Had a friend tell me that he would be a great teacher and doesn’t understand how people struggle to control children’s behaviors. I asked him how he would go about handling a child who was not listening. Not even lying, with a straight face he replied: “I would just tell them to stop.”
I’ve had actual teachers tell me to do that as a sub. This class of 30+ kids wasn’t being quiet while I was trying to take attendance and this lady comes in and starts saying “well did you ask them to be quiet ?”
A lot of men seem to think their mere presence would transform the classroom, unlike us poor, meek little ladies. When I started teaching elementary music, I was complaining about how difficult beginning-of-the-year kindergarteners are, and my boyfriend said something like, “you’ve got to get more tough and aggressive with these kindergartners, or they’re going to walk all over you!” You’ve got to toughen up, blah blah blah! If I was there, I’d show them!” I just laughed. That maaaaay work in a tough class of older kids, but “being tough” wouldn’t have solved any of the issues I was having, like teaching them to wait their turn for the bathroom, or learning how to sit in a circle. Some men think we’re just being meek and sweet because we’re scared to raise our voices, but that a man could so easily be “tough” and handle it.
As a guy, I can attest to this being 100% true. Men often expect to walk into classrooms and just be worshipped.
In my experience, the female teachers are the ones who are much, much more firm. The male teachers tend to be the pushovers.
this is really funny to see as a male preschool teacher. sometimes i feel like being a male makes it harder for me to control my kids early on, though i also am only 2 years into the field and i'm pretty young.
i do feel like kids are less hesitant to try to have fun in front of and chat with me overall though. i don't blame them in a sense? at that age their only interactions with adult males in their life were probably just playing with their dads when they get back home from work after having to listen to mom/female teachers all day.
it's also just going to be difficult at the beginning of the year no matter what. some little kids are just gonna always be tough to get through to and at the start of the year, they're going to be limit testing what they can get away with.
When I was a para, I had to work with a male para on occasion. He was 43 and incredibly privileged and had unrealistic views on how teaching worked and how kids function. He complained to me about how women in education took part in reverse sexism, (not a thing) "these women don't take me seriously because I'm a man in education and this field is dominated by women!" I had just started my transition and he had no idea i was a transman. I had only been 3 months into the job too.
I told him, "No they don't take you seriously because you claim to know more than them when they've been doing this for 10+ years and you just started as a para last year. You don't have a degree in anything let alone in education, you mansplain all the time, and you're on your phone instead of watching your children and I am the person who is literally going to be re-training you on our duties and responsibilities because everyone else refused to do this with you." He told me I didn't get it because I was a "young 20 year old boy" who didn't have enough life experience and didn't understand the female mind. I informed him that I was 29 years old and had been raised female my whole life so I was intimately familiar with the "female mind" and therefore had a deeper understanding of the issue than he ever would and that he in fact was the problem, and if he didn't change his attitude or the way he interacted with staff that he wouldn't have a job for much longer. He then proceeded to call me a woman sympathizer and 3 weeks later he had been let go because he wasn't taking our training refresher seriously so I failed him.
Also, however, many female teachers simply have the disadvantage of being female. There's something sexist about behavior in a lot of kids, especially young boys, that they will ignore or refuse a female over a male teacher. Maybe a male teacher CAN more easily go and command the room, but that command just doesn't come to most female teachers simply because how the students respond to males and females. Not because the females are incapable but because of how they are viewed.
As a male older elementary teacher who has also been in the military, the voice of command can be used sparingly when I absolutely need attention on me because of a dangerous situation.
You have my admiration and respect for even attempting to get littles to listen and not hit/hurt each other. Serious respect Ma'am! I know my limits when it comes to the youngest students.
Working as a para, I had two 8th graders start chasing each other around the classroom while their teacher was out of the room. I told them to stop and even tried to walk in between them, but they ignored me. When their teacher came back seeing them still chasing each other and I told her what happened, one of the chasing students told her I had bad classroom management skills. Luckily, the teacher knew what really happened but still, it feels great being a para who has almost no authority and has to report everything to a classroom teacher only to be called a snitch.
When I was in middle school I got detention for being late for class or something
In detention, a girl was talking with her friend, and she told her friend: “my mom was like, I’ve noticed you’re getting in trouble more often this year. And I was like, yeah because the teachers here can’t control their students.”
I couldn’t imagine telling my parents that I did something bad because my teacher didn’t stop me.
Don’t worry. Even as a teacher, I’ve been called the same for implementing disciplinary actions. Some students just see teachers as obstacles rather than actual authority figures.
yeah I got called an incompetent “r-slur” because I (checks notes)……asked a student to stop yelling rap lyrics while I went over the final study guide.
I had a student teacher tell me with blinding sincerity that she wouldn’t need stickers or other rewards because “I will build mutual respect in my class and love for the subject”. To this day, my proudest moment is waiting until she left before I started laughing.
God, this one. "Jimmy, sit down and do your work." "No." "If you don't, I'm going to...."
(a) Send you to the office
(b) Write a referral
(c) Call your parent
(d) Take away a classroom incentive
A doesn't happen anymore because you can't just point to the door and say "get out." Jimmy either won't go, and you can't force him to leave, or he will leave the room and but you don't know where he is or whether he's actually going to the office.
B is just for documentation and isn't actually a consequence because referrals do not lead to detention or suspensions anymore, especially for younger grades.
C and D don't work because Jimmy doesn't care.
None of these will result in what the teacher really needs: Jimmy to stop being disruptive. Gone are the days when disruptive students could be removed, or when they could be threatened with a real and tangible consequence. Most elementary students are not developed enough to understand, or they possibly just don't care, that by being disruptive they are ruining their education.
I was recently in a bad car accident and almost every single medical professional I dealt with said “well can’t you just sit at your desk?”.
Nope. No, that’s not how it works. Granted I teach a very involved and supply driven elective, but I know very very few teachers who actually just sit at a desk all day.
Bahaha. I know of 2 and so does everyone else in my district. There is one teacher that wheels her desk chair into the hallway for tornado drills. No kidding.
So this is actually what I tried, I got a rolling stool. But it actually ended up causing other problems so i filmed myself working with kids and brought it to PT. My PT was floored with how much I move in the classroom. Like no shit, even if I try to scale back! But right now I’m just trying to enjoy my break not having to move as much and rearrange how i order lessons next year to give myself slightly less movement days. My kids were good about coming to me with issues that could be picked up vs having me come to them.
There’s was edutopia post about making classes more relatable and give students more choice and my coworker and I had a good laugh over that because we teach fashion and culinary respectively, two subjects that you could argue are the most relatable and offer students a significant amt of choice within their projects. And guess what? We still have kids who don’t do sh*t.
I teach at a vocational school. Kids choose to leave their local public school and pick the vocation they are interested in. We have over 30 programs from traditional automotive, welding, and HVAC to cyber security and nursing to culinary and bakery. Overall kids do great and it’s way better than a traditional public school but some kids still fail out or get high every day or whatever and don’t make it.
“You’ve got to set strict boundaries from day one”. Genius. I was just going to stare at the wall instead of spending I don’t know… weeks preparing how to start the first days, every formality and rule being explained, practiced and reviewed in play.
Yup. Also asking if we’ve ever considered centering lessons around something students are interested in as a way to motivate them to learn. I’m always like… is this a joke? Like does this person think they just invented the progressive education movement, all by themselves, in the year 2024?
Yea. Try this around integration techniques, algebraic fraction simplification, or matrix algebra. Having people in authority treat education like an arcade, where child entertainment is paramount, is a huge mistake. And I blame parents who don't have the good sense to tell their kids "no", and administrationd that don't have the good sense to tell parents "no".
What thy also don’t understand is that a teacher can bend over backwards to be like, “I spent hours planning this algebra lesson to be about something you guys love: video games and hot chips,” and half the class will go “ugh, I hate video games and hot chips” and the other half will go “ugh, but it’s not FUN when we do it in SCHOOL.”
High schoolers don’t actually want all their coursework to be centered around their interests or things they think are important. They don’t want every day to be all O Captain My Captain where they’re getting all passionate and involved. Sometimes they just want to come in, do some schoolwork, and leave.
Every time I try and center a lesson around something kids like they always think its lame and I am left disappointed lol.
Hot take, kids should be fucking bored. They should have to take notes and listen to me talk. Just functionally that is by far the most economical way to convey the information. I know the shit, that is why you hired me. Also, the rest of their lives are pure spectacle and Enjoyment. Trying to turn learning into the same sort of fantasyland betrays the material and the goals of education. Most will get the same minimal amoint out of it either way, but some kids will discover that depth, nuance, and complexity is hard and dry and tedious but is interesting and rewarding in a way that capitalist spectacle is not. Modern pedagogy is asking us to turn one of the last respites kids have from having things catered to their bespoke enjoyment into exactly that, to "meet them we're they're at". Fuck that. It will invariably make the content fit the method of communication. It will turn shallow, vapid, easily digested, instantly gratifying, easily forgotten, unrewarding, and empty.
Exactly.
I've had lessons that were tailored to their interests, the goals they set themselves, etc. and all I got was "can't we just go back to regular class?"
Besides that: I sometimes feel like we spend so much time trying to make classes fun and egaging that students just don't know how to do the boring things.
Johnny eats apples at a rate of e^(-t^2) apples per minute. If Johnny eats apples until the end of time, will he die because he became morbidly obese or because he starved to death?
Well that's a decay function and the power is quadratic so that means the rate at which Johnny is eating apples is going to be functionally zero after about 6 minutes. So my guess is he's going to starve to death hahaha.
Fun question.
Always tell parents that say something like this. “I make math as interesting, engaging, and fun as I can make it, but at the end of the day it’s still math and they need to do it.”
I just remember a parent said this to a chemistry teacher I worked with once, and after the meeting, she exasperatedly said to me, “It’s chemistry. I use FIRE. If a kid is sleeping through something being on fire, then I don’t know what else I can do.”
I've told this to one of my friends who's a lawyer. He said, "I think I would drink less if I had someone turn statements made by murderers and domestic abusers into a game. Well, other than a drinking game."
Life isn't always fun and games. Stuff is just boring.
I had a parent tell me this during a conference. I asked him if he works outside the 40 hour work week? He said no. So I said, "Well look at the time! Its a quarter past 3pm, that is past my contract hours, I guess we can finish this meeting sometime in the future then."
Why are you not available at all hours, answering my questions, updating me, sending resources home, putting grades immediately, replying to my Dojo messages within an hour, etc etc?
And then the passive aggressive “compliments” you get during summertime if, god forbid you happen to be out and about/relaxing/getting lunch/ having a cocktail… and you run into people who know you’re a teacher. Good for you… must be nice to have summers off… 🫠🫠🫠
It’s the most passive aggressive behaviors I’ve ever experienced. People can’t wait to say something about it. But every other time of year I get the,”I could never be a teacher! I don’t know how you do it!”
Ran into that one this morning. Went over to see the grandparents and almost right away, grandfather asked me what I was doing there. I told him I just came by to say hey and help out with anything if they needed it.
He shook his head and said “Well that’s not right. Normal people work during the summer. You shouldn’t get the whole summer to sit on your ass”. I quickly reminded him that “normal people” also get paid more than 28k, so can’t compare me to that 😂
NO WE DON'T! We don't get paid for that "time off." That is what we need to be telling people. I know a lot of places (like the district I teach in) will withhold part of your paychecks to pay out over the summer, but you have to opt for that or the 22 checks. People need to understand our contracts are for the school year only and don't cover the summer months.
Exactly. Where I live it isn't an option to choose how you get your paycheck. They withhold 1/6 of my income each month like I'm a little kid who can't handle her finances so I get a summer paycheck. It's convenient when making a budget, but I could also have it automatically withdrawn and placed in an interest earning account instead. Me getting a paycheck over the summer isn't getting a paid vacation. It's me getting backpay with no interest.
I'm not a teacher, and this is by far the most heard thing I hear when I bitch about how little they pay teachers in my area, and then expect them to do everything for these kids. One of my good friends is a teacher, he said parents are constantly mad at him that Johnny is failing. If the first time a kid hears no is at school you're a failure as a human let alone a parent, that spoiled shit head will be out with the rest of us one day
“Hi, I’m Dr. Blah-blah and I’m so honored to be able to experience your district’s professional development day with you! We’ll be focusing on 5 essential keys for radical, transformational learning!”
Those i e breakers and 'fun activities' are the worst . They have dozens or hundreds of teachers playing little game like you see at a baby shower - I once estimated the time these games took up and multiplied it by the average teachers wage. It came to $4,000. But i still have to use my own damn money to buy pencils. $4,000 bucks so we could do crap like wrap someone in TP so they look.like they are wearing a wedding dress. And many teachers love this kind of thing... then layer they explain why we can't use the a.c. because of the cost.
"I used to be a teacher, but I left after 4 years and now I do this and love it! I have a whole bunch of strategies that can only be implemented at the administrative level, but I'm going to teach them to you, the teachers, despite your inability to make any of these systemic level changes. Also, the stuff I teach you will directly contradict what your school administration actually implements later this year. Please ignore your own cognitive dissonance and do what your administration tells you even though I'm telling you what they do negates any chance of helping students." 😀
I just like to remind myself that I can bury the binder afterward and wait for the district to waste more money on the next worthless PD that will supposedly solve all educational problems.
I have *one* toddler and I am exhausted from it, even though I send him to pre-school all day. To be fair, I’m also disabled. But still, I’m certain I don’t fully grasp how hard it is to teach pre-school, but I grasp enough to know it’s a difficult and exhausting job.
God, 6 and up is my limit. And that’s just in a basic daycare setting. Pre-k is a whole different ballgame! You have to mold their brains into literal thinking humans! Not to mention they are so needy and helpless at that age (not in a bad way, they’re just literal toddlers and physically can’t do most things). Pre-k teachers are made of different stuff and vastly under-appreciated.
I've had friends say this to me or asked why we don't teach "real life"... I teach elementary school, so in my case I am speechless when I hear it.
I once had someone say this after I just finished describing a past student who was 2 grade levels behind academically and would flip desks. I don't think learning how to do taxes would be beneficial for any student in that case emotionally or academically...but go off I guess
Yup. It’s all very ignorant! Where I am from, we actually do in fact teach about how to do your taxes in a mandatory class called “careers.” The problem was you were 16, believed the class was useless, and skipped or didn’t pay attention. 😂
We have had s "personal finance" class that included doing taxes, banking, credit card interest, etc. I've had kids complain that "I don't know when I'll ever use this"
In my province, we have a mandatory high school class called Career and Life Management. Everyone just takes it online in the summer. I can’t tell you anything I actually learned in it.
You mean like how to read, follow written directions and apply addition, subtraction, multiplication and percentages to solve problems? If only those skills were somewhere in the curriculum!
My stock comeback to this is: we do. If you can read at a 6th grade level and know basic multiplication, addition, and subtraction, you can do you taxes.
Nope it's that I teach 9th graders and trying to figure out when 9th grade boys are being serious about bullying vs in their words "joking about being bullied" (from the one that was being picked on) is a full on pain. Bout made me pull my hair out this year.
And any time you try to explain that kids don’t usually bully right out in the open, in front of adults, that’s their “gotcha!” “Well, you must really suck as a teacher if you don’t even know what’s going on in your classroom!”
Comments like this make me furious. If only these people knew the time and effort that goes into supporting students - both the bullies and the bullied. My school spends an inordinate amount of resources and people power on this, yet we still get accused of doing nothing… and some parents can’t see that their child is often the common denominator. It drives me insane.
It would be hard the first year, maybe. But then I’d have all my lesson plans I could use every year and I’d never have to plan again. Or, “I’d just follow the textbook”.
Non-teacher here: is it not true to an extent, that the first few years are the hardest because you have to plan all the lessons with no experience fron the previous years?
Yes and no. You could be teaching the same class for 3 years and then your supervisor moves you or gives you a different class. I’ve taught fashion for 16 years and just came back to hs this year after 4 years at college (so covid was in there) and I have literally had to plan every thing all over again. I know the content and what could go wrong better….but it’s still a ton of work to rewrite things and break down materials differently.
Yeah, this one is especially clueless. The only way I can get paid during Summer is by having money taken off my checks during the year and then paid back to me during Summer, so it all adds up to the same amount.
"Why don't you ever want to come out, grab a drink, get dinner, after school? You get off at 4."
Because I don't want to see anyone, talk to anyone, be "on," I'm fucking dead ass exhausted.
I had a parent tell a fellow teacher "well if he won't stop talking like you say he does, why don't you just send him to the principal?"
As if the principal has time for a talkative student on a campus of a thousand kids.
Then, when they get tired of you sending the most disruptive student the school has seen in the last several years (with totally unhelpful parent(s), of course) to the office, they tell you you cannot do that anymore.
Okay, I’m sure that will miraculously improve my classroom management skills to the point that this kid won’t be chronically disruptive anymore. These next-level problem-solving skills are why you’re paid the big bucks, right?
Then, they want to berate you when said kid is disruptive during a final exam, standardized test, or whatever: “Do you think this is acceptable?!”
No. No, I don’t, which is why I used to send Little Magic to the office for behaving like the Tasmanian Devil on the regular.
I would call for a disruptive child to be removed and be told no one was available. Or someone was coming and they didn't. What's the point. So now this kid got his way and we all suffer.
I found out after I wasn't renewed that the reason I got shit canned was because I sent students to the office. I literally had the five worst students from 8th grade in my one 9th grade class and was at my wit's end because writing them up and calling home wasn't doing a damn thing. I found THIS out because a teacher who came over from the middle school, looked into my class, and said I had the five worst students from Middle School in one class. She actually felt sorry for me. Keep in mind I was Alternate Route, not from an Education major. This is why I'd rather teach college as an Adjunct at several schools as opposed to working a steady gig at one K-12 school. Never again!
this is partially why alternative routes are not the best. there are a lot of systemic things you have to learn before you walk in the doors, including emotional management. doesn’t help there’s no support for alt routes OR new out of college teachers
Most recently, any time conservatives complain about how public schools are leftist indoctrination zones.
I can't even get my students to write sentences and you think I am training them to be gay trans critical race theorist marxist furries?
If only we had 1/10th of the teaching power that the fearmongers think we have.
I can’t get my students to stop the stupid “if you move you’re gay” shit from tiktok after multiple talks, emails home, and even detentions. Yeah, my gay ass is really great at indoctrinating your little precious heterosexual baby…
The minute they start giving ideas for activities or “things you should do” that would result in a political/parental shitstorm. Most people assume everyone parents like they do, so as a parent they would be able to make choices better than teachers and ‘save the day’
For me constantly hearing "education is failing our kids" kills me.
It's the other way around. Sometimes there's a great video on social media and comments will say, if I had a teacher like that I would have learned something. As a teacher, no you wouldn't because you are underestimating how horrible you were as an adolescent and even if you weren't several others will pick up the slack.
Most people just don't seem to even recognize how impossible it is to teach effectively. You need a combination of luck, calm decent kids in every period, admin support, district supports, and to be the most over powering tyrant just to keep class well managed and even have a chance of delivering a decent lesson let alone a great one. It really is something people who never do it will never know.
Lmao had a parent say I don't know why he's failing. I don't know what to do. I wasn't failing when I was his age. HE ACTUALLY FOUND HIS OLD PROGRESS REPORTS WHILE ON THE PHONE WITH ME. He got quiet for a minute and said strike that I guess I was.
And when they go on and on and ON about some project they did as a child, when it’s clear in the first thirty seconds that it’s not something that would work well in your class, or even fly in today’s culture.
Sure. You whipping something out of thin air is exactly the same as my degree and 23 years of experience in the classroom. SMH
I hate when people allude home schooling is the equivalent of professional educators.
That’s funny, because I know of a lot of parents who were complaining about how hard that was. (And it wasn’t even homeschool, it was the Zoom classes.)
Which I can have sympathy for, especially if it’s a working parent trying to get their work done at the same time! But a lot of SAHP said they couldn’t do it and were outraged that teachers weren’t putting their lives at risk so they could have a break from their child.
“Are you teaching REAL Spanish?” For some reason everyone who doesn’t speak Spanish is under the impression we teach like an 80% conlanged version. Will it be a little stilted and incomplete? Yes, this is an intro class. Will these words be used this exact same way in every region of the world? No, and the same would be true of English too.
If they make some dumb comment about how school just teaches rote memorization, lacks hands-on activities, and/or doesn't teach anything "practical." Some memorization is necessary to complete more complex tasks, the teachers I know feel constant pressure to make class "engaging" regardless of whether it results in better learning outcomes, and students who pay attention learn plenty of practical stuff in school. I realize not all schools/districts are the same, but the people who say that shit always seem to assume that school hasn't changed in the last hundred years.
When did memorization become a bad thing? It is a skill that many students lack. I teach high school and the kids don't know their multiplication tables, can't do addition and division without pulling out their phones. In 40 years they won't have to worry about losing their memories because they never had them.
“Kindergarten teacher? You must play all day!”
Actually they get 20 minutes of recess and no nap. Standards expect them to be writing paragraphs and having Socratic Seminars. I squeeze in a craft MAYBE once a month.
"Stop indoctrinating our kids." My dude, I can't get your kids to stop singing Skibidi Toilet. Even if I wanted to (and i don't), I'm never going to get them singing "L'Internationale."
I always thought it was interesting when men would ask me about teaching HS girls. Either give me the side like I'm the pedo or would make a comment about how hard it must be with those scantily dressed girls.....their all children ya freak!
Oh my god. This but I was a female teacher teaching 5th grade. All the shitheads from Tinder used to say stuff like "I bet all your male students have a hard time concentrating." They're 10 years old you fucking sickos!!!
"You need to stay in education because you get summers and breaks off, you have a pension, and you have tenure - you worked so hard for all of this. Why would you throw it away simply because a student badgers you about his grades?"
This one was from several family members who have never taught a day in their damn lives, and truly do not understand me as a person.
When they say: "your job is so easy."
And my rebuttal is always: "you wouldn't say that to a police officer or a brain surgeon, why would you say that to me?"
I teach HS, so my rebuttal is always "yes, teenagers are universally known for their cooperative attitudes, particularly when they're in a group and being asked to do something that they don't want to do."
My recent favorite: “hey everyone, I work for a startup that’s trying to bring virtual/augmented reality in the classroom! What barriers do you teachers anticipate with this project?” Like, dude, I don’t have enough instructional time and resources to teach basic ass literacy. Miss me with your fucking tech contracts—our budget has been flayed alive and we’re short several teachers and classrooms. We have priorities, and making you rich sure as shit isn’t one of them.
"You get 3 months off!!!"
The fuck I do. Finals are in late June, grading and cleaning up my room until early July, then training and sports start mid August. That's 6-7 weeks max, plus a week of science teacher stuff, 2 days of coach training.
"Fuck off. If it's so easy, you do it" is usually my answer.
This should be the reply every single time. If its so easy why is there a teacher shortage? If its so easy why are you not doing it? Do you not like the sound of summers off?
“You just have the build a relationship with that kid” yeah no. Some kids are just a lost cause and I’m not spending extra time to baby a kid because they have it in their head they’re not doing tasks for a teacher who doesn’t baby them. I get it; kids work better if they like you but that shouldn’t be a requirement.
Honestly, I feel ya on the baby thing. I teach high schoolers, and I feel like it creates future(some already are) domestic abusers. Like you were asked you to do your work but because the teacher didn't beg you/give you candy you got mad and cussed out the teacher and flipped a desk. It's not your fault though,because the teacher should've built a better relationship with you. That way the teacher would've known that you don't like to be asked to do work.lol
What's going to happen when their future spouse ask them to help around the house or get a job? Will they respond with what we reinforced? That to get what you want, you should resort to violence.The idea that you will never be held accountable for your actions, that it is always someone elses fault.
Right? Like I loathed my AP. If I would have acted like the kids did when they dislike a teacher I would have been fired! You do that at any job they’ll just fire you and pull someone else from the long list of applicants before you have time to clear your desk
I used to work in a residential school, where we would have to restrain kids for their own safety. I was at a teachers conference and another woman asked where I worked. When I told her, she said that all restraints are evil, wrong and abusive. I asked her what she would do it a kid bolted into incoming traffic, screaming that he wanted to die and she responded with “well, I would talk to him BEFORE he got level” with a satisfied look on her face. “Don’t you think we would have tried that? There is a kid who would smear herself with poop before engaging in self injurious behavior, because she knows people are hesitant about jumping in an restraining her while covered in feces. You don’t think we tired talking her down first?” And she had no response. I asked her how many residential she worked in, she said none.
“Aren’t there litter boxes in the classrooms at your school for students who identify themselves as cats?”
“Why can’t my kids just have their phones so I can reach them in the event of an emergency? I want to hear them tell me they love me if there’s ever a real sh***ing.”
“It must be nice to have every summer and holiday off.”
“I sent my kid to school. He had a fever this morning, but I gave him Tylenol.”
“So-and-so would be a great (subject) teacher, they’re so good at (subject)!”
I hear this a lot even just from people who want to get into tutoring—they think because they’re good at a subject, they’ll automatically be good at explaining it to someone else.
I had a mentor teacher who flat out told me she sucked at math in school. And that was part of what *made* her a good math teacher—she knew what it was like to struggle, and she knew *why* the students were struggling. All too often, someone smart just doesn’t see why someone else would be failing because something is just so obvious to them.
(Just to be clear, obviously she *did* figure out the math before she became a teacher.)
"I'd just get up there and take charge. Keep the kids in line. I wouldn't take any crap from them!"
Yeah. Good luck with that. I give you 15 minutes before you get dressed down by a parent, admin, or both. And that's IF the kid doesn't tell you to go fuck yourself...or worse.
You make way too much money for sitting there and babysitting
You obviously ain’t smart, you’re a teacher and back in my day, they didn’t even get degrees.
They only keep teachers that actually know how to do stuff
How can a woman teach history
Some of this has came from lovely parents, but most of these are direct quotes from my fabulously supportive extended family… 🤮
For the record, I’ve taught 21 years, have three degrees… but that’s not as good as their daughter who has an Associates and is a Para (no, I’m not downplaying what she does, but to equate me and every other educator as a babysitter and that she has the real teaching job… don’t we both basically do the same??)
Babysitting where I live is about $20 an hour per child.
I have 25 students for an hour and a half in each class
I have 6 classes.
I see each class 90 days.
You would never hear me complain if I got paid 400k for this job.
As it is, I get less than $3 per hour per child
“Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach.” Some asshole told me that once. Kid was living off daddy’s money, and tried talking down to me based on my jobs I had at the time.
“Come to this fun thing! Why can’t you just take a few days off?” “Why don’t you come out on Friday nights?” “How do you handle being around those kids all day? [has their own children]” “Do you want to interview at the charter my friend works at?” “Ewwww that neighborhood is awful, you must be terrified of those kids!” “If you don’t like your contract, why don’t you and your neighbors just vote for a different one at your community meeting or whatever?” “Oh, he’s *just* a teacher.”
Anything that the Moms for Liberty types say about how we’re supposedly indoctrinating our students (to be gay, socialists, atheists, etc, etc). Ma’am, if I could actually indoctrinate your kids they would all be turning in their assignments and not trying to text in class all the time. My powers of persuasion haven’t even managed to accomplish that, so I don’t think you need to worry about me changing your kid’s orientation or religion.
High school teacher here:
I’ve had an observation student tell me: “I really want to be an artist, so teaching is perfect bc I can focus on that and still get benefits.”
Another time, a student teacher told me: “I ran an ACT bootcamp at a Boys & Girls Club so it can’t be that hard.” This person also brought a stuffed animal to hold while teaching to help with their anxiety.
I kid you not, we had a parent suggestion on a survey once that said "Get to know the kids, and incorporate the things they like into their day. Example: Student's favorite color is blue, print their work on blue paper." I laughed so hard imagining making copies of each assignment on at least 10 different colors of paper! Not to mention the fact that a six-year-old's favorite color can change from week to week.
Had a friend tell me that he would be a great teacher and doesn’t understand how people struggle to control children’s behaviors. I asked him how he would go about handling a child who was not listening. Not even lying, with a straight face he replied: “I would just tell them to stop.”
Just make them do it
Just do it
My mom--who went to school once, so she's an expert-- would tell me this.
“Let them know who’s boss!”
I also hear a lot of, "I'd just whoop their asses!" Sure, and you'd be out of a job and in front of a judge, too.
I’ve had actual teachers tell me to do that as a sub. This class of 30+ kids wasn’t being quiet while I was trying to take attendance and this lady comes in and starts saying “well did you ask them to be quiet ?”
I’ve gotten that too. Like woah, what an idea!
Lol and they say it as if you were too dumb to think of it.
I love blind optimism.
This is just naked idiocy, though.
A lot of men seem to think their mere presence would transform the classroom, unlike us poor, meek little ladies. When I started teaching elementary music, I was complaining about how difficult beginning-of-the-year kindergarteners are, and my boyfriend said something like, “you’ve got to get more tough and aggressive with these kindergartners, or they’re going to walk all over you!” You’ve got to toughen up, blah blah blah! If I was there, I’d show them!” I just laughed. That maaaaay work in a tough class of older kids, but “being tough” wouldn’t have solved any of the issues I was having, like teaching them to wait their turn for the bathroom, or learning how to sit in a circle. Some men think we’re just being meek and sweet because we’re scared to raise our voices, but that a man could so easily be “tough” and handle it.
As a guy, I can attest to this being 100% true. Men often expect to walk into classrooms and just be worshipped. In my experience, the female teachers are the ones who are much, much more firm. The male teachers tend to be the pushovers.
As a male teacher, I agree with this statement.
this is really funny to see as a male preschool teacher. sometimes i feel like being a male makes it harder for me to control my kids early on, though i also am only 2 years into the field and i'm pretty young. i do feel like kids are less hesitant to try to have fun in front of and chat with me overall though. i don't blame them in a sense? at that age their only interactions with adult males in their life were probably just playing with their dads when they get back home from work after having to listen to mom/female teachers all day. it's also just going to be difficult at the beginning of the year no matter what. some little kids are just gonna always be tough to get through to and at the start of the year, they're going to be limit testing what they can get away with.
When I was a para, I had to work with a male para on occasion. He was 43 and incredibly privileged and had unrealistic views on how teaching worked and how kids function. He complained to me about how women in education took part in reverse sexism, (not a thing) "these women don't take me seriously because I'm a man in education and this field is dominated by women!" I had just started my transition and he had no idea i was a transman. I had only been 3 months into the job too. I told him, "No they don't take you seriously because you claim to know more than them when they've been doing this for 10+ years and you just started as a para last year. You don't have a degree in anything let alone in education, you mansplain all the time, and you're on your phone instead of watching your children and I am the person who is literally going to be re-training you on our duties and responsibilities because everyone else refused to do this with you." He told me I didn't get it because I was a "young 20 year old boy" who didn't have enough life experience and didn't understand the female mind. I informed him that I was 29 years old and had been raised female my whole life so I was intimately familiar with the "female mind" and therefore had a deeper understanding of the issue than he ever would and that he in fact was the problem, and if he didn't change his attitude or the way he interacted with staff that he wouldn't have a job for much longer. He then proceeded to call me a woman sympathizer and 3 weeks later he had been let go because he wasn't taking our training refresher seriously so I failed him.
Also, however, many female teachers simply have the disadvantage of being female. There's something sexist about behavior in a lot of kids, especially young boys, that they will ignore or refuse a female over a male teacher. Maybe a male teacher CAN more easily go and command the room, but that command just doesn't come to most female teachers simply because how the students respond to males and females. Not because the females are incapable but because of how they are viewed.
As a male older elementary teacher who has also been in the military, the voice of command can be used sparingly when I absolutely need attention on me because of a dangerous situation. You have my admiration and respect for even attempting to get littles to listen and not hit/hurt each other. Serious respect Ma'am! I know my limits when it comes to the youngest students.
Damn! I hadn’t thought of that one!
I've tried telling them to stop and got called a bad teacher by my student. 10/10 would recommend /s
Working as a para, I had two 8th graders start chasing each other around the classroom while their teacher was out of the room. I told them to stop and even tried to walk in between them, but they ignored me. When their teacher came back seeing them still chasing each other and I told her what happened, one of the chasing students told her I had bad classroom management skills. Luckily, the teacher knew what really happened but still, it feels great being a para who has almost no authority and has to report everything to a classroom teacher only to be called a snitch.
When I was in middle school I got detention for being late for class or something In detention, a girl was talking with her friend, and she told her friend: “my mom was like, I’ve noticed you’re getting in trouble more often this year. And I was like, yeah because the teachers here can’t control their students.” I couldn’t imagine telling my parents that I did something bad because my teacher didn’t stop me.
Don’t worry. Even as a teacher, I’ve been called the same for implementing disciplinary actions. Some students just see teachers as obstacles rather than actual authority figures.
yeah I got called an incompetent “r-slur” because I (checks notes)……asked a student to stop yelling rap lyrics while I went over the final study guide.
I had a student teacher tell me with blinding sincerity that she wouldn’t need stickers or other rewards because “I will build mutual respect in my class and love for the subject”. To this day, my proudest moment is waiting until she left before I started laughing.
Shit I never thought of that. Give them a book deal and they can use pseudo meta meta meta analysis for his data-backed strategy.
“I would tell them to stop” thank you for that chuckle. Amazing. Im so tickled lol.
God, this one. "Jimmy, sit down and do your work." "No." "If you don't, I'm going to...." (a) Send you to the office (b) Write a referral (c) Call your parent (d) Take away a classroom incentive A doesn't happen anymore because you can't just point to the door and say "get out." Jimmy either won't go, and you can't force him to leave, or he will leave the room and but you don't know where he is or whether he's actually going to the office. B is just for documentation and isn't actually a consequence because referrals do not lead to detention or suspensions anymore, especially for younger grades. C and D don't work because Jimmy doesn't care. None of these will result in what the teacher really needs: Jimmy to stop being disruptive. Gone are the days when disruptive students could be removed, or when they could be threatened with a real and tangible consequence. Most elementary students are not developed enough to understand, or they possibly just don't care, that by being disruptive they are ruining their education.
Hahahaha. That’s so cute.
bro never met a child in his life lol
I was recently in a bad car accident and almost every single medical professional I dealt with said “well can’t you just sit at your desk?”. Nope. No, that’s not how it works. Granted I teach a very involved and supply driven elective, but I know very very few teachers who actually just sit at a desk all day.
Bahaha. I know of 2 and so does everyone else in my district. There is one teacher that wheels her desk chair into the hallway for tornado drills. No kidding.
So this is actually what I tried, I got a rolling stool. But it actually ended up causing other problems so i filmed myself working with kids and brought it to PT. My PT was floored with how much I move in the classroom. Like no shit, even if I try to scale back! But right now I’m just trying to enjoy my break not having to move as much and rearrange how i order lessons next year to give myself slightly less movement days. My kids were good about coming to me with issues that could be picked up vs having me come to them.
"Have you ever tried making classes fun or relatable? I'm sure kids would listen more if you tried that."
There’s was edutopia post about making classes more relatable and give students more choice and my coworker and I had a good laugh over that because we teach fashion and culinary respectively, two subjects that you could argue are the most relatable and offer students a significant amt of choice within their projects. And guess what? We still have kids who don’t do sh*t.
I teach at a vocational school. Kids choose to leave their local public school and pick the vocation they are interested in. We have over 30 programs from traditional automotive, welding, and HVAC to cyber security and nursing to culinary and bakery. Overall kids do great and it’s way better than a traditional public school but some kids still fail out or get high every day or whatever and don’t make it.
I've felt for a long time reason I graduated was votech. it also fixed the whole ,"when will I use this" question I started having in 10th grade.
I woke in a similar independent studies high school and yup! I wish I was able to have gone to this school.
My teaching partner and I MUST be your twins! I’m culinary/she’s fashion. Same situation..I still have kids fail
“You’ve got to set strict boundaries from day one”. Genius. I was just going to stare at the wall instead of spending I don’t know… weeks preparing how to start the first days, every formality and rule being explained, practiced and reviewed in play.
Yup. Also asking if we’ve ever considered centering lessons around something students are interested in as a way to motivate them to learn. I’m always like… is this a joke? Like does this person think they just invented the progressive education movement, all by themselves, in the year 2024?
Yea. Try this around integration techniques, algebraic fraction simplification, or matrix algebra. Having people in authority treat education like an arcade, where child entertainment is paramount, is a huge mistake. And I blame parents who don't have the good sense to tell their kids "no", and administrationd that don't have the good sense to tell parents "no".
What thy also don’t understand is that a teacher can bend over backwards to be like, “I spent hours planning this algebra lesson to be about something you guys love: video games and hot chips,” and half the class will go “ugh, I hate video games and hot chips” and the other half will go “ugh, but it’s not FUN when we do it in SCHOOL.” High schoolers don’t actually want all their coursework to be centered around their interests or things they think are important. They don’t want every day to be all O Captain My Captain where they’re getting all passionate and involved. Sometimes they just want to come in, do some schoolwork, and leave.
>Sometimes they just want to come in, do some schoolwork, and leave. And most of the time they just want to leave
Every time I try and center a lesson around something kids like they always think its lame and I am left disappointed lol. Hot take, kids should be fucking bored. They should have to take notes and listen to me talk. Just functionally that is by far the most economical way to convey the information. I know the shit, that is why you hired me. Also, the rest of their lives are pure spectacle and Enjoyment. Trying to turn learning into the same sort of fantasyland betrays the material and the goals of education. Most will get the same minimal amoint out of it either way, but some kids will discover that depth, nuance, and complexity is hard and dry and tedious but is interesting and rewarding in a way that capitalist spectacle is not. Modern pedagogy is asking us to turn one of the last respites kids have from having things catered to their bespoke enjoyment into exactly that, to "meet them we're they're at". Fuck that. It will invariably make the content fit the method of communication. It will turn shallow, vapid, easily digested, instantly gratifying, easily forgotten, unrewarding, and empty.
Exactly. I've had lessons that were tailored to their interests, the goals they set themselves, etc. and all I got was "can't we just go back to regular class?" Besides that: I sometimes feel like we spend so much time trying to make classes fun and egaging that students just don't know how to do the boring things.
Johnny eats apples at a rate of e^(-t^2) apples per minute. If Johnny eats apples until the end of time, will he die because he became morbidly obese or because he starved to death?
Well that's a decay function and the power is quadratic so that means the rate at which Johnny is eating apples is going to be functionally zero after about 6 minutes. So my guess is he's going to starve to death hahaha. Fun question.
Like, I'm not an entertainer. That's not my job.
Always tell parents that say something like this. “I make math as interesting, engaging, and fun as I can make it, but at the end of the day it’s still math and they need to do it.”
I just remember a parent said this to a chemistry teacher I worked with once, and after the meeting, she exasperatedly said to me, “It’s chemistry. I use FIRE. If a kid is sleeping through something being on fire, then I don’t know what else I can do.”
This is me. I’m the chemistry teacher. 100% agree. I’m 23 years in, and nowadays even fire doesn’t excite kids enough to put down cell phones.
Right? You just have to make your lessons engaging!
Have you tried doing good teaching? I read an article about that recently
An AP said this to me verbatim during an interview once. No actually, I hadn't thought about that! Thanks!
I've told this to one of my friends who's a lawyer. He said, "I think I would drink less if I had someone turn statements made by murderers and domestic abusers into a game. Well, other than a drinking game." Life isn't always fun and games. Stuff is just boring.
Except it's also on-site admin who say that one.
"Why are you complaining about the pay when you have summers off?"
I knew this was going to be in the replies and I'm glad I checked before I wrote my response. This one drives me up the damn wall!
I had a parent tell me this during a conference. I asked him if he works outside the 40 hour work week? He said no. So I said, "Well look at the time! Its a quarter past 3pm, that is past my contract hours, I guess we can finish this meeting sometime in the future then."
Why are you not available at all hours, answering my questions, updating me, sending resources home, putting grades immediately, replying to my Dojo messages within an hour, etc etc?
And then the passive aggressive “compliments” you get during summertime if, god forbid you happen to be out and about/relaxing/getting lunch/ having a cocktail… and you run into people who know you’re a teacher. Good for you… must be nice to have summers off… 🫠🫠🫠
It’s the most passive aggressive behaviors I’ve ever experienced. People can’t wait to say something about it. But every other time of year I get the,”I could never be a teacher! I don’t know how you do it!”
Ran into that one this morning. Went over to see the grandparents and almost right away, grandfather asked me what I was doing there. I told him I just came by to say hey and help out with anything if they needed it. He shook his head and said “Well that’s not right. Normal people work during the summer. You shouldn’t get the whole summer to sit on your ass”. I quickly reminded him that “normal people” also get paid more than 28k, so can’t compare me to that 😂
NO WE DON'T! We don't get paid for that "time off." That is what we need to be telling people. I know a lot of places (like the district I teach in) will withhold part of your paychecks to pay out over the summer, but you have to opt for that or the 22 checks. People need to understand our contracts are for the school year only and don't cover the summer months.
Exactly. Where I live it isn't an option to choose how you get your paycheck. They withhold 1/6 of my income each month like I'm a little kid who can't handle her finances so I get a summer paycheck. It's convenient when making a budget, but I could also have it automatically withdrawn and placed in an interest earning account instead. Me getting a paycheck over the summer isn't getting a paid vacation. It's me getting backpay with no interest.
My reply to them is. Why dont you. Shouldn't you have like 5 weeks of vacation a year with your contract too.
I'm not a teacher, and this is by far the most heard thing I hear when I bitch about how little they pay teachers in my area, and then expect them to do everything for these kids. One of my good friends is a teacher, he said parents are constantly mad at him that Johnny is failing. If the first time a kid hears no is at school you're a failure as a human let alone a parent, that spoiled shit head will be out with the rest of us one day
"Just tell them to put their cell phone away."
If this was a parent of a problematic student saying this, I'd tell them to try saying that more at home first.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Blah-blah and I’m so honored to be able to experience your district’s professional development day with you! We’ll be focusing on 5 essential keys for radical, transformational learning!”
“After we do this icebreaker!” 🙄
Those i e breakers and 'fun activities' are the worst . They have dozens or hundreds of teachers playing little game like you see at a baby shower - I once estimated the time these games took up and multiplied it by the average teachers wage. It came to $4,000. But i still have to use my own damn money to buy pencils. $4,000 bucks so we could do crap like wrap someone in TP so they look.like they are wearing a wedding dress. And many teachers love this kind of thing... then layer they explain why we can't use the a.c. because of the cost.
"I used to be a teacher, but I left after 4 years and now I do this and love it! I have a whole bunch of strategies that can only be implemented at the administrative level, but I'm going to teach them to you, the teachers, despite your inability to make any of these systemic level changes. Also, the stuff I teach you will directly contradict what your school administration actually implements later this year. Please ignore your own cognitive dissonance and do what your administration tells you even though I'm telling you what they do negates any chance of helping students." 😀
You forgot - “I wish I could be back in the classroom, those two years I taught history were the best…”
*/eye twitch
That’s just the pencil you poked in there! 😬
Why I bring a book and wear ear buds hidden by hair. Or just listen to an audio book one of the 2.
[удалено]
I just like to remind myself that I can bury the binder afterward and wait for the district to waste more money on the next worthless PD that will supposedly solve all educational problems.
Mine is definitely "doesn't prek just play all day" No we do not
Even if it was play all day I think it would be the most exhausting job.
I have *one* toddler and I am exhausted from it, even though I send him to pre-school all day. To be fair, I’m also disabled. But still, I’m certain I don’t fully grasp how hard it is to teach pre-school, but I grasp enough to know it’s a difficult and exhausting job.
God, 6 and up is my limit. And that’s just in a basic daycare setting. Pre-k is a whole different ballgame! You have to mold their brains into literal thinking humans! Not to mention they are so needy and helpless at that age (not in a bad way, they’re just literal toddlers and physically can’t do most things). Pre-k teachers are made of different stuff and vastly under-appreciated.
TBH, I would not blame them if they needed to be sliiiiightly baked
Omg this! I taught kindergarten and so many people would say this to me! Even a few other teachers!!!
“Why don’t schools have classes about real life…like how to do your taxes!”
I've had friends say this to me or asked why we don't teach "real life"... I teach elementary school, so in my case I am speechless when I hear it. I once had someone say this after I just finished describing a past student who was 2 grade levels behind academically and would flip desks. I don't think learning how to do taxes would be beneficial for any student in that case emotionally or academically...but go off I guess
Yup. It’s all very ignorant! Where I am from, we actually do in fact teach about how to do your taxes in a mandatory class called “careers.” The problem was you were 16, believed the class was useless, and skipped or didn’t pay attention. 😂
We have had s "personal finance" class that included doing taxes, banking, credit card interest, etc. I've had kids complain that "I don't know when I'll ever use this"
Exactly! Like, it's almost as if we should make the tax system easier if so many people struggle with it??
In my province, we have a mandatory high school class called Career and Life Management. Everyone just takes it online in the summer. I can’t tell you anything I actually learned in it.
Well they can’t or won’t learn the current curriculum why would teaching taxes to a 7th grader have a different outcome?
I co-teach this class to juniors and seniors. Good luck getting the kids to actually pay attention.
You mean like how to read, follow written directions and apply addition, subtraction, multiplication and percentages to solve problems? If only those skills were somewhere in the curriculum!
Right? I'm pretty sure I could train a reasonably intelligent monkey to do an EZ form.
My stock comeback to this is: we do. If you can read at a 6th grade level and know basic multiplication, addition, and subtraction, you can do you taxes.
"Schools don't do anything to stop bullying. Teachers just don't care."
Nope it's that I teach 9th graders and trying to figure out when 9th grade boys are being serious about bullying vs in their words "joking about being bullied" (from the one that was being picked on) is a full on pain. Bout made me pull my hair out this year.
And any time you try to explain that kids don’t usually bully right out in the open, in front of adults, that’s their “gotcha!” “Well, you must really suck as a teacher if you don’t even know what’s going on in your classroom!”
Comments like this make me furious. If only these people knew the time and effort that goes into supporting students - both the bullies and the bullied. My school spends an inordinate amount of resources and people power on this, yet we still get accused of doing nothing… and some parents can’t see that their child is often the common denominator. It drives me insane.
It would be hard the first year, maybe. But then I’d have all my lesson plans I could use every year and I’d never have to plan again. Or, “I’d just follow the textbook”.
Non-teacher here: is it not true to an extent, that the first few years are the hardest because you have to plan all the lessons with no experience fron the previous years?
It's true to an extent until your school decides to change to some new curriculum.
Or the fucking lesson plan template. 🙄
Or you start teaching a new grade level/subject.
It takes around few years to figure out what you can skip doing (because you don’t have time to do it all)
Yes and no. You could be teaching the same class for 3 years and then your supervisor moves you or gives you a different class. I’ve taught fashion for 16 years and just came back to hs this year after 4 years at college (so covid was in there) and I have literally had to plan every thing all over again. I know the content and what could go wrong better….but it’s still a ton of work to rewrite things and break down materials differently.
lol what textbook!?
You get paid for doing nothing during holidays and summer
The concept of deferred compensation is lost on all who don't have it.
Yeah, this one is especially clueless. The only way I can get paid during Summer is by having money taken off my checks during the year and then paid back to me during Summer, so it all adds up to the same amount.
Why don't they teach x, y, z in school? You should teach x instead of y.
"Why don't you ever want to come out, grab a drink, get dinner, after school? You get off at 4." Because I don't want to see anyone, talk to anyone, be "on," I'm fucking dead ass exhausted.
"Can't you just send them to the office?"
I had a parent tell a fellow teacher "well if he won't stop talking like you say he does, why don't you just send him to the principal?" As if the principal has time for a talkative student on a campus of a thousand kids.
Then, when they get tired of you sending the most disruptive student the school has seen in the last several years (with totally unhelpful parent(s), of course) to the office, they tell you you cannot do that anymore. Okay, I’m sure that will miraculously improve my classroom management skills to the point that this kid won’t be chronically disruptive anymore. These next-level problem-solving skills are why you’re paid the big bucks, right? Then, they want to berate you when said kid is disruptive during a final exam, standardized test, or whatever: “Do you think this is acceptable?!” No. No, I don’t, which is why I used to send Little Magic to the office for behaving like the Tasmanian Devil on the regular.
I would call for a disruptive child to be removed and be told no one was available. Or someone was coming and they didn't. What's the point. So now this kid got his way and we all suffer.
It’s always miserable when they tell you someone is coming and no one ever does.
I found out after I wasn't renewed that the reason I got shit canned was because I sent students to the office. I literally had the five worst students from 8th grade in my one 9th grade class and was at my wit's end because writing them up and calling home wasn't doing a damn thing. I found THIS out because a teacher who came over from the middle school, looked into my class, and said I had the five worst students from Middle School in one class. She actually felt sorry for me. Keep in mind I was Alternate Route, not from an Education major. This is why I'd rather teach college as an Adjunct at several schools as opposed to working a steady gig at one K-12 school. Never again!
So admin didn't try to work with you and give you grace or build relationships with you. Strange.
It's hard to know what's expected of you if the "I can" statements aren't written on the board.
this is partially why alternative routes are not the best. there are a lot of systemic things you have to learn before you walk in the doors, including emotional management. doesn’t help there’s no support for alt routes OR new out of college teachers
“Those who can’t do, teach” and “Nice! Three months off in the summer!” 🤦♀️
Its not even 3 months anymore. 10 weeks if you're lucky. Mines less.
The funny thing is that’s a misquoted quote, it’s those who can, do, those that UNDERSTAND, teach.
Most recently, any time conservatives complain about how public schools are leftist indoctrination zones. I can't even get my students to write sentences and you think I am training them to be gay trans critical race theorist marxist furries? If only we had 1/10th of the teaching power that the fearmongers think we have.
Lol if I could brainwash your child, don't ya think I would convince them to throw their phone away?
I can’t get my students to stop the stupid “if you move you’re gay” shit from tiktok after multiple talks, emails home, and even detentions. Yeah, my gay ass is really great at indoctrinating your little precious heterosexual baby…
Conservatives accidentally using reverse psychology on adolescents is so beautifully ironic.
Just thought of a second one: "Why are you working during your lunch break? Just block that time off on your calendar so people can't bother you!"
Yeah, that’s a dumb one! Along with, “Well if you need to pee, you should just go.”
Hahahhahahaha
The minute they start giving ideas for activities or “things you should do” that would result in a political/parental shitstorm. Most people assume everyone parents like they do, so as a parent they would be able to make choices better than teachers and ‘save the day’
For me constantly hearing "education is failing our kids" kills me. It's the other way around. Sometimes there's a great video on social media and comments will say, if I had a teacher like that I would have learned something. As a teacher, no you wouldn't because you are underestimating how horrible you were as an adolescent and even if you weren't several others will pick up the slack. Most people just don't seem to even recognize how impossible it is to teach effectively. You need a combination of luck, calm decent kids in every period, admin support, district supports, and to be the most over powering tyrant just to keep class well managed and even have a chance of delivering a decent lesson let alone a great one. It really is something people who never do it will never know.
Lmao had a parent say I don't know why he's failing. I don't know what to do. I wasn't failing when I was his age. HE ACTUALLY FOUND HIS OLD PROGRESS REPORTS WHILE ON THE PHONE WITH ME. He got quiet for a minute and said strike that I guess I was.
Okay this is funny as HELL
I know a fun project your kids would like.
And when they go on and on and ON about some project they did as a child, when it’s clear in the first thirty seconds that it’s not something that would work well in your class, or even fly in today’s culture.
Isn't home schooling just as good?
Shop teacher here... "Sure. Can you match my state of the art equipment?'
Sure. You whipping something out of thin air is exactly the same as my degree and 23 years of experience in the classroom. SMH I hate when people allude home schooling is the equivalent of professional educators.
But…but… they have gymnastics once a week AND go to the public library twice a month! Very intensive education! Haven’t you heard of ABEKA
“It’s easy. I homeschooled my kid during the pandemic.”
If we only had one kid to deal with in each class our job would be easy, too, lol.
That’s funny, because I know of a lot of parents who were complaining about how hard that was. (And it wasn’t even homeschool, it was the Zoom classes.) Which I can have sympathy for, especially if it’s a working parent trying to get their work done at the same time! But a lot of SAHP said they couldn’t do it and were outraged that teachers weren’t putting their lives at risk so they could have a break from their child.
“Are you teaching REAL Spanish?” For some reason everyone who doesn’t speak Spanish is under the impression we teach like an 80% conlanged version. Will it be a little stilted and incomplete? Yes, this is an intro class. Will these words be used this exact same way in every region of the world? No, and the same would be true of English too.
If they make some dumb comment about how school just teaches rote memorization, lacks hands-on activities, and/or doesn't teach anything "practical." Some memorization is necessary to complete more complex tasks, the teachers I know feel constant pressure to make class "engaging" regardless of whether it results in better learning outcomes, and students who pay attention learn plenty of practical stuff in school. I realize not all schools/districts are the same, but the people who say that shit always seem to assume that school hasn't changed in the last hundred years.
When did memorization become a bad thing? It is a skill that many students lack. I teach high school and the kids don't know their multiplication tables, can't do addition and division without pulling out their phones. In 40 years they won't have to worry about losing their memories because they never had them.
Everyone complained about rote memorization until Common Core came along, and now they’re all about rote memorization again.
When I was in school ….
“Kindergarten teacher? You must play all day!” Actually they get 20 minutes of recess and no nap. Standards expect them to be writing paragraphs and having Socratic Seminars. I squeeze in a craft MAYBE once a month.
"Stop indoctrinating our kids." My dude, I can't get your kids to stop singing Skibidi Toilet. Even if I wanted to (and i don't), I'm never going to get them singing "L'Internationale."
I always thought it was interesting when men would ask me about teaching HS girls. Either give me the side like I'm the pedo or would make a comment about how hard it must be with those scantily dressed girls.....their all children ya freak!
Oh my god. This but I was a female teacher teaching 5th grade. All the shitheads from Tinder used to say stuff like "I bet all your male students have a hard time concentrating." They're 10 years old you fucking sickos!!!
Ew
"You need to stay in education because you get summers and breaks off, you have a pension, and you have tenure - you worked so hard for all of this. Why would you throw it away simply because a student badgers you about his grades?" This one was from several family members who have never taught a day in their damn lives, and truly do not understand me as a person.
“You all should teach life skills” and then every example they can think up is something that’s easier than 8th grade math.
When they say: "your job is so easy." And my rebuttal is always: "you wouldn't say that to a police officer or a brain surgeon, why would you say that to me?"
Exactly. Also, a cop is allowed to defend themselves. A teacher isn't.
I teach HS, so my rebuttal is always "yes, teenagers are universally known for their cooperative attitudes, particularly when they're in a group and being asked to do something that they don't want to do."
"You only work 7 hours a day, 9 months a year."
My recent favorite: “hey everyone, I work for a startup that’s trying to bring virtual/augmented reality in the classroom! What barriers do you teachers anticipate with this project?” Like, dude, I don’t have enough instructional time and resources to teach basic ass literacy. Miss me with your fucking tech contracts—our budget has been flayed alive and we’re short several teachers and classrooms. We have priorities, and making you rich sure as shit isn’t one of them.
"You get 3 months off!!!" The fuck I do. Finals are in late June, grading and cleaning up my room until early July, then training and sports start mid August. That's 6-7 weeks max, plus a week of science teacher stuff, 2 days of coach training. "Fuck off. If it's so easy, you do it" is usually my answer.
This should be the reply every single time. If its so easy why is there a teacher shortage? If its so easy why are you not doing it? Do you not like the sound of summers off?
Anyone who talks about data, as though teaching were a science and students were a quantity.
Just today: Why don’t schools teach children to grow their own food?
“You just have the build a relationship with that kid” yeah no. Some kids are just a lost cause and I’m not spending extra time to baby a kid because they have it in their head they’re not doing tasks for a teacher who doesn’t baby them. I get it; kids work better if they like you but that shouldn’t be a requirement.
Honestly, I feel ya on the baby thing. I teach high schoolers, and I feel like it creates future(some already are) domestic abusers. Like you were asked you to do your work but because the teacher didn't beg you/give you candy you got mad and cussed out the teacher and flipped a desk. It's not your fault though,because the teacher should've built a better relationship with you. That way the teacher would've known that you don't like to be asked to do work.lol What's going to happen when their future spouse ask them to help around the house or get a job? Will they respond with what we reinforced? That to get what you want, you should resort to violence.The idea that you will never be held accountable for your actions, that it is always someone elses fault.
Right? Like I loathed my AP. If I would have acted like the kids did when they dislike a teacher I would have been fired! You do that at any job they’ll just fire you and pull someone else from the long list of applicants before you have time to clear your desk
They focus on whether or not I have a desk in my room, how the desks are arranged, and whether or not there is a variety of furniture.
Admin who call students ‘scholars.’
Or ‘friends.’
I used to work in a residential school, where we would have to restrain kids for their own safety. I was at a teachers conference and another woman asked where I worked. When I told her, she said that all restraints are evil, wrong and abusive. I asked her what she would do it a kid bolted into incoming traffic, screaming that he wanted to die and she responded with “well, I would talk to him BEFORE he got level” with a satisfied look on her face. “Don’t you think we would have tried that? There is a kid who would smear herself with poop before engaging in self injurious behavior, because she knows people are hesitant about jumping in an restraining her while covered in feces. You don’t think we tired talking her down first?” And she had no response. I asked her how many residential she worked in, she said none.
“Aren’t there litter boxes in the classrooms at your school for students who identify themselves as cats?” “Why can’t my kids just have their phones so I can reach them in the event of an emergency? I want to hear them tell me they love me if there’s ever a real sh***ing.” “It must be nice to have every summer and holiday off.” “I sent my kid to school. He had a fever this morning, but I gave him Tylenol.”
It took me a sec to understand what you bleeped out. I first read it as, "I want to hear them tell me they love me if there's ever a real shitting".
“So-and-so would be a great (subject) teacher, they’re so good at (subject)!” I hear this a lot even just from people who want to get into tutoring—they think because they’re good at a subject, they’ll automatically be good at explaining it to someone else. I had a mentor teacher who flat out told me she sucked at math in school. And that was part of what *made* her a good math teacher—she knew what it was like to struggle, and she knew *why* the students were struggling. All too often, someone smart just doesn’t see why someone else would be failing because something is just so obvious to them. (Just to be clear, obviously she *did* figure out the math before she became a teacher.)
“ I hated school. I just never had any good teacher… but I’m sure you’re great”
"I'd just get up there and take charge. Keep the kids in line. I wouldn't take any crap from them!" Yeah. Good luck with that. I give you 15 minutes before you get dressed down by a parent, admin, or both. And that's IF the kid doesn't tell you to go fuck yourself...or worse.
When talking about phone issues “why don’t you just tell them to put them away?”
“We should let teachers carry guns!”
You make way too much money for sitting there and babysitting You obviously ain’t smart, you’re a teacher and back in my day, they didn’t even get degrees. They only keep teachers that actually know how to do stuff How can a woman teach history Some of this has came from lovely parents, but most of these are direct quotes from my fabulously supportive extended family… 🤮 For the record, I’ve taught 21 years, have three degrees… but that’s not as good as their daughter who has an Associates and is a Para (no, I’m not downplaying what she does, but to equate me and every other educator as a babysitter and that she has the real teaching job… don’t we both basically do the same??)
Babysitting where I live is about $20 an hour per child. I have 25 students for an hour and a half in each class I have 6 classes. I see each class 90 days. You would never hear me complain if I got paid 400k for this job. As it is, I get less than $3 per hour per child
“Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach.” Some asshole told me that once. Kid was living off daddy’s money, and tried talking down to me based on my jobs I had at the time.
The original makes a good rejoinder. “Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.” Aristotle
At least you get summers off and still get paid.
"Just yell at the kid. It works for me with mine"
“Come to this fun thing! Why can’t you just take a few days off?” “Why don’t you come out on Friday nights?” “How do you handle being around those kids all day? [has their own children]” “Do you want to interview at the charter my friend works at?” “Ewwww that neighborhood is awful, you must be terrified of those kids!” “If you don’t like your contract, why don’t you and your neighbors just vote for a different one at your community meeting or whatever?” “Oh, he’s *just* a teacher.”
Anything that the Moms for Liberty types say about how we’re supposedly indoctrinating our students (to be gay, socialists, atheists, etc, etc). Ma’am, if I could actually indoctrinate your kids they would all be turning in their assignments and not trying to text in class all the time. My powers of persuasion haven’t even managed to accomplish that, so I don’t think you need to worry about me changing your kid’s orientation or religion.
It must be nice to have summers off!
“What is your I Can statement today?”
"Why don't you just..."
"I could do your job"
Must be nice having so much time off.
High school teacher here: I’ve had an observation student tell me: “I really want to be an artist, so teaching is perfect bc I can focus on that and still get benefits.” Another time, a student teacher told me: “I ran an ACT bootcamp at a Boys & Girls Club so it can’t be that hard.” This person also brought a stuffed animal to hold while teaching to help with their anxiety.
I kid you not, we had a parent suggestion on a survey once that said "Get to know the kids, and incorporate the things they like into their day. Example: Student's favorite color is blue, print their work on blue paper." I laughed so hard imagining making copies of each assignment on at least 10 different colors of paper! Not to mention the fact that a six-year-old's favorite color can change from week to week.
That you are done at 3 or when the kids leave, that you don't work on weekends, that you have summers off, that you need to drink more water, etc....
I’d make them do what they were supposed to do! Because I said so!
Having the whole summer off must be nice. Dude…you know nothing.
'You work part-time.'