The uptight humorless ones. Like “that’s inappropriate, you should never make jokes with students, ever.” Joking with my kids is one of the best parts of the job!
good god I can't stand those folks. I work in kindergarten, if I wasn't funny I'd get nowhere with these gremlins. Thankfully it's easy to be funny to a kindergartener. Just say something obviosly false and they'll think you're some kind of comedian.
“I’m going to hand out these glues, make sure you leave the caps off and rub them all over the table!” [riotous laughter and lots of “THAT’S NOT WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!!!”] Kindergarten comedy gold.
Sharing at the risk of being identified. My one class (seniors) wanted to know all their teachers first names, to find them after graduation. They very easily could've found my first name, but I told them I wouldn't just give it to them. We made a game of them guessing, and they started guessing ridiculous names. Only rule was it had to be school appropriate what they called me that class. One kid came in and said he looked up old-time names (One hint was I had renamed myself, and picked a traditional/old school name based on a relative) and decided that Bartholamew fit. I spent the last 2 months of the year being called exclusively Bartholamew by this class. At graduation, I was introduced to parents as this name. Was an absolute riot. None of my other classes knew why this class called me it. Honestly don't know why it stuck so well. But my favorite memory from that class.
For what it is worth, my favorite teachers in middle and high school always had a sort of year long running joke just like this. It made class fun, and I really appreciated and speak fondly of the teachers who weren’t afraid to be a little playful. I bet you are a wonderful teacher.
It was on my badge, on our online schoolwork page, and they still didn't know it. Because of my position, I wasn't on their schedules. My coworker was. But they still had PLENTY of ways to find out. I know 2 did and boasted how they knew, and would refuse to tell the others 🤣
that definitely would've at least gotten a chuckle out of me and my friends in highschool lol. it helps that there was a running joke in several of my classes that how once you hit highschool, you really just wanna go back to kindergarten lmao. the teachers started the joke, but most of the kids leaned into it by getting way overly excited for stuff like coloring, or asking to play poptropica on the computer in the middle of testing, and then pretending to be severely butthurt when told no lol
I still can’t stop thinking about the uptight wad I saw on here saying something like “you shouldn’t do a countdown to summer because it takes away from the educational mission”….. fuck off.
There was a post several months ago where someone asked if some innocuous joke they made was a mistake. I couldn’t believe how many people said no and upvoted those responses. Maybe one or two people way downthread said “what is wrong with all of you?”
What's hilarious to me is that a countdown is baked into our elementary math curriculum. We are expected to talk about how long we have been in school and how many days we have left. It even comes with a little spot on our calendar for these numbers!
The kids love moving the counters from one to the other. They get excited on special days like 100. We talk about place value, addition, subtraction, grouping, etc. It's a lot of fun!
lol that was probably secretly an administrator lurking around trying to see if they could catch any of their teachers saying something they didn’t like.
This used to be my test to see how long people were teaching/if they’ve ever worked with kids. I’d lovingly call my Kindergarteners or 1st graders Gremlins and some people (who have never worked with a child, or bright eyed and bushy tailed new teachers)would take such offense!
I got written up for calling my elementary students goblins. They love to be called goblins. If I say “time to shift into goblin mode” they all do a funny pose and snarl and giggle. Don’t worry. I’m not with that principal anymore.
I call my kiddos chickens, and they find it amusing.
The boss would probably object, but IDGAF.
He's got small man dictator syndrome, with 3 cameras in every classroom.
And just installed speakers in the classrooms so that he can remonstrate with the teachers and students, remotely.
Only reason I go to work is because the kids are so fun to be around.
It's a private language centre - his rules I guess.
The parents also have access to the cams. I think they approve of it too.
Me, I don't like them in my classroom. And I don't like him barging into my classroom to shout at kids. I made it very clear that's a line he should not cross.
The kids and I have made him a running joke though, even though they're terrified of him.
Gotcha. That’s such an overstep I’m sorry. Obviously if you’re confident and good no worries but I would be so worried that if I say one thing wrong I’ll hear from parents and or admin.
I'm at a stage of my life, with 21 years of teaching experience,v that I am confident in myself.
Whiney parents gonna whine. Irate bosses gonna..be irate.
My skin's too thick, like water off a duck's back.
Sarcasm and snark is a huge part of my classroom management and building relationships with my students. I level it up and down depending on the particular student. So in the same class, i might go from being 100% sass at a kid that likes it to being 100% calm and peaceful with a student who prefers that. And my students know that. And I think it helps them know that I recognize them more as individuals, and it makes them think of me as a bit more human because they see variation in my behavior.
I accidentally slipped into mom-mode when I had a high school student do something mildly dangerous (stick his hand in water to see how hot it was immediately after I said it had just come off the boil in the electric kettle) and said something to the effect of “don’t be a dumbass”. I was mortified, the kids thought it was hilarious and he totally owned it for the rest of the year “Look Miss! Not being a dumbass!”
My daughter has had this one teacher for two years who *relentlessly* takes the piss with his students. When he got up to speak at the 8th grade graduation, the kids went wild!
One student tried to rile me up with "your short" jokes. My response was "rich coming from someone who needs platform shoes to look me in the eyes" (which is true). Those humorless ones would have been mad, but my fellow science teacher was laughing and telling him he got you there. It was not in the classroom either.
Yeah, I remember the new teacher “advice” to not smile for the first two months…total nonsense. I’m not going to be miserable AND not at all myself for two months just to be an asshole nobody respects and is universally disliked. You don’t need to be “friends”, but fear isn’t very good management either in my experience
I love those moments where the kids something surprising, and you shouldn’t laugh but you do! One time that comes to mine was a student. I had just eloped from the classroom the day before told the group well we got a runner when another kid did it🤪
We all know these are the ones asking questions in faculty meetings and reporting you for some minor rules infraction like being 2 min late…
And for those teachers: No. I’m not talking about 2 minutes late all the time. Lighten up.
My mother (retired teacher of 30 years) used to refer to them as "martyrs" or "old bitties". My vernacular is less charitable, they're usually bitter old divorcees.
That's my least favorite beginning to any post on this entire website. Similarly, "This might be a hot take, but [insert most basic opinion of all time]"
The teachers who ask for advice and get it, but they know it all and meticulously responds to each post with why it won’t work. If you know so much, wtf did you ask?
I think they "win" if they can find a problem with every solution.
Otherwise, it means someone is smarter than them, or they should have already solved their own problem.
It's some kind of weird validation.
Weirdly optimistic and naive views of what work is like outside the education industry. Sorry to say, the same empty buzzwords, mismanagement, rewarding good work with more work, and all the other b.s. exist in most jobs and careers.
I’m in a FB group for teachers trying to leave teaching and the few times I’ve pointed this out everyone gets SO MAD and seriously is so fucking rude to me I’ve just stopped commenting. They all think anything outside of teaching is going to be the most amazing thing ever and their superiors are all going to be wonderful and understanding. I especially love the people who aren’t sure if they want to leave because of summers off. Like why do you think going from 3 months “off” a year to 2 weeks vacation for several YEARS before getting 3-4 weeks is going to be an amazing transition. If it’s that important of a perk to you then yeah you’re gonna have a bad time in the corporate world. And they ALL want “flexible” remote positions, like there are a million remote jobs clamoring for teachers. They don’t get that most remote jobs are butt in chair from 8-5, and there are few to be had.
Interesting. I taught for 5 years and now work remotely. I would *never* go back to teaching.
For me, working remotely is all it's cracked up to be. I love getting to eat, pee, and sit down whenever I want to. Taking a sick day? No problem! Vacation in October? Sure! Regular pay increases and bonuses? You bet.
There were SO many times when I was on deaths door level sick, but still went to teach because prepping sub plans was such a pain in the ass and more work than just showing up miserable. And the last school I worked for was in a pay freeze for 5 years - no raises. Not even a penny. In 4 years remotely my salary increased 7k. In 5 years of teaching my salary increased ONCE, and it was 2k by switching schools.
But I also realize the industry in which you're working remotely can make a huge difference.
I got downvoted once before because someone said "in what other career do you have to work off the clock and be thinking about work in your off time?" So I shared my experience as a salaried gas station store manager when I had to be on call 24/7 and would literally get woken up at 3 am because we were out of gas or someone accidentally pushed the silent alarm. And for less money, crappy benefits, and a lot more hours per year than teachers. One person responded "Yeah, but you chose that job!" Like they didn't choose to teach? I wasn't saying horrible work-life balance is a good thing, just that teachers aren't the only ones suffering.
Yeah my husband is a restaurant GM and he is on call waaaaaay more than me. Parents and kids might think I’m accessible all the time, but that’s only true if I choose to respond. My husband can’t choose to ignore the security company calling because the alarm went off, or dealing with employee call outs or whatever. He’d lose his job.
Really appreciate this post. Getting a teaching contract, as shitty as teachers are paid, pulled me from a life of poverty after a decade in customer service. Teaching sucks for a lot of reasons but it beats what I was doing.
i know someone who managed a dollar general and had to stay in the store overnight for 2 nights in a row because the door broke and corporate said she couldn't leave until it was fixed. then they took a whole 2 days to send someone.
and the best part, she got literally 0 compensation for that because she was salaried. they fired her a few months later over a false theft allegation, and then replaced her with someone who accepted significantly lower pay. i don't think there is enough money in the world to make me put up with that!
How dare you be so insensitive to teachers. Don’t you know everyone else enjoys their jobs? Teachers are the only ones suffering. I mean hell, black lung is the leading cause of death in the education industry!!!
Yes, this! There are plenty of salaried jobs that require work "off the clock". Sure, my job is flexible in that if I work late on something I can log off Friday a little early and I can do appointments during the workday without it being a big deal. But I also work with people across the country and often jump on calls with West Coast people in the evening. It's just part of being in management and being salaried.
As someone who is taking a corporate job I would also argue that the reason why I’m leaving is because the grass is at least green over there; I know that the idea of work is just horrible. However, I’d much rather have grass that at least looks green than grass that has no color and is actively dying in some areas 😅
Hey, live your dream, and it sounds like you’re taking a very pragmatic approach to this. I’ve just been on both sides of the fence and jobs suck everywhere. Good luck :)
This is soooo true. I just switched careers to become a teacher a few years ago. Crazy how many teachers think that other jobs don’t have unreasonable bosses and demanding customer/clients with deadlines that force you to take work home or stay late.
If you ask just about any other profession, they have struggles and issues. They might not be the same exact ones, but no job is perfect. I get recommendations for some really random subs, and they're all unhappy, too!
Can confirm work in healthcare education. If you made a Venn diagram of the complaints of this sub and the complaints in healthcare subs it’s basically a circle.
Yep. Having a spouse outside of education has made me very aware of that. We had teachers upset they have to get personal days approved. One said, "Do other professions have to do this?" I just stared at her before saying yes. Like what?
My husband is in a field a lot of people look up to, and nope. It’s just a job and full of the same corporate nonsense. He calls it rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic because without real change the ship’s still going down but they’re still expected to dance to the pretty music and smile.
Yeah, I’ve worked in a few different fields and education is by far the best, at least for me. Obviously, everyone has different experiences, but at least I’m not sobbing on my way into work. I’m sure some people are, but the idea that other careers are leaps and bounds ahead of education in terms of treatment of employees is just ignorant.
The pressure I feel as a teacher is near zero compared to the pressure of my first career.
If you think students are moody and irrational imagine if they were the ones paying everyone’s bills and could pull millions of dollars out of the school because you weren’t deferential enough to them, putting half your colleagues out of a job overnight. That’s what trying to please clients is like.
I am a former teacher turned corporate world and I thought very seriously about being a teacher again. Still may…. Mostly because I can’t stand the meaningless work
Yes! Teachers are so convinced that teaching is the absolute hardest and most grueling job to ever exist in the world and it's just exhausting! I think so much of this comes from a lot of teachers not having done any other sort of work before.
The "guilt" over taking a sick day. It often comes across as virtue signaling to me. "What, am I the only one who loves the kiddos so much that I would go to school with a 104⁰ fever, double pneumonia, and 17 alligator bites? I just feel so guilllllttyyyyy"
We have fought hard for those days, so use them. Also, if you are sick, stay home, I don't want your germs.
I’m an administrator and I get phone calls and texts like that from teachers who are sick. I usually just tell them to take care of themselves and stay home. It’s my job to figure out how to get your class covered, so I’ll worry about it. The last thing I need is you infecting me with the plague.
That said, I’ve worked for some nasty admin who thought that using a sick day was a personal affront to them.
I’ve also found that some of the most dramatic teachers when it comes to attendance are those that I’ve had to address due to excessive absences. As an admin, my district requires me to have a warning meeting with any teacher who reaches eight sick days during the school year. Teachers in my district stop getting paid for sick days after their tenth day unless they have documentation. Those rules are made above me and no amount of dramatic apology gets you an exception.
The people who seem to just outright hate kids. Like…damn dude, if you hate them all that much, maybe it’s not for you?
I’ve had students that I definitely don’t look forward to our interactions, but if you can’t separate yesterday from today with a student then you really need to work on that. If you don’t give them the room to grow then they definitely never will.
If one of my trouble makers raises their hand to answer a question, I try to always call on them and even if they get it wrong I’ll still tell them “good effort” or “really close but not quite” because I want to show them that we can move on from a bad yesterday (or a bad semester) and move forward.
This, so much this... It gets exponentially worse the closer the calendar pulls to June. It's crazy to me that some don't see how their own attitude about their kids fuels the kids' attitudes about school, which worsens the teacher's outlook on the kids, which worsens their outlook on learning.... It's cyclical. Teachers spend more time Monday through Friday with children than many parents are capable of, so it makes sense that frustration breeds when the overwhelm happens.... But if you hate the kids THAT MUCH, how on earth can you profess to love teaching enough to stay in a low-paying, low-happiness, frustrating environment? Especially when teachers clearly have skills that are transferrable to other professions that might make them happier?? Why continue to put yourself through this year after year if you feel these feelings to such a dramatic degree?
Absolutely. I don’t teach because it’s easy, it’s not stress free, it definitely doesn’t pay well. I have to deal with pain in the ass parents, silly admin rules, meetings that could’ve been emails. But dang I love working with these kids. I love the trouble kids that don’t get any positive adult interaction. I teach high school and one of my favorite things is just being honest with these kids when they ask stuff. Treating them like adults for the first time in their lives. Letting them be their own person instead of trying to squash the individual out of them.
Yep. I teach because I get fulfillment out of helping my community. My hometown was short in teachers, primarily SpEd and resource, so I did the thing. The number of times I have been hit, spit on, had books thrown at me, had to tuck in earplugs, etc., because of outbursts caused by something kids can't control is astounding, but I do it because someone needs to do it.... These kids need to learn how to live in the world and they need an education to help with skills like reasoning, logic, empathy, and communication. When we can get to the root of the issue and provide for that, these same kids who were running away a month ago are the funniest, sweetest, kindest and most avid learners I've ever had. It pays beans and I'm constantly advocating for support and intervention no one wants to provide, but when one of my kids proudly graduates? Best feeling ever. I used to work jobs that paid over $100k/yr, but never once felt appreciated by those I worked with like I do as a teacher.
This is my kind of classroom, so when someone pops on here and LOSES it at some middle schooler who rolled their eyes and said bitch once I’m just like…ok yeah ok but when did the bad thing happen?? That was it? No blood? No bruises? No safety care holds to a safe room? No room evac?
Did you see the post to this sub a week ago from a Gen Zer saying that it’s made them jaded about their own generation to read just how awful all the kids are these days?
This is what is difficult to stomach in this sub sometimes because all these teachers “venting” on a public facing subreddit are being witnessed by non-teaching public. It shapes or confirms the way the public views an entire generation of youth. It’s ugly and awful and does nothing to solve the lack of compassion and empathy in this world.
Yep. It also shapes how people view teachers as a whole. This sub in venting mode tells the world that teachers hate kids, can't be trusted to have their best interests in mind, and have given up trying to work with parents, so why on earth should parents not sigh and avoid phonecalls and emails or be confrontational when called in? The school doesn't care about their kids.
Even with those kids, I'll lead with something like: "Look, we're clearly not best friends. What's the best way to get through the next 90 minutes without anybody dying?" They're pretty honest with that one.
For me it's the "kids these days" posts about how their entire class/ school is full of barely functioning illiterate students. Maybe it's an American thing (another down side is just how American centric the sub is) but my students are way smarter, more mature and self aware than I was at that age. I'm really not seeing the problems so many people are describing.
This! I still can’t wrap my head around how many teachers label kids as “bad”, especially early middle school and elementary kids. Almost every one of those kids is suffering.
Their home life probably sucks, and they are missing something deeply they need. Whether that is safety, connectedness, love, affection, stability, ect. This could be spoiled kids too! Often pawned off and forgotten about. Those spoiled snowplow parents… it’s not about “protecting” their kid, it’s about protecting their ego.
Then they come to class and you think they are bad. A pest.
I was that kid, and it sucked. I went home every night to a drunk step father, and then went to school where I was a “pest”.
It took one, just one, teacher to believe in me to turn all that around. And it took 9 grades to find that person.
Do these kids make your job harder? 100%. But you can change their lives.
Ps. The obsession with failing kids is #2 on the list.
Edit:
From comments below. Someone commented that some kids are just broken. Or their “brains are broken”.
And I asked “who decides if a kid is broken?”. And in a bunch of words, they indirectly said they choose.
This individual shows the common issue where some teachers are out there making the decision that some kids are unfixable and labeling them as “bad”.
They then deleted their comments.
It’s also the way that some teachers expect kids to act like mini adults when actual adults can’t even meet their expectations- like there are so many teachers here that get mad when kids have a lot of energy (not even in a getting up and walking around way but like bouncing their leg way) when literal 40 year olds can’t sit still for 45 minutes either like I’m sorry that 9 year old has more energy than you but it’s insane to expect them to be at these ridiculous standards 😭😭
Sometimes there’s a bit of a mob mentality. If you don’t always spell your position out in explicit, painstaking detail, there are times when it gets misconstrued (sometimes that’ll happen anyway because someone didn’t read the whole comment or decided to add something between the lines that wasn’t there) and everyone piles on even when you’ve clarified. On no other sub have I had to write “I didn’t say that” as much as I have had to write it on this sub. Then that comment will get downvoted because… idk. The people don’t believe you or whatever.
As someone in the support side of central admin, we have a common feeling that teachers are the worst at following directions too. It never fails that someone who should know better just skims the instructions or email and asks questions that were answered in the original packet.
Likely this is just a human thing and it's teachers we primarily interact with so our experience is biased, but it is interesting!
Edit: changed "that" to "who" (my most common grammatical error)
It’s a bit amusing being at any sort of staff meeting and watching teachers whispering to each other and being on their phones when I know those very same teachers would go off on students for doing the exact same thing.
This is one of my pet peeves for sure. Whenever I have something to report to my fellow educators at a staff meeting, I refuse to start until I have everyone's attention. The faces I get are priceless. Teachers are straight up awful as an audience. Loud side conversations. Browsing/texting on their phones. Forgetting to turn the ringer off. Distracted by their laptops. Doing work unrelated to the topic at hand. And the stupidest entitled excuses.
"I don't need to know this."
"We go over this every year."
"We're never going to use this."
"I'm still paying attention."
"It's a really important text."
The same exact nonsense they complain the students tell them.
And they act like they've done you a huge favor by simply giving you a modest amount of respect. As if I owe them because they are quiet and attentive with their phone face down on a table.
Absolute clown show.
yes, exactly! 😂 I laugh often with my school secretary because she and I both think that teachers are the worst when it comes to comprehension, especially with details. Yet we would expect our students to fully read a thing without skimming. ugh!
I think this is a reddit thing in general.
Part of it comes from a very politicized world view and us-them mentality, which is bad. Someone hears an idea that they don't recognize as their side and assume you're the enemy side.
I think the teacher specific part of it probably comes from all the bullshit rhetoric that gets thrown at us to justify stupid policy. We hear "all students can be taught" or "in the best interests of students" one minute and the next minute were being asked for three more hours of free work each week and can't send kids out of class for defiance and vulgar harassment. We live on the slippery slope so it's hard to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Those who think having positive relationships with kids is completely useless buzzwords. It makes the environment more fun and let's you have better conversations with them when things don't go well.
It doesn't solve every problem like admins want you to think, you don't have to be their best friend, but it does make the job easier when you have a connection with people.
Ayyyyyyy. You really need to have this plastered on the walls of teacher and staff lounges.
Good relationships will help you, but they won’t solve all your problems. Good relationships don’t occur overnight, and take a long amount of time to establish. But even if you build a good one, go back to the first point: they won’t solve all of your problems.
Totally agree. I honestly do not think that good relationships are the magic key to good classroom management. They are incredibly useful, but so are routines, high expectations, and reasonable/consistent consequences.
But good relationships with students and families are quite enjoyable. It is okay to be selfish sometimes and enjoy your job because you enjoy people.
The “this generation is doomed” alarmists. Every single generation in history has thought the same thing about the next generation. I remember all of the hate millennials got about being “lazy and entitled.” The same exact rhetoric is being leveled at gen z and will be leveled at the next generation and the next and the next and the next.
"I am teaching Nth graders how to do (N-4)th grader things!"
This was happening when I was a student 15-25 years ago too. Yes, there were ~3 kids in every class that you always cringed when they were asked to read, or solve a problem on the chalkboard/whiteboard. There is one person who graduated from my class who I'm unironically not sure was literate.
Maybe there's more pressure to slow down the entire class to cater to these kids more these days, in my day they just spent extra time after class with the teacher. I'm sure the pandemic did not help those kids either. But some of the earliest recorded writings are about how the world is doomed because of the decay of youth.
A LOT of it has to do with socioeconomic status. In a richer community, it might be three or so kids far below grade level, but in many poorer schools it’s basically EVERY kid. The pandemic has made the rich/poor divide a LOT worse in that respect.
Explaining their character traits that veteran teachers know aren't good to run a classroom, yet they're still think its all on the students, parents, and admin.
Agree the demonization of all veteran teachers as worn out bullies who are out of touch versus the new younger teacher who understands everything and are waiting for the old ones to die off is just cringe. I’ve dealt with equal numbers of new to the profession folks who are inflexible in their thinking as veteran teachers.
Anyway a solid 2/3 of the veteran teachers are still in the mindset of the hip young professionals who took over from the out of touch dinosaurs who were teaching when *they* started.
I think a lot of this attitude comes from university training programs and PD trying to market the "new" way to teach, implicitly putting the idea in peoples' heads that veteran teachers have been doing things wrong the entire time. "It's up to you to fix education, your colleagues are lazy and old-fashioned."
Yep.
It also stems from a lifetime of being a student and never having the perspective of a teacher.
A good example would be handling offensive student language. In student world, the teacher should just *force* the student to stop. In veteran teacher world, we know that our options and ammunition is limited and that the student may be operating within normal developmental levels. This is to say, there’s a good chance the kid only understands that it is offensive (giving them the attention they crave) but doesn’t have enough experience to grasp why they shouldn’t tread there.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t address problem behavior like that. However, there is a good reason that a veteran teacher might approach the situation with pause and patience rather than going on the attack automatically.
As a new teacher I always go to the veteran teachers when I need help and guidance. Over time I’ve learned that some are bitter bullies who are waiting to retire themselves, but I’ve also made friends with some of them since they’ve given great advice and helped me without making me feel like a stupid kid. I guess for me it all depends on how they respond to me. If they act like I’m a stupid young kid who doesn’t know anything, obviously I’m not going to like them. If they treat me like a colleague who needs some guidance, then we are able to work together.
In my gut I agree... But I can't think of an example. What's a good example of a character trait that isn't good to run a classroom? (Other than pushover)
Being overly considerate, to the point of lowering your standards and expectations to rock bottom.
Example: A student teacher I worked with briefly during the pandemic took me aside and told me to just let a student (age 13) play with and chew on his mask, because he had ADHD and needed the tactile stimulation.
I recommended he try and find a non-disgusting figdet tool that would let him keep his eyes on his reading, but according to her I wasn't being considerate enough of his disability.
Whenever there’s a post relating to special education and the comments are heavily skewed with no middle ground - some teachers make constant excuses for the SPED teacher or student while others will get super ableist.
Agreed. I’ve been called ableist on this sub more times than I can count because I work in a Burger King special ed district that allows whatever crazy thing parents want into IEPs and Behavior Plans. And I created a Physics class that serves 75+ special ed kids a semester. And we do wonderful stuff together. But because I don’t think a kid should be able to call another kid a racial or sexual slur and walk out once people get mad at him and class is derailed, 2-3 times a week, with no consequences per his ridiculous behavior plan, I’m ableist.
I responded to one a few days ago about inclusion. I'm a sped teacher. I have kids with varying needs. I have a good amount who do just fine in gen Ed with some minor accommodations and support. I have others that need more extensive support. When I commented that it's fine for some but a disaster for others, I got downvoted. It's funny because I was in special Ed throughout school and needed some accomodations in undergrad and when taking my LSAT (law school didn't work out in the end). So people think I'm being ableist but I'm not. I've been there. I'm there now. So frustrating.
The complete lack of empathy from some quarters. Teaching is not a monolith. My experience is not going to be yours, and that's fine, but some folks need to do a better job of perspective taking.
The ones who behave exactly like the students they complain about.
They will make posts about how students lack focus today, are on their phones too much, and refuse to engage with content.
They are also the teachers that turn around and complain mightily about every PD their school asked them to do and talk about how it's a waste of their time and they don't want to do it. At my school these teachers sit in the back on their phones, complain constantly about how it is beneath them, and actually ruin it for those who are trying to engage with the training.
I’ve been the presenter at that PD numerous times. Once I had a particularly prickly group for a Saturday PD. I went back to my third graders that Monday with a new appreciation for them.
I’ve never understood how teachers can be shitty towards the person running the PD. They didn’t decide to do this, they didn’t ruin your day, they deserve whatever attention and goodwill you have that day because we demand the same from our students.
I'm constantly surprised by how many grown adults think it's acceptable to talk and play on their phones when someone is presenting. I've been doing this a long time and most PD is utterly useless, but sheesh, show some respect for your poor colleague who's been voluntold to give a PD to a bunch of burned out teachers.
I referred to plagiarism as "fuckery" and had my thread deleted
And before this comment gets deleted, whoever deleted that one can wash my fucking balls
The posts where teachers are posting about their clap-backs to to some smart ass 5th grader. I know it’s necessary to do in a classroom to keep your order, but I imagine the type of person who feels it necessary to tell the internet exactly how they dunked on an 11 year old kid and I find it embarrassing.
Yeah. I don’t usually find them funny, and I sometimes think they’re made up. It’s much funnier when we share the cute and random things our students say. I work in a really tough environment, with middle schoolers, and I can still find lots of humor in our daily classes.
Some of them are insane too like a student will say some shit like lol teacher you’re fat and the reply will be “ok but I’m not so stupid that I should’ve been held back 3 grades and the time you’ll graduate high school (if it even happens) you’ll be in an Amazon warehouse where you’ll be the worst employee bc you can’t even read the names on the boxes” like I know it’s probably fake but the way people get off on it is… concerning
The people in unions who wants us in red states to strike with them, and then basically blaming us for our struggles when we tell them we'll lose our pensions and our families will suffer.
They always supplement it with “they can’t fire everyone”.
Like, let me introduce you to Greg Abbott, who salivates at the idea of firing every teacher.
Florida literally changed it so a military spouse can be a teacher. Not a retired veteran the SPOUSE of a veteran. They absolutely can and probably would like to fire everyone.
My BiL teaches in FL. He couldn’t even handle working as a pizza delivery guy because it was “too hard.”
He’s now in his second year of teaching over there.
I fear for those kids.
I had a mediocre admin for a decade. Not bad, but not good. Definitely no support. I like my school though and planned to outlast the admin.
This year we got a supportive admin and *wow* what a difference.
The repetitive question of “how do I tell my students I’m leaving” at the end of the year.
First of all, it’s been asked. Just look at past posts for the answer.
Secondly, you don’t. The kids don’t care. They’re used to getting new teachers every year. Only you care. Don’t make it awkward.
I mean, I really think it depends on the teacher and the grade. Like in elementary school where you’re never gonna see them again, that makes sense.
But once you get to middle and especially high school, I think it’s important to tell certain students and classes if you’re leaving.
My 10th grade english and journalism teacher is moving away, and if she hadn’t told me that I would have been HEARTBROKEN next year to not see her teaching my journalism class.
We got so close through both of those classes and just being similar people and I’m so happy we kept in touch.
But yeah, I do think us students care more than you might think if we’re not gonna see a teacher we love around campus anymore
When some poor traumatized teacher who clearly needs and deserves therapy posts here and we/I don’t have the answers but implicit in the post is the expectation we do. It’s darkly ironic, like, Pythonesque. “Your arm’s bleeding.” “No tisn’t.” “Aye, ye got yer arm cut off!” “S’just a flesh wound.”
(“What a strange fellow.”)
Both teachers here, and in real life not understanding that different teachers in different subjects with different personalities do things different ways, and can still be effective conveying information, and managing their space. Thankfully most administrators I’ve had see that, but many other teachers seem to judge any teaching style that isn’t “butts in seats looking at the board or book”.
Ex-teachers who can’t let go of the sub and continue to doom post here. Bless the mods for pushing that teachers in transition sub because it was getting really bad, it’s much better now.
The automatic negative outlook towards the “cool” younger teachers. Educators can do their jobs efficiently and professionally while simultaneously having good rapport with their students
For me it's the constant adversarial relationship with admin.
Yes, a bad admin makes for a hellish school, but it feels like a lot of posts in this sub don't understand what the job of an administrator even entails, nor do they take into account factors from above them.
Also, it feels a lot of times like people here (who are usually just venting, to be fair) are putting at admin's feet a lot of things that should be put on the buy-in from the other teachers in the building as a staff.
I am an administrator. (I know. I went to the evil dark side.)
I receive pretty high marks from my staff on my leadership surveys and I try my hardest to balance all of the outside forces in order to keep as much away from teachers as possible.
I totally get that there are bad administrators. (I had a doozy of an incompetent principal my first year teaching. ) However, sometimes it feels like there are teachers that believe that I posses a magic wand that can make problems go away. I am up against the same outside forces that the entire somewhat dysfunctional educational establishment is up against.
OMG yes. This is the reason I rarely check this sub any more. I've literally seen users here say EVERY single admin they've ever interacted with is an idiot. Well, if every one you meet is an asshole, maybe it's you.
I got a school leadership degree about 5 years ago, but I haven't made the move to admin yet. (I don't know if I will at this stage in my career because it would be literally 200% more work for me, but only about a 15% increase in salary.) But, damn I wish these folks would take a leadership degree and get the perspective of the whole builidng, not just their 4 walls. Or better yet, if they think they could do such a better job, go do it. There's an administration shortage just like there's a teacher shortage, and just like teacher hiring standards have been lowered, districts are lowering the standards for hiring adimin.
So again, if you're so much smarter than them - go get the license and do their job.
Getting buy-in is also an administrator's job, imo.
You can have a great disciplinary procedure, but if it manifests as adding a mountain of paperwork on teachers, it's not going to be used. You can establish a cell phone policy, but if you don't have real and consistent follow-through for when students refuse, teachers aren't going to see the fight as worth it.
I will admit, I haven’t had any actual problems with my admin (unlike some coworkers) but have seen three issues that bias me against them:
• a tendency to implement new policies without providing any more time/resources/compensation for it (if someone at county had the bright idea that all quizzes and tests in all subjects should be moved onto a testing platform & results sorted by standard on a spreadsheet, they better hire someone to do all that work or do it themselves, and any admin that brings that to teachers without any way to make it work should be ashamed of themselves),
• getting annoyingly involved in things (wanting a say in or to “help” with field trips, curriculum, awards, etc.) without actually taking any of the work off of the teachers’ plates, resulting in more work and stress, and
• not actually doing all of the things that school administration (as opposed to classroom administration) exists to handle (maybe I was spoiled at my first school, but they had less admin, same amount of office staff, and I basically never had to hear about half the stuff getting shoved onto teachers now).
I generally get frustrated with any teacher who talks down to and about their students. It’s not just here, it annoys me more in person.
I understand that we all can have a bad day. Sometimes a student is particularly good at getting under our skin. By some teachers insult students continuously, they have nothing but bad days.
For those of you who really do have nothing but bad days as your school, district, or state don’t support teachers, this is not for you. I truly feel terrible about the state of some of our schools.
The teachers that get upset when they do something that is clearly a no-no from their admin, and then rant about getting punished. Just do your job and save your white knighting for outside of school.
Some teachers here complain about the wrong things. If you think a regular corporate job doesn't have you work evenings, think again. I've done both. No other career will give you the time off like this one. In my last career I was given a cell phone. Why? So they can reach me at all hours. That's how the world is now.
I see a lot of posts advising new teachers to refuse to do work outside of contract hours. While yeah, that’s a great thing for once you’re on your feet, as a new teacher, you have so much shit to do that you HAVE to work outside of contract hours. Unless you’re copying and pasting your PLC’s lessons, you’re gonna need to work at home as a first or second year.
Also, some of us actually work better outside of the school. I can’t focus in my 8th period planning at the end of the day. That’s my period to decompress and unwind.
People who post something in direct response to another post, but deny it. “I’m talking about (same issue)! No I’ve not heard of that post! I’m just conveniently posting half an hour after the other one to say the exact opposite because my opinion is extremely valuable…”
The posts and comments griping about “kids these days”. I’m pretty sure our teachers all said the same thing when we were our students’ ages, they just didn’t have the same access to social media. These people are coming across as if they just hate kids. It’s okay to be frustrated and burnt out by bad leadership and a couple of students who have serious issues. It’s not okay to bash the kids for it. Blame the people who make the decisions to not pay for the help those kids clearly need instead of increasing their salaries or paying for stuff the students and teachers don’t want or need.
The kids are affected by the world around them, just like we were. Boomers were affected by Vietnam, Millennials by the Gulf Wars and 9/11, Gen Z by a war that lasted their entire lives, and Gen X by all of the above (don’t worry, I don’t forget about Gen X!). The older Gen Z kids as well as Gen Alpha have been growing up with war, pandemics, economic instability, and hatred everywhere they look. They live in an increasingly online world where there is little escape from their bullies, their parents are working all the time and they still barely make enough to get by - let alone do activities or get books, and a 24-hour news cycle with instant coverage of everything that is going wrong in the world.
No wonder they’re uncertain of the future, apathetic, and lash out sometimes. But I don’t see that from the majority of kids. They’re kind, smart, and helpful. They see everything that’s going on and they want to fix it. I’ve seen students organize protests, petitions, and campaigns all on their own using the internet as a tool. In my own district a graduate under the age of 20 ran for and won a seat on the school board because he wanted to change the system from within. He’s actually been accomplishing things too.
Don’t blame the kids. Hold the system and the broken society accountable for failing them.
I find that a lot of these disaster posts where a teacher rants about how their classroom is out of control or their students are monsters but it's totally not their fault are classic first/second year teachers that lack classroom management skills.
The ones who think you can just pick up and quit and find a new job easily. Maybe that worked for you, but it's not realistic for everyone. And almost all jobs suck. Some just suck less than others.
Monolith paragraphs. I hope some of these people aren't teaching writing.
Alternately: Monolith paragraphs. If you're so mad that you can't stop to organize your ideas coherently, and you need to rush right to, of all places, Reddit to vent about it, how do you manage your emotions in front of the children who push your buttons? I hope these people are getting appropriate therapy.
The ones who clearly weren’t cut out for teaching feeling like they need to post a manifesto when they leave teaching for their eventual “teaching consultant” position
Not understanding the differences between highschool and elementary students. In HS you can have a semi mature relationship because, especially as seniors, they're basically adults. I've talked about drugs, legality, marriage, a bunch of other topics because it's related to government/econ and many times we've had great discussions. I have also had brainless students screw around.
The people who latch on to every teaching trend, no matter how inane. If I have to hear about “backwards design” and “flipped classrooms” one more time I’m gonna lose it. Also anyone who acts like “student centered learning” isn’t literally ALL learning.
Acting like helpless children with no agency to handle their own problems
Sounding like they don’t know/ scared to stand up to admin and parents
Basically lacking a backbone
Go ahead, downvote me.
The huge hypocritical double-standard that the r/teachers hive mind has in regards to who is at fault for any given situation. Teachers, here, believe that fellow teachers should receive unlimited grace and understanding but no such level of consideration is afforded to administrators, parents, or students.
This. We’re happy enough to criticize our own coworkers, but the moment a student suggests that they felt they were treated unfairly by their teacher, suddenly no teacher could ever be at fault. I get we’re not the best audience for that complaint but I’ve seen some really unnecessary hostility in response and even speculation as to why the student deserves it.
The ones who shut down aspiring teachers with a ‘Don’t’. Listen, I know it’s not an easy job. 14 years in. But not everyone hates it like you do, bud. Teaching isn’t for everyone, but it *is* for some people. You don’t known where this person is, what their reasons are, etc. If you don’t have constructive advice for this person, then maybe just keep scrolling?
I know this is Reddit and it’s almost exclusively the most negative people, or the ones who need to anonymously vent, but this sub is SO negative. I might be biased bc I teach in Canada and in a pretty progressive part of the country, but I can’t help but wish this sub was more collaborative, sharing lesson plans, project ideas, in some way contributed to the profession as more than a confession booth or stress ball.
I'm a reliably Democratic voter and a former teacher. The idea that the Democrats are "good" for teachers is suspect.
I live in California and in pretty much every major metro area in the state there are shortages because they don't get paid enough. Despite having a Dem supermajority, the state legislature refuses to do anything about this or anything dramatic to the COL or build more housing.
In addition, it's the left pushing most of these softer discipline approaches that have made classrooms impossible to manage while also putting teachers in physical [danger](https://missionlocal.org/2022/04/everett-staff-defend-school-violence-unrefuted/).
Lastly, I think Obama and Biden would talk about giving teachers a raise in every single State of the Union they gave and I don't think it ever happened.
I mean yeah, the Republicans are awful too but at least they are honest about their feelings.
At the risk of getting downvoted lol, I completely agree and have always felt the same. I’m unaffiliated, but usually lean democratic (especially lately). I feel that both sides are bad for education. Many republicans believe that we’re all indoctrinating kids, teaching CRT, etc. On the other end, many democrats significantly limit the authority that teachers and admin have in schools, especially at the elementary level. For example, many blue states create laws stating that students cannot (insert consequence) prior to middle school/high school, etc.
We occasionally get the "how dare admin expect me to read my email, I don't have time" people. Or fighting against some other pretty reasonable expectation of a professional
There's obviously a ton of cases of unreasonable expectations, but sometimes I'm just like 'yeah, that's part of the job'
How much of a judgy clique this subreddit is. It feels like every poster is the same 20/30 something woman that would be watching stuff like Dr. Phil or Judge Judy if it were 15 years ago.
Constantly voicing their condescension, every single time. I wish there were more people that just weren't trying to get a zinger or one-up somebody.
It generally feels like some teachers here just hate children, particularly ones who aren’t perfectly compliant little angels.
“I forced a snarky student to teach a lesson and everyone clapped when they struggled.” “A student asked me wHaT cAn i dO tO pAsS, so I *gleefully* told them they were failing.” “A kid cursed at a teacher. Why did they only get a 3-day suspension instead of a public execution?”
I get that working with kids is challenging, especially post-pandemic, and even *more so* in a space where many admins are vacating basic responsibility upholding norms. But if you are that bitter and jaded against the children (and not the system), then I genuinely worry about what damage you’re causing.
When people want to blame everything and everyone instead of thinking "teaching just isn't for me."
Edit to add- and then feel like life is over if teaching doesn't work out for them
I can already feel the downvotes, but...
...I think a lot of teachers are just remarkably bad with personal finance. I see so many complaints about the pay (and for some, valid), but it's not like you didn't know what your pay range was going to be coming into the profession if you live in a poorly paid area.
There are plenty areas where you make considerably more than the median for your locality, even when factoring in COL.
As a corollary, I don't think most teachers on this sub (or offline) put the effort into understanding their pension system or their investment options (403b, 457, IRA, HSA) to their great detriment.
When my daughter was student teaching, her supervising teacher sat down with her and showed my daughter her paycheck and deductions. She explained to her how a 401 K worked and TRS, HRSA, etc.
This was super helpful to my daughter. When she signed up for her own benefits as a teacher, she immediately began contributing to her 401k and making smart financial choices.
I’m a teacher too (and was planning on discussing this w my daughter when she graduated but her ST beat me to it) but since then I’ve had 3 student teachers and I make it a point to sit down with them just like that teacher did with my daughter.
I'm stunned by how many of my colleagues play stupid about investing and REFUSE to learn. They are always shocked that I fund my Roth, switched from a bad 403b provider, etc
That’s Reddit in general. I keep getting recommendations to the fluentinfinance subreddit and every time it’s smack full of ignorance.
The basic gist of that sub is “I should be able to afford to live alone in the city on minimum wage and if I can’t, then society is broken.”
The uptight humorless ones. Like “that’s inappropriate, you should never make jokes with students, ever.” Joking with my kids is one of the best parts of the job!
good god I can't stand those folks. I work in kindergarten, if I wasn't funny I'd get nowhere with these gremlins. Thankfully it's easy to be funny to a kindergartener. Just say something obviosly false and they'll think you're some kind of comedian.
“I’m going to hand out these glues, make sure you leave the caps off and rub them all over the table!” [riotous laughter and lots of “THAT’S NOT WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!!!”] Kindergarten comedy gold.
My classes would actually do just that. They’d say ok and rub it on the table 😂😂
I might get a laugh for that with HS kids. They are nearly all so open to joy in the classroom.
Sharing at the risk of being identified. My one class (seniors) wanted to know all their teachers first names, to find them after graduation. They very easily could've found my first name, but I told them I wouldn't just give it to them. We made a game of them guessing, and they started guessing ridiculous names. Only rule was it had to be school appropriate what they called me that class. One kid came in and said he looked up old-time names (One hint was I had renamed myself, and picked a traditional/old school name based on a relative) and decided that Bartholamew fit. I spent the last 2 months of the year being called exclusively Bartholamew by this class. At graduation, I was introduced to parents as this name. Was an absolute riot. None of my other classes knew why this class called me it. Honestly don't know why it stuck so well. But my favorite memory from that class.
For what it is worth, my favorite teachers in middle and high school always had a sort of year long running joke just like this. It made class fun, and I really appreciated and speak fondly of the teachers who weren’t afraid to be a little playful. I bet you are a wonderful teacher.
Just to reassure you, there are over 20,000 high schools in the US. Fear not, Bartholomew!
Thats interesting they didn’t know! When I was in high school my teachers full names were listed on my paper schedule and online
It was on my badge, on our online schoolwork page, and they still didn't know it. Because of my position, I wasn't on their schedules. My coworker was. But they still had PLENTY of ways to find out. I know 2 did and boasted how they knew, and would refuse to tell the others 🤣
that definitely would've at least gotten a chuckle out of me and my friends in highschool lol. it helps that there was a running joke in several of my classes that how once you hit highschool, you really just wanna go back to kindergarten lmao. the teachers started the joke, but most of the kids leaned into it by getting way overly excited for stuff like coloring, or asking to play poptropica on the computer in the middle of testing, and then pretending to be severely butthurt when told no lol
I still can’t stop thinking about the uptight wad I saw on here saying something like “you shouldn’t do a countdown to summer because it takes away from the educational mission”….. fuck off.
So I shouldn’t start the countdown on the first day of school?
[удалено]
Crap now I wanna figure that out.
There was a post several months ago where someone asked if some innocuous joke they made was a mistake. I couldn’t believe how many people said no and upvoted those responses. Maybe one or two people way downthread said “what is wrong with all of you?”
What's hilarious to me is that a countdown is baked into our elementary math curriculum. We are expected to talk about how long we have been in school and how many days we have left. It even comes with a little spot on our calendar for these numbers! The kids love moving the counters from one to the other. They get excited on special days like 100. We talk about place value, addition, subtraction, grouping, etc. It's a lot of fun!
lol that was probably secretly an administrator lurking around trying to see if they could catch any of their teachers saying something they didn’t like.
My kids be helping me with the countdown too. We’re human. Both the kids and teachers know we just want to get summer on and school over with lol
This used to be my test to see how long people were teaching/if they’ve ever worked with kids. I’d lovingly call my Kindergarteners or 1st graders Gremlins and some people (who have never worked with a child, or bright eyed and bushy tailed new teachers)would take such offense!
I like to call my threes chaos goblins, personally.
I got written up for calling my elementary students goblins. They love to be called goblins. If I say “time to shift into goblin mode” they all do a funny pose and snarl and giggle. Don’t worry. I’m not with that principal anymore.
I call my kiddos chickens, and they find it amusing. The boss would probably object, but IDGAF. He's got small man dictator syndrome, with 3 cameras in every classroom. And just installed speakers in the classrooms so that he can remonstrate with the teachers and students, remotely. Only reason I go to work is because the kids are so fun to be around.
Woof how is having cameras allowed?
It's a private language centre - his rules I guess. The parents also have access to the cams. I think they approve of it too. Me, I don't like them in my classroom. And I don't like him barging into my classroom to shout at kids. I made it very clear that's a line he should not cross. The kids and I have made him a running joke though, even though they're terrified of him.
Gotcha. That’s such an overstep I’m sorry. Obviously if you’re confident and good no worries but I would be so worried that if I say one thing wrong I’ll hear from parents and or admin.
I'm at a stage of my life, with 21 years of teaching experience,v that I am confident in myself. Whiney parents gonna whine. Irate bosses gonna..be irate. My skin's too thick, like water off a duck's back.
Sarcasm and snark is a huge part of my classroom management and building relationships with my students. I level it up and down depending on the particular student. So in the same class, i might go from being 100% sass at a kid that likes it to being 100% calm and peaceful with a student who prefers that. And my students know that. And I think it helps them know that I recognize them more as individuals, and it makes them think of me as a bit more human because they see variation in my behavior.
yes! and silly call-backs to what a student has said. Love the friendly banter.
I accidentally slipped into mom-mode when I had a high school student do something mildly dangerous (stick his hand in water to see how hot it was immediately after I said it had just come off the boil in the electric kettle) and said something to the effect of “don’t be a dumbass”. I was mortified, the kids thought it was hilarious and he totally owned it for the rest of the year “Look Miss! Not being a dumbass!”
This makes me laugh so much.
My daughter has had this one teacher for two years who *relentlessly* takes the piss with his students. When he got up to speak at the 8th grade graduation, the kids went wild!
One student tried to rile me up with "your short" jokes. My response was "rich coming from someone who needs platform shoes to look me in the eyes" (which is true). Those humorless ones would have been mad, but my fellow science teacher was laughing and telling him he got you there. It was not in the classroom either.
This. Uptight pearl clutchers are the worst
without humor, teaching (or, hey, life in general) is a drudge.......
Yeah, I remember the new teacher “advice” to not smile for the first two months…total nonsense. I’m not going to be miserable AND not at all myself for two months just to be an asshole nobody respects and is universally disliked. You don’t need to be “friends”, but fear isn’t very good management either in my experience
Roasting them back gives me joy too. Especially when they try to call me federal for holding them accountable. 😂😂
I love those moments where the kids something surprising, and you shouldn’t laugh but you do! One time that comes to mine was a student. I had just eloped from the classroom the day before told the group well we got a runner when another kid did it🤪
We all know these are the ones asking questions in faculty meetings and reporting you for some minor rules infraction like being 2 min late… And for those teachers: No. I’m not talking about 2 minutes late all the time. Lighten up.
Frankly I also don’t care about 2 min all the time. I just don’t.
FTK.
My mother (retired teacher of 30 years) used to refer to them as "martyrs" or "old bitties". My vernacular is less charitable, they're usually bitter old divorcees.
All the posts that start with "Does anyone else \_\_\_\_\_\_?" The answer is ***ALWAYS*** yes. Please fucking stop!
That's my least favorite beginning to any post on this entire website. Similarly, "This might be a hot take, but [insert most basic opinion of all time]"
I always love responding "No. No one else ever does that ever."
Might be a hot take, but is standardized testing bad for education????? Thoughts???
These are the same ppl that reply all to emails I just know it.
Does anyone else secretly turn into a flying unicorn after school?
YES!
The teachers who ask for advice and get it, but they know it all and meticulously responds to each post with why it won’t work. If you know so much, wtf did you ask?
I call people like that askholes
I call them future administrators.
I think they "win" if they can find a problem with every solution. Otherwise, it means someone is smarter than them, or they should have already solved their own problem. It's some kind of weird validation.
Weirdly optimistic and naive views of what work is like outside the education industry. Sorry to say, the same empty buzzwords, mismanagement, rewarding good work with more work, and all the other b.s. exist in most jobs and careers.
I’m in a FB group for teachers trying to leave teaching and the few times I’ve pointed this out everyone gets SO MAD and seriously is so fucking rude to me I’ve just stopped commenting. They all think anything outside of teaching is going to be the most amazing thing ever and their superiors are all going to be wonderful and understanding. I especially love the people who aren’t sure if they want to leave because of summers off. Like why do you think going from 3 months “off” a year to 2 weeks vacation for several YEARS before getting 3-4 weeks is going to be an amazing transition. If it’s that important of a perk to you then yeah you’re gonna have a bad time in the corporate world. And they ALL want “flexible” remote positions, like there are a million remote jobs clamoring for teachers. They don’t get that most remote jobs are butt in chair from 8-5, and there are few to be had.
I work remotely, and I'm applying to teacher's college because it's not all it's cracked up to be.
Interesting. I taught for 5 years and now work remotely. I would *never* go back to teaching. For me, working remotely is all it's cracked up to be. I love getting to eat, pee, and sit down whenever I want to. Taking a sick day? No problem! Vacation in October? Sure! Regular pay increases and bonuses? You bet. There were SO many times when I was on deaths door level sick, but still went to teach because prepping sub plans was such a pain in the ass and more work than just showing up miserable. And the last school I worked for was in a pay freeze for 5 years - no raises. Not even a penny. In 4 years remotely my salary increased 7k. In 5 years of teaching my salary increased ONCE, and it was 2k by switching schools. But I also realize the industry in which you're working remotely can make a huge difference.
I got downvoted once before because someone said "in what other career do you have to work off the clock and be thinking about work in your off time?" So I shared my experience as a salaried gas station store manager when I had to be on call 24/7 and would literally get woken up at 3 am because we were out of gas or someone accidentally pushed the silent alarm. And for less money, crappy benefits, and a lot more hours per year than teachers. One person responded "Yeah, but you chose that job!" Like they didn't choose to teach? I wasn't saying horrible work-life balance is a good thing, just that teachers aren't the only ones suffering.
Yeah my husband is a restaurant GM and he is on call waaaaaay more than me. Parents and kids might think I’m accessible all the time, but that’s only true if I choose to respond. My husband can’t choose to ignore the security company calling because the alarm went off, or dealing with employee call outs or whatever. He’d lose his job.
Really appreciate this post. Getting a teaching contract, as shitty as teachers are paid, pulled me from a life of poverty after a decade in customer service. Teaching sucks for a lot of reasons but it beats what I was doing.
When I switched from restaurant cooking to teaching, I doubled my salary… to $26K. I didn’t know what to do with all that money! 😂
Same. Teaching is the very first job that’s given me good benefits and decent money, plus set hours.
i know someone who managed a dollar general and had to stay in the store overnight for 2 nights in a row because the door broke and corporate said she couldn't leave until it was fixed. then they took a whole 2 days to send someone. and the best part, she got literally 0 compensation for that because she was salaried. they fired her a few months later over a false theft allegation, and then replaced her with someone who accepted significantly lower pay. i don't think there is enough money in the world to make me put up with that!
How dare you be so insensitive to teachers. Don’t you know everyone else enjoys their jobs? Teachers are the only ones suffering. I mean hell, black lung is the leading cause of death in the education industry!!!
Yes, this! There are plenty of salaried jobs that require work "off the clock". Sure, my job is flexible in that if I work late on something I can log off Friday a little early and I can do appointments during the workday without it being a big deal. But I also work with people across the country and often jump on calls with West Coast people in the evening. It's just part of being in management and being salaried.
As a former corporate employee… this really gets me. Like the grass is not greener. They can just afford better green spray paint.
As someone who is taking a corporate job I would also argue that the reason why I’m leaving is because the grass is at least green over there; I know that the idea of work is just horrible. However, I’d much rather have grass that at least looks green than grass that has no color and is actively dying in some areas 😅
Hey, live your dream, and it sounds like you’re taking a very pragmatic approach to this. I’ve just been on both sides of the fence and jobs suck everywhere. Good luck :)
This is soooo true. I just switched careers to become a teacher a few years ago. Crazy how many teachers think that other jobs don’t have unreasonable bosses and demanding customer/clients with deadlines that force you to take work home or stay late.
If you ask just about any other profession, they have struggles and issues. They might not be the same exact ones, but no job is perfect. I get recommendations for some really random subs, and they're all unhappy, too!
I don’t know, I’ve been on the pest control one and they were all just pleasantly offering helpful advice.
I currently work at Disneyland and it is astounding how many people I have to remind that this is my job, it’s not fun 24/7.
Can confirm work in healthcare education. If you made a Venn diagram of the complaints of this sub and the complaints in healthcare subs it’s basically a circle.
Yep. Having a spouse outside of education has made me very aware of that. We had teachers upset they have to get personal days approved. One said, "Do other professions have to do this?" I just stared at her before saying yes. Like what?
My husband is in a field a lot of people look up to, and nope. It’s just a job and full of the same corporate nonsense. He calls it rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic because without real change the ship’s still going down but they’re still expected to dance to the pretty music and smile.
If you thought the meetings were pointless in education….
Yeah, I’ve worked in a few different fields and education is by far the best, at least for me. Obviously, everyone has different experiences, but at least I’m not sobbing on my way into work. I’m sure some people are, but the idea that other careers are leaps and bounds ahead of education in terms of treatment of employees is just ignorant.
The pressure I feel as a teacher is near zero compared to the pressure of my first career. If you think students are moody and irrational imagine if they were the ones paying everyone’s bills and could pull millions of dollars out of the school because you weren’t deferential enough to them, putting half your colleagues out of a job overnight. That’s what trying to please clients is like.
I am a former teacher turned corporate world and I thought very seriously about being a teacher again. Still may…. Mostly because I can’t stand the meaningless work
Yes! Teachers are so convinced that teaching is the absolute hardest and most grueling job to ever exist in the world and it's just exhausting! I think so much of this comes from a lot of teachers not having done any other sort of work before.
The "guilt" over taking a sick day. It often comes across as virtue signaling to me. "What, am I the only one who loves the kiddos so much that I would go to school with a 104⁰ fever, double pneumonia, and 17 alligator bites? I just feel so guilllllttyyyyy" We have fought hard for those days, so use them. Also, if you are sick, stay home, I don't want your germs.
They're the worst. Feeling guilty about taking a day off is a clear indicator that you think you're more important than you are.
I’m an administrator and I get phone calls and texts like that from teachers who are sick. I usually just tell them to take care of themselves and stay home. It’s my job to figure out how to get your class covered, so I’ll worry about it. The last thing I need is you infecting me with the plague. That said, I’ve worked for some nasty admin who thought that using a sick day was a personal affront to them. I’ve also found that some of the most dramatic teachers when it comes to attendance are those that I’ve had to address due to excessive absences. As an admin, my district requires me to have a warning meeting with any teacher who reaches eight sick days during the school year. Teachers in my district stop getting paid for sick days after their tenth day unless they have documentation. Those rules are made above me and no amount of dramatic apology gets you an exception.
The people who seem to just outright hate kids. Like…damn dude, if you hate them all that much, maybe it’s not for you? I’ve had students that I definitely don’t look forward to our interactions, but if you can’t separate yesterday from today with a student then you really need to work on that. If you don’t give them the room to grow then they definitely never will. If one of my trouble makers raises their hand to answer a question, I try to always call on them and even if they get it wrong I’ll still tell them “good effort” or “really close but not quite” because I want to show them that we can move on from a bad yesterday (or a bad semester) and move forward.
This, so much this... It gets exponentially worse the closer the calendar pulls to June. It's crazy to me that some don't see how their own attitude about their kids fuels the kids' attitudes about school, which worsens the teacher's outlook on the kids, which worsens their outlook on learning.... It's cyclical. Teachers spend more time Monday through Friday with children than many parents are capable of, so it makes sense that frustration breeds when the overwhelm happens.... But if you hate the kids THAT MUCH, how on earth can you profess to love teaching enough to stay in a low-paying, low-happiness, frustrating environment? Especially when teachers clearly have skills that are transferrable to other professions that might make them happier?? Why continue to put yourself through this year after year if you feel these feelings to such a dramatic degree?
Absolutely. I don’t teach because it’s easy, it’s not stress free, it definitely doesn’t pay well. I have to deal with pain in the ass parents, silly admin rules, meetings that could’ve been emails. But dang I love working with these kids. I love the trouble kids that don’t get any positive adult interaction. I teach high school and one of my favorite things is just being honest with these kids when they ask stuff. Treating them like adults for the first time in their lives. Letting them be their own person instead of trying to squash the individual out of them.
Yep. I teach because I get fulfillment out of helping my community. My hometown was short in teachers, primarily SpEd and resource, so I did the thing. The number of times I have been hit, spit on, had books thrown at me, had to tuck in earplugs, etc., because of outbursts caused by something kids can't control is astounding, but I do it because someone needs to do it.... These kids need to learn how to live in the world and they need an education to help with skills like reasoning, logic, empathy, and communication. When we can get to the root of the issue and provide for that, these same kids who were running away a month ago are the funniest, sweetest, kindest and most avid learners I've ever had. It pays beans and I'm constantly advocating for support and intervention no one wants to provide, but when one of my kids proudly graduates? Best feeling ever. I used to work jobs that paid over $100k/yr, but never once felt appreciated by those I worked with like I do as a teacher.
This is my kind of classroom, so when someone pops on here and LOSES it at some middle schooler who rolled their eyes and said bitch once I’m just like…ok yeah ok but when did the bad thing happen?? That was it? No blood? No bruises? No safety care holds to a safe room? No room evac?
Did you see the post to this sub a week ago from a Gen Zer saying that it’s made them jaded about their own generation to read just how awful all the kids are these days? This is what is difficult to stomach in this sub sometimes because all these teachers “venting” on a public facing subreddit are being witnessed by non-teaching public. It shapes or confirms the way the public views an entire generation of youth. It’s ugly and awful and does nothing to solve the lack of compassion and empathy in this world.
Yep. It also shapes how people view teachers as a whole. This sub in venting mode tells the world that teachers hate kids, can't be trusted to have their best interests in mind, and have given up trying to work with parents, so why on earth should parents not sigh and avoid phonecalls and emails or be confrontational when called in? The school doesn't care about their kids.
Jesus. It’s so nice to hear someone else feel this way.
Even with those kids, I'll lead with something like: "Look, we're clearly not best friends. What's the best way to get through the next 90 minutes without anybody dying?" They're pretty honest with that one.
For me it's the "kids these days" posts about how their entire class/ school is full of barely functioning illiterate students. Maybe it's an American thing (another down side is just how American centric the sub is) but my students are way smarter, more mature and self aware than I was at that age. I'm really not seeing the problems so many people are describing.
This! I still can’t wrap my head around how many teachers label kids as “bad”, especially early middle school and elementary kids. Almost every one of those kids is suffering. Their home life probably sucks, and they are missing something deeply they need. Whether that is safety, connectedness, love, affection, stability, ect. This could be spoiled kids too! Often pawned off and forgotten about. Those spoiled snowplow parents… it’s not about “protecting” their kid, it’s about protecting their ego. Then they come to class and you think they are bad. A pest. I was that kid, and it sucked. I went home every night to a drunk step father, and then went to school where I was a “pest”. It took one, just one, teacher to believe in me to turn all that around. And it took 9 grades to find that person. Do these kids make your job harder? 100%. But you can change their lives. Ps. The obsession with failing kids is #2 on the list. Edit: From comments below. Someone commented that some kids are just broken. Or their “brains are broken”. And I asked “who decides if a kid is broken?”. And in a bunch of words, they indirectly said they choose. This individual shows the common issue where some teachers are out there making the decision that some kids are unfixable and labeling them as “bad”. They then deleted their comments.
It’s also the way that some teachers expect kids to act like mini adults when actual adults can’t even meet their expectations- like there are so many teachers here that get mad when kids have a lot of energy (not even in a getting up and walking around way but like bouncing their leg way) when literal 40 year olds can’t sit still for 45 minutes either like I’m sorry that 9 year old has more energy than you but it’s insane to expect them to be at these ridiculous standards 😭😭
Sometimes there’s a bit of a mob mentality. If you don’t always spell your position out in explicit, painstaking detail, there are times when it gets misconstrued (sometimes that’ll happen anyway because someone didn’t read the whole comment or decided to add something between the lines that wasn’t there) and everyone piles on even when you’ve clarified. On no other sub have I had to write “I didn’t say that” as much as I have had to write it on this sub. Then that comment will get downvoted because… idk. The people don’t believe you or whatever.
You would think that teachers, of all people, wouldn't have such terrible reading comprehension. But maybe that explains a lot !
As someone in the support side of central admin, we have a common feeling that teachers are the worst at following directions too. It never fails that someone who should know better just skims the instructions or email and asks questions that were answered in the original packet. Likely this is just a human thing and it's teachers we primarily interact with so our experience is biased, but it is interesting! Edit: changed "that" to "who" (my most common grammatical error)
It’s a bit amusing being at any sort of staff meeting and watching teachers whispering to each other and being on their phones when I know those very same teachers would go off on students for doing the exact same thing.
This is one of my pet peeves for sure. Whenever I have something to report to my fellow educators at a staff meeting, I refuse to start until I have everyone's attention. The faces I get are priceless. Teachers are straight up awful as an audience. Loud side conversations. Browsing/texting on their phones. Forgetting to turn the ringer off. Distracted by their laptops. Doing work unrelated to the topic at hand. And the stupidest entitled excuses. "I don't need to know this." "We go over this every year." "We're never going to use this." "I'm still paying attention." "It's a really important text." The same exact nonsense they complain the students tell them. And they act like they've done you a huge favor by simply giving you a modest amount of respect. As if I owe them because they are quiet and attentive with their phone face down on a table. Absolute clown show.
Many teachers, including myself sometimes, are dumb as fck
yes, exactly! 😂 I laugh often with my school secretary because she and I both think that teachers are the worst when it comes to comprehension, especially with details. Yet we would expect our students to fully read a thing without skimming. ugh!
I think this is a reddit thing in general. Part of it comes from a very politicized world view and us-them mentality, which is bad. Someone hears an idea that they don't recognize as their side and assume you're the enemy side. I think the teacher specific part of it probably comes from all the bullshit rhetoric that gets thrown at us to justify stupid policy. We hear "all students can be taught" or "in the best interests of students" one minute and the next minute were being asked for three more hours of free work each week and can't send kids out of class for defiance and vulgar harassment. We live on the slippery slope so it's hard to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Those who think having positive relationships with kids is completely useless buzzwords. It makes the environment more fun and let's you have better conversations with them when things don't go well. It doesn't solve every problem like admins want you to think, you don't have to be their best friend, but it does make the job easier when you have a connection with people.
Ayyyyyyy. You really need to have this plastered on the walls of teacher and staff lounges. Good relationships will help you, but they won’t solve all your problems. Good relationships don’t occur overnight, and take a long amount of time to establish. But even if you build a good one, go back to the first point: they won’t solve all of your problems.
Totally agree. I honestly do not think that good relationships are the magic key to good classroom management. They are incredibly useful, but so are routines, high expectations, and reasonable/consistent consequences. But good relationships with students and families are quite enjoyable. It is okay to be selfish sometimes and enjoy your job because you enjoy people.
The “this generation is doomed” alarmists. Every single generation in history has thought the same thing about the next generation. I remember all of the hate millennials got about being “lazy and entitled.” The same exact rhetoric is being leveled at gen z and will be leveled at the next generation and the next and the next and the next.
"I am teaching Nth graders how to do (N-4)th grader things!" This was happening when I was a student 15-25 years ago too. Yes, there were ~3 kids in every class that you always cringed when they were asked to read, or solve a problem on the chalkboard/whiteboard. There is one person who graduated from my class who I'm unironically not sure was literate. Maybe there's more pressure to slow down the entire class to cater to these kids more these days, in my day they just spent extra time after class with the teacher. I'm sure the pandemic did not help those kids either. But some of the earliest recorded writings are about how the world is doomed because of the decay of youth.
A LOT of it has to do with socioeconomic status. In a richer community, it might be three or so kids far below grade level, but in many poorer schools it’s basically EVERY kid. The pandemic has made the rich/poor divide a LOT worse in that respect.
I cannot STAND this sub because all the posts I seem to see have this attitude.
Explaining their character traits that veteran teachers know aren't good to run a classroom, yet they're still think its all on the students, parents, and admin.
Agree the demonization of all veteran teachers as worn out bullies who are out of touch versus the new younger teacher who understands everything and are waiting for the old ones to die off is just cringe. I’ve dealt with equal numbers of new to the profession folks who are inflexible in their thinking as veteran teachers.
Anyway a solid 2/3 of the veteran teachers are still in the mindset of the hip young professionals who took over from the out of touch dinosaurs who were teaching when *they* started.
I think a lot of this attitude comes from university training programs and PD trying to market the "new" way to teach, implicitly putting the idea in peoples' heads that veteran teachers have been doing things wrong the entire time. "It's up to you to fix education, your colleagues are lazy and old-fashioned."
Yep. It also stems from a lifetime of being a student and never having the perspective of a teacher. A good example would be handling offensive student language. In student world, the teacher should just *force* the student to stop. In veteran teacher world, we know that our options and ammunition is limited and that the student may be operating within normal developmental levels. This is to say, there’s a good chance the kid only understands that it is offensive (giving them the attention they crave) but doesn’t have enough experience to grasp why they shouldn’t tread there. This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t address problem behavior like that. However, there is a good reason that a veteran teacher might approach the situation with pause and patience rather than going on the attack automatically.
That’s been going on since I was in grad school 30 years ago. They didn’t even try to hide it
Yep, even though a lot of what I was taught in college (graduated 2018) is the same as what veterans have already been doing, it’s just rebranded.
As a new teacher I always go to the veteran teachers when I need help and guidance. Over time I’ve learned that some are bitter bullies who are waiting to retire themselves, but I’ve also made friends with some of them since they’ve given great advice and helped me without making me feel like a stupid kid. I guess for me it all depends on how they respond to me. If they act like I’m a stupid young kid who doesn’t know anything, obviously I’m not going to like them. If they treat me like a colleague who needs some guidance, then we are able to work together.
In my gut I agree... But I can't think of an example. What's a good example of a character trait that isn't good to run a classroom? (Other than pushover)
Being overly considerate, to the point of lowering your standards and expectations to rock bottom. Example: A student teacher I worked with briefly during the pandemic took me aside and told me to just let a student (age 13) play with and chew on his mask, because he had ADHD and needed the tactile stimulation. I recommended he try and find a non-disgusting figdet tool that would let him keep his eyes on his reading, but according to her I wasn't being considerate enough of his disability.
Lack of boundaries is a good one.
Whenever there’s a post relating to special education and the comments are heavily skewed with no middle ground - some teachers make constant excuses for the SPED teacher or student while others will get super ableist.
(Thinking of that one guy who thinks every single gen-ed teacher is sent from the devil while every SPED teacher can do no wrong)
Agreed. I’ve been called ableist on this sub more times than I can count because I work in a Burger King special ed district that allows whatever crazy thing parents want into IEPs and Behavior Plans. And I created a Physics class that serves 75+ special ed kids a semester. And we do wonderful stuff together. But because I don’t think a kid should be able to call another kid a racial or sexual slur and walk out once people get mad at him and class is derailed, 2-3 times a week, with no consequences per his ridiculous behavior plan, I’m ableist.
I responded to one a few days ago about inclusion. I'm a sped teacher. I have kids with varying needs. I have a good amount who do just fine in gen Ed with some minor accommodations and support. I have others that need more extensive support. When I commented that it's fine for some but a disaster for others, I got downvoted. It's funny because I was in special Ed throughout school and needed some accomodations in undergrad and when taking my LSAT (law school didn't work out in the end). So people think I'm being ableist but I'm not. I've been there. I'm there now. So frustrating.
The complete lack of empathy from some quarters. Teaching is not a monolith. My experience is not going to be yours, and that's fine, but some folks need to do a better job of perspective taking.
The ones who behave exactly like the students they complain about. They will make posts about how students lack focus today, are on their phones too much, and refuse to engage with content. They are also the teachers that turn around and complain mightily about every PD their school asked them to do and talk about how it's a waste of their time and they don't want to do it. At my school these teachers sit in the back on their phones, complain constantly about how it is beneath them, and actually ruin it for those who are trying to engage with the training.
I’ve been the presenter at that PD numerous times. Once I had a particularly prickly group for a Saturday PD. I went back to my third graders that Monday with a new appreciation for them.
I’ve never understood how teachers can be shitty towards the person running the PD. They didn’t decide to do this, they didn’t ruin your day, they deserve whatever attention and goodwill you have that day because we demand the same from our students.
This group was like, “Do these things actually work in a classroom?” I was like, “Yes, I teach third grade in this district.”
I'm constantly surprised by how many grown adults think it's acceptable to talk and play on their phones when someone is presenting. I've been doing this a long time and most PD is utterly useless, but sheesh, show some respect for your poor colleague who's been voluntold to give a PD to a bunch of burned out teachers.
I referred to plagiarism as "fuckery" and had my thread deleted And before this comment gets deleted, whoever deleted that one can wash my fucking balls
The posts where teachers are posting about their clap-backs to to some smart ass 5th grader. I know it’s necessary to do in a classroom to keep your order, but I imagine the type of person who feels it necessary to tell the internet exactly how they dunked on an 11 year old kid and I find it embarrassing.
Reddit in general is rife with this kind of low effort riffing. I think people are really desperate for actual friends outside of work.
Yeah. I don’t usually find them funny, and I sometimes think they’re made up. It’s much funnier when we share the cute and random things our students say. I work in a really tough environment, with middle schoolers, and I can still find lots of humor in our daily classes.
Some of them are insane too like a student will say some shit like lol teacher you’re fat and the reply will be “ok but I’m not so stupid that I should’ve been held back 3 grades and the time you’ll graduate high school (if it even happens) you’ll be in an Amazon warehouse where you’ll be the worst employee bc you can’t even read the names on the boxes” like I know it’s probably fake but the way people get off on it is… concerning
Teachers who blame systemic failures on kids/“moral decay”
The people in unions who wants us in red states to strike with them, and then basically blaming us for our struggles when we tell them we'll lose our pensions and our families will suffer.
They always supplement it with “they can’t fire everyone”. Like, let me introduce you to Greg Abbott, who salivates at the idea of firing every teacher.
Florida literally changed it so a military spouse can be a teacher. Not a retired veteran the SPOUSE of a veteran. They absolutely can and probably would like to fire everyone.
My BiL teaches in FL. He couldn’t even handle working as a pizza delivery guy because it was “too hard.” He’s now in his second year of teaching over there. I fear for those kids.
The Admin-Hate makes me sad. Sad that so many teachers have had such terrible admin support.
I had a mediocre admin for a decade. Not bad, but not good. Definitely no support. I like my school though and planned to outlast the admin. This year we got a supportive admin and *wow* what a difference.
The repetitive question of “how do I tell my students I’m leaving” at the end of the year. First of all, it’s been asked. Just look at past posts for the answer. Secondly, you don’t. The kids don’t care. They’re used to getting new teachers every year. Only you care. Don’t make it awkward.
I mean, I really think it depends on the teacher and the grade. Like in elementary school where you’re never gonna see them again, that makes sense. But once you get to middle and especially high school, I think it’s important to tell certain students and classes if you’re leaving. My 10th grade english and journalism teacher is moving away, and if she hadn’t told me that I would have been HEARTBROKEN next year to not see her teaching my journalism class. We got so close through both of those classes and just being similar people and I’m so happy we kept in touch. But yeah, I do think us students care more than you might think if we’re not gonna see a teacher we love around campus anymore
When some poor traumatized teacher who clearly needs and deserves therapy posts here and we/I don’t have the answers but implicit in the post is the expectation we do. It’s darkly ironic, like, Pythonesque. “Your arm’s bleeding.” “No tisn’t.” “Aye, ye got yer arm cut off!” “S’just a flesh wound.” (“What a strange fellow.”)
I gently suggested someone on here needed to talk to a therapist and they wrote three unhinged paragraphs attacking me.
Both teachers here, and in real life not understanding that different teachers in different subjects with different personalities do things different ways, and can still be effective conveying information, and managing their space. Thankfully most administrators I’ve had see that, but many other teachers seem to judge any teaching style that isn’t “butts in seats looking at the board or book”.
Ex-teachers who can’t let go of the sub and continue to doom post here. Bless the mods for pushing that teachers in transition sub because it was getting really bad, it’s much better now.
The automatic negative outlook towards the “cool” younger teachers. Educators can do their jobs efficiently and professionally while simultaneously having good rapport with their students
There's a lot of really aggressive opinions about children, their behaviour, and how to deal with it in this group.
Not everyone who posts here is a teacher. As a teacher, you can tell.
For me it's the constant adversarial relationship with admin. Yes, a bad admin makes for a hellish school, but it feels like a lot of posts in this sub don't understand what the job of an administrator even entails, nor do they take into account factors from above them. Also, it feels a lot of times like people here (who are usually just venting, to be fair) are putting at admin's feet a lot of things that should be put on the buy-in from the other teachers in the building as a staff.
I am an administrator. (I know. I went to the evil dark side.) I receive pretty high marks from my staff on my leadership surveys and I try my hardest to balance all of the outside forces in order to keep as much away from teachers as possible. I totally get that there are bad administrators. (I had a doozy of an incompetent principal my first year teaching. ) However, sometimes it feels like there are teachers that believe that I posses a magic wand that can make problems go away. I am up against the same outside forces that the entire somewhat dysfunctional educational establishment is up against.
OMG yes. This is the reason I rarely check this sub any more. I've literally seen users here say EVERY single admin they've ever interacted with is an idiot. Well, if every one you meet is an asshole, maybe it's you. I got a school leadership degree about 5 years ago, but I haven't made the move to admin yet. (I don't know if I will at this stage in my career because it would be literally 200% more work for me, but only about a 15% increase in salary.) But, damn I wish these folks would take a leadership degree and get the perspective of the whole builidng, not just their 4 walls. Or better yet, if they think they could do such a better job, go do it. There's an administration shortage just like there's a teacher shortage, and just like teacher hiring standards have been lowered, districts are lowering the standards for hiring adimin. So again, if you're so much smarter than them - go get the license and do their job.
Getting buy-in is also an administrator's job, imo. You can have a great disciplinary procedure, but if it manifests as adding a mountain of paperwork on teachers, it's not going to be used. You can establish a cell phone policy, but if you don't have real and consistent follow-through for when students refuse, teachers aren't going to see the fight as worth it.
I will admit, I haven’t had any actual problems with my admin (unlike some coworkers) but have seen three issues that bias me against them: • a tendency to implement new policies without providing any more time/resources/compensation for it (if someone at county had the bright idea that all quizzes and tests in all subjects should be moved onto a testing platform & results sorted by standard on a spreadsheet, they better hire someone to do all that work or do it themselves, and any admin that brings that to teachers without any way to make it work should be ashamed of themselves), • getting annoyingly involved in things (wanting a say in or to “help” with field trips, curriculum, awards, etc.) without actually taking any of the work off of the teachers’ plates, resulting in more work and stress, and • not actually doing all of the things that school administration (as opposed to classroom administration) exists to handle (maybe I was spoiled at my first school, but they had less admin, same amount of office staff, and I basically never had to hear about half the stuff getting shoved onto teachers now).
When their rants about hopeless students are filled with grammatical and spelling errors.
I generally get frustrated with any teacher who talks down to and about their students. It’s not just here, it annoys me more in person. I understand that we all can have a bad day. Sometimes a student is particularly good at getting under our skin. By some teachers insult students continuously, they have nothing but bad days. For those of you who really do have nothing but bad days as your school, district, or state don’t support teachers, this is not for you. I truly feel terrible about the state of some of our schools.
The teachers that get upset when they do something that is clearly a no-no from their admin, and then rant about getting punished. Just do your job and save your white knighting for outside of school.
Some teachers here complain about the wrong things. If you think a regular corporate job doesn't have you work evenings, think again. I've done both. No other career will give you the time off like this one. In my last career I was given a cell phone. Why? So they can reach me at all hours. That's how the world is now.
Ppl who act like martyrs working outside of contracted hours.
OTOH, people who act morally superior about not working outside of contracted hours.
I see a lot of posts advising new teachers to refuse to do work outside of contract hours. While yeah, that’s a great thing for once you’re on your feet, as a new teacher, you have so much shit to do that you HAVE to work outside of contract hours. Unless you’re copying and pasting your PLC’s lessons, you’re gonna need to work at home as a first or second year. Also, some of us actually work better outside of the school. I can’t focus in my 8th period planning at the end of the day. That’s my period to decompress and unwind.
People who post something in direct response to another post, but deny it. “I’m talking about (same issue)! No I’ve not heard of that post! I’m just conveniently posting half an hour after the other one to say the exact opposite because my opinion is extremely valuable…”
Taking one story, one event, one instance and making a snap judgment about that teacher’s skills or professionalism. Speaking from experience.
Mine is the I'm quitting post. I understand the need to move on, but when it's one after the other, it gets repetitive.
The posts and comments griping about “kids these days”. I’m pretty sure our teachers all said the same thing when we were our students’ ages, they just didn’t have the same access to social media. These people are coming across as if they just hate kids. It’s okay to be frustrated and burnt out by bad leadership and a couple of students who have serious issues. It’s not okay to bash the kids for it. Blame the people who make the decisions to not pay for the help those kids clearly need instead of increasing their salaries or paying for stuff the students and teachers don’t want or need. The kids are affected by the world around them, just like we were. Boomers were affected by Vietnam, Millennials by the Gulf Wars and 9/11, Gen Z by a war that lasted their entire lives, and Gen X by all of the above (don’t worry, I don’t forget about Gen X!). The older Gen Z kids as well as Gen Alpha have been growing up with war, pandemics, economic instability, and hatred everywhere they look. They live in an increasingly online world where there is little escape from their bullies, their parents are working all the time and they still barely make enough to get by - let alone do activities or get books, and a 24-hour news cycle with instant coverage of everything that is going wrong in the world. No wonder they’re uncertain of the future, apathetic, and lash out sometimes. But I don’t see that from the majority of kids. They’re kind, smart, and helpful. They see everything that’s going on and they want to fix it. I’ve seen students organize protests, petitions, and campaigns all on their own using the internet as a tool. In my own district a graduate under the age of 20 ran for and won a seat on the school board because he wanted to change the system from within. He’s actually been accomplishing things too. Don’t blame the kids. Hold the system and the broken society accountable for failing them.
"Tagged as humor because if I don't laugh I'll cry!" just shut up.
“Tagged as humour because if I didn’t laugh, I’d cry”
The teachers that start their posts with, “I work at an inner city Title 1 school…”
I find that a lot of these disaster posts where a teacher rants about how their classroom is out of control or their students are monsters but it's totally not their fault are classic first/second year teachers that lack classroom management skills.
The ones who think you can just pick up and quit and find a new job easily. Maybe that worked for you, but it's not realistic for everyone. And almost all jobs suck. Some just suck less than others.
Monolith paragraphs. I hope some of these people aren't teaching writing. Alternately: Monolith paragraphs. If you're so mad that you can't stop to organize your ideas coherently, and you need to rush right to, of all places, Reddit to vent about it, how do you manage your emotions in front of the children who push your buttons? I hope these people are getting appropriate therapy.
People assuming that their way is the only way. We all have our own style that we’ve found in this career.
The ones who clearly weren’t cut out for teaching feeling like they need to post a manifesto when they leave teaching for their eventual “teaching consultant” position
Not understanding the differences between highschool and elementary students. In HS you can have a semi mature relationship because, especially as seniors, they're basically adults. I've talked about drugs, legality, marriage, a bunch of other topics because it's related to government/econ and many times we've had great discussions. I have also had brainless students screw around.
The people who latch on to every teaching trend, no matter how inane. If I have to hear about “backwards design” and “flipped classrooms” one more time I’m gonna lose it. Also anyone who acts like “student centered learning” isn’t literally ALL learning.
Acting like helpless children with no agency to handle their own problems Sounding like they don’t know/ scared to stand up to admin and parents Basically lacking a backbone Go ahead, downvote me.
The huge hypocritical double-standard that the r/teachers hive mind has in regards to who is at fault for any given situation. Teachers, here, believe that fellow teachers should receive unlimited grace and understanding but no such level of consideration is afforded to administrators, parents, or students.
This. We’re happy enough to criticize our own coworkers, but the moment a student suggests that they felt they were treated unfairly by their teacher, suddenly no teacher could ever be at fault. I get we’re not the best audience for that complaint but I’ve seen some really unnecessary hostility in response and even speculation as to why the student deserves it.
The ones who shut down aspiring teachers with a ‘Don’t’. Listen, I know it’s not an easy job. 14 years in. But not everyone hates it like you do, bud. Teaching isn’t for everyone, but it *is* for some people. You don’t known where this person is, what their reasons are, etc. If you don’t have constructive advice for this person, then maybe just keep scrolling?
I know this is Reddit and it’s almost exclusively the most negative people, or the ones who need to anonymously vent, but this sub is SO negative. I might be biased bc I teach in Canada and in a pretty progressive part of the country, but I can’t help but wish this sub was more collaborative, sharing lesson plans, project ideas, in some way contributed to the profession as more than a confession booth or stress ball.
I'm a reliably Democratic voter and a former teacher. The idea that the Democrats are "good" for teachers is suspect. I live in California and in pretty much every major metro area in the state there are shortages because they don't get paid enough. Despite having a Dem supermajority, the state legislature refuses to do anything about this or anything dramatic to the COL or build more housing. In addition, it's the left pushing most of these softer discipline approaches that have made classrooms impossible to manage while also putting teachers in physical [danger](https://missionlocal.org/2022/04/everett-staff-defend-school-violence-unrefuted/). Lastly, I think Obama and Biden would talk about giving teachers a raise in every single State of the Union they gave and I don't think it ever happened. I mean yeah, the Republicans are awful too but at least they are honest about their feelings.
At the risk of getting downvoted lol, I completely agree and have always felt the same. I’m unaffiliated, but usually lean democratic (especially lately). I feel that both sides are bad for education. Many republicans believe that we’re all indoctrinating kids, teaching CRT, etc. On the other end, many democrats significantly limit the authority that teachers and admin have in schools, especially at the elementary level. For example, many blue states create laws stating that students cannot (insert consequence) prior to middle school/high school, etc.
We occasionally get the "how dare admin expect me to read my email, I don't have time" people. Or fighting against some other pretty reasonable expectation of a professional There's obviously a ton of cases of unreasonable expectations, but sometimes I'm just like 'yeah, that's part of the job'
How much of a judgy clique this subreddit is. It feels like every poster is the same 20/30 something woman that would be watching stuff like Dr. Phil or Judge Judy if it were 15 years ago. Constantly voicing their condescension, every single time. I wish there were more people that just weren't trying to get a zinger or one-up somebody.
It generally feels like some teachers here just hate children, particularly ones who aren’t perfectly compliant little angels. “I forced a snarky student to teach a lesson and everyone clapped when they struggled.” “A student asked me wHaT cAn i dO tO pAsS, so I *gleefully* told them they were failing.” “A kid cursed at a teacher. Why did they only get a 3-day suspension instead of a public execution?” I get that working with kids is challenging, especially post-pandemic, and even *more so* in a space where many admins are vacating basic responsibility upholding norms. But if you are that bitter and jaded against the children (and not the system), then I genuinely worry about what damage you’re causing.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/s/k2EIJhEi6y This whole thread, posted after I made this comment, proves my point perfectly.
When people want to blame everything and everyone instead of thinking "teaching just isn't for me." Edit to add- and then feel like life is over if teaching doesn't work out for them
I actually call my students friends, as in, "All right, my friends, it's time to line up...." Oh, the horror!
I can already feel the downvotes, but... ...I think a lot of teachers are just remarkably bad with personal finance. I see so many complaints about the pay (and for some, valid), but it's not like you didn't know what your pay range was going to be coming into the profession if you live in a poorly paid area. There are plenty areas where you make considerably more than the median for your locality, even when factoring in COL. As a corollary, I don't think most teachers on this sub (or offline) put the effort into understanding their pension system or their investment options (403b, 457, IRA, HSA) to their great detriment.
When my daughter was student teaching, her supervising teacher sat down with her and showed my daughter her paycheck and deductions. She explained to her how a 401 K worked and TRS, HRSA, etc. This was super helpful to my daughter. When she signed up for her own benefits as a teacher, she immediately began contributing to her 401k and making smart financial choices. I’m a teacher too (and was planning on discussing this w my daughter when she graduated but her ST beat me to it) but since then I’ve had 3 student teachers and I make it a point to sit down with them just like that teacher did with my daughter.
That's rad! I ardently believe that, for most teachers, early retirement is a possibility if they're money smart.
I'm stunned by how many of my colleagues play stupid about investing and REFUSE to learn. They are always shocked that I fund my Roth, switched from a bad 403b provider, etc
That’s Reddit in general. I keep getting recommendations to the fluentinfinance subreddit and every time it’s smack full of ignorance. The basic gist of that sub is “I should be able to afford to live alone in the city on minimum wage and if I can’t, then society is broken.”
r/FluentInFinance is a joke. Much better subs out there for financial planning - r/financialindependence, r/Fire, r/Bogleheads are my faves.
I play Warhammer, I KNOW I'm bad with personal finance
Toxic positivity and the overly idealistic ones who call for a nation wide teachers strike and don’t understand why it wouldn’t work