I am a new teacher. I'm 24 and female. I teach history for Year 12 and 13 (UK) and there's one student in my class who's always been a recluse. Quiet, polite, brilliant grades. He never causes problems, he just keeps to himself. He's shy, but very kind to me, making me small origami presents or drawings.

Today, I was handing back essays at the end of the lesson when I dropped my pen. He picked it up before I could and handed it back to me.

He looked at my hand for a moment and said, almost absent-mindedly, "I'm happy you're finally well rested again."

I laughed awkwardly and asked what he meant, but he just looked confused and said he had to get to his next lesson before leaving.

The thing is, I haven't been sleeping. Not for months. I lost my dad earlier this year and I've been lucky to get three or four hours a night most days.

Last week was the first time in months I've started sleeping properly again.

I don't wear makeup differently. I haven't told anybody at work. Nobody would know unless I'd told them.

I don't have a boyfriend, and I don't really hang out with other teachers who would've known if I'd mentioned it in passing. Nothing like that.

Listen, I'm not paranoid. It's probably nothing. It's probably that I look less exhausted than I did before.

But I wear concealer every day. I looked back at photos from a few months ago and I don't look any different.

I don't know. I feel stupid even writing this.

I just can't stop thinking about how he knew.

EDIT: You guys are right. It might even be sweet he noticed. I need to calm down and stop overthinking. Thanks for the comments, I'll keep you updated!

I TEACH my students how to take notes. I go over it extensively in class and even take notes”live notes” along with my students. I believe this is invaluable.

But about half (yes HALF) of my students have an IEP that calls for me to share notes. I think this is bullshit by the way, especially if I am taking notes live in class myself. So what happens is that this half of students doesn’t feel the need to (rightfully so) to take notes. The other half just gets the notes from their friends who have the IEP.

They don’t seem to understand that the note taking and the synthesis that goes with it IS the learning.

So what do I do? Side note: we just seem to keep setting these kids up for failure.

My second year of high school teaching and I’ve come to accept that I’m not a well liked teacher. No thank you cards, no little gifts.

I don’t know how to be the strong teacher which is appreciated by students. I often wonder I’m if I’ve made a career mistake

Short post: I do not agree with communal bins in a classroom for shared supplies. Every student should use what they brought from home that their parents bought them. I, as a teacher, do not have the right to take what a parent buys for their child and give them to other students.

Longer post: I am an elementary teacher going into my 28th year of teaching. I do send a supply list to my first grade families every year, and yes, I expect parents to buy some simple school supplies. There is a Dollar Tree a couple miles from my school, and there is no reason why a parent cannot pick up a few pencils, folders, and glue sticks from there. I’m not asking for hundreds of dollars worth of supplies.

That being said, I do understand that buying school supplies can be a big expense to some families; therefore, they do not want the few supplies they buy to go into shared bins for everyone else. I fully support that each child uses what they bring from home, rather than everything going into communal bins. I fully support parents labeling their child’s crayon box, pencil box, glue sticks, etc, and that those are the supplies their child uses. Why should a parent buy glue sticks for everyone else? They are using their own money for their own child, and I see nothing wrong with that. I have never been a teacher who makes parents buy supplies for the entire classroom.

I will never be a teacher who takes supplies out of my students’ hands on the first day of school and dump everything they brought into communal bins. I just can’t get on board with that. Especially when a child goes with their parents to pick out specific things that they want to use, like decorative folders or special crayons, only for those to go into a classroom bin to get used by everyone else. I think it’s a terrible idea.

Personal property is not only fine to have in first grade, but it also teaches the other kids about boundaries. Yes, sometimes a classmate has sparkly crayons that they brought from home, and I think that is fine for them to use, even though no one else has them. As “unfair” as it seems to 6 year olds, that’s life. They are not always going to have everything that everyone else has, and that’s an important skill to learn early on.

Basically the title. What made me think if it and get irritated enough to post was a Gerry Brooks video outlining his own frustrations. There are three types of parents:

1. I will buy NOTHING because the school should supply everything (but have nails done and the newest iPhone as well as the newest name brand clothing for kids). I actually get the point here, but the issue is that schools DON'T supply everything so some pencils, some paper, expo markers, and tissues would be appreciated (that is literally my list- those 4 things).

2. I will put my child's name on EVERYTHING and refuse to allow ANY supplies to be communal. That's fine, but I'll be calling when those supplies run out for you to send more. Don't ask me to let your child share crayons from my communal supply.

3. I just want my child to express him or herself (crazy folders, etc.). Listen Linda, teachers aren't trying to stifle your child. It's just easier if the red folders are for math and the blue for ELA. Feel free to get as creative as you want with the folder for messages home.

And, I would be remiss to not add a fourth (and we love these parents!):

1. I want all kids to succeed and don't mind sending in some extra pencils and expo markers. Teachers work hard and shouldn't have to buy supplies for all the kids in their class on their salary! (Most places are having HUGE sales right now too).

I'm not going to lie, 1-3 are exhausting and I don't understand the thought process. Everyone wants the village but no one wants to be a villager. Staples is literally selling packs of pencils for 50 cents and still parents will NOT buy them. The #4 parents are getting to be very few and far between, but we do love you!

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?

I'm in the middle of moving back to the U.S. from overseas and applying for teaching jobs, and I found a district application portal with 17 essay questions just to submit my application.

Not "Tell us about yourself." I mean full-on educational and life philosophy prompts.

"Describe the role relationships play in a classroom."

"What role will classroom assessment play in instruction?"

Buddy... I have three years in the classroom and a Master's in Special Education. I'll happily talk your ear off for forty-five minutes about relationship building, accommodations, assessment, IEPs, and differentiated instruction during an interview.

But writing a term paper just to get my resume looked at?

Come on, man.

And then theirs licensing in another state.

Retaking Praxis exams. State-specific licensure tests. Fingerprinting. Background checks. Official transcripts sent to multiple agencies.

I have a licenses, yet I still have to prove to another state that I know what an IEP is because, apparently, pedagogy is regional.

Meanwhile, nurses have the Nurse Licensure Compact. An RN in a compact state can practice in any other compact state under that license. We trust that a nurse who's cleared the bar once has cleared it. But not a teacher.

Teaching has nothing close to that, just a patchwork of reciprocity deals that might waive your exams, might not, might hand you a "provisional" license. I all depends on the states your moving between.

Last i checked, there's a nationwide teacher shortage. Every district says they're desperate for qualified teachers. Yet the process feels like it's designed to filter out anyone who doesn't have hours to write a dissertation about their educational philosophy.

I understand wanting to know how someone thinks. Ask one thoughtful question. Better yet, ask it in the interview, where it can actually become a conversation.

But seventeen essays? Really!

And here's what's really interesting.

In the past, I've applied to several public school districts and waited weeks without hearing anything back, only to get phone calls after the school year starts asking me to interview.

I've applied to charter schools with the exact same resume and had interview requests in less than twenty-four hours.

If one system can move quickly and another can't, maybe we don't have a teacher shortage, maybe we have a its to difficult to apply problem.

Anyway...

Back to writing another essay about why relationships matter in the classroom.

Ironically, the relationship I'd really like school districts to think about is the one between "we have a teacher shortage" and "we made applying for this job feel like another graduate school assignment."

Anyone else feel this way?

I was asked to give a presentation about a program we piloted last year to a group of local funders. Cool, I love talking about this stuff and was already thinking about how we could expand with more money. I barely got through the intros before one of the funders (he calls himself "an amateur education expert" wth?) starts asking a bunch of questions about research supporting "this pedagogy." Come again? The rest of us are focusing on curriculum. I tried clarifying the difference but he kept going back to teacher practices. All morning. Several other folks started rolling their eyes every time he spoke. I'm generally pretty good at keeping groups focused but this guy was beyond. He clearly was not there to learn from the professionals in the room, he just wanted to wow us with his amateur education expertise.

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.

My principal called yesterday and offered me a job teaching 1st grade! 🫶🏻🍎 School for the kiddos start Aug 6th and I’m scrambling on how to prepare. I’ve got my rules, expectations, consequences, things like that ready to go. My question is where to get all the material things for my class. Books for my library. Toys/games for indoor recess. I’m also stressed because I can’t get in the classroom until my background check comes back. And since it’s so close to school starting I’m stressing. Lol. Any tips or tricks to help me get ready for my first year? Thanks!!

I resigned from my job today because I accepted a new position in a different district. The contract breakage fee is $1,000. Ouch, but okay. I was anticipating it. But they're also charging me for insurance fees paid for the month by the district which is an additional $1,000 I wasn't expecting to be so expensive. So that's $2,000 I owe in the next couple of weeks. I only have $2,800 to my name total. Like, that is literally all the money I have. I still have to survive the next month and a half until I get my first paycheck of the new school year. Not to mention all the bills I have to pay, and all my student loans accruing interest, medical bills, etc. I feel so defeated and like I'm drowning. Why do they do this to teachers?

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?

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.

TL;DR: A private school charging about $40,000 per year is opening in Edmond, Oklahoma this August that replaces most traditional classroom instruction with AI-powered learning software. Students spend roughly 2 hours a day on core academics using AI, while the rest of the day focuses on projects, life skills, entrepreneurship, and other enrichment with adult guides instead of traditional teachers. The school claims students learn up to twice as fast, but that claim has not yet been independently verified. While headlines say the school has “no teachers,” adults are still present to coach, supervise, and support students—they simply aren’t delivering most academic instruction.

https://oklahomawatch.org/2026/07/21/a-40000-per-year-ai-school-with-no-teachers-is-opening-in-oklahoma-this-august/

I would like to get some advice on how to handle a situation….

For reference, I have ovarian cancer-without getting too deep into diagnosis- I taught January through May while starting chemotherapy. This week I will have surgery to finally remove the tumor and ovary. I work because I need the health insurance and bills have to be paid. The world doesn’t stop unfortunately and I don’t get familial financial support.

A teacher at my school quit last minute. Administration approached me and asked me to take over her classes. I said no, my health is not stable enough for 4 different classroom curriculums. Especially after they completely changed how we have to write our lesson plans, so I have to redo my lesson plans from last year already. Today I checked skyward to do some ahead planning before my surgery on Friday and saw that they added the other teachers classes anyway.

I’m genuinely in shock. The school I work at is under at will hiring procedures. So I’m unsure how to even deal with this. I can’t afford to lose this job in the midst of my treatment but I also don’t have the energy to teach 4 different math classes, with 4 different curriculums and 3 different tests. I’m only 26 and have never experienced something like this. Hoping for some advice on maybe a cordial or respectful way to handle this…

Hello everyone I am a first year teacher with a license in K-12 integrated Social Studies. I was recently hired by a local charter school in what I thought was a 5th grade social studies teacher role. During the hiring process the recruiter multiple times specifically said I was going to be in a 5th grade social studies role. But now only three weeks before the start of the school year they told me it was for 4th/5th grade general Ed. I was not prepared for this I have an alternative license and no background in teaching general education. I'm not sure what to do I feel like the rug was pulled out for under me. Anyone have any advice?

This will be my 5th year teaching in a couple weeks, and I’ve made a lot of changes over the years to improve my teaching, but this year I’m gonna go for something really big.

No Chromebooks allowed on the desks during notes (open or closed) they have to be done on paper, no Chromebooks allowed during pretty much any activity aside from webquests and specific stuff where they need it. They technically have to open their chromebook to make a bathroom pass BUT NO! I will manually make one for them if they raise their hand.

I teach 12th grade and even though I seat students in groups and encourage discussion in activities I have witnessed them just using ai and technology to crutch their way past meaningful learning.

I think we have all seen the data come out on how reliant the current generation has gotten on technology, so I am really going to go in hard on paper and pencil or verbal discussions this year.

I want the kids to see each other’s faces and actually talk to each other, not look at screens constantly. What is everyone else’s plans and policies around Chromebooks?

Hey everyone! I'm 17 years old and graduated high school a year early. I immediately landed myself a job as a resource teacher working with preschool and pre-k. Yay! So I guess I can kinda call myself a teacher. I'm super excited but also nervous. Idk how many teachers on here work with little ones but I'd appreciate any advice or tips you guys have! Thanks!

It's approaching two weeks before school starts again and I am absolutely dreading it.

I spent last year as a resident teacher and have committed 4 more years to my district. I know that teaching is not really what I plan to do for the rest of my life (but I am in a TRAP contract) and am choosing to ride it out. All things considered, I think that I am a decent teacher and I really want to make children's lives a better place through education.

The problem is that I am starting at a new school. I know no one (I thought one of my friends would be teaching at this school but she left because the kids were too taxing on her mental health), I don't know the curriculum (AT ALL, despite reaching out to the school about it), and the principal is under investigation so currently admin is a mess so I can't actually get in touch with anyone.

On top of that, my certification is still processing which means I am being paid substitute rates until ~October and I am not eligible for any reimbursement for classroom supplies. I'm painting all my decorations myself. I don't know what all I will have provided to me, but based on my understanding of this school, very little outside of paper and pencils.

This is a title 1 school and is the worst ranked in my state. I struggled at a non title 1 school with students that didn't know how to read in the 11th grade but looking at the proficiency ratings its far worse. I don't know what to do and have pretty much zero support. My friend said that she had to start taking medications and going to therapy after working at this school and quit for her mental health.

I don't know if I want advice or what. I just feel like I have absolutely zero resources and preparation and am about to be thrown into something that will be far over my head.

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. ❤️‍🩹

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!

On Wednesday I lost my teaching job for Chicago Publics Schools, and I feel completely lost, hopeless, and uncertain about any attempt to continue to be a teacher. I was a high school English teacher for almost four years at a public school in the city. I really felt like my job was secure, and I was entering my tenure year, so I was feeling really good about my position and personal confidence.

The last few years have been so incredibly challenging for me between managing student behavior, lack of support from admin, lack of funds, constantly needing to reinvent the wheel, burnout, and often feeling inadequate. This past year I really felt like I was starting to get my footing, and I was mentally preparing to start the 2026/2027 school year with a new mindset: I am doing the best that I can with what I am given, and I am going to do even better than the previous years. I was basically trying to convince myself that I can get through another year, and that every new teacher feels this way this first few years of teaching.

Then I got the call on Wednesday. I am completely gutted. I don't know what to do. Is it even worth going back if that is ever an option? Should I be trying to find another school to work at? Is this a sign? Is teaching even right for me? Am I having an identity crisis?

I don't know what outcome I want from this post, but I am hoping others can share their experiences with teaching. Did you feel this way? Did you go through layoffs? I've heard that some teachers go through multiple layoffs in their careers. How did you handle it? Is this career really worth it, and is it ever going to get better? Does it REALLY get easier with time?

Long time lurker. First time poster. Thought I’d reach out to fellow educators for advice. I work in a district where the superintendent is queen of micromanaging. In order to look for new opportunities, we have to fill out a reference release form. First district Ive worked at where I’ve had to do it. I did get an interview yesterday but since receiving the form, my principal has tried to talk me out of leaving at least 3 different times including at 8:50 last night. They kept telling me that I won’t be supported the way I would be at my current district, that supposedly behavior is ridiculous, that it’s not always about the money etc.. ( we’ve been on a pay freeze for 3 years, so money talks) I know a few teachers working at this current school I interviewed at and they said it’s one of the best admin teams they’ve worked for.
My current principal has lost a few teachers and my take is that she’s nervous on losing another. But she didn’t do what she did to me to the others who left. Am I missing something? Why is she trying to stop me? #feelingoverwhelmed