.

Try to avoid negative talk from other teachers; it'll wear you down. Know that you're going to hate your job sometimes but remind yourself that what you do is important and just showing up for kids means a ton.

Practice your teacher look/stern voice in the mirror. Honestly my first few years if I needed to give a speech about behavior to the class or talk to a specific student about an issue, I would rehearse what I wanted to say beforehand.

Confidence, confidence, confidence. Fake it till you make it.

If you mess up with a student, model taking responsibility for your actions and apologize.

I am going into Year 8 - I am not a perfect teacher, I am often disorganized, I'm bad at managing my grading load, I fuck up all the time. But don't let self-doubt take over (like I often do). Learn what doesn't work and keep trying to get better every day, every week. This is a very human job and humans make mistakes.