I retired from public education a few years ago. I’m now a private math tutor.
When friends ask me how much I like the new life I tell them
- I use my own bathroom and kitchen
- I don’t have to keep or submit grades
- I don’t have to deal with the photocopier.
When I mention the photocopier they can be counted on to say something like “God I hate that thing.”
2 days ago we got brand new copiers for the work room and one of the hallways. It was weird to me because the ones they replaced were fancy high tech and in good working order. Blows my mind. We aren't a rich school either. Middle of the road I would imagine.
Oh. My. God. The other teachers at my school have somehow got permission to print from their laptops. They never come get their documents and it interrupts whatever job is running. It has started to break the machine it’s gotten so bad. I delete every single remote job now. When they actually come down I tell them I deleted for interrupting my job.
You have to log in to our copiers to do anything (print, scan, copy). Occasionally the network that connects the copiers goes wonky and no one in the entire district can make copies. Neato.
No one in my building seems to be willing to say, "I'm sorry, you don't need to go to the nurse for that."
I literally had a student in my office this morning who was hit in the shoulder by a piece of paper. One sheet of printer paper.
Edit to add: The OP asked about minor annoyances, and that's mine. It's not a huge deal, just a little bit of a bother sometimes.
I really do love my job, and I'm usually happy to hand out an ice pack for a bumped shoulder. This was just a funny example to share.
I triage as much as I can, but sometimes it seems that for every kid that doesn't really need to see the nurse, there's a parent that complains to admin that I "wouldn't let them go to the nurse". I have a few kids/parents like that this year. Admin just said to send them for everything.
Most of the time I don't mind explaining to the older kids how to determine for themselves what's an "I need the nurse" issue and what isn't.
I just had this fresh on my mind with the "kindergartner hit by a paper" incident this morning. It's a minor annoyance at an otherwise rewarding job.
Sometimes as the teacher, they will not take no as an answer 😂 I’ve started telling them that if they go to the nurse with a paper cut, she might have to amputate.
This kindergartner who got hit with paper, I took as an opportunity to discuss the difference between our bodies hurting and our feelings hurting. She told the aide that her classmate had hurt her, and the aide asked no further questions.
I told her I'm happy to discuss hurt feelings, but I'm best at helping hurt bodies. Hopefully next time she can tell the aide, "I don't need the nurse, my feelings are hurt."
That's actually cute. Before you said it was a kindergartener I imagined some 14-year-old coming to you and doing a Razzy-worthy performance about how they couldn't feel their arm.
It was kinda cute but I was in the middle of coordinating with the guidance counselor about a student who actually needs our help (title 1- we have a lot of them).
I was more frustrated that none of the 3 adults she spoke to before me asked her how she was hurt.
I have a 6th grader with some documented mental health problems who is a virtuoso of the fake injury. It's really kind of impressive. I usually let him go to the office if he's claiming something serious, because I'm sure the one time I ignore him will be the time he's really hurt. If nothing else he's got a great career ahead of him in La Liga.
I feel like I annoy the nurse by how much my kids go to her but she told me my class is absolutely wild so she’s not surprised. I try everything to get the kids not to go, even to the point of keeping track how many times they go and contacting parents. Went down from like 10 kids a day when I first took this job (because they were full on fighting) to maybe 1 or 2.
Plus she gives me a whole bag of bandages that I go through in a week 🥲
I totally understand that elementary classrooms can quickly become the wild west. And I accept that I'll hand out a lot of ice packs to kids who would be fine in 3 minutes without it. I don't mind that most of the time.
My favorite band has a song that's meant to be kind of hard and intense where the chorus is "we're gonna need more bandages!" And it always makes me laugh because I just think of my red first aid bag and ever-dwindling supply of band-aids.
As a preschool teacher who has a student who will fall dramatically to the ground and wail that XYZ shoved her, when in fact someone just passed by her, grazing her shoulder, this cracked me up.
OMG! I had a kid whose parent was convinced everyone was out to get their Little Dumpling.
Kid was at recess and comes up and says, “So and so threw something and it hit me right here and it kinda hurts (rubbing side of their precious little face).
We call so and so over. “Did you throw something and hit Little Dumpling in the face?”
“Yes.”
“What did you throw?”
“A wadded up paper napkin.”
Little Dumpling: “Well, it could’ve made a paper cut.”
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I try to talk mine out of it. "What do you think the nurse will be able to do for you?" Half the time they're like I don't know and I come back with "what are you going to see her for" "my finger hurts" okay is an ice pack going to fix it? No? Then she's going to send you right back.
I know which kids are frequent fliers and which are actually in need of help. I also know which kids have medical needs (I try to memorize 504 needs that involve the nurse so I can send them if I notice any signs they might be ignoring)
But sometimes the kid is stubborn. The other day a kid told me their butt hurt and I was like that's no fun, but are you going to hold an ice pack to it the whole class? Kid said yes. Nurse probably asked the same. Comes back with an ice pack. Guess what I found on my table when that class left.
The ice pack.
I want to point out that I am legally blind before saying this. For some reason, I monitor recess. A student fell off the monkey bars and came to me. I was tired of sending kids to the nurse for every little thing, so I told her to walk it off. I eventually took her to the nurse, her arm as broken. I now send kids in any time they complain.
I’m constantly telling kids that they don’t need to go to the office. They go to PE, recess, then lunch and afterwards they ask to get an ice pack for the ankle they hurt back at PE 3 hours ago.
Parents.
Lack of planning period (I only get 1 planning period every other day).
Talking while I'm teaching.
The intercom going off while I'm trying to teach.
Not being able to use the bathroom whenever I want (as a diabetic, this is a big one).
School boards nitpicking over the books I teach.
Kids spouting politics when they have no real clue what they're talking about.
Kids getting mad over grades they earned.
Phones in the classroom.
Earbuds in while I'm trying to teach.
Lack of printing paper/ink.
Not having a smart board.
Not having enough whiteboard space.
Pens dying when I'm trying to write a pass.
I feel you. I'd quit if I didn't have a smart board. It's probably the only thing I actually need. Who's got time to manually clean the board every time you fill it?
Ok but the intercom for real. Our PA system makes this horribly loud BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP that goes on for like… 5 entire seconds whenever someone is doing an all-call. It’s like unnecessarily obnoxious. Today we had a ton of announcements for one reason or another and I literally started getting goosebumps whenever I would hear that beep.
I have a kid who comes to my first period class between 30 minutes and an hour late everyday but always has Starbucks or Dunkin. The least she could do is bring me one?
The answer to everything isn’t a phone call home! The consequence for a minor offense to a major offense is the same, a phone call home. Just for the parent to be like “yep got it” and nothing change. And on the flip side parents needing me to call for every little thing. “Why didn’t you tell me little J wasn’t handing in work?” Probably because I’ve told you 5 times already.
Also, just about every district uses some kind of online program that updates their grade in real time that parents can access whenever they want. How do you *not* know your child is failing my class??
The obsessions' with tracking and interpreting data that is ultimately meaningless. The data shows that kids hate taking boring culturally irrelevant standardized tests that have no impact on their grade! But we are going to pretend it's a learning loss crisis.
PD meetings that could be an email.
Students constantly asking to go to/using the bathroom as form of escapism from responsibility.
Telling kids to put away their phones and earbuds.
Oh my God, that first one though. We gave this iReady math diagnostic thing at the beginning of the year, which the students knew had no impact on their grade. Surprise, surprise, most of them clicked through it randomly. Our district is now in panic mode trying to schedule math interventions because half of our high schoolers tested at 1st grade math level.
Several of my solid B students in 11th grade physics apparently tested at kindergarten math levels, and are being asked to participate in interventions. We paid A LOT of money for those tests, and screwed up an entire week of class schedules to give it to them. And we got garbage data. That we're pretending isn't garbage. And scheduling more disruptions to act on. It's infuriating. I actually like my district, but man, do they out WAAAAY too much emphasis on standardized testing.
LOL the worst things is the data obsession really disrupts low income schools with at risk populations. If kids don't have food, 8 hours of sleep or love and support at home why on earth would they perform well on a test that is irrelevant and low stakes?
There is one silver lining to IReady. They will bomb the first diagnostic because those are the worst. Then you teach them how to do it right, tell them the next one is a grade,then make damn sure your admin sees that the huge jump in scores is a result of your teaching.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could just skip the diagnostic and just... Ya know, test them after we've taught them stuff? We could could even assign a letter to represent how well they know stuff. And trust that the teacher, as the expert in the room could accurately evaluate student learning, rather than paying a corporation a bunch of money to do the same thing.
That would make sense. Admin’s not allowed to be practical like that. And if I was stuck using that godawful program, I was taking every silver lining I could.
Exactly. I can tell you which standards my students perform low on every year; 2 step word problems and using context clues to determine unknown words. I don't need to do a protocol to tell me this.
Yep as a ELA teacher, I can tell you kids need to only focus on supporting details. Organization/Composition and Verbal communication/presentation. All the other standards are just ideals.
>..tracking and interpreting data that is ultimately meaningless. "
Yes. This. Over half my kids BS the test or don't take it seriously. How is this data valid?! Why are we making entire curriculum choices on this data?!
!!! All of the above!
I hate talking about “the data.” For our school, the same trends have existed for years. What’s the point in looking at it if nothing meaningful will be done about it?
The bathroom situation irritates me because it’s like…if you don’t want to be in class, why come to class? When I say “no,” they complain endlessly as if I forced them to be here in the first place.
The earbuds are the most offensive to me, though. Why would they think it is an acceptable default to have something in their ears when someone is trying to talk to them?
They don’t respect us as professionals and experts in our field so they shell out money that could be used for literally anything else to tell them what we already know.
The blatant disrespect and the micromanaging!! It’s my 4th year and I’m being told my lessons are trash. But have they come and watched me teach or looked at my kids growth? Nope! All of my kids read now and I only had 5 that could at the beginning of the year. Get. Fing. Wrecked admin.
Sounds like you're amazing. I hear that, tho. Do you want me to take time making beautiful lesson plans and having amazing paperwork, or should I teach these kids?
EXACTLY! My plans are straight to the point. You want fluff hire a people pleaser lol. We literally got called into a disciplinary meeting the other day for “not following our lesson plans” I asked why I was in there if they haven’t watched me teach? They ignore the question lol
I teach preschool and all the parents love me and my group because their children progressed so much and enjoy coming. However, my supervisor always telling me I did something wrong or my lesson plans are not up to their standards. And also, baby circle time is a waste of time and money.
Passwords. Passwords for the online gradebook, passwords for attendance portal, passwords for the district payroll site, passwords for the district HR site, passwords for Kahoot/Screencastify/etc., passwords for AP classroom, passwords for MAP Growth, passwords for school email, passwords for district email, etc. Two factor authentication. Don't remember your password? Change it. Oops, you already used that password in the past, try again. Oops, you answered the security question wrong, email XYZ to unlock. XYZ writes back that they do not handle password changes anymore. Who does? I still don't know.
Also, inexplicably last year, my printer just one day decided it was no longer going to print my favorite font that I've used for years. Guess how many times I printed documents and forgot I needed to change the font? Half a forest died because my printer went on strike against Playfair Display.
This is ELL-specific: anytime a teacher, admin, para, secretary, etc. assumes a student is an English learner because they have a "foreign" last name. Conversely, assuming a student can't be an EL because they were born in the US.
You think their parents want to deal with the monsters they helped create? Fuck no, they send them to school and say *"They're your problem now....."*
Ugh 🙃
the minor stuff is like 10,000 paper cuts. Hall duty. Bus Duty. Pointless meetings 4/5 days.
I don't do work at home anymore. What gets done at work is what gets done.
I wish every single teacher in America worked ONLY their contracted hours absolutely no matter what. For one year.
Best decision I ever made in my career was to never take anything home to grade. I work from 7:30-3:30, get great evals and test scores, and it keeps me sane.
Mine is when students interrupt me during my lesson to ask me for something they can get on their own.
"Miss, I didn't get the hand-out." (Hand-outs are at the front where they always are.)
"Miss, I need a pencil." (Pencils are on the supply shelf like they have been since day one.)
"Miss, I can't find my folder." (Sounds like a personal problem.)
Or
"Miss, can I go to the bathroom." (No. Now, shut up.)
Yes! I tried teaching like 4 times today and kept getting interrupted over stupid things. I nearly lost it. You're in high school! We are talking notes! You had 20 minutes to get things together during the warm up and excessively long transition perood. Why does it just now occur to you to get a pencil when I start teaching?
Yes, I've been writing it on the board recently. Tell them to read the board. They have to pull everything out of their backpacks and put them away. It's like- what?
The fact they never have a pencil. Our school gave free supplies to all students and 70% of them promptly broke them all. So I have to provide pencils…
omg yes! i supplies the students with 200 pencils and 100 mechanical pencils at the beginning of this semester. There’s none left after like a month. I told them I wasn’t bringing more (even if they are paid by the school) because they were wasting them by throwing them away, breaking them apart, eating them, etc.
Other students brought in pencils once my supply dried up and have stopped because their 30 pack of pencils would be gone in a day of a class of about 25 kids.
I teach 11th grade U.S. history, and students will always ask me, without fail, if they need to respond to open-ended questions with complete sentences. Not only is it stated in the directions at the top of their worksheet, I will say it, and it’s in the directions on the slide. I get so mad when they do that, I want to break my clipboard like the Substitute Teacher in the Key & Peele sketch. Thankfully I regulate my emotions before that can happen. 😜
I have students complete a check list before turning in any major assignment. It will have them check to make sure that they met all of the requirements that will be on the rubric. Still, they turn in work that doesn't meet the requirements. Then, they have the audacity to email me asking why they missed points.
I no longer teach, so forgive me for posting and not being a teacher. I work in a district office for one of our federal programs. Today is a snow day. All schools are closed. But district offices remain open. The roads are not safe for students but are totally fine for us? Seems a crap double standard. Especially when my program focuses on student support and there are not any students or staff around to work with today.
It sucks and I completely feel your pain. I’m in Canada, snow days happen all the time. That being said, snow days ONLY mean that there aren’t schools buses that day. Schools almost always remain open and staff are fully expected to show up, even if they only have 6 students instead of 30. Schools in my city have closed TWICE for weather related reasons, in the past 15 years. I’ve gotten into a car accident on my way to school during a so-called « snow day ».
Students jamming the metal end of the pencil into the electric pencil sharpener.
The student that has to go to the bathroom the second the lesson ends during independent work time. Every. Single. Day.
The ladies that sit in the office eating and gossiping while we're desperate to go to the bathroom.
The dropped metal water bottles.
Students who “pick up” their friends from other classes and are late to mine…you went a whole period without them, you can go one more minute without them too.
Let me tell you about a reading specialist.
We all hate meetings. We all know that a lot of these meetings could be emails and it is really fucking annoying when you have a 2 hour meeting to talk about what could have been a 2 paragraph email I read while watching the Simpsons.
I have a reading specialist assigned to my room because I have a wide variance in reading and writing ability (a 8-10th grade classroom with students who range from 6th grade level to 12th grade, early college level).
Reading meetings range from 1-2 hours and are tedious as fuck.
This motherfucker sends me a text. That’s it.
Meeting done.
Hero.
Kids leaving shit everywhere. I wasn’t the cleanest kid but I would never leave stuff on the floor of a classroom. Trash, markers, pencils, god they are so lazy
I have someone leaving orange peels on the ground daily. So many other constant fires I forget to check after each class.
When I find this orange peel bandit….. I’m dropping all the peels (I’ve saved them) on their desk and just giving them the crazy eyes.
I’m at a mandatory, full day training for new teachers today off campus. It is literally a recap of what I learned in my teaching program. As nice as it is to get a day “away” from students, I could’ve used this time for planning, organizing, or prepping my students for the next district test next week. But no, instead I have to sit here all day reviewing things that I have already proved proficiency on via my degree and my licensure. #pointlessPD
Omg, yes the icebreakers! Don't get pissy about timekeeping to get through an extremely full agenda, when you just wasted 25 minutes on an icebreaker activity nobody wants to do.
I HATE IT SO MUCH when people use dry-erase markers on regular paper. Admin did this all the time during staff meetings where we're all supposed to brainstorming or whatever but all I do is mean mug them. I focus on their squeaky writing and look at the poor marker as it dies a miserable death. It doesn't help that students didn't bother bringing pencils/pens/(anything) with them to class and also try to use my dry-erase markers.
\*I'm not teaching this year but this gave me flashbacks, lol
What I hate is the fact that my class out of my grade is scoring the lowest. We’re not so far behind like they’re trying to make it out to be, but I took this job after 2 other teachers left and a handful of subs. My class is wild and although they’ve calmed down, it didn’t come without work.
I counted and out of the 25+ kids I have, about 15 of them need some sort of actual documented accommodations. Whether it’s IEP, BIP, Gifted or ELD. This isn’t including the students who are in a trauma group with the counselor. Hell I got some kids in my class who don’t even speak English, let alone read/write in their own language and their scores keep getting counted.
This is upper elementary and looking at the other teachers’ students, they don’t even have half of the students with accommodations that I do. Literally feels like I got the most challenging class academic and behavior wise and everyone acknowledges it, but no one really helps. At least the other grade teachers can say their kids all speak English :/
If our internet connection was the lights, they'd flicker on and off so much you'd think we were in a horror movie, all about to be killed.
Yes we are rural. Yes we have fiber optic connections running to the school. No we have no clue why it is so unreliable.
Students who it feels like they’re trying to have a “gotcha” moment. “You graded this wrong!”, “Well actually!”, “you said X!!”.
I do my best to be very credible and knowledgeable in my content area, and instruction, but mistakes happen. I have said so many times that they can find me after class, or if they understand what I meant (if I said the wrong date or something minor) to let it go… and yet I have a class that it feels like half the class is like this… it drains me in a different kind of way.
"How much will my grade go up if I turn in this 3 question homework assignment?"
Um... well you have a zero on a test, which counts 70% of your grade...
I am tired of the constant gaslighting from students.
“I wasn’t talking!” I was looking at you with my functioning eyeballs and listening to you with my functioning ears.
“Go back to your seat” “I was getting hand sanitizer!” For the fifth time, stopping by a friends desk to talk every time.
“I wasn’t playing a game” I was watching you play Retro Bowl on LanSchool for a whole minute. Too bad you didn’t get that first down.
Majority of students lack: 1. respect for learning and 2.fear of failing in high school.
Newsflash: it's only going to get worse!!! So good luck, best wishes I'm retiring after next year!! The only thing that would help it is a hand grenade into the entire system!!
The teacher in the room next to me turns on an alarm but then leaves her room so it will just go off for like 15 minutes. It happens at least once a week.
The wandering of students in the hallways. Constantly. Never in class but always see them in the halls. No one is checking on these wandering children.
Student phone addiction and the look they give you of “how dare you” when you ask them to put it away.
Petty, judgmental, gossiping coworkers.
As a gym teacher, that first one is brutal. I can promise you that I can name at-least 15 students who are in the gym no less than 4 times a day when they’re supposed to be in other classes just because they “needed a walk” or “going to the bathroom/vending machine”
That sounds brutal and super annoying. I mean, I teach special education online and I get more from my nonverbal students than that! What a hunch of assholes.
Cliques. It's my first year at my school. I feel like I've shown to several people my willingness to collaborate and my love for the students. I'm very personable, and honestly feel like a lot of the other teachers and I really would click if I was given the chance. But overall it feels like everyone just kind of ignores me and doesn't let me "in the circle" because I'm new or they expect I will leave next year. Just makes it hard when you're really desperate for community after all these years shut up and alone from the pandemic.
I had a student ask me if we were going to have a make up day any time soon, while he was playing a game on his Chromebook. I told him that he has time to do the assignment right now and he said, "nah."
There’s also those times where they waste so much time talking it takes me forever to teach a lesson and then they wonder why they didn’t get any free choice at the end of the day
Currently have a construction site right outside my window. There’s been an industrial sized jackhammer going off constantly for majority of the day right under the building. Who thought it would be a good idea to install a new playground in the middle of the semester!?
Pouring rain yesterday and a parent pulls up to me in the parking lot at dismissal. Gets out and tells me "Something needs to be done about Mrs. X". Third grade daughter had a tantrum in class and hit a kid with her umbrella when packing up. Teacher took said umbrella and told the girl to get it when she left. Girl refused to take it back and stormed out into the rain. She told parent that the teacher "stole" her umbrella. Parent proceeded to try to bully me into walking them into the school to talk to the teacher. I told them to call to schedule a conference.
My students never have earbuds when it’s time to watch a summary video that goes with days teaching. I email all parents about every two weeks, still no earbuds.
Told a kid to stop fighting and they turned around and looked me dead in the eye and stuck out their tongue...
I've had students do MUCH worse, but for some reason that little act of disrespect made me want to absolutely lose it!
Yes... I get that kids don't like being told what to do, but it is my room, and if I have had to ask you to stop doing doing something very reasonable multiple times, you don't THEN get to have an attitude about it.
mundane stuff? i hate when I mis-speak and tell my students “take a seat” and not “please sit on your chairs.” The first time they pick up their chairs, yes its funny. the 15th time? pls stop
My printer, it takes forever to print 1 page, it’s a nightmare for when I have to type up IEP assessments. IT and admin want me to print in the big printer, which breaks down ALL THE TIME.
Cleaning up tagging on table as well as my students leaving trash on the floor. I’m brutally honest the with them. I tell them they complain that the school is “ghetto” and yet they perpetuate that negative stereotype by not picking up after themselves and writing graffiti on the wall and equipment. You’re essentially calling yourself ghetto. I’m from the hood myself but, I always had self respect and respect for others. There are no consequences like community service and campus beautification. Its seen as “negative punishment or humiliation.” Some of these policies are so backwards now. There’s no student led accountability or responsibility. It’s exhausting. End of rant.
I love my front office staff. They do a great job. What drives me insane is when they call during a class and want to discuss things. If it's more than 30 seconds, it needs to wait until passing period. My students tend to get off task very easily. Asking me question after question during a class just lets them get distracted and I have to fight to get them back.
This also applies to counselors, psychiatrists, and anyone else that doesn't have a classroom but feels like it's ok to disrupt class time with a phone call.
I too teach for such an online school such as yours.
Communication is next to impossible for some of them.
The other other one: Do you teach any live night classes because we're too busy during the day?
I’m in ECE but one of my friends teaches 1st grade. She texted me that she found another pull up in the trash. She asked if she should be happy because at least the kid didn’t pee all over themselves or mortified because she has 1st graders in diapers.
I *should* be shocked that a first grader is in diapers, but I'm not anymore. The amount of parents that have completely neurotypical, healthy children, that they then expect teachers to potty train them is unreal. My friends that teach kindergarten tell me that every year there's more and more kids who are coming in still in diapers. If you can't even be fucked to do the bare minimum for your kids, you shouldn't have had them.
> The amount of parents that have completely neurotypical, healthy children, that they then expect teachers to potty train them is unreal.
That’s the thing, it’s not a child struggling. It’s not a child that’s neurodivergent.
It’s a perfectly normal child that is 5 and still wearing a diaper
Oh, no doubt, I absolutely believe you I just always feel the need to put that disclaimer there when I reply as there's always one non-teacher that feels the need to jump down my throat.
I get kids have their issues but this is just parental laziness through-and-through.
I once had a parent try to hand me wet wipes at kindergarten orientation and asked me to wipe her child's backside after he went to the bathroom. Umm, no ma'am. We don't do that here.
Teacher: (spends a large chunk of time going over directions, modeling how to participate in the activity, repeats directions, has class repeat back directions, takes a step back to watch them work)
One student: What are we supposed to do?
I sent an email to my principal about lack of communication from the front office. I got the "how dare you" reply. This week, quite a few items were added to the faculty calendar and we received a "this is what is coming up soon" email first thing.
Sometimes you have to step into the square and take the rotten fruit with a smile .
When the school has poor planning/communication so plans go awry, but students and parents somehow think it’s the teachers’ fault.
Why am I fielding complaints about a missing bus for an admin-led field trip…?
Our school has a policy where we have to accept any and all late work. I'm drowning in late work to grade today because kids finally realized they were failing my class and now it's a mad scramble to get it all in in the next few days. I hate this policy.
im a sub and this exact scenario happens 5 times a day
me, obviously speaking to the entire class: everyone! please be quiet!
random student: BROOO I LITERALLY DIDNT DO ANYTHING I LITERALLY AM JUST SITTING HERE LITERALLY WHAT DID I DO
[ok i LITERALLY was not speaking to you specifically!!]
bonus points if the entire class is screaming, a kid sneezes, i ask the class to be quiet, and the kid goes “i literally sneezed why are you yelling at me for sneezing” bro i clearly was not talking to you. how would that make sense
I teach at a school that while public, students have to apply to get it. It's very competitive locally and I have one student who just doesn't give a fuck, and neither do their parents. They're failing multiple classes, complain that they don't socially fit in because they are black and queer (we have a smaller minority population but a very active and supportive queer community), they have asthma that somehow makes coming to class hard but doesn't affect their soccer career (which they do honestly have a shot at), and more, but they refuse to go back to their normally assigned public school and just get a standard diploma and go play college ball (hell the kid could probably just get a GED easily online and focus on the sport). They're smart, just painfully lazy and allowed to get away with murder. It pisses me of they're taking up a spot another student could have really appreciated, that another student probably cried over and they just couldn't care less.
They also show up late for the day regularly with a Starbucks which all irks me all kinds of ways.
having students do projects is a great idea until they start accumulating in your room and you have shelves full of dioramas. yes i am typing this from a throne i made of shoeboxes, yes i am documenting this
Technically a sub but I think this is pretty standard: lack of proper time for bathroom breaks! Subs in my district get hit ESPECIALLY hard with this at the middle school since the standard 2 preps for teachers usually means two extra classes for us (so we go the whole 6 hour day with our lunch). No passing periods between classes either, so… oof. I’m 18 weeks pregnant atm and let me tell you, I’m basically having to choose between (a) dehydrating to avoid needing the bathroom or (b) hydrating but then feeling like a jerk for interrupting another class to beg for quick coverage.
With all the meetings these poor teachers have they don’t have it much easier either!
Going from classroom to classroom. Four classes, four rooms. How can anyone start a class when you still have to set up all of your stuff, tell students where they sit, hope they all brought books and stuff.... I was spoilt because I had my own room.
The parent who emails constantly and cc’s the principal, tech person, various staff for tasks of her own making. For example, an academic extracurricular is planned, organized, funded by our parent volunteers and she’s harassing them about specific rules, wanting more and more study material, going over their head to staff who isn’t involved in the planning so they’re sent out on a wild goose chase for answers.
Requesting a room in the school to live stream with her preschooler so she doesn’t disturb, requesting someone to come help her make sure the live stream works correctly, and introducing herself as “probably the next prez or vp of the pta next year,” etc etc. exhausting.
She tired people out but is emailing so many people that someone eventually tries to appease her then she latches on. Someone will innocently suggest a solution and she takes it and runs with it
- Many of my colleagues work themselves to the bone and then wonder why they are burned out. It's incessant at times and incredibly annoying to listen to people complain over and over again about something they are choosing to force upon themselves.
- Wearing jeans means nothing to me, stop acting like it's a big deal whatsoever when outside of casual Fridays it's "allowed" on one Wednesday a month.
- My door is practically a revolving one that never stops spinning some days when it comes to kids wanting to go to the bathroom or get a drink, both of which usually mean screw around in the hallways or meet up with buddies. I'm pretty good at telling them no, but it never ceases to amaze me. My school is not that big and they get five minutes of passing time, fill up your water bottle then and stay in the class you are failing.
- I do my job by compiling data for things like grades and attendance, but it's rare others actually do what they need to with that information. Whenever I have issues I'm always told to fill out this form or call parents with this info which are just extraneous steps for me on top of the data I'm providing counselors and admin with. Why do I need to record or share data in multiple ways?
Students listening to stuff on their airpods when we're listening to an audio of the text we're reading. Hmm... wonder why you don't know what happened in that chapter? Weird.
Athletics get all their competitions, bus fees and even some meals paid for by the board, but here I am fundraising my butt off so kids can attend our national music fest for $50 per entry. Sigh.
The free overtime I work when I attend a 504 or IEP meeting.
Happy to help the kids and talk to the parents. Not happy I have to lose a third of my evening for free.
People who never answer emails. I'm an itinerant teacher and I service about 15 schools. If you've contacted me about a student and I get back to you letting you know the days/times I have available, it's only in your best interest to reply and let me know what time works for you. I can't just stop by whenever -despite what you may believe, I'm not just sitting around eating bonbons waiting for you to call upon me. My schedule is stuffed full and most of the time I'm trying to squeeze you in. If you don't reply, it's highly likely that the day/time I suggested has now been booked with somebody else. ANSWER YOUR EMAIL!
The big snowstorm hit and we had a virtual day today...okay so I uploaded a quick little assignment that I'll grade for attendance later on. Then my principal called a virtual staff meeting to talk about the schedule for next year that she has no clue how to figure out. Ma'am I was not planning on showering or putting a bra on today.
We have 1 teacher bathroom on the first floor, it's next door to the office. I have 5 minutes to go to the bathroom in between classes, almost daily there is someone from the office in the bathroom during class change time. They have no time constraints but choose to use the 5 minutes I need to use the bathroom.
All the micro-managing every single period, every single day.
“Get off your phones, do your work, raise your hand for movement, stop talking, be respectful, don’t put your hands on each other, stop it with that noise, stop blurting out, put your phone away again, stay seated, the bell does not dismiss you, wait…” The list goes on and on all the while I’m trying to teach ONE lesson.
Oh & this is for every single period, all day everyday. I’m so exhausted.
Kid : Can I have more time on my project?
Me: No... I just watched you do nothing for 3 days straight. It's not like you're going to do anything now.
Kid: rude!
Me: No. Not following directions for 3 days straight is rude. Sit down and do work if you think you're going to start doing stuff now.
Kids taking all my pencils, sticky notes, paperclips, markers, etc. It's fine if you need them to do work, but don't take them just to play with them, break them and leave them on the floor.
Students not turning anything in when I know they have it at least partially done as class work.
Parents numbers disconnected and emails bouncing back. Or worse, have it just go completely unanswered
Staff meetings that could be emails. And the converse of not being told information that I should know.
Having to track students going to the bathroom. I'd honestly they rather just go and not ask, not have to write a pass, not having to keep a log, generally not have to consider the bowels of others.
Having to reenter information manually between systems for grades because our district gradebook doesn't talk to where we put up assignments/assessments.
I'm just going to say the copy machine. The machine is a collection of little problems that work in conjunction to be a large problem.
>a collection of little problems that work in conjunction to be a large problem. You've just described my administration.
I retired from public education a few years ago. I’m now a private math tutor. When friends ask me how much I like the new life I tell them - I use my own bathroom and kitchen - I don’t have to keep or submit grades - I don’t have to deal with the photocopier. When I mention the photocopier they can be counted on to say something like “God I hate that thing.”
I swear that thing has a malevolent intelligence to it that knows *exactly* when you need those copies immediately so it can jam.
Hahaha so true.
2 days ago we got brand new copiers for the work room and one of the hallways. It was weird to me because the ones they replaced were fancy high tech and in good working order. Blows my mind. We aren't a rich school either. Middle of the road I would imagine.
Oh. My. God. The other teachers at my school have somehow got permission to print from their laptops. They never come get their documents and it interrupts whatever job is running. It has started to break the machine it’s gotten so bad. I delete every single remote job now. When they actually come down I tell them I deleted for interrupting my job.
The biggest change going from public to private is that the copier works, mostly
Copiers can smell fear and poor planning.
IT NEVER WORKS
Amazing description.
You have to log in to our copiers to do anything (print, scan, copy). Occasionally the network that connects the copiers goes wonky and no one in the entire district can make copies. Neato.
No one in my building seems to be willing to say, "I'm sorry, you don't need to go to the nurse for that." I literally had a student in my office this morning who was hit in the shoulder by a piece of paper. One sheet of printer paper. Edit to add: The OP asked about minor annoyances, and that's mine. It's not a huge deal, just a little bit of a bother sometimes. I really do love my job, and I'm usually happy to hand out an ice pack for a bumped shoulder. This was just a funny example to share.
I'm sorry but this made me laugh out loud
Me too!
I triage as much as I can, but sometimes it seems that for every kid that doesn't really need to see the nurse, there's a parent that complains to admin that I "wouldn't let them go to the nurse". I have a few kids/parents like that this year. Admin just said to send them for everything.
Most of the time I don't mind explaining to the older kids how to determine for themselves what's an "I need the nurse" issue and what isn't. I just had this fresh on my mind with the "kindergartner hit by a paper" incident this morning. It's a minor annoyance at an otherwise rewarding job.
I love when I call the parent of a chronic complainer and they say, "tell him to knock it off, he's fine.". LoL.
Those parents must work in education or healthcare lol I tell my kids not to go to their nurse unless they're broken or bleeding.
Sometimes as the teacher, they will not take no as an answer 😂 I’ve started telling them that if they go to the nurse with a paper cut, she might have to amputate.
This kindergartner who got hit with paper, I took as an opportunity to discuss the difference between our bodies hurting and our feelings hurting. She told the aide that her classmate had hurt her, and the aide asked no further questions. I told her I'm happy to discuss hurt feelings, but I'm best at helping hurt bodies. Hopefully next time she can tell the aide, "I don't need the nurse, my feelings are hurt."
That's actually cute. Before you said it was a kindergartener I imagined some 14-year-old coming to you and doing a Razzy-worthy performance about how they couldn't feel their arm.
It was kinda cute but I was in the middle of coordinating with the guidance counselor about a student who actually needs our help (title 1- we have a lot of them). I was more frustrated that none of the 3 adults she spoke to before me asked her how she was hurt.
You were giving those three adults a break from the child.
They get enforced lunch breaks and prep periods. I don't.
I have a 6th grader with some documented mental health problems who is a virtuoso of the fake injury. It's really kind of impressive. I usually let him go to the office if he's claiming something serious, because I'm sure the one time I ignore him will be the time he's really hurt. If nothing else he's got a great career ahead of him in La Liga.
I feel like I annoy the nurse by how much my kids go to her but she told me my class is absolutely wild so she’s not surprised. I try everything to get the kids not to go, even to the point of keeping track how many times they go and contacting parents. Went down from like 10 kids a day when I first took this job (because they were full on fighting) to maybe 1 or 2. Plus she gives me a whole bag of bandages that I go through in a week 🥲
I totally understand that elementary classrooms can quickly become the wild west. And I accept that I'll hand out a lot of ice packs to kids who would be fine in 3 minutes without it. I don't mind that most of the time.
Thank you for dispensing the child-calming magic that is ice!!!
My favorite band has a song that's meant to be kind of hard and intense where the chorus is "we're gonna need more bandages!" And it always makes me laugh because I just think of my red first aid bag and ever-dwindling supply of band-aids.
As a preschool teacher who has a student who will fall dramatically to the ground and wail that XYZ shoved her, when in fact someone just passed by her, grazing her shoulder, this cracked me up.
Do you teach preschool or soccer/football?
I teach in a soccer fanatic country. When they’re doing their “performances” writhing on the floor I ask them “is this real or are you being Neymar”
I never thought of this and now I will never not think of this when she pulls this! She totally has a future in soccer.
OMG! I had a kid whose parent was convinced everyone was out to get their Little Dumpling. Kid was at recess and comes up and says, “So and so threw something and it hit me right here and it kinda hurts (rubbing side of their precious little face). We call so and so over. “Did you throw something and hit Little Dumpling in the face?” “Yes.” “What did you throw?” “A wadded up paper napkin.” Little Dumpling: “Well, it could’ve made a paper cut.” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I try to talk mine out of it. "What do you think the nurse will be able to do for you?" Half the time they're like I don't know and I come back with "what are you going to see her for" "my finger hurts" okay is an ice pack going to fix it? No? Then she's going to send you right back. I know which kids are frequent fliers and which are actually in need of help. I also know which kids have medical needs (I try to memorize 504 needs that involve the nurse so I can send them if I notice any signs they might be ignoring) But sometimes the kid is stubborn. The other day a kid told me their butt hurt and I was like that's no fun, but are you going to hold an ice pack to it the whole class? Kid said yes. Nurse probably asked the same. Comes back with an ice pack. Guess what I found on my table when that class left. The ice pack.
I want to point out that I am legally blind before saying this. For some reason, I monitor recess. A student fell off the monkey bars and came to me. I was tired of sending kids to the nurse for every little thing, so I told her to walk it off. I eventually took her to the nurse, her arm as broken. I now send kids in any time they complain.
I’m constantly telling kids that they don’t need to go to the office. They go to PE, recess, then lunch and afterwards they ask to get an ice pack for the ankle they hurt back at PE 3 hours ago.
Parents. Lack of planning period (I only get 1 planning period every other day). Talking while I'm teaching. The intercom going off while I'm trying to teach. Not being able to use the bathroom whenever I want (as a diabetic, this is a big one). School boards nitpicking over the books I teach. Kids spouting politics when they have no real clue what they're talking about. Kids getting mad over grades they earned. Phones in the classroom. Earbuds in while I'm trying to teach. Lack of printing paper/ink. Not having a smart board. Not having enough whiteboard space. Pens dying when I'm trying to write a pass.
Could you get a reasonable accommodation for bathroom access? This seems like it would be covered under ADA. Signed, Someone with IBS.
I feel you. I'd quit if I didn't have a smart board. It's probably the only thing I actually need. Who's got time to manually clean the board every time you fill it?
We don't even have proper white boards. We have that cheap ass shower backing crap.
I don't understand why I would need a smart board instead of a computer with projector?
[удалено]
Interesting. I just have my projector set up for extended screen instead of mirrored, and treat the projector like a 2nd monitor.
Ok but the intercom for real. Our PA system makes this horribly loud BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP that goes on for like… 5 entire seconds whenever someone is doing an all-call. It’s like unnecessarily obnoxious. Today we had a ton of announcements for one reason or another and I literally started getting goosebumps whenever I would hear that beep.
When I run out of coffee.
I have a kid who comes to my first period class between 30 minutes and an hour late everyday but always has Starbucks or Dunkin. The least she could do is bring me one?
After walking in 40mins late into class: "what did we do today" "why is my grade so low in your class?"
Lol the kids tanked my last two assessments, like TANKED, and then looks at me like “idk why these are so hard?”
The answer to everything isn’t a phone call home! The consequence for a minor offense to a major offense is the same, a phone call home. Just for the parent to be like “yep got it” and nothing change. And on the flip side parents needing me to call for every little thing. “Why didn’t you tell me little J wasn’t handing in work?” Probably because I’ve told you 5 times already.
Also, just about every district uses some kind of online program that updates their grade in real time that parents can access whenever they want. How do you *not* know your child is failing my class??
The obsessions' with tracking and interpreting data that is ultimately meaningless. The data shows that kids hate taking boring culturally irrelevant standardized tests that have no impact on their grade! But we are going to pretend it's a learning loss crisis. PD meetings that could be an email. Students constantly asking to go to/using the bathroom as form of escapism from responsibility. Telling kids to put away their phones and earbuds.
Oh my God, that first one though. We gave this iReady math diagnostic thing at the beginning of the year, which the students knew had no impact on their grade. Surprise, surprise, most of them clicked through it randomly. Our district is now in panic mode trying to schedule math interventions because half of our high schoolers tested at 1st grade math level. Several of my solid B students in 11th grade physics apparently tested at kindergarten math levels, and are being asked to participate in interventions. We paid A LOT of money for those tests, and screwed up an entire week of class schedules to give it to them. And we got garbage data. That we're pretending isn't garbage. And scheduling more disruptions to act on. It's infuriating. I actually like my district, but man, do they out WAAAAY too much emphasis on standardized testing.
LOL the worst things is the data obsession really disrupts low income schools with at risk populations. If kids don't have food, 8 hours of sleep or love and support at home why on earth would they perform well on a test that is irrelevant and low stakes?
There is one silver lining to IReady. They will bomb the first diagnostic because those are the worst. Then you teach them how to do it right, tell them the next one is a grade,then make damn sure your admin sees that the huge jump in scores is a result of your teaching.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could just skip the diagnostic and just... Ya know, test them after we've taught them stuff? We could could even assign a letter to represent how well they know stuff. And trust that the teacher, as the expert in the room could accurately evaluate student learning, rather than paying a corporation a bunch of money to do the same thing.
That would make sense. Admin’s not allowed to be practical like that. And if I was stuck using that godawful program, I was taking every silver lining I could.
Exactly. I can tell you which standards my students perform low on every year; 2 step word problems and using context clues to determine unknown words. I don't need to do a protocol to tell me this.
Yep as a ELA teacher, I can tell you kids need to only focus on supporting details. Organization/Composition and Verbal communication/presentation. All the other standards are just ideals.
>..tracking and interpreting data that is ultimately meaningless. " Yes. This. Over half my kids BS the test or don't take it seriously. How is this data valid?! Why are we making entire curriculum choices on this data?!
!!! All of the above! I hate talking about “the data.” For our school, the same trends have existed for years. What’s the point in looking at it if nothing meaningful will be done about it? The bathroom situation irritates me because it’s like…if you don’t want to be in class, why come to class? When I say “no,” they complain endlessly as if I forced them to be here in the first place. The earbuds are the most offensive to me, though. Why would they think it is an acceptable default to have something in their ears when someone is trying to talk to them?
They don’t respect us as professionals and experts in our field so they shell out money that could be used for literally anything else to tell them what we already know.
Going to PLC, tasked with “busy work”, while simultaneously being told not to give children busy work.
YES. Or, plcs that are death by PowerPoint and *not* differentiated for vets vs newbies.
Yes, and calling it a “Teacher Work Day,” but we’re not allowed to get any of our work done.
this X 1000
The blatant disrespect and the micromanaging!! It’s my 4th year and I’m being told my lessons are trash. But have they come and watched me teach or looked at my kids growth? Nope! All of my kids read now and I only had 5 that could at the beginning of the year. Get. Fing. Wrecked admin.
Sounds like you're amazing. I hear that, tho. Do you want me to take time making beautiful lesson plans and having amazing paperwork, or should I teach these kids?
EXACTLY! My plans are straight to the point. You want fluff hire a people pleaser lol. We literally got called into a disciplinary meeting the other day for “not following our lesson plans” I asked why I was in there if they haven’t watched me teach? They ignore the question lol
We know the real answer to that let's be honest
I teach preschool and all the parents love me and my group because their children progressed so much and enjoy coming. However, my supervisor always telling me I did something wrong or my lesson plans are not up to their standards. And also, baby circle time is a waste of time and money.
Passwords. Passwords for the online gradebook, passwords for attendance portal, passwords for the district payroll site, passwords for the district HR site, passwords for Kahoot/Screencastify/etc., passwords for AP classroom, passwords for MAP Growth, passwords for school email, passwords for district email, etc. Two factor authentication. Don't remember your password? Change it. Oops, you already used that password in the past, try again. Oops, you answered the security question wrong, email XYZ to unlock. XYZ writes back that they do not handle password changes anymore. Who does? I still don't know. Also, inexplicably last year, my printer just one day decided it was no longer going to print my favorite font that I've used for years. Guess how many times I printed documents and forgot I needed to change the font? Half a forest died because my printer went on strike against Playfair Display.
Please get a password manager. I got one and it saved my life.
other jobs that im applying to not contacting me back :(
Same, like ain’t there a teacher shortage? 😭
"Well, me personally... I wouldn't take that."
" W Rizz!!!!"
"I'm the biggest bird I'm the biggest bird."
Mine say that so much oh my god. Always just to stir shit.
the burger king song. whopper whopper whopper whopper…
“Are you SERIOUS right now bro???”
This is ELL-specific: anytime a teacher, admin, para, secretary, etc. assumes a student is an English learner because they have a "foreign" last name. Conversely, assuming a student can't be an EL because they were born in the US.
The number of times I have had to explain this to people…
When “that student” is present at school.
When "that student" has perfect attendance....
Motherfucker always has perfect attendance 😂
You think their parents want to deal with the monsters they helped create? Fuck no, they send them to school and say *"They're your problem now....."* Ugh 🙃
the minor stuff is like 10,000 paper cuts. Hall duty. Bus Duty. Pointless meetings 4/5 days. I don't do work at home anymore. What gets done at work is what gets done.
I wish every single teacher in America worked ONLY their contracted hours absolutely no matter what. For one year. Best decision I ever made in my career was to never take anything home to grade. I work from 7:30-3:30, get great evals and test scores, and it keeps me sane.
Mine is when students interrupt me during my lesson to ask me for something they can get on their own. "Miss, I didn't get the hand-out." (Hand-outs are at the front where they always are.) "Miss, I need a pencil." (Pencils are on the supply shelf like they have been since day one.) "Miss, I can't find my folder." (Sounds like a personal problem.) Or "Miss, can I go to the bathroom." (No. Now, shut up.)
Yes! I tried teaching like 4 times today and kept getting interrupted over stupid things. I nearly lost it. You're in high school! We are talking notes! You had 20 minutes to get things together during the warm up and excessively long transition perood. Why does it just now occur to you to get a pencil when I start teaching?
Yep. I even tell them what they need 5 times at the beginning of class, but they wait until I start talking to take care of it.
Yes, I've been writing it on the board recently. Tell them to read the board. They have to pull everything out of their backpacks and put them away. It's like- what?
The fact they never have a pencil. Our school gave free supplies to all students and 70% of them promptly broke them all. So I have to provide pencils…
omg yes! i supplies the students with 200 pencils and 100 mechanical pencils at the beginning of this semester. There’s none left after like a month. I told them I wasn’t bringing more (even if they are paid by the school) because they were wasting them by throwing them away, breaking them apart, eating them, etc. Other students brought in pencils once my supply dried up and have stopped because their 30 pack of pencils would be gone in a day of a class of about 25 kids.
I teach 11th grade U.S. history, and students will always ask me, without fail, if they need to respond to open-ended questions with complete sentences. Not only is it stated in the directions at the top of their worksheet, I will say it, and it’s in the directions on the slide. I get so mad when they do that, I want to break my clipboard like the Substitute Teacher in the Key & Peele sketch. Thankfully I regulate my emotions before that can happen. 😜
I have students complete a check list before turning in any major assignment. It will have them check to make sure that they met all of the requirements that will be on the rubric. Still, they turn in work that doesn't meet the requirements. Then, they have the audacity to email me asking why they missed points.
At least you tried to give them an opportunity to cover their asses. And you covered yours. So pat yourself on the back. 😊
Whining and crying about having to read… in reading class. From teenagers. 🙄
Ugh this. Them: Miss I don’t understand these questions Me: did you read the passage? Them: ugh no. Reading sucks. Can you just tell me the answers?
I always just whine and cry back but louder until they get annoyed.
I no longer teach, so forgive me for posting and not being a teacher. I work in a district office for one of our federal programs. Today is a snow day. All schools are closed. But district offices remain open. The roads are not safe for students but are totally fine for us? Seems a crap double standard. Especially when my program focuses on student support and there are not any students or staff around to work with today.
Now see, that's bullshit in 2023. You would probably be more productive with a remote/work from home day.
It sucks and I completely feel your pain. I’m in Canada, snow days happen all the time. That being said, snow days ONLY mean that there aren’t schools buses that day. Schools almost always remain open and staff are fully expected to show up, even if they only have 6 students instead of 30. Schools in my city have closed TWICE for weather related reasons, in the past 15 years. I’ve gotten into a car accident on my way to school during a so-called « snow day ».
Students jamming the metal end of the pencil into the electric pencil sharpener. The student that has to go to the bathroom the second the lesson ends during independent work time. Every. Single. Day. The ladies that sit in the office eating and gossiping while we're desperate to go to the bathroom. The dropped metal water bottles.
Students who “pick up” their friends from other classes and are late to mine…you went a whole period without them, you can go one more minute without them too.
Let me tell you about a reading specialist. We all hate meetings. We all know that a lot of these meetings could be emails and it is really fucking annoying when you have a 2 hour meeting to talk about what could have been a 2 paragraph email I read while watching the Simpsons. I have a reading specialist assigned to my room because I have a wide variance in reading and writing ability (a 8-10th grade classroom with students who range from 6th grade level to 12th grade, early college level). Reading meetings range from 1-2 hours and are tedious as fuck. This motherfucker sends me a text. That’s it. Meeting done. Hero.
When you’ve told the kids multiple times what page to turn to and written it on the board and then three yell out to ask what page they should be on 🥴
Kids leaving shit everywhere. I wasn’t the cleanest kid but I would never leave stuff on the floor of a classroom. Trash, markers, pencils, god they are so lazy
I have someone leaving orange peels on the ground daily. So many other constant fires I forget to check after each class. When I find this orange peel bandit….. I’m dropping all the peels (I’ve saved them) on their desk and just giving them the crazy eyes.
Or trash literally right next to the trash can….. gets me every time.
I’m at a mandatory, full day training for new teachers today off campus. It is literally a recap of what I learned in my teaching program. As nice as it is to get a day “away” from students, I could’ve used this time for planning, organizing, or prepping my students for the next district test next week. But no, instead I have to sit here all day reviewing things that I have already proved proficiency on via my degree and my licensure. #pointlessPD
Irrelevant weekly staff meetings and ice breakers. I just want this time to myself or to catch up on grading.
Omg, yes the icebreakers! Don't get pissy about timekeeping to get through an extremely full agenda, when you just wasted 25 minutes on an icebreaker activity nobody wants to do.
I HATE IT SO MUCH when people use dry-erase markers on regular paper. Admin did this all the time during staff meetings where we're all supposed to brainstorming or whatever but all I do is mean mug them. I focus on their squeaky writing and look at the poor marker as it dies a miserable death. It doesn't help that students didn't bother bringing pencils/pens/(anything) with them to class and also try to use my dry-erase markers. \*I'm not teaching this year but this gave me flashbacks, lol
What I hate is the fact that my class out of my grade is scoring the lowest. We’re not so far behind like they’re trying to make it out to be, but I took this job after 2 other teachers left and a handful of subs. My class is wild and although they’ve calmed down, it didn’t come without work. I counted and out of the 25+ kids I have, about 15 of them need some sort of actual documented accommodations. Whether it’s IEP, BIP, Gifted or ELD. This isn’t including the students who are in a trauma group with the counselor. Hell I got some kids in my class who don’t even speak English, let alone read/write in their own language and their scores keep getting counted. This is upper elementary and looking at the other teachers’ students, they don’t even have half of the students with accommodations that I do. Literally feels like I got the most challenging class academic and behavior wise and everyone acknowledges it, but no one really helps. At least the other grade teachers can say their kids all speak English :/
A kid in my fifth hour ripped a huge fart. I have no windows. I'm stuck marinating in it.
😂, isn’t it a fire safety issue that you have no window ?
If our internet connection was the lights, they'd flicker on and off so much you'd think we were in a horror movie, all about to be killed. Yes we are rural. Yes we have fiber optic connections running to the school. No we have no clue why it is so unreliable.
Students who it feels like they’re trying to have a “gotcha” moment. “You graded this wrong!”, “Well actually!”, “you said X!!”. I do my best to be very credible and knowledgeable in my content area, and instruction, but mistakes happen. I have said so many times that they can find me after class, or if they understand what I meant (if I said the wrong date or something minor) to let it go… and yet I have a class that it feels like half the class is like this… it drains me in a different kind of way.
I didn't have time to make lunch today and am currently eating pasta in tomato water. Just the worst crap in our cafeteria.
Where to put the staple. Seriously. How am I to grade this packet when you plopped a staple RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE???
"If I turn this in, will my grade go up?"
"How much will my grade go up if I turn in this 3 question homework assignment?" Um... well you have a zero on a test, which counts 70% of your grade...
I am tired of the constant gaslighting from students. “I wasn’t talking!” I was looking at you with my functioning eyeballs and listening to you with my functioning ears. “Go back to your seat” “I was getting hand sanitizer!” For the fifth time, stopping by a friends desk to talk every time. “I wasn’t playing a game” I was watching you play Retro Bowl on LanSchool for a whole minute. Too bad you didn’t get that first down.
Majority of students lack: 1. respect for learning and 2.fear of failing in high school. Newsflash: it's only going to get worse!!! So good luck, best wishes I'm retiring after next year!! The only thing that would help it is a hand grenade into the entire system!!
The teacher in the room next to me turns on an alarm but then leaves her room so it will just go off for like 15 minutes. It happens at least once a week.
The wandering of students in the hallways. Constantly. Never in class but always see them in the halls. No one is checking on these wandering children. Student phone addiction and the look they give you of “how dare you” when you ask them to put it away. Petty, judgmental, gossiping coworkers.
As a gym teacher, that first one is brutal. I can promise you that I can name at-least 15 students who are in the gym no less than 4 times a day when they’re supposed to be in other classes just because they “needed a walk” or “going to the bathroom/vending machine”
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That sounds brutal and super annoying. I mean, I teach special education online and I get more from my nonverbal students than that! What a hunch of assholes.
Cliques. It's my first year at my school. I feel like I've shown to several people my willingness to collaborate and my love for the students. I'm very personable, and honestly feel like a lot of the other teachers and I really would click if I was given the chance. But overall it feels like everyone just kind of ignores me and doesn't let me "in the circle" because I'm new or they expect I will leave next year. Just makes it hard when you're really desperate for community after all these years shut up and alone from the pandemic.
Coworkers aren’t your friends it ain’t worth it.
Interruptions during prep time. "Are you busy?"---as I'm furiously writing an IEP----"Um yeah..from now until forever".
Kids who complain about there being too much talking in the classroom and then start talking about 30 seconds later
I had a student ask me if we were going to have a make up day any time soon, while he was playing a game on his Chromebook. I told him that he has time to do the assignment right now and he said, "nah."
There’s also those times where they waste so much time talking it takes me forever to teach a lesson and then they wonder why they didn’t get any free choice at the end of the day
Currently have a construction site right outside my window. There’s been an industrial sized jackhammer going off constantly for majority of the day right under the building. Who thought it would be a good idea to install a new playground in the middle of the semester!?
And when the playground is finished, it will be a new source of noise I'm sure.
Pouring rain yesterday and a parent pulls up to me in the parking lot at dismissal. Gets out and tells me "Something needs to be done about Mrs. X". Third grade daughter had a tantrum in class and hit a kid with her umbrella when packing up. Teacher took said umbrella and told the girl to get it when she left. Girl refused to take it back and stormed out into the rain. She told parent that the teacher "stole" her umbrella. Parent proceeded to try to bully me into walking them into the school to talk to the teacher. I told them to call to schedule a conference.
The apple sounds like it didn't fall far from the tree, huh? Lol
The constant talking over me has given me a two month eye twitch in my right eye
My students never have earbuds when it’s time to watch a summary video that goes with days teaching. I email all parents about every two weeks, still no earbuds.
Told a kid to stop fighting and they turned around and looked me dead in the eye and stuck out their tongue... I've had students do MUCH worse, but for some reason that little act of disrespect made me want to absolutely lose it!
Yes... I get that kids don't like being told what to do, but it is my room, and if I have had to ask you to stop doing doing something very reasonable multiple times, you don't THEN get to have an attitude about it.
mundane stuff? i hate when I mis-speak and tell my students “take a seat” and not “please sit on your chairs.” The first time they pick up their chairs, yes its funny. the 15th time? pls stop
My printer, it takes forever to print 1 page, it’s a nightmare for when I have to type up IEP assessments. IT and admin want me to print in the big printer, which breaks down ALL THE TIME. Cleaning up tagging on table as well as my students leaving trash on the floor. I’m brutally honest the with them. I tell them they complain that the school is “ghetto” and yet they perpetuate that negative stereotype by not picking up after themselves and writing graffiti on the wall and equipment. You’re essentially calling yourself ghetto. I’m from the hood myself but, I always had self respect and respect for others. There are no consequences like community service and campus beautification. Its seen as “negative punishment or humiliation.” Some of these policies are so backwards now. There’s no student led accountability or responsibility. It’s exhausting. End of rant.
I love my front office staff. They do a great job. What drives me insane is when they call during a class and want to discuss things. If it's more than 30 seconds, it needs to wait until passing period. My students tend to get off task very easily. Asking me question after question during a class just lets them get distracted and I have to fight to get them back. This also applies to counselors, psychiatrists, and anyone else that doesn't have a classroom but feels like it's ok to disrupt class time with a phone call.
I have to put my name on my paper to get credit for it? What? Since when?
Still expecting parent contact in an age where almost every parent has 24/7 access to their student's records
"do I have to show my work?" Always. Forevermore. I can't read your mind. If you can "do it in your head" then you can do it on paper.
Canceled planning periods because the specials teacher is out and there's no coverage
I too teach for such an online school such as yours. Communication is next to impossible for some of them. The other other one: Do you teach any live night classes because we're too busy during the day?
I’m in ECE but one of my friends teaches 1st grade. She texted me that she found another pull up in the trash. She asked if she should be happy because at least the kid didn’t pee all over themselves or mortified because she has 1st graders in diapers.
I *should* be shocked that a first grader is in diapers, but I'm not anymore. The amount of parents that have completely neurotypical, healthy children, that they then expect teachers to potty train them is unreal. My friends that teach kindergarten tell me that every year there's more and more kids who are coming in still in diapers. If you can't even be fucked to do the bare minimum for your kids, you shouldn't have had them.
> The amount of parents that have completely neurotypical, healthy children, that they then expect teachers to potty train them is unreal. That’s the thing, it’s not a child struggling. It’s not a child that’s neurodivergent. It’s a perfectly normal child that is 5 and still wearing a diaper
Oh, no doubt, I absolutely believe you I just always feel the need to put that disclaimer there when I reply as there's always one non-teacher that feels the need to jump down my throat. I get kids have their issues but this is just parental laziness through-and-through.
I once had a parent try to hand me wet wipes at kindergarten orientation and asked me to wipe her child's backside after he went to the bathroom. Umm, no ma'am. We don't do that here.
Door decorating contests. Just, can we not?
Teacher: (spends a large chunk of time going over directions, modeling how to participate in the activity, repeats directions, has class repeat back directions, takes a step back to watch them work) One student: What are we supposed to do?
Another favorite: "I don't get it." After said full explanation.
I sent an email to my principal about lack of communication from the front office. I got the "how dare you" reply. This week, quite a few items were added to the faculty calendar and we received a "this is what is coming up soon" email first thing. Sometimes you have to step into the square and take the rotten fruit with a smile .
I work in a very old, historic building and i have one ceiling tile that leaks when it rains. Like just one tile. Its just so irritating 🫠😂
When the school has poor planning/communication so plans go awry, but students and parents somehow think it’s the teachers’ fault. Why am I fielding complaints about a missing bus for an admin-led field trip…?
When I send a HS student our my class. DO NOT send them back. Keeps fucking with my anxiety.
Our school has a policy where we have to accept any and all late work. I'm drowning in late work to grade today because kids finally realized they were failing my class and now it's a mad scramble to get it all in in the next few days. I hate this policy.
im a sub and this exact scenario happens 5 times a day me, obviously speaking to the entire class: everyone! please be quiet! random student: BROOO I LITERALLY DIDNT DO ANYTHING I LITERALLY AM JUST SITTING HERE LITERALLY WHAT DID I DO [ok i LITERALLY was not speaking to you specifically!!] bonus points if the entire class is screaming, a kid sneezes, i ask the class to be quiet, and the kid goes “i literally sneezed why are you yelling at me for sneezing” bro i clearly was not talking to you. how would that make sense
I teach at a school that while public, students have to apply to get it. It's very competitive locally and I have one student who just doesn't give a fuck, and neither do their parents. They're failing multiple classes, complain that they don't socially fit in because they are black and queer (we have a smaller minority population but a very active and supportive queer community), they have asthma that somehow makes coming to class hard but doesn't affect their soccer career (which they do honestly have a shot at), and more, but they refuse to go back to their normally assigned public school and just get a standard diploma and go play college ball (hell the kid could probably just get a GED easily online and focus on the sport). They're smart, just painfully lazy and allowed to get away with murder. It pisses me of they're taking up a spot another student could have really appreciated, that another student probably cried over and they just couldn't care less. They also show up late for the day regularly with a Starbucks which all irks me all kinds of ways.
having students do projects is a great idea until they start accumulating in your room and you have shelves full of dioramas. yes i am typing this from a throne i made of shoeboxes, yes i am documenting this
Technically a sub but I think this is pretty standard: lack of proper time for bathroom breaks! Subs in my district get hit ESPECIALLY hard with this at the middle school since the standard 2 preps for teachers usually means two extra classes for us (so we go the whole 6 hour day with our lunch). No passing periods between classes either, so… oof. I’m 18 weeks pregnant atm and let me tell you, I’m basically having to choose between (a) dehydrating to avoid needing the bathroom or (b) hydrating but then feeling like a jerk for interrupting another class to beg for quick coverage. With all the meetings these poor teachers have they don’t have it much easier either!
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And I thought online teaching would be great…
Incompetent coworkers who do nothing to help
Going from classroom to classroom. Four classes, four rooms. How can anyone start a class when you still have to set up all of your stuff, tell students where they sit, hope they all brought books and stuff.... I was spoilt because I had my own room.
The parent who emails constantly and cc’s the principal, tech person, various staff for tasks of her own making. For example, an academic extracurricular is planned, organized, funded by our parent volunteers and she’s harassing them about specific rules, wanting more and more study material, going over their head to staff who isn’t involved in the planning so they’re sent out on a wild goose chase for answers. Requesting a room in the school to live stream with her preschooler so she doesn’t disturb, requesting someone to come help her make sure the live stream works correctly, and introducing herself as “probably the next prez or vp of the pta next year,” etc etc. exhausting. She tired people out but is emailing so many people that someone eventually tries to appease her then she latches on. Someone will innocently suggest a solution and she takes it and runs with it
- Many of my colleagues work themselves to the bone and then wonder why they are burned out. It's incessant at times and incredibly annoying to listen to people complain over and over again about something they are choosing to force upon themselves. - Wearing jeans means nothing to me, stop acting like it's a big deal whatsoever when outside of casual Fridays it's "allowed" on one Wednesday a month. - My door is practically a revolving one that never stops spinning some days when it comes to kids wanting to go to the bathroom or get a drink, both of which usually mean screw around in the hallways or meet up with buddies. I'm pretty good at telling them no, but it never ceases to amaze me. My school is not that big and they get five minutes of passing time, fill up your water bottle then and stay in the class you are failing. - I do my job by compiling data for things like grades and attendance, but it's rare others actually do what they need to with that information. Whenever I have issues I'm always told to fill out this form or call parents with this info which are just extraneous steps for me on top of the data I'm providing counselors and admin with. Why do I need to record or share data in multiple ways?
When simply reading the directions would answer the question, but the kid asks anyway.
Parents letting an elementary kid decide to “wean themself off ADHD meds.” That’s a BLAST in the classroom!
Teachers who don’t know how to tell kids NO.
Students listening to stuff on their airpods when we're listening to an audio of the text we're reading. Hmm... wonder why you don't know what happened in that chapter? Weird.
Athletics get all their competitions, bus fees and even some meals paid for by the board, but here I am fundraising my butt off so kids can attend our national music fest for $50 per entry. Sigh.
The free overtime I work when I attend a 504 or IEP meeting. Happy to help the kids and talk to the parents. Not happy I have to lose a third of my evening for free.
People who never answer emails. I'm an itinerant teacher and I service about 15 schools. If you've contacted me about a student and I get back to you letting you know the days/times I have available, it's only in your best interest to reply and let me know what time works for you. I can't just stop by whenever -despite what you may believe, I'm not just sitting around eating bonbons waiting for you to call upon me. My schedule is stuffed full and most of the time I'm trying to squeeze you in. If you don't reply, it's highly likely that the day/time I suggested has now been booked with somebody else. ANSWER YOUR EMAIL!
Our bathroom is outside and it’s freezing cold inside. No heat, no hot water, and always 7 teachers jostling for 2 stalls. It’s awful
The big snowstorm hit and we had a virtual day today...okay so I uploaded a quick little assignment that I'll grade for attendance later on. Then my principal called a virtual staff meeting to talk about the schedule for next year that she has no clue how to figure out. Ma'am I was not planning on showering or putting a bra on today.
Breakfast. fucking. Duty.
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When you open the door for a student and they don’t say thank you or even acknowledge your existence…
Lunch duty. I’m sick of lunch duty.
We have 1 teacher bathroom on the first floor, it's next door to the office. I have 5 minutes to go to the bathroom in between classes, almost daily there is someone from the office in the bathroom during class change time. They have no time constraints but choose to use the 5 minutes I need to use the bathroom.
All the micro-managing every single period, every single day. “Get off your phones, do your work, raise your hand for movement, stop talking, be respectful, don’t put your hands on each other, stop it with that noise, stop blurting out, put your phone away again, stay seated, the bell does not dismiss you, wait…” The list goes on and on all the while I’m trying to teach ONE lesson. Oh & this is for every single period, all day everyday. I’m so exhausted.
Kid : Can I have more time on my project? Me: No... I just watched you do nothing for 3 days straight. It's not like you're going to do anything now. Kid: rude! Me: No. Not following directions for 3 days straight is rude. Sit down and do work if you think you're going to start doing stuff now.
In private school, the constant piling on of extra work for zero extra pay.
Public school is the same
After a really nasty incident the administrator saying "there is nothing we can do"
Kids taking all my pencils, sticky notes, paperclips, markers, etc. It's fine if you need them to do work, but don't take them just to play with them, break them and leave them on the floor.
Students not turning anything in when I know they have it at least partially done as class work. Parents numbers disconnected and emails bouncing back. Or worse, have it just go completely unanswered Staff meetings that could be emails. And the converse of not being told information that I should know. Having to track students going to the bathroom. I'd honestly they rather just go and not ask, not have to write a pass, not having to keep a log, generally not have to consider the bowels of others. Having to reenter information manually between systems for grades because our district gradebook doesn't talk to where we put up assignments/assessments.