I just went over my new roster and have 16/23 with some sort of label or high needs. This is an upcoming third grade classroom. What are we doing?
10 read plans and
6 sped (3 autism, 1 speech, 2 general sped) and
3 English language learners and
6 no labels and
1 custody issues

When I first started teaching I had 1/22 behavior and low academics… not sustainable 😳

Haven’t started but I’m worried.

So yesterday was my first day teaching third graders, it went ok! I did okay I think, 90%of my class left saying I was their favorite teacher(taking this with a grain of salt because they’re 8 and it’s the first day but still) except I’ve felt very uneasy about one interaction.

There’s a girl in my class and we’ll call her Jane. She…tested my limit yesterday. Everyone came in excited but she would interrupt me in the middle of talking to harass other girls from across the room. “Mrs. Soso, she said I was too loud. You need to move me. She’s looking at me and she’s rude, this is not happening today.” Or directly to the students “No, you’re RUDE. Yes your are. Yes you are. Yes you are”. She did this multiple times through the day, she made three girls cry. I was standing next to her at the end of the day, watching her interact with another student. This other student didn’t let her use anymore of her sticky notes (to be fair she shared three with her already) and Jane shouts “Mrs., she just called me fat.” I was there and I know she did not, the other student started crying.

This is the point when I got in their level and told her I am not okay with the choices she made today, yelling and fighting with her friends is unacceptable, and tomorrow when we get to class she will come in ready to be respectful of her classmates and teacher. She understood and then we went home.

I did try to pull her aside one on on, I did try to make personal connections with her, but she had a lot of fake cries(yelling no tears), ignoring me, and went I pulled her aside to talk and find out what happened she walked away in the middle of it. It felt more like…she’s was trying to see how strict I was. And bless her heart, I am not a free spirit teacher.

I’m struggling because it’s the first day, I didn’t want to pull out the teacher voice in the first day, and it DEFINITELY was a teacher voice. Not a yell but a straight forward “we are done with this behavior and of story” voice.

Was I mean? Should I have been more lenient on the first day? I didn’t want to start bad habits or expectations but she’s only 8.

Hey Fellow Teachers,

I just wanted to share a little story for anyone currently feeling discouraged by the hiring season.

I’m entering my 4th year of teaching here in Southern California. Honestly, this job hunt was brutal—way harder than when I was a first-year teacher, and I still don't fully understand why the market felt so tough this time around. Since May, I’ve been on 7 different interviews, dealing with the usual radio silence, rejections, and endless waiting.

About a month ago, I interviewed for a position I really wanted. Two days later, I got the standard rejection email. I moved on and kept applying elsewhere.

Fast forward to today: I got an unexpected call out of nowhere from their HR department offering me that job!

I couldn't believe it.

If you are currently stress-scrolling, feeling defeated, or waiting on callbacks: keep going. The hiring timeline in education is weird, unpredictable, and often works in mysterious ways. Things really do have a way of working out when you least expect it!

I’m a 2nd grade teacher and part of our “policies and procedures” committee for my building. We have a new principal this year, and we will be having interventionists working in the hallway/pod space with students. This will be “their” space and they will not have offices. They will be out there all day. Because of this, he doesn’t want us to do whole class restroom breaks.
In the past, we’ve lined kids up and supervised them in the hall while they take turns going. (The expectation has always been silence, and sometimes we have them bring books or work as well, but this is a no go for him). We do one break in the morning and one in the afternoon for each class, and we’ve found that this cuts down on kids asking to go between breaks. I don’t think it will be successful to do no breaks and only send kids asking needed from class.
Any ideas on what to do? We’re supposed to come up with a plan for the building. My solution would just be to not have interventionists working in a hallway space, but I don’t get to make those decisions. 😬

I’m a first year teacher so I’m in a few facebook groups for advice and ideas and it feels like every other post includes AI. Can’t just share their list of wanted supplies, everyone shares a Chat GPT-generated poster of themself in their classroom with the link. So many teachers give room tours with decorations they “created” with generative AI. Most recently, someone in one of the groups I’m in was talking about a poster they printed to cover their door. Instead of just uploading a picture of the poster, they generated a bunch of pictures of AI teachers standing outside AI classrooms with similar posters. Every single comment is asking for links/instructions/etc. I’m the only one whose first thought was “did we really need to waste a ton of water to create FAKE pictures of a poster you could have just taken a picture of?” I feel like I’m going crazy.

I get that AI can be super helpful and I will absolutely admit I’ve used it before, I had over 200 chapter books and I sent the list to google gemini and asked it to sort them by AR level for me so I could figure out how to organize my classroom library. I know that googling the AR level for each book and manually sorting them myself would have taken hours. I’m not completely against AI nor am I trying to be high and mighty about it, but it feels SO excessive in the teacher space and is being used really unnecessarily and no one is talking about it. Am I going crazy? Is this just something I need to accept?

I'm new to teaching and just started at a summer school program a couple of weeks ago. So far, it's been tough, but generally rewarding. However, I had a parent interaction during pick-up today which really upset me. For context, I have worked in customer service since high school and have never taken any interaction personally, nor have I been insulted to this extent. The parent came in while I was speaking to another group of students in the back of the room and she immediately asked why I didn't bother to say hello to her (in an extremely snarky tone). I was actually confused by this because I wasn't anywhere near her or her student when she came in. As soon as I saw her I began to walk over to her and greeted her, but I don't think she cared by that point. She began insulting me as a person, which I was also surprised by. She called me off putting, and told me that I had a bad demeanor. She then proceeded to tell me that I was a bad teacher and had no hopes of being hired by an actual school. Again, this was all in relation to me not immediately greeting her while I also had other parents trying to pick-up and 10 other students still in class. She continued with this rant for about a minute. In my only previous interaction with her (the student is usually picked up by his dad) while I was trying to make her aware of her son's disrespectful and disruptive behavior, she entirely dismissed my concerns and implied that I should not be disciplining her son. Mind you, I only decided to speak to her after her son pushed a kindergartner (I teach middle school). She also implied that the reason I was unable to get through to her son was because I was treating him like a child, which he is. I also don't treat my students the same way I would treat elementary schoolers and her son has shown a great lack of maturity which causes me to have to reprimand him. He talks back, laughs whenever a teacher I or another is reprimanding him, and makes homophobic/inappropriate jokes during class. Any advice on how to deal with this parent in the future would be appreciated.

TL;DR: Parent insulted me, how should I interact with her for the next pick-up?

Our principal, assistant principal, PLC (the deputized third principal type), admin assistant to the principal, librarian, and registrar quit. The entire front office is new. Oh, and my position was eliminated, but I was moved into a different professional position in spring.

We are a small gen ed (on paper) school, with both an under-70-iq self contained program and an emotional disturbance/behavior "self contained" program. The behavior kids last year were not just disruptive but dangerous, scary, and the district restrictions on how they can be handled hamstringed their entire program staff. We had an excess of ten broken plate glass windows. One gen ed class went through an active gun fire scare as a behavior kid outside broke their window out with rocks (district was there with admin, doing an eval, and watched it happen). We had multiple lockdown situations while police handled dangerous students in the hall. It was a hot mess. During my last conversation with principal she flat our told me "Behavior program kicked my ass this year". We are in a wealthy area, its insane.

Anyway. Advice? This will be my first entire admin turn over experience.

I teach summer school and the students get lunch before they're sent home at noon. We were in the cafeteria and another teacher ran to me asking for help. One of her students (who was my student this past year) was kneeling on the floor. She was choking on a corn dog. I was able to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on her and she is ok. This happened 90 minutes ago and I'm still shaking. I feel a headache coming on - I'm guessing from the adrenaline rush.

I just needed to share this. It was really scary.

Hello!

I want to know whether I am justified in my feelings or if I am going crazy.

I recently started teaching band. I got hired at a school district in December just as I finished student teaching as the Middle and High School band teacher with the expectation that I will teach elementary music this coming school year (very small district). This specific school district has had a troubled history with band directors. They had one teacher who taught there for around 20 years, let's call her Martha. Following the pandemic, teaching had taken such a toll on her that she quit and started working at a convenience store. I learned that she regularly spent 7 days a week at the school, working upwards of 12 hours a day. Since then, the school had one teacher who (from what I've heard) was bullied out of the position by the students. Following that, another teacher filled the position for a year until the district tried to pin too much work on her (teaching both bands and both choirs on top of elementary music).

This teacher left in September of 2025. Following that, the school hired two different interim teachers before hiring me at the end of December 2025. I say all this to emphasize the fact that these students had 5 different band teachers in the last 3-4 years. I have worked there since, but I have received a lot of pushback from students who miss Martha (she did elementary music and middle/high band, so all of my students had had her at one point). I've had students openly say in class that they want Martha back, and a pair of students wrote on their stand that they miss her. Since she left, the band program has shrunk from upwards of ~70% of students in band to, I would estimate, ~30%. From what I can tell, they don't dislike me; they just wish things were the way they used to be.

In May, I met Martha for the first time. I stopped by the convenience store she works at, and I told her, "Hi, I'm the new band teacher for this school district. I've heard a lot about you." The first thing she told me was, "Oh boy, you should leave." She told me that I went to a good college, have great references, and could do so much better than this small district, which she described as an "armpit." The conversation went on for a little while longer, but I'm not going to lie, this chat messed with my head for a solid couple of days.

We exchanged numbers, and for a day or two afterward, she texted me about how the school admin screwed her over, and how I should leave and find a better place, how many of the students are so misbehaved, and how the ones I had been left with (who had given me the aformentioned pushback) were the "good ones," etc.

Fast forward a few weeks: she texted me saying that working at the convenience store had been terrible due to shifts in management, and rising gas prices creating an unbearable work experience. She tells me that she was considering applying to be a paraprofessional for the elementary portion of the school (K-12 is all in one building). While I was apprehensive for reasons I will mention momentarily, I was supportive. I am not in a position to tell this woman what she can or cannot do. I told her that the kids would love to see her again, especially since I've heard so many students say they miss her.

Recently, there was some drama with the choir *teacher* at this school (I could make another post if people are interested), which resulted in her getting fired. I received a text from Martha a few days ago saying she applied for the choir position and that she has an interview tomorrow [July 23rd]. From what I know from my superintendent, not many people are applying for the position, and I believe she is very likely to get the job.

Now for my worries: first of all, I'm not worried that she's trying to take her old position back from me. That role had wrecked her, and even if she were, she could only work part-time because of Social Security. I had brought this up to my Dean of Students, and that was the conclusion he thought I was worried about. I fear that her being in the school will undermine my position in the eyes of the students. I fear that students will think, "Oh, Martha is back working in the school. I wish she taught band instead of OP." The students there want stability, something the district struggles to provide. I fear they will jump at the possibility that things can go back to how they were how ever many years ago. Similarly, I fear that a power imbalance may form since she has so much experience in my position, and that her license is obviously in band, and not choir. This is definitely my overthinking, but I partly fear that she may try to micromanage me in my role despite me also having a teaching license, and the education to back me up.

I fully understand that I can't control what she does. She is clearly an accomplished educator with her own desires and expectations for herself. However, I'm scared I may not have the expertise or experience to prepare myself for this situation--or if there will even be a situation to prepare for. I am writing this post to see if anyone may have any insight into this situation, or if anyone could suggest any actions I could take to prepare for the possibility of a situation occurring. I apologize for how long this story is, but I believe all of the mentioned context is important to get the full-scope of this event.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

In another sub, one of the top comments suggested puzzles and word searches. My school doesn't allow that.

It needs to be educational or an extension of what they are learning. Reading a book would be great, but I have a really small classroom library.

Single teachers: how do you feel when people flirting or hitting on you say, “I wish you were my teacher”; “I would have paid so much better in school if you were my teacher”; “You’ll be some students’ sexual awakening.” (No joke, I have been told this before.)

Is it just me or is it not the compliment people think it is? I know the person means well, and it’s slightly funny to think about but at the same time, but no please don’t flirt with me that way.

Hello! I’m in my 3rd year teaching. I teach middle students with autism in a self contained classroom. We follow a curriculum that the district provides.Every year I try to improve in some area. Planning has been a challenge for me. How far out do you plan your lessons? Is it too much to plan out the full year or maybe a quarter at a time?

I work as an Ed tech in a special needs room at an elementary school. There’s 5 of us techs, and the teacher who I’ll call Caitlin.

I’ve been in that room for 3 years. Caitlin is the most amazing person. She’s kind, patient, compassionate, smart. She’s everything you’d want in a teacher, a friend, a boss. But due to the higher ups (I’m sure a lot of you know what I mean) she has accepted a job in another district. We (the techs) are heartbroken but we understand. So we planned a fun day trip for all of us to go to the coast. Visit a lighthouse and grab some lunch. We also got her a gift, we all signed a card, we got her a a little crochet coffee (latte) cup that says “you brewed joy into the daily grind. It won’t be the same without you. We’ll miss you a latte”, along with a $100 Dunkin gift card.

Just wanted to share.

Hi, I’m in a tricky situation. I’m a preschool teacher. I was recently laid off from my job 4 months ago as the school was permanently closing. This school was a two minute walk from my apartment and OK money. Fortunately I had maintained a good reputation from a different preschool I had worked at and was able to immediately secure a job with that company at a location only a ten minute drive from my house. Worked with my availability and paid more money. It’s not an ideal school and I felt a little “fish out of water” for a while, but finally starting to feel settled and just bought a bunch of stuff for my classroom. NOW. The school by my house that closed has been turned into a brand spanking new Montessori preschool. They have called me for an interview (some of my fellow laid-off former coworkers interviewed there and passed along my info). Could pay more money. I feel guilt over considering leaving my new school after they did me a favor by hiring me so quickly and for good pay. After seeing so many preschools in the area close (including Montessori) what’s to say this one will make it? If I get laid off again do I go crawling back? I’m sure the new facilities will be enticing, but I’m feeling so torn. Also, I’m a very silly/playful teacher who’s used to having a fair amount of leeway, and I’ve never worked in a Montessori (but they’re willing to train). Will I feel stuck? Ughhh just needed to get this off my chest. I tend to overthink and then I don’t sleep. Any insight would be appreciated.

I’m trying to max out my salary in a Chicago suburban district. I need the classes to be graduate-level, online and our contract recently changed to where the classes “must be toward some sort of certificate or degree”. I don’t actually have to earn the certificate, but I need proof that the class actually goes toward some kind of certificate if that makes sense. I need 3 more courses (technically 9 hours but ya know… most classes are 3 so yeah)

I can’t do the wonderful Idaho State classes anymore since they don’t offer additional “certificates” and I am absolutely done with shelling out money to La Verne University’s current debacle of online classes.

Does anyone have any guidance or recommendations? Thanks!

I just finished my first year as a middle school ELA teacher, but my goal has always been to teach high school.

I interviewed at all three high schools in my district. One never responded, one principal wanted to hire me, but HR blocked the transfer, and the third rejected me after a second interview.

Is this normal? Do districts usually want teachers to get more experience before moving from middle school to high school, or is this a sign that HR doesn't view me favorably?

Honestly, this has been really discouraging.

I (27F) have wanted to be a teacher since I was 5. I fought through high school bullying and challenging classes to earn an advanced Regents diploma. College was lonely and full of failures, but I earned my bachelor’s in education. Grad school was pure burnout—no friends, a job I hated, and a professor who asked if I even wanted to teach. I still got my master’s in Adolescent Education. I finally found a district that felt like home. I started as a daily sub, then became the long-term AIS Reading teacher for almost two years. I bloomed. I got my elementary certification, made real friends, moved in with my fiancé, and started a master’s in Literacy (PreK–12) because reading intervention is what I actually love. Then everything fell apart. Caught up in wedding planning, moving, and starting the literacy program, I forgot to update my resume. I wasn’t even considered for the permanent AIS job I had been doing. I applied for 2nd grade instead. HR said there was no opening, even though class lists showed no third teacher assigned. I constantly felt second-guessed, talked down to, and left out of the loop—even though I was usually the first to notice problems. At the end of the year, they took my badge (first time in three years; no one else had to turn theirs in). A week later, my school email was deactivated. I received a “reasonable assurance” letter stating they expected me to return as a daily sub next year. It feels like they quietly fired me without a single conversation. I’m devastated. I loved that district and poured years into it. Now I’m terrified about continuing my literacy master’s. Without a stable teaching job and the benefits I had just started receiving, I don’t know if I can afford it—or if the degree will even matter if I can’t get hired. It feels like everything I’ve worked for since I was a kid is slipping away. I know I made mistakes (the resume, ADHD calendar forgetfulness). I know subs are often treated as disposable. But I also know I showed up, did the work, and still got pushed out in silence. AITA for feeling this destroyed and questioning whether I should keep pursuing the literacy master’s? Or am I right that the district handled this really shitty?

Hello!

I have been teaching in a pretty old school building for the past 2 years. Since starting at this school I have been sick a lot. At first I thought maybe it was because I moved from states and was dealing with different allergens but I really think a lot of it has to do with the school building itself. Other teachers also notice more sickness while in the building and I have brought up possibly finding air purifiers for our rooms.

Does anyone else teach in an older building and have an air purifier that has helped? I’m not wanting to spend a ton of money, but also really would love to start the school year not already getting sick.

Thank you!

One of my students that just graduated was murdered yesterday at the hands of a family member, along with her mother and brother. Her brother also went to our school, and the mother was an employee.

I know this is a traumatic event. I’ve lost students before, but this is unprecedented. I can’t stop crying. The more time that goes on, the more news that comes out- the more upset I and my colleagues are getting.

We have been offered grief counseling. Is it worth it to go? How do I address this at the beginning of the year? I usually keep the same students so there will be many who have known the family.

My heart is absolutely shattered. Just goes to show we never truly know what our kids face behind closed doors. Even though we see them 180 days a year.

Thank you in advance. Be kind and look out for each other. ❤️‍🩹

Hi everyone! I am a first-year teacher and have accepted a position for 2nd grade. I am very excited but am struggling a bit to decide what books to buy for my classroom library (picture and chapter books). I do want to have a good mix of both types of books, as a love of reading is something I really want to foster in my class!

I am a high school ASL teacher. This upcoming year, I’m likely going to have a high school student in our teaching program where they learn how to be a teacher by shadowing a mentor within a classroom of their choice, kinda like an internship.

I want to make sure they are truly learning, especially at the beginning of the year, when they are stuck to watching my lessons and activities. I feel it would be beneficial for them to write notes and such when they’re stuck to observing, but I also am aware that they’re still only in high school.

I’m considering giving them prompts to be on the lookout for during my lessons, things like “what is something you noticed about the type of language I use when teaching ASL 1 students?”

Of course we would discuss their notes during any free time, so this student teacher would be able to apply these things later down the line when teaching their own lessons. However, I would love any other prompt ideas, things that would be especially helpful to a “baby teacher” who has never taken education classes before. I’m more looking for content that is not usually explicitly taught in education courses, but that can observed during everyday lessons and activities.

~Please note that these notes taken by the student teacher would strictly be reserved for when they have nothing to do but observe, not while they are interacting with students~

Hi everyone, I'm a school counselor in California. I was non reelected back in March. I was new and first year probationary status 1 with that district. Standard non re-election, no CTC action, no discipline. My district did not give me the option to resign.
I've been applying to surrounding districts since March through today on EdJoin. I have updated, positive letters from previous principals, VPs, and lead teachers and counselors, but I wasn't able to get one from the district that non reelected me.
If hired by a new district, I will be entering my third year credentialed as a school counselor.
I don't know anyone who has been through this, so I'm asking:
Is this normal? Is it normal to not hear back for this long after a non re-election?
Will it be difficult moving forward with this on my record?
Is there life after this? Has anyone here been hired after a non re-election?
I want to grow, I have nothing but kind things to say about my previous district, and I have positive references. Any advice on how you handled the application and interview question and moved on confidently would really help. Thank you.

Hello. I am a world language teacher and have always made attempts to advance myself professionally which includes constantly challenging myself to further myself in the language I teach. I actively study so I can personally advance myself. I do this both for love of the language but also in case this teaching gig falls through.

As the title suggests, this morning, I received a diagnosis of glaucoma in both eyes. As a 38 year old, this threw me onto the ground. I realized I had this after being unable to fully read things I could before. I have found to be partially blind in my right eye. I realize there are far worse things to be diagnosed with than glaucoma and tying to keep that in mind. It just feels like the worse timing as my program finally took off and we are doing things that I have been preparing for years. This isn’t a terminal disease but the fear of it robbing of my sight is terrifying.

I hope I’m not coming off as “oh woe is me” but I had a sudden “why am I doing what I’m doing” moment after this. To any other teachers suffering from glaucoma, how do you balance your life to adjust for this? Do you have to change how you teach or your classes? Does it impact your day to day?

Im sorry to ask so many questions.

Hello!

Long-time lurker here- Last year I completed my first year of teaching AP Chemistry (my fifth year teaching total), and I had some questions about how others were instructing their labs at the AP level.

Back when I was in high school, and throughout my biochemistry undergrad years, I had to write labs out on paper, usually in carbon-copy notebooks. I obviously hated this, but it certainly instilled a rigor and discipline in me, and forced me to focus on exactly WHAT I was writing, as writing a fluff sentence or a poor choice of words meant erasing and more pain.

In the rough decade that's passed since my high school days, students are WAY more online than we ever were. Because of this (and because I wanted to take things a little more "easy" for my first year of AP) I had students type up their lab reports and submit them digitally. This was...fine? It was obviously easier for the students, though I worry that more than a few of them used some kind of AI to type up their Introduction section, which was just supposed to be a summary of about two pages of background information. It certainly made grading easier, but would I be preparing the students better if I made them write each lab in a composition notebook?

Lastly, what is the consensus on a lab's contents? For this past year, I had the following:

PRE-LAB (All due before the bell rang for their lab day):

- Title Page
- Introduction (1-2 strong paragraphs summarizing a lengthier background which was included as part of the handout)
- Pre-Lab Questions
- Procedure (students were able to simply copy+paste this into their own digital labs)
- Data (students had to read the lab and prepare their own data sections however they wished)

POST-LAB (All due two days after the lab was performed in class, at midnight)

- Calculations (Either shown work or clarification on how work was performed for major calculations)
- Discussion (Two larger paragraphs, one detailing how the lab fared, and another one answering key Discussion questions that typically tied to yield, error, final results, extensions)
- Conclusion (Single sentence clarifying final yield number/major result of lab)

I'd appreciate the wisdom of the masses here (non-science teachers feel free to chime in as well!).

I’ve been using Classroom Screen for about a year. As I’m planning for next year, I realize that I’m in desperate need of help making it look cleaner, fun, just better in general. I was hoping y’all could post some pictures of your welcome screens when students come into your room.