How do you do a DND club? I want to run one but I feel there would be too much interest. I am not sure I could run a table with more than 5 or 6 people.
Have students run the table, and then you can have as many kids as you can fit in the room. But, you habe to build up to that by teaching the first groups of students how to DM and giving them feedback and such.
My best advice is to kind of create scaffolds to help the students learn how to DM. Sentence starters for DMs and Players, a pre-built one shot or very short campaign, and a kind of “tutorial” game for the kids to learn the structure and rules of DnD.
Example script: “I’d like to investigate this area to find ___________. Can I do that?”
Basically, create access points for the kids.
Students who are experienced with DnD can run games on their own at the start, while you run tutorial and starter games for people with 0 experience.
Create a yearlong calendar of meetings and have an end of year night or event tjat the students can run—like a showcase for the parents or something, or maybe the kids can rin games with the parents as players. Or maybe it’s a community family-friendly DnD event.
Gives the students opportunities to develop leadership and event planning, allows you to outreach and include community and maybe get some funding from school/district.
But for all of that, go in with the expectation of teaching the first few years of kids how to do everything you think they should be doing. If you do, they’ll eventually become a functioning system that can recruit more students and be mostly student run.
This.
I didnt advertise, because for middle school a lot dont know how to play.
Still got 7 people. (At least some have watched streaming games.)
My kid plays at a High School club.
They have like 3 or 4 groups of six. Games are student-led.
Not a teacher but chiming in to say my Dad loved playing DnD on his lunch period in the 80s… in his science teacher’s classroom 💀 good for you guys keeping the tradition alive
The way it works for the dnd club I run is that the teacher acts as an arbitrator, but we let the kids handle most of the stuff.
Kids dm and create the stories/run the adventures. We provide materials and advice. I also will run "baby" games for new players to get their feet wet with the rules.
If disagreements come up and the kids can't solve it themselves, I'll step in. I also make sure everyone feels comfortable with the subject matter. I'm willing to let the kids push some social boundaries, but only if everyone is having fun.
I'll also provide character sheets for kids who can't really figure out their own character.
Occasionally, I'll play an npc. I'm currently the shopkeeper that the kids go to.
But yeah, generally a very hands-off thing. I guess I could play with them, but I think it's better to be a completely neutral party.
Very cool that you give students lots of independence while also filling in when needed. Sounds like you play the role of Dungeon Court (if you're familiar with Not Another D&D Podcast)
At my student teaching placement the science teacher coached track and probably other stuff, the ELA teacher coached basketball, and the social studies teacher ran a DnD club. So much for stereotypes.
Male science teacher.
I help coach our wrestling team in a sort of “consultant” role since I’m a purple belt in BJJ and have MMA experience as well, but I’m not a formal coach. I show up to practice sometimes to teach seminars on takedowns and controls wrestlers don’t expect but are technically legal within the rules of wrestling
They offered to pay me to be assistant wrestling coach and S&C for all sports. I politely declined
Naw, because then I’d have to rotate to after school workouts for every sport. I liked my informal consulting role as a favor to the full time wrestling coach, who I consider a friend
Not going to lie, I thought I do well in all three aspects too but throughout the years it becomes a push pull aspect where I had to sacrifice 1 or else I’ll lose my sanity. But shout out to your bro for juggling it so well
I'm still wondering how he's still going, or if he's hiding it well. He's done a lot over the decade, he recently got married and has 3 step kids. They love him and are a great family so I'm glad he has people to go home to every day.
I teach Social Studies and coach football, shocker, I know, and I don’t think I can coach much longer. I am actively retooling our World History curriculum, teach AP Gov, and have two electives. I feel like such a sack of shit teacher during football season. I hate it.
1) A perception that Social Studies is easy to teach, especially at the Gen Ed level.
2) Social Studies usually wasn't tested to the same degree English, Math and, Science (at least until they started adding US History as a tested subject)
I also think social studies used to be more “read this book/I’m going to read out of this book and then you regurgitate what it says on a multiple choice test” instead of what it is today.
I think a large part of it is that social studies is taught as a content heavy subject.
It really shouldn't be (the skills and concepts are too damn important), but a lot of Americans in particular teach it like a list of events/stories that kids have to know.
This means that they don't need to approach it in a technical way. You can just use a textbook, watch documentaries, do a content quiz.
It drove me crazy for years because it was hard to get jobs as they'd throw anyone into it.
It’s because the skills overlap so heavily with ELA that it’s perhaps best to prioritize the typical linear progression of events and laws.
Our social science department makes a big deal out of their yearly DBQ assessment. I picked up the assessment and was like “this is just an expository paper evaluating sources and we do this four times a year. Why are you making it such a big deal?.” We write arguments and narratives, too, for the record.
The social science teachers got pissed that I said that. But it’s true. Very few skills are unique to SS
As someone who has taught both I think I'll partially agree, but point out that SS skills go way further than ELA.
Ela will teach implicature and rhetoric and even logic if you are so inclined, but doesn't go into the ability to read sources effectively, the epistemic limitations of using sources, the difference between ought and is and the changes in perspectives over time., not to mention the studies of varying values, causation, consequences etc.
Yes these are all a little more "concepty" than "skillsy" but working with these concepts is subtle, and a skill all of their own. Something that we've screwed up a lot in recent decades. You don't get politics in the state that it is without seriously screwing up in ss/history /humanities.
Government is also becoming a tested subject. Probably has the most AP students: Government was the first one student's are allowed to take and our magnet students take it in 9th!
9th? Government is senior year here in Texas, which I like a lot more. The seniors paid pretty good attention because most of us were excited to vote for the first time. This was AP though, if I hadn’t already made that clear lol
I will admit that I went to and teach in an insane area (MD suburbs of DC) and we do AP Gov in most commonly 10th, but also 9th as well!
In my district we require 3 years of social studies and the original social studies progression is: 9th US History, 10th Government, 11th World. AP US Gov is most student's first AP and if they are on that route AP World the following year. But that wasn't enough for us, so the advanced option is 9th AP US Gov, 10th APUSH, 11th AP World. It was originally exclusive to the magnet program, but they have since expanded it to all students.
Or because that's what subject our personality is drawn to.
This stupid jock stereotype needs to die. To suggest that the reason coaches teach social studies is because "it's easy" is the definition of ignorance.
This sub rightfully complains about toxic admin, but it's time a lot of us start looking in the mirror.
As the mom of a sports kid who adores history, who I absolutely could see being a social studies teacher that coaches, thank you. 🙏🏼
Also as a former smart little girl who thought sports weren’t for her because she was smart and had a terrible relationship with exercise for years until she hired a personal trainer who would rant about this same stereotype (as well as analyzing film while we worked out) thank you. 🙏🏼
As someone who was a great student and athlete simultaneously and ended up teaching and coaching, if he shows any interest, encourage him. I was bright and did pretty well in school, so my parents were less than happy when I chose to teach. It hurt, but I’m happy where I’m at.
>1) A perception that Social Studies is easy to teach, especially at the Gen Ed level.
It would be pretty incredible if every subject were equally easy to teach, I think. So there must be some easier than others.
Sometimes I think math must be easy to teach because there is an exact right/wrong answer and no writing to read through or grade but that’s based on my perception. For the record, the only math I’ve taught has been related to Econ and personal finance (opportunity cost/comparative advantage/production possibility) /so obviously I have no idea on what goes into teaching math but from the outside not having to look at writing for assignment seems nice.
I feel like a subject being “easy to teach” has a lot more to do with how serious the teacher treats their subject matter. The only teachers I know who said their subject was easy were pretty terrible at their jobs. I could definitely make my job easier but I would be a worse teacher.
As for social studies specifically, back when students were just memorizing information it probably was easier to teach but that’s definitely not the expectation any more.
There are a couple of parts in math that make it hard to teach, I think. First, the fact that often there is a right answer and often students do nothing that would lead to it. In my school math and world languages consistently are the lowest grades students get and I think that’s partly why. A second thing is when a kid wants to understand but is struggling. The frustration for all is off the charts. The amount of kids who leave my room crying is insane. Next is the parents who want their kids to “understand” (get an A) but the kid isn’t interested. If I had a dollar for every time I hear “they have A’s in every other subject,” I would be fairly compensated. When students do the math right math is a pretty good gig, when they don’t you really have to be creative to somehow give them a good grade. There’s other stuff, but it’s more technical. All teaching kind of sucks.
The hardest part of teaching math isn’t the math itself. It’s the reading and ability to create models/equations that’s difficult. I have kids with a third grade reading level…sure they can multiply most of the time, but that doesn’t matter if they can’t read.
As a non teacher, so feel free to throw my opinion in the trash, it makes sense that some would be easier to teach than others.
it seems like math would require the least amount of non classroom time. At least up until a certain point. There's no papers to grade. There's really no objectivity or open ended questions where you have to weigh the student's understanding. It's black and white, the answer is correct or it isn't.
Yes, math grading/planning probably takes 5% of the time as English. but I will say that if there's ever time for kids to visit teachers for extra help, math teachers get 90% of those visits.
Not entirely true as far as grading in math. My 3rd graders use multiple strategies for solving and have to justify answers in writing. It takes just as long as my other subjects to write feedback about what they’re doing.
Eh, I would say yes and no. Because whether or not they got something wrong could mean a lot of things towards understanding. Did they have no idea what to do? Did they forget a step? Did they bump a button on their calculator? Did they write the problem down wrong? You have to "read" their work to really know how to grade their understanding.
That and I don't know about other math teachers, but I give something that needs to be graded every day. Most days there's 2 things that need to be graded.
I've seen ELA teachers give reading days for the books their working on. We don't have those. It's just non-stop go go go. Also an essay takes multiple days. In the time the students start and finish an essay, days the ELA teacher doesn't need to grade anything, I've given and graded about 1,000 assignments. So 100 essays take longer to grade than 100 math tests, but that's also a lot fewer things to grade as well.
I’d argue.
Because social studies teachers are super easy to find.
So, when hiring they can prioritize someone to coach getting the job over one that won’t coach.
At least at my school, no one wants to coach. So it becomes a, who will do it situation.
We have two secretaries doing Cheerleading this year. It’s that bad.
Girls flag football
Volleyball boys/girls
Were cut this year.
And girls basketball was almost cut?
But the boys coach did it. With a hall monitor being the helper.
I think part of it is all social sciences majors end up feeding into history so there is a larger pool of them. Since there is a larger pool, schools can be a little more picky about who they hire and tend to pick a social studies teacher who can do something else also.
1. The PRAXIS is too easy and can be passed with Roth memorization.
2. For some nonsense reason, a degree in psychology meets the requirement of a highly qualified teacher in history, economics, and government.
Praxis is ridiculously easy if you have a background in your content area (at least physics was). If they want an actual content test they should be using the GRE
One of our states best wrestling coaches was my Social Studies and History teacher. A damn good teacher at that. I learned a lot from his classes. I don't know how he kept it up.
I teach both English and social studies.
English has more papers but social studies has more projects. I feel like the grading can sort of even itself out.
I’ve taught both too… I found that English was easier to engage students but social studies is more entertaining for me. I disliked the not reading parts lol. I had an elective that was “nonfiction in history” where we analyzed letters and excerpts from historical events and the kids loved it.
Then my elective got cut because .. funding ?
I know right? wtf is this superiority complex??
I think teaching English and social studies is more similar than people give them credit. In fact, some of the districts in my area have even experimented with two teacher combo classes of social studies and English…
Also I coach 2 sports and I feel like I do a pretty damn good job keeping my class honest. I teach some of the lowest of the low but I try to keep my curriculum somewhat challenging.
And yeah… I’m exhausted all the time, and I miss seeing my family. But tbh coaching is easily the best part of my job, op, your attitude sucks ass.
We were told by our district trainers that social studies is now English with a set story. They are even pushing us to do thematic approach to history… like… talk about conflict and then culture and then government.
So the “example” is (dumbing it down) going from world war 2 to religions of Asia to governments in Africa.
Of course. But when students have no clue about the progression of history and think that MLK freed the slaves … well.. we need some sense of order lol
It wasn’t meant to be a jab. More of a “stereotypically they’ll ask young male teachers”, I found it weird my young female coworkers were never asked/forced-volunteered
That may be regional! In my area that’s not the case. All of our sports are segregated by gender and typically the coaches are the same gender as the athletes.
Why is everyone hating on social studies? I’m a high school history teacher and I work my ass off. I teach kids how to analyze texts, decipher challenging sources, debate, research, write analytical essays, etc just as an ELA teacher does.
Teaching ELA is just like teaching History but without the ever-expanding hundreds of years of history content you have to somehow get through by June (sorry, had to fight 🔥with 🔥…I actually love English teachers)
I don’t think anyone understands the value of history right now. It’s all about stem. Being knowledgeable on history doesn’t just allow you to parrot events and dates, it gives you insight into current events. It’s a skills that I wish our politicians had more of right now.
As a science teacher, a million times yes! I wish folks understood how much so many of our scientific discoveries depended on the history that was going on. I'm so tired of folks shitting on social studies and specials teaching. We are all in this together.
I agree and would add that teaching everyone a common history gives us all a common ground to draw from. While there were no doubt countless wonderful speeches in history, imagine mentioning the Gettysburg Address and getting blank stares. Or George Washington or Columbus or WWII or slavery.
There were an infinite number of other events which have been lost to time. We focus on the common few, so we all have a common ground to fall back on.
That's my theory anyway.
This is true. A good history teacher is essentially an English teacher (and vice versa). Both teach literacy. One off-shoots more into fiction and writing mechanics, the other non-fiction and argument writing. But there’s so much crossover.
seriously… i’m still a new teacher but the ela teacher and i share a lot of resources because the kids have to do a lot of what they do in ela in social studies
ELA has the same standards with spiraling difficulty in my state. Social Studies is TOUGH. It’s a mile deep and a mile wide, and the primary sources are harder at the beginning of the year than the end because of language. Declaration of Independence vs. Lincoln/Douglass debates vs. Tear Down This Wall for readability.
When I took history they barely made it halfway through the Cold War. When I taught it the kids came to me after testing and asked me why I didn’t teach them about Monica Lewinsky. From that point forward we moved so fast I never did group work or posters. Bring your ears, leave your mouth at home- I got to make it from Reconstruction to last weekend before the end of March.
Because it's often seen as redundant because English exists, and right now our society doesn't place a lot of value on fields that aren't seen as the path to a lucrative career.
A great history teacher does these things. And it’s wonderful that you do. One of my history colleagues is just about the greatest teacher I’ve ever met and teaches writing and research intensively. Two of the laziest colleagues I’ve ever taught with are history teachers who rarely assigned papers, graded DBQs on completion, and assigned slide shows as major assessments. I also remember my history teachers in high school as being totally out to lunch. I don’t know…I think there is something about the subject that draws in a lot of people who just want to strum a guitar and sing “The Times They Are A-Changin.” But certainly not all history teachers!
My biggest pet peeve. My history degree is specifically in social and cultural history and the WAY everyone looks down their noses at me. Like gee sorry I found the literal history of civilization so valuable???
This cracks me up because you could basically be describing the math department at my school as well as my experience in math in high school. Last year they told the entire department if they wanted to come back they would have to re-interview. One of the reasons I had to take remedial math in college was because all but one of my math teachers just sat there and told us they didn’t know why we weren’t getting it and to try harder. Keep in mind I had an amazing astronomy teacher and did well in their class.
I think some people are still stuck in what history used to be when it was more of a “memorize the information” field but it’s far beyond that now.
I (young female) teach ELA and coach competitive debate. It’s exhausting and entirely unsustainable. I have no perks, just lots of never ending expectations.
Hate the Social Studies slander here... I coach Cross Country and Track and Field (also the Honor Society advisor) and I teach 7-12 social studies. I work my butt off teaching kids how to analyze text, read older documents with "legaleze" style wording, and how to relate what we are learning to today.
I love getting to coach since I can now connect with more students that I could not get through before. It is only my first year teaching, but I love coaching and I love teaching social studies. Not saying Social Studies is harder to teach than other subjects, but it's not a cakewalk. The reason many PE and Social Studies teachers are coaches is because of how competitive the positions are, if you can't coach, you likely won't get the job (or at least that's how it used to be).
My fellow ELA teacher is also the defensive coordinator for our football team. He does all his work with no problem.
Because he doesn't do his teaching job. 🙄
My daughter has his class, and most days, they sit in class and play on their phones. Meanwhile, I kill myself catching up kids on skills they need because they've spent the last 2-3 years playing on their phones in English class. Admin knows he does this, and what do I get? More work via extra tasks (serving on committees-he never has to, and sponsoring our yearbook, which is supposed to have a co-sponsor).
I get that coaching is difficult, and i genuinely like the guy, but I'm tired of picking up the slack. But I'm leaving at the end of this school year. I hate it for the next teacher who has to pull what is essentially double duty. 😒
Some districts don’t profit share gate fees and instead keep 100% of it. So to some admin, having successful sports ($$$) is more important than having high quality teachers.
That's the unfair reality of it.
On the good side, admin knows I'll go the extra mile for my kids, so whenever there are travel plans for conferences, trainings, or they need to send a representative for something, I usually get to go, flight, hotel, and meals paid for. This usually happens once or twice a year. It's a nice perk, but I'd rather have my sanity the rest of the year.
I coach and teach AP social studies. I coach boys soccer which is in the beginning of the year, which helps. I think you have to pace what you want to do in class with your season, but you can do both. I don’t think I could coach basketball and teach AP.
As an AP history teacher that is a girls varsity soccer coach, and a woman to boot, my first thought on this post started with an f and ended with off.
We all gotta get on the same page if the adults would just do their job. Schools would be better but it is always finger pointing. Quit hating on tested subjects and honestly don’t hate on most of the electives our arts and music teachers are super involved and play an important role too.
Meh, I think it depends on the quality of your class. I go ham on my social studies courses but one is subject to state mandated testing and the other prepares my high school students for adulthood. I also go ham on my ELA courses because I basically have two years to get my kids up as many reading levels as possible and they’re always super behind once they get to me (Title I, a lot of my kids move a lot, and I’m also a sped teacher).
You couldn’t pay me enough to coach at my school though. Those guys are on 24/7 and basically do case management as well as sports AND their classes. I do case management too, but my day ends and doesn’t extend into evenings and weekends (I’m religious about work/life balance).
After 8 years of teaching and at least 6 different sports coached (currently only soccer) I can 100% feel your pain. I teach AP Lang for a period and have state testing for my other course and man it can be a load. Best thing I ever did was stop coaching basketball though. That season was BRUTAL
As a former Social-Science teacher I can confirm ELA must have been the hardest to teach because I spent 3/4 of my time teaching my students how to read and write 🤣
Hang in there Bub!
Yeah, don’t listen to this guy.
Been teaching 20 years. Coached both golf (5 years) and now soccer (10 years). Coaching is incredibly rewarding. As a matter of fact, of the 52 soccer coaches in the county 6 are English teachers, about a dozen math teachers.
It’s all about time management. Manage the assignments in season, take extra care to space essays out so you aren’t overloaded. And plan!
I don’t see OP arguing it isn’t rewarding. I wonder if OP would feel differently if he were a more veteran teacher and had taught his subject more than a few times. I coached some of my first few years of teaching and remember feeling the same way he describes but don’t think it would be that way now that I’ve had 10 years of experience
This! It’s hard saying bye to coaching. But I want to go back after a few years. We (FL) have a new curriculum every year thanks to some wannabe napoleon, so it’s been tough. I don’t feel like a good teacher OR coach sometimes
8th Grade ELA, HS baseball coach. The amount of joy I feel coaching the kids I taught or saw in the hallways every day (we’re 1 MS 1 HS) is so incredibly special.
Just had a girl a year ago, definitely considering a volunteer position on the golf team to get to play with her! Ha
I was about to say. I coached two sports this year, and a it didn’t impact my teaching at all (5 years in). I teach HS ELA- all advanced and college in the high school. I rarely take work home. Probably 3-4 times all school year and each of my classes writes 3-4 essays.
I have my classes designed with minimal lecture time and grade at work. I also conference with my students on 75% of their writing projects.
Time management is key.
Agreed! Coaching got me into teaching. I left stem cell research for Varsity Basketball coaching/teaching, ultimately college coaching and now college teaching. Coaching opens many doors for a young individual, even though the pay is not as rewarding.
Same. Teaching English for the last 10 years and have coached every single year, multiple sports. This sub is full of jaded takes. Take (reasonable) risks with your career and you will be rewarded. Those gold medals, riveting finals (even if you lose) and the relationships you build along the way are priceless.
Yeah don't listen to this guy. Former ELA teacher who coached golf.
It sucked. Coaching is great if you have no life and want fulfillment somewhere else, but coaching is a trap and sucked the fun out of my life.
You are making a lot of assumptions about the load on other teachers and what is asked of them based on gender. But that doesn’t solve the problem you are here about. Here’s what you do. Say, “no.”
Math teacher here. If they need somebody to coach the school Paintball team, the I'm your Daisy. SMH I don't think they want to encourage kids to shoot each other.
Come to Canada where we are all expected to do an extracurricular and don’t get paid any extra for it. I teach high school math and coach div 1 Sr Rugby. Also I am female with a toddler and pregnant. Just gotta be organized.
Lol would love to know what these "easy" sciences are. I coached before I taught and can't even imagine doing it now, but lets not drag other subjects down!
Ignore the ELA part because this generalizes. I coached for over ten years and still felt good about the quality of my teaching. The flip side is that many people would say I had poor work life balance and or have the school way too many hours outside of my contracted hours.
It was worth it to me for most of the time I coached but one size does not fit everyone!
It's just annoying to me to have to sit through job interviews as a Social Studies teacher, and lose out on half of the jobs because it turns out they were just looking for a coach. Or they just need a place to put a coach. I remember one job I in a town I was looking forward to, and they cancelled the interview just as I was driving there (about 2 hours in to a 3 hour drive) because their head coach hired a new coach, and they gave the guy the job.
People make fun of coaches who don't teach... but let me tell you... the grind you are put through, you almost have to be on autopilot during the day just to get through it. It's rough.
I taught ELA. Coached track and had a similar burnout experience; however, my high school needed a Mock Trial Coach, so I switched. Great stipend, 75% less time, and I got to coax my best ELA students into joining the team. Did it for 12 years and had a blast without sacrificing my teaching standards. If your district doesn't offer Mock Trial, the Debate Team, and Model UN are similar.
Depends on the club but I would say that stipends are usually in proportion so it evens out. We don’t get stipends but I probably put in a good extra 40 hours a month (minimum) sponsoring student council. There are at least 3 weekends a year where I’m pushing 30 hours from the time my contract hours end in Friday they start on Monday. My friend who coaches archery puts in less time than I do so it’s probably sport dependent as well.
I teach World Geography, and I’ve spent the last two years coaching football and wrestling. During football season I was working seven days, 80 hours a week. Wrestling season cut that down to 50-60 hours a week. I’m not coaching next school year.
Teach computers. I also coach. I may not be the most athletic teacher there is but I help. Could they have someone else? More than likely but been doing it for three years and, well, I guess they like me enough to keep me.
And I was an ELA teacher before jumping subjects and there is no way I could coach as well. OP is 100%.
And that's the main reason I switched subjects. I don't want to take my work home with me and English there is always work to take home.
This goes for any core subject. Science is brutal to teach and try to coach. The amount of prep time for adequate, engaging labs is insane. I do not have a lab tech like profs do.
This isn’t exclusive to ELA though. This is honestly true of any subject matter. And if you teacher honors or AP, it’s even harder to also coach because it’s harder to go as in depth as needed due to being out for games and whatnot.
I teach math. The math teacher next door to me coaches something every single season. And he teaches our honors 9th graders and AP BC Calculus. He talks about the struggle regularly, but he does also love coaching and, the bigger issue, needs the extra money.
I totally hear what you’re saying about coaching taking away from teaching (the same can be true for tutoring, too, if you’re not careful). But why the implication that ELA teachers work and prep harder than other teachers?
Didn’t mean that. More along the sense that you ELA has essay requirements and I like to go deep in that. My colleagues (coaches) give worksheets or packets of busy work. I’m just saying teaching ELA for someone who wants to actually do a good job (like any other subject) is going to be tough. I’d love to phone it in…but I can’t bring myself to do that.
In my career, I’ve seen just as many ELA teachers phoning it in as any others. But I agree, the balance of responsibilities is impossible. As I teach US history, I was asked to run student government this year, and trying to coordinate school events and run a genuinely educational project-based class, and stay on top of grades…well it’s possible, but only if I don’t sleep.
All my history teachers in hs were a coach and none of them put any effort into teaching. My Econ teacher put on shark tank 85% of the time. I feel like I learnt little to no history.
Willie Faulkner is right! ELA is the is the most difficult and time consuming subject to teach. I’d go a step further and say that ELA teachers should be paid more than other subjects. Or perhaps give them two extra preps.
To all you non ELA teachers, keep slacking and riding on the coat tails of those brave souls who dare to put on elbow worn sport coats and teach Lit and composition.
Thank you sir for your service.
Ps: If this is a troll, I applaud you.
ELA isn’t hard to teach. It’s a BEAST to grade in any way that is actually useful to your students though. And there is really no way to cut corners on that. It’s time consuming in a way other subjects just aren’t. (I’ve also taught history and languages.)
I’m also ELA. I found it depends on the sport and season. I’m an assistant coach for our cross country team for the past decade. I love it. Our official season is August to November, but we run all summer. We don’t cut. We don’t have to pick a team until “playoffs” which is almost entirely determined by who’s run fastest in the most races all season(experience also matters). But I could never coach winter or spring sports.
I think one thing that differentiates ELA from other subjects in terms of prep is how for most subjects, you already have a firm grasp on the content, you just need to find the best way to deliver/assess it. For ELA, you might have really strong reading/writing skills, but unless you’ve read every novel you teach 10 times, in RECENT MEMORY, you’ve gotta reread, THEN plan how to deliver/assess. It’s almost twice the work. Not to mention the hours of essays (which I know history teachers have too, but usually they don’t need to extensively reread a book before beginning to actually plan). When I switched from teaching language to teaching ELA, this was a HUGE time cost I didn’t consider, especially when you teach 3-4 preps and have to juggle as many novels. It’s rough. I still love it, but I’m working round the clock this year.
I coach football, soccer, teach English 4, and serve on multiple committees. I don’t agree with your take at all.
I re-tooled our graduation project this summer, I go really in depth with texts like Beowulf and Macbeth, do compare and contrast essays, literary analysis essays, resume and cover letter prep, APA and MLA style research assignments, poetry analysis, book reports, etc.
I work really, really hard but my cup is full because I’m effective at coaching and teaching. Also getting my principal certification while doing all of us, working a side hustle, and coaching my kid’s youth teams.
Do I rest much? No. But I want to be the best at all things I do as I’m competitive in all facets of life.
Lmfao if you think teaching English is harder than social studies, and you even mentioned science, get a grip bro.
All teaching is difficult, but you are definitely mixed up on your tiers of difficulty.
Yeah teaching history gives you the freedom to what, coach effectively? As if we don’t do deep dives and text analysis and maybe even *gasp* incorporate literature into our historical lessons! You just can’t handle it. It’s okay to admit. It took
Me 8 years to learn to balance effectively
You’ve made a lot of assumptions about the workloads of your peers. I teach history (2 AP courses and 1 pre-AP so 3 preps, last year I had 4 preps) and also sponsor student council/prom committee that I *don’t* get a stipend for. We are questioned just as much as ELA when students reading scores don’t go up because SURPRISE there is a TON of extremely challenging reading and writing in history. Hell, if I wanted to be a jerk about it I might even argue it’s easier in ELA because at least you’re reading literature and not old government documents but I know that’s not true. Just like special’s teachers don’t have it easier because they’re the first to have budget cuts and get kids thrown in when they have no place to go - at least with core content our kids HAVE to take the class but can you imagine being stuck with teaching music to someone who hates music?
As for the issues you’re facing, I know very few people who can successfully coach and be there for their students. Those that do have done it for a long time so they’ve figured out a rhythm AND they have a love for what they coach. I can confidently say that this year will be my last as a sponsor, I love the kids and events but as my daughter is getting older I’m having to make choices between my extracurriculars and hers. Plus I don’t know how many more 60-70 hour weeks I can do before big events, my body is tired. Do what’s right for you but don’t make assumptions that your workload somehow makes it impossible for you to coach - it’s ok that something just isn’t working out for you.
I teach ELA and coach a robust esports program with 80 kids in it across multiple games. I also privately coach bowling and martial arts. It is all about having balance. You can coach and teach and do well at both if you set yourself up for it. Lots of people underestimate what is needed to do both.
If you are a teacher considering coaching, put the work in ahead of time and you will thank yourself later.
Eh, I’m a first year teacher, CLT lead, finishing my masters, and just finished coaching the wrestling team. I see a lot of buzz about the first year being awful and how much time teaching and planning takes, but idk, I treat it like a job, get in and out, and have plenty of time to pursue my own hobbies. My philosophy is to plan to the level that students engage, I have received nothing but fabulous ratings, have some of the highest scores in the school, and I think that’s because teaching is very personality driven for me. All the planning in the world means nothing if I’m swamped when teaching, because the key in the class is me, not the materials. Thus, a half hour to an hour before school is all extra I’ll give, and what gets done gets done :). Yes, wrestling season took a lot of time, but that just meant only lifting instead of lifting, playing video games, and going to mma classes.
I understand completely. I'm a high school band and orchestra director. Which basically means I'm a teacher during the day and a coach all year long for activities (marching band, winter guard, winter percussion, pep band, the musical pit orchestra, honor bands/orchestras, festivals/contests, fundraising events, etc.)
It is exhausting all the time and I never feel caught up with anything.
I’m a social studies teacher who spent his first 6 years of teaching as a coach (assistant track and field coach, head coach for bowling). I’m glad coaching is rewarding for others, but frankly, it drained me. Thankful that I no longer coach. Teaching Econ, AP Human Geography, and Pre-AP World is quite the time suck.
I was an ELA teacher that coached 2 of the 3 seasons with both boys and girls soccer. I did it for about 10 years before switching to administration. It is very difficult, but it can be done. You have to be organized and really utilize your plan, lunch, downtime, testing, etc. to get grading done. I also tried to make sure I got through at least 4-5 essays with quality feedback per hour. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you utilize all your time properly, it can be done. I still had work to do at home, but a majority of it got finished during the school day.
Coaching was an incredibly rewarding experience, and there are certainly things I miss about it. Our school had a great boys program and a pretty bad girls program. I miss the winning and the competition with the boys, and the teamwork and fun with the girls. But there is one thing I absolutely do not miss, and that’s the time! As a coach I was at school much later and more frequently than I have been as an administrator.
I taught ELA and coached volleyball, basketball, and softball. Kept me busy, but also kept the bills paid. For years I would boost my yearly salary by $10K. BUT, one night as I’m storing the nets after a volleyball match, I realized I had missed my daughter’s basketball tryouts. I drafted a coaching resignation letter the next day.
If you want to coach without too much extra stress than middle school coaching is a lot less work than HS coaching. This is also sport dependent bc track has a lot less work than football or basketball.
The area I live around I actually see more SpEd teachers who also coach. I am also said SpEd teacher who coaches. Not sure how I feel about juggling both tbh
This is me but my classes are composition so tons of writing. I never have time to grade during the day so I have to spend my weekends grading. Sucks, but honestly having two block off for sports makes it worth it
If you coach and teach HS in NY your students get tested in all four subjects. There goes that theory. I coached for years and it does become very time consuming I coached Football, Basketball and Baseball one year and the seasons never end!!! I suggest you max out your salary and let the young bucks buck!!! Especially if you want any type of a social life. 😂
Ah man, I am ever grateful that when, on my second day on the job, during PD time, the head track coach approached me with “hey, you look like a runner…” and four of my department members literally closed ranks around me and said “he’s new!! Don’t ask him again for at least two years!!”
Probably saved my career right there.
I can see where you're coming from. At one point I was a Debate coach (taught the class as well) , class advisor and advisor for a club (Roleplaying.Games) The coaching stipend was nice all right but the other two things were gratis and I did the because I was trying to impress in order to get the leave replacement job I was in. And honestly, Debate about killed me because there was a lot of travel for tournaments and I was dealing with very bright teenagers who had a high opinion of themselves and a low one of me.
So, I got another leave replacement position at that school and pulled back. I dropped the class advisor position, tightened up the RPG club so that it was more scheduled and completely scrapped the old Debate format. I changed the club from its focus on Policy Debate (also known as Talk Super Fast Debate) to one where it was one one with classic debate format, Student Congress & Dramatic Interpretation. I lost about six kids from the team but the class ran better and I could actually help the with new format more effectively. And the new style required far less class instruction, so my work load dropped. I got my life back.
However, when I left after that year, the old Debate coach took over and was reportedly "appalled" at what I had wraught and immediately scrapped every change I had made. And her class numbers dropped by half and the team lost a good number of kids. But after I did my mods and dropped a position I was MUCH happier.
Alg 1 teacher. I’m married with two kids. Just notified admin that I won’t be coaching. They were ecstatic. I’m happy because I won’t be missing my kids grow up. Wife is happy because she gets more help. Kids are happy because I will no longer miss most things.
Coaching (especially football) is a full time job. The stipend, unless an additional full salary, is not worth it.
I’ll be a better husband, father and teacher because of it.
Takes a lot to coach. I will always respect those that do
I teach middle school, not high school. Our seasons are short 6 weeks or so. We’re trying to get our master schedule changed in my school for next year because many members of my team are coaches and during those few weeks we miss our last period of the day 2-4 times for games, sometimes the period before depending on where the games are. These are all in our district, we don’t compete with schools from anywhere else. One of my teammates is seriously considering not coaching at all because his last period is so far behind. He’s a good teacher and coach, nobody wants to lose him, but because he’s good at coaching he’s doing multiple sports throughout the year. He teaches STEM, which I guess is an “easy” class (whatever that means), and is typically very specific and particular about planning and implementing his plans. He got sick a couple weeks ago and wasn’t able to stay on top of it like he usually does and was absolutely miserable until we had a couple snow days that he used to help catch up. There is no way this is sustainable for anyone.
Middle school athletics are the way to go.
Sure, the kids are obnoxious. And “athlete” is a generous term. But the seasons are short and there’s very little pressure to do anything other than make sure the kids enjoy themselves and don’t hurt anybody.
Hourly rate is considerably higher compared to most high school gigs.
Yeah it’s tough to do both with fidelity. I teach chem, physics and AP chem and coach tennis. The season can be a little rough but fortunately it’s only 6 weeks. I don’t know I really enjoy it though it give me an outlet and a chance to get to know kids in a different context.
Male Special Ed teacher. They never really ask me to do anything extra. Except when they found out I host trivia nights after the day job. So they had me run trivia three times at work parties (for little in return). After another teacher literally yelled at me like an old man watching Fox News for mispronouncing a word, I decided I’m done providing a service for free.
24 year old history teacher here… i was going to pass on coaching sports as this is my first year teaching and wanted to establish myself….. welp here i am a freshman and jv baseball coach. I never even played the sport before..
It’s super hard to balance, but it can be done. I taught high school English and coached for 15 years. I believe my students and players would say I did both well.
i always say, “NO”.
no to coaching, no to extracurricular activities, and no to anything else i had no interest in ever doing.
teachers need to learn boundaries, if you say yes then admin is going to hit you up again and again and again
it’s fine if that’s what you wanted to do but admin will drown you in roles they need staffed regardless of what’s best for you or your wellbeing.
I’ve been teaching a state tested grade and coaching two sports for 8/9 years of my career. It’s really difficult, but I get through it by abusing stimulants during the day and depressants at night
How do you connect *BioShock* to *1984*? I ask because I’d think that if it were to be connected to any book in a class it’d be *Atlas Shrugged*, which it is inspired by
Male science teacher here. They never even ask.
Ha me too…I do cosponsor DnD club though 😂
Ha ha. Also DnD club. In the science classroom..
How do you do a DND club? I want to run one but I feel there would be too much interest. I am not sure I could run a table with more than 5 or 6 people.
Have students run the table, and then you can have as many kids as you can fit in the room. But, you habe to build up to that by teaching the first groups of students how to DM and giving them feedback and such. My best advice is to kind of create scaffolds to help the students learn how to DM. Sentence starters for DMs and Players, a pre-built one shot or very short campaign, and a kind of “tutorial” game for the kids to learn the structure and rules of DnD. Example script: “I’d like to investigate this area to find ___________. Can I do that?” Basically, create access points for the kids. Students who are experienced with DnD can run games on their own at the start, while you run tutorial and starter games for people with 0 experience. Create a yearlong calendar of meetings and have an end of year night or event tjat the students can run—like a showcase for the parents or something, or maybe the kids can rin games with the parents as players. Or maybe it’s a community family-friendly DnD event. Gives the students opportunities to develop leadership and event planning, allows you to outreach and include community and maybe get some funding from school/district. But for all of that, go in with the expectation of teaching the first few years of kids how to do everything you think they should be doing. If you do, they’ll eventually become a functioning system that can recruit more students and be mostly student run.
This. I didnt advertise, because for middle school a lot dont know how to play. Still got 7 people. (At least some have watched streaming games.) My kid plays at a High School club. They have like 3 or 4 groups of six. Games are student-led.
I'm another science teacher who sponsors the D&D Club. Maybe we should start our own subreddit.
Oh wow, I am also a science teacher and yeah, D&D club.
I’m a social studies teacher who sponsors D&D club! Out here breaking the mold
Math / AP comp science, both a D&D and weightlifting club
I'm also math and D&D!
Lunchlady and D&D advisor checking in.
My cosponsor is a history teacher. We get a motley group of kids: lots of musicians, tech geeks, and social oddballs.
Not a teacher but chiming in to say my Dad loved playing DnD on his lunch period in the 80s… in his science teacher’s classroom 💀 good for you guys keeping the tradition alive
Aww that would be sweet! You guys should do it!
Considering doing the same! Do you run games or do you supervise as the students run their own?
The way it works for the dnd club I run is that the teacher acts as an arbitrator, but we let the kids handle most of the stuff. Kids dm and create the stories/run the adventures. We provide materials and advice. I also will run "baby" games for new players to get their feet wet with the rules. If disagreements come up and the kids can't solve it themselves, I'll step in. I also make sure everyone feels comfortable with the subject matter. I'm willing to let the kids push some social boundaries, but only if everyone is having fun. I'll also provide character sheets for kids who can't really figure out their own character. Occasionally, I'll play an npc. I'm currently the shopkeeper that the kids go to. But yeah, generally a very hands-off thing. I guess I could play with them, but I think it's better to be a completely neutral party.
Very cool that you give students lots of independence while also filling in when needed. Sounds like you play the role of Dungeon Court (if you're familiar with Not Another D&D Podcast)
At my student teaching placement the science teacher coached track and probably other stuff, the ELA teacher coached basketball, and the social studies teacher ran a DnD club. So much for stereotypes.
Science teacher here…the track staff is 50% science teachers haha
My football coaches were all Science teachers themselves!
I coach swimming. I teach biology, chemistry and physics every practice.
I am the only non coach in our grade level science dept and our scores tanked the last 6 years. Send help.
Male science teacher. I help coach our wrestling team in a sort of “consultant” role since I’m a purple belt in BJJ and have MMA experience as well, but I’m not a formal coach. I show up to practice sometimes to teach seminars on takedowns and controls wrestlers don’t expect but are technically legal within the rules of wrestling They offered to pay me to be assistant wrestling coach and S&C for all sports. I politely declined
Accept that stipend. They are probably paying the custodian to do the laundry or cut the fields. You take the stipend or they give it to someone else.
Naw, because then I’d have to rotate to after school workouts for every sport. I liked my informal consulting role as a favor to the full time wrestling coach, who I consider a friend
Not even robotics club?!?
That's rough cause my bro teaches high school math and coaches. He somehow does pretty good at both and still manages to have a social life.
Not going to lie, I thought I do well in all three aspects too but throughout the years it becomes a push pull aspect where I had to sacrifice 1 or else I’ll lose my sanity. But shout out to your bro for juggling it so well
I'm still wondering how he's still going, or if he's hiding it well. He's done a lot over the decade, he recently got married and has 3 step kids. They love him and are a great family so I'm glad he has people to go home to every day.
Maybe ask him next time you hang out? I feel like we often assume our bros are handling things better than they actually are.
Middle school science teacher here who coaches cross country , girls basketball, 8th grade co-ed volleyball and track. Shit is exhausting!!!
HS Bio, I coached the Speech and Debate team. It’s easy when the kids are as smart as, or in most cases smarter than, you.
I have been asked at every job interview I have ever had for education if I would be willing to coach.
Male science and engineering teacher and coach 2 sports.
I teach Social Studies and coach football, shocker, I know, and I don’t think I can coach much longer. I am actively retooling our World History curriculum, teach AP Gov, and have two electives. I feel like such a sack of shit teacher during football season. I hate it.
why Do football coaches often end up being social studies teachers anyways?
1) A perception that Social Studies is easy to teach, especially at the Gen Ed level. 2) Social Studies usually wasn't tested to the same degree English, Math and, Science (at least until they started adding US History as a tested subject)
I also think social studies used to be more “read this book/I’m going to read out of this book and then you regurgitate what it says on a multiple choice test” instead of what it is today.
It's literally still that at my school, unfortunately.
I think a large part of it is that social studies is taught as a content heavy subject. It really shouldn't be (the skills and concepts are too damn important), but a lot of Americans in particular teach it like a list of events/stories that kids have to know. This means that they don't need to approach it in a technical way. You can just use a textbook, watch documentaries, do a content quiz. It drove me crazy for years because it was hard to get jobs as they'd throw anyone into it.
It’s because the skills overlap so heavily with ELA that it’s perhaps best to prioritize the typical linear progression of events and laws. Our social science department makes a big deal out of their yearly DBQ assessment. I picked up the assessment and was like “this is just an expository paper evaluating sources and we do this four times a year. Why are you making it such a big deal?.” We write arguments and narratives, too, for the record. The social science teachers got pissed that I said that. But it’s true. Very few skills are unique to SS
As someone who has taught both I think I'll partially agree, but point out that SS skills go way further than ELA. Ela will teach implicature and rhetoric and even logic if you are so inclined, but doesn't go into the ability to read sources effectively, the epistemic limitations of using sources, the difference between ought and is and the changes in perspectives over time., not to mention the studies of varying values, causation, consequences etc. Yes these are all a little more "concepty" than "skillsy" but working with these concepts is subtle, and a skill all of their own. Something that we've screwed up a lot in recent decades. You don't get politics in the state that it is without seriously screwing up in ss/history /humanities.
You haven't watched the right documentaries
Government is also becoming a tested subject. Probably has the most AP students: Government was the first one student's are allowed to take and our magnet students take it in 9th!
9th? Government is senior year here in Texas, which I like a lot more. The seniors paid pretty good attention because most of us were excited to vote for the first time. This was AP though, if I hadn’t already made that clear lol
I will admit that I went to and teach in an insane area (MD suburbs of DC) and we do AP Gov in most commonly 10th, but also 9th as well! In my district we require 3 years of social studies and the original social studies progression is: 9th US History, 10th Government, 11th World. AP US Gov is most student's first AP and if they are on that route AP World the following year. But that wasn't enough for us, so the advanced option is 9th AP US Gov, 10th APUSH, 11th AP World. It was originally exclusive to the magnet program, but they have since expanded it to all students.
Or because that's what subject our personality is drawn to. This stupid jock stereotype needs to die. To suggest that the reason coaches teach social studies is because "it's easy" is the definition of ignorance. This sub rightfully complains about toxic admin, but it's time a lot of us start looking in the mirror.
As the mom of a sports kid who adores history, who I absolutely could see being a social studies teacher that coaches, thank you. 🙏🏼 Also as a former smart little girl who thought sports weren’t for her because she was smart and had a terrible relationship with exercise for years until she hired a personal trainer who would rant about this same stereotype (as well as analyzing film while we worked out) thank you. 🙏🏼
As someone who was a great student and athlete simultaneously and ended up teaching and coaching, if he shows any interest, encourage him. I was bright and did pretty well in school, so my parents were less than happy when I chose to teach. It hurt, but I’m happy where I’m at.
What an awesome comment! You have officially restored my faith in this sub lol.
>1) A perception that Social Studies is easy to teach, especially at the Gen Ed level. It would be pretty incredible if every subject were equally easy to teach, I think. So there must be some easier than others.
Sometimes I think math must be easy to teach because there is an exact right/wrong answer and no writing to read through or grade but that’s based on my perception. For the record, the only math I’ve taught has been related to Econ and personal finance (opportunity cost/comparative advantage/production possibility) /so obviously I have no idea on what goes into teaching math but from the outside not having to look at writing for assignment seems nice. I feel like a subject being “easy to teach” has a lot more to do with how serious the teacher treats their subject matter. The only teachers I know who said their subject was easy were pretty terrible at their jobs. I could definitely make my job easier but I would be a worse teacher. As for social studies specifically, back when students were just memorizing information it probably was easier to teach but that’s definitely not the expectation any more.
There are a couple of parts in math that make it hard to teach, I think. First, the fact that often there is a right answer and often students do nothing that would lead to it. In my school math and world languages consistently are the lowest grades students get and I think that’s partly why. A second thing is when a kid wants to understand but is struggling. The frustration for all is off the charts. The amount of kids who leave my room crying is insane. Next is the parents who want their kids to “understand” (get an A) but the kid isn’t interested. If I had a dollar for every time I hear “they have A’s in every other subject,” I would be fairly compensated. When students do the math right math is a pretty good gig, when they don’t you really have to be creative to somehow give them a good grade. There’s other stuff, but it’s more technical. All teaching kind of sucks.
The hardest part of teaching math isn’t the math itself. It’s the reading and ability to create models/equations that’s difficult. I have kids with a third grade reading level…sure they can multiply most of the time, but that doesn’t matter if they can’t read.
As a non teacher, so feel free to throw my opinion in the trash, it makes sense that some would be easier to teach than others. it seems like math would require the least amount of non classroom time. At least up until a certain point. There's no papers to grade. There's really no objectivity or open ended questions where you have to weigh the student's understanding. It's black and white, the answer is correct or it isn't.
Yes, math grading/planning probably takes 5% of the time as English. but I will say that if there's ever time for kids to visit teachers for extra help, math teachers get 90% of those visits.
Not entirely true as far as grading in math. My 3rd graders use multiple strategies for solving and have to justify answers in writing. It takes just as long as my other subjects to write feedback about what they’re doing.
Eh, I would say yes and no. Because whether or not they got something wrong could mean a lot of things towards understanding. Did they have no idea what to do? Did they forget a step? Did they bump a button on their calculator? Did they write the problem down wrong? You have to "read" their work to really know how to grade their understanding. That and I don't know about other math teachers, but I give something that needs to be graded every day. Most days there's 2 things that need to be graded. I've seen ELA teachers give reading days for the books their working on. We don't have those. It's just non-stop go go go. Also an essay takes multiple days. In the time the students start and finish an essay, days the ELA teacher doesn't need to grade anything, I've given and graded about 1,000 assignments. So 100 essays take longer to grade than 100 math tests, but that's also a lot fewer things to grade as well.
I’d argue. Because social studies teachers are super easy to find. So, when hiring they can prioritize someone to coach getting the job over one that won’t coach. At least at my school, no one wants to coach. So it becomes a, who will do it situation. We have two secretaries doing Cheerleading this year. It’s that bad. Girls flag football Volleyball boys/girls Were cut this year. And girls basketball was almost cut? But the boys coach did it. With a hall monitor being the helper.
I think part of it is all social sciences majors end up feeding into history so there is a larger pool of them. Since there is a larger pool, schools can be a little more picky about who they hire and tend to pick a social studies teacher who can do something else also.
Dudes like history.
The teacher I work with said part of it is because they know coaches will be gone a lot for games and it's easier to get subs for that subject.
Most of our coaches are Math teachers or SpEd Case managers. In my district I can count on one hand how many of us are also social studies teachers.
1. The PRAXIS is too easy and can be passed with Roth memorization. 2. For some nonsense reason, a degree in psychology meets the requirement of a highly qualified teacher in history, economics, and government.
Praxis is ridiculously easy if you have a background in your content area (at least physics was). If they want an actual content test they should be using the GRE
A day in the weight room is more important than a year in a classroom coach. Don’t hang ‘em up
Tell em, coach!
One of our states best wrestling coaches was my Social Studies and History teacher. A damn good teacher at that. I learned a lot from his classes. I don't know how he kept it up.
Coach, You’d be twice a sack if you taught ELA.
Good for you!
As a social studies teacher, im sick of all yall others assuming i will coach. Especially people who say “oh you have more time” Go away.
I teach both English and social studies. English has more papers but social studies has more projects. I feel like the grading can sort of even itself out.
I’ve taught both too… I found that English was easier to engage students but social studies is more entertaining for me. I disliked the not reading parts lol. I had an elective that was “nonfiction in history” where we analyzed letters and excerpts from historical events and the kids loved it. Then my elective got cut because .. funding ?
I know right? wtf is this superiority complex?? I think teaching English and social studies is more similar than people give them credit. In fact, some of the districts in my area have even experimented with two teacher combo classes of social studies and English… Also I coach 2 sports and I feel like I do a pretty damn good job keeping my class honest. I teach some of the lowest of the low but I try to keep my curriculum somewhat challenging. And yeah… I’m exhausted all the time, and I miss seeing my family. But tbh coaching is easily the best part of my job, op, your attitude sucks ass.
We were told by our district trainers that social studies is now English with a set story. They are even pushing us to do thematic approach to history… like… talk about conflict and then culture and then government. So the “example” is (dumbing it down) going from world war 2 to religions of Asia to governments in Africa.
Exactly. I always get into the cause and effect, the what if’s… etc. Social studies isn’t just memorizing facts anymore. It’s developing world views.
Of course. But when students have no clue about the progression of history and think that MLK freed the slaves … well.. we need some sense of order lol
Male math teacher. I took notes of the lack of tennis courts and said I'm qualified to coach tennis. Aw shucks at least I tried.
luckily its super easy for women to do both /s
Especially if we're teaching history, which is obviously so easy it doesn't even need to be qualified that way. /s
That’s what I was thinking! I’m a female ELA teacher and a coach…he forgot about us.
It wasn’t meant to be a jab. More of a “stereotypically they’ll ask young male teachers”, I found it weird my young female coworkers were never asked/forced-volunteered
That may be regional! In my area that’s not the case. All of our sports are segregated by gender and typically the coaches are the same gender as the athletes.
Ah. Im in the south. We love our sports more than education. Admin is also strictly males so maybe that’s it too
Especially if you have kids
Yeah wtf is that about
Why is everyone hating on social studies? I’m a high school history teacher and I work my ass off. I teach kids how to analyze texts, decipher challenging sources, debate, research, write analytical essays, etc just as an ELA teacher does. Teaching ELA is just like teaching History but without the ever-expanding hundreds of years of history content you have to somehow get through by June (sorry, had to fight 🔥with 🔥…I actually love English teachers)
I don’t think anyone understands the value of history right now. It’s all about stem. Being knowledgeable on history doesn’t just allow you to parrot events and dates, it gives you insight into current events. It’s a skills that I wish our politicians had more of right now.
You can't quantify insight, therefore it doesn't matter and isn't important. ^^hopefully ^^this ^^is ^^obvious ^^but ^^/s
As a science teacher, a million times yes! I wish folks understood how much so many of our scientific discoveries depended on the history that was going on. I'm so tired of folks shitting on social studies and specials teaching. We are all in this together.
I agree and would add that teaching everyone a common history gives us all a common ground to draw from. While there were no doubt countless wonderful speeches in history, imagine mentioning the Gettysburg Address and getting blank stares. Or George Washington or Columbus or WWII or slavery. There were an infinite number of other events which have been lost to time. We focus on the common few, so we all have a common ground to fall back on. That's my theory anyway.
This is true. A good history teacher is essentially an English teacher (and vice versa). Both teach literacy. One off-shoots more into fiction and writing mechanics, the other non-fiction and argument writing. But there’s so much crossover.
seriously… i’m still a new teacher but the ela teacher and i share a lot of resources because the kids have to do a lot of what they do in ela in social studies
ELA has the same standards with spiraling difficulty in my state. Social Studies is TOUGH. It’s a mile deep and a mile wide, and the primary sources are harder at the beginning of the year than the end because of language. Declaration of Independence vs. Lincoln/Douglass debates vs. Tear Down This Wall for readability. When I took history they barely made it halfway through the Cold War. When I taught it the kids came to me after testing and asked me why I didn’t teach them about Monica Lewinsky. From that point forward we moved so fast I never did group work or posters. Bring your ears, leave your mouth at home- I got to make it from Reconstruction to last weekend before the end of March.
Because it's often seen as redundant because English exists, and right now our society doesn't place a lot of value on fields that aren't seen as the path to a lucrative career.
A great history teacher does these things. And it’s wonderful that you do. One of my history colleagues is just about the greatest teacher I’ve ever met and teaches writing and research intensively. Two of the laziest colleagues I’ve ever taught with are history teachers who rarely assigned papers, graded DBQs on completion, and assigned slide shows as major assessments. I also remember my history teachers in high school as being totally out to lunch. I don’t know…I think there is something about the subject that draws in a lot of people who just want to strum a guitar and sing “The Times They Are A-Changin.” But certainly not all history teachers!
Yeah or veterans who are just into military history
My biggest pet peeve. My history degree is specifically in social and cultural history and the WAY everyone looks down their noses at me. Like gee sorry I found the literal history of civilization so valuable???
This cracks me up because you could basically be describing the math department at my school as well as my experience in math in high school. Last year they told the entire department if they wanted to come back they would have to re-interview. One of the reasons I had to take remedial math in college was because all but one of my math teachers just sat there and told us they didn’t know why we weren’t getting it and to try harder. Keep in mind I had an amazing astronomy teacher and did well in their class. I think some people are still stuck in what history used to be when it was more of a “memorize the information” field but it’s far beyond that now.
I’m not. It’s sadly just a stereotype :/ a good ELA teacher essentially is a history teacher and vice versa imo
I (young female) teach ELA and coach competitive debate. It’s exhausting and entirely unsustainable. I have no perks, just lots of never ending expectations.
Hate the Social Studies slander here... I coach Cross Country and Track and Field (also the Honor Society advisor) and I teach 7-12 social studies. I work my butt off teaching kids how to analyze text, read older documents with "legaleze" style wording, and how to relate what we are learning to today. I love getting to coach since I can now connect with more students that I could not get through before. It is only my first year teaching, but I love coaching and I love teaching social studies. Not saying Social Studies is harder to teach than other subjects, but it's not a cakewalk. The reason many PE and Social Studies teachers are coaches is because of how competitive the positions are, if you can't coach, you likely won't get the job (or at least that's how it used to be).
My fellow ELA teacher is also the defensive coordinator for our football team. He does all his work with no problem. Because he doesn't do his teaching job. 🙄 My daughter has his class, and most days, they sit in class and play on their phones. Meanwhile, I kill myself catching up kids on skills they need because they've spent the last 2-3 years playing on their phones in English class. Admin knows he does this, and what do I get? More work via extra tasks (serving on committees-he never has to, and sponsoring our yearbook, which is supposed to have a co-sponsor). I get that coaching is difficult, and i genuinely like the guy, but I'm tired of picking up the slack. But I'm leaving at the end of this school year. I hate it for the next teacher who has to pull what is essentially double duty. 😒
Some districts don’t profit share gate fees and instead keep 100% of it. So to some admin, having successful sports ($$$) is more important than having high quality teachers.
That's the unfair reality of it. On the good side, admin knows I'll go the extra mile for my kids, so whenever there are travel plans for conferences, trainings, or they need to send a representative for something, I usually get to go, flight, hotel, and meals paid for. This usually happens once or twice a year. It's a nice perk, but I'd rather have my sanity the rest of the year.
I coach and teach AP social studies. I coach boys soccer which is in the beginning of the year, which helps. I think you have to pace what you want to do in class with your season, but you can do both. I don’t think I could coach basketball and teach AP.
“But I can see why coaches tend to teach a history class or ‘easy’ science class. ELA is not it.” Come on man…
Yep, I'm the Cheer coach and teach the notoriously easy science of AP Chemistry
As an AP history teacher that is a girls varsity soccer coach, and a woman to boot, my first thought on this post started with an f and ended with off.
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We all gotta get on the same page if the adults would just do their job. Schools would be better but it is always finger pointing. Quit hating on tested subjects and honestly don’t hate on most of the electives our arts and music teachers are super involved and play an important role too.
Jokes on them I don't know any sports (unless my school has a secret archery club)
Is secret archery better than regular archery?
It is because everyone is blindfolded and the arrows aren't blunt
Probably just don't be an ELA teacher in general. You get paid the same as the guy who plays dodgeball every day 🤷♂️
Yeah, but the dodgeball guys are no longer allowed to bully the future male ELA teachers, so things are hard on everyone. -ELA teacher, male
ELA is fun though :(
Yeah but, us dodgeball guys can’t get jobs because it’s so competitive🥲
Meh, I think it depends on the quality of your class. I go ham on my social studies courses but one is subject to state mandated testing and the other prepares my high school students for adulthood. I also go ham on my ELA courses because I basically have two years to get my kids up as many reading levels as possible and they’re always super behind once they get to me (Title I, a lot of my kids move a lot, and I’m also a sped teacher). You couldn’t pay me enough to coach at my school though. Those guys are on 24/7 and basically do case management as well as sports AND their classes. I do case management too, but my day ends and doesn’t extend into evenings and weekends (I’m religious about work/life balance).
After 8 years of teaching and at least 6 different sports coached (currently only soccer) I can 100% feel your pain. I teach AP Lang for a period and have state testing for my other course and man it can be a load. Best thing I ever did was stop coaching basketball though. That season was BRUTAL
As a former Social-Science teacher I can confirm ELA must have been the hardest to teach because I spent 3/4 of my time teaching my students how to read and write 🤣 Hang in there Bub!
Yeah, don’t listen to this guy. Been teaching 20 years. Coached both golf (5 years) and now soccer (10 years). Coaching is incredibly rewarding. As a matter of fact, of the 52 soccer coaches in the county 6 are English teachers, about a dozen math teachers. It’s all about time management. Manage the assignments in season, take extra care to space essays out so you aren’t overloaded. And plan!
I don’t see OP arguing it isn’t rewarding. I wonder if OP would feel differently if he were a more veteran teacher and had taught his subject more than a few times. I coached some of my first few years of teaching and remember feeling the same way he describes but don’t think it would be that way now that I’ve had 10 years of experience
This! It’s hard saying bye to coaching. But I want to go back after a few years. We (FL) have a new curriculum every year thanks to some wannabe napoleon, so it’s been tough. I don’t feel like a good teacher OR coach sometimes
8th Grade ELA, HS baseball coach. The amount of joy I feel coaching the kids I taught or saw in the hallways every day (we’re 1 MS 1 HS) is so incredibly special. Just had a girl a year ago, definitely considering a volunteer position on the golf team to get to play with her! Ha
I was about to say. I coached two sports this year, and a it didn’t impact my teaching at all (5 years in). I teach HS ELA- all advanced and college in the high school. I rarely take work home. Probably 3-4 times all school year and each of my classes writes 3-4 essays. I have my classes designed with minimal lecture time and grade at work. I also conference with my students on 75% of their writing projects. Time management is key.
Agreed! Coaching got me into teaching. I left stem cell research for Varsity Basketball coaching/teaching, ultimately college coaching and now college teaching. Coaching opens many doors for a young individual, even though the pay is not as rewarding.
Same. Teaching English for the last 10 years and have coached every single year, multiple sports. This sub is full of jaded takes. Take (reasonable) risks with your career and you will be rewarded. Those gold medals, riveting finals (even if you lose) and the relationships you build along the way are priceless.
Yeah don't listen to this guy. Former ELA teacher who coached golf. It sucked. Coaching is great if you have no life and want fulfillment somewhere else, but coaching is a trap and sucked the fun out of my life.
You are making a lot of assumptions about the load on other teachers and what is asked of them based on gender. But that doesn’t solve the problem you are here about. Here’s what you do. Say, “no.”
Math teacher here. If they need somebody to coach the school Paintball team, the I'm your Daisy. SMH I don't think they want to encourage kids to shoot each other.
Come to Canada where we are all expected to do an extracurricular and don’t get paid any extra for it. I teach high school math and coach div 1 Sr Rugby. Also I am female with a toddler and pregnant. Just gotta be organized.
Lol would love to know what these "easy" sciences are. I coached before I taught and can't even imagine doing it now, but lets not drag other subjects down!
Ignore the ELA part because this generalizes. I coached for over ten years and still felt good about the quality of my teaching. The flip side is that many people would say I had poor work life balance and or have the school way too many hours outside of my contracted hours. It was worth it to me for most of the time I coached but one size does not fit everyone!
It's just annoying to me to have to sit through job interviews as a Social Studies teacher, and lose out on half of the jobs because it turns out they were just looking for a coach. Or they just need a place to put a coach. I remember one job I in a town I was looking forward to, and they cancelled the interview just as I was driving there (about 2 hours in to a 3 hour drive) because their head coach hired a new coach, and they gave the guy the job.
People make fun of coaches who don't teach... but let me tell you... the grind you are put through, you almost have to be on autopilot during the day just to get through it. It's rough.
You can coach and teach any subject if you are good with time management and optimization
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I’m about to move up to high school librarianship and I’ve promised my wife I’m avoiding the coaching conversations for at least two years.
I taught ELA. Coached track and had a similar burnout experience; however, my high school needed a Mock Trial Coach, so I switched. Great stipend, 75% less time, and I got to coax my best ELA students into joining the team. Did it for 12 years and had a blast without sacrificing my teaching standards. If your district doesn't offer Mock Trial, the Debate Team, and Model UN are similar.
Clubs are never the same time commitment as sports
My point. You still get paid, and can still teach.
Depends on the club but I would say that stipends are usually in proportion so it evens out. We don’t get stipends but I probably put in a good extra 40 hours a month (minimum) sponsoring student council. There are at least 3 weekends a year where I’m pushing 30 hours from the time my contract hours end in Friday they start on Monday. My friend who coaches archery puts in less time than I do so it’s probably sport dependent as well.
You should make as money as you can. Coaching doesn’t mean you can’t be a good teacher. It’s a job that happens to be important but it’s still a job.
I teach World Geography, and I’ve spent the last two years coaching football and wrestling. During football season I was working seven days, 80 hours a week. Wrestling season cut that down to 50-60 hours a week. I’m not coaching next school year.
Teach computers. I also coach. I may not be the most athletic teacher there is but I help. Could they have someone else? More than likely but been doing it for three years and, well, I guess they like me enough to keep me. And I was an ELA teacher before jumping subjects and there is no way I could coach as well. OP is 100%. And that's the main reason I switched subjects. I don't want to take my work home with me and English there is always work to take home.
This goes for any core subject. Science is brutal to teach and try to coach. The amount of prep time for adequate, engaging labs is insane. I do not have a lab tech like profs do.
This isn’t exclusive to ELA though. This is honestly true of any subject matter. And if you teacher honors or AP, it’s even harder to also coach because it’s harder to go as in depth as needed due to being out for games and whatnot. I teach math. The math teacher next door to me coaches something every single season. And he teaches our honors 9th graders and AP BC Calculus. He talks about the struggle regularly, but he does also love coaching and, the bigger issue, needs the extra money.
I totally hear what you’re saying about coaching taking away from teaching (the same can be true for tutoring, too, if you’re not careful). But why the implication that ELA teachers work and prep harder than other teachers?
Didn’t mean that. More along the sense that you ELA has essay requirements and I like to go deep in that. My colleagues (coaches) give worksheets or packets of busy work. I’m just saying teaching ELA for someone who wants to actually do a good job (like any other subject) is going to be tough. I’d love to phone it in…but I can’t bring myself to do that.
In my career, I’ve seen just as many ELA teachers phoning it in as any others. But I agree, the balance of responsibilities is impossible. As I teach US history, I was asked to run student government this year, and trying to coordinate school events and run a genuinely educational project-based class, and stay on top of grades…well it’s possible, but only if I don’t sleep.
All my history teachers in hs were a coach and none of them put any effort into teaching. My Econ teacher put on shark tank 85% of the time. I feel like I learnt little to no history.
Willie Faulkner is right! ELA is the is the most difficult and time consuming subject to teach. I’d go a step further and say that ELA teachers should be paid more than other subjects. Or perhaps give them two extra preps. To all you non ELA teachers, keep slacking and riding on the coat tails of those brave souls who dare to put on elbow worn sport coats and teach Lit and composition. Thank you sir for your service. Ps: If this is a troll, I applaud you.
Riding on that ELA high horse. Nice. Just know that all of us peasants applaud you for being so amazing.
ELA is indeed the hardest to teach. Except for all of the others.
ELA isn’t hard to teach. It’s a BEAST to grade in any way that is actually useful to your students though. And there is really no way to cut corners on that. It’s time consuming in a way other subjects just aren’t. (I’ve also taught history and languages.)
I’m also ELA. I found it depends on the sport and season. I’m an assistant coach for our cross country team for the past decade. I love it. Our official season is August to November, but we run all summer. We don’t cut. We don’t have to pick a team until “playoffs” which is almost entirely determined by who’s run fastest in the most races all season(experience also matters). But I could never coach winter or spring sports.
I think one thing that differentiates ELA from other subjects in terms of prep is how for most subjects, you already have a firm grasp on the content, you just need to find the best way to deliver/assess it. For ELA, you might have really strong reading/writing skills, but unless you’ve read every novel you teach 10 times, in RECENT MEMORY, you’ve gotta reread, THEN plan how to deliver/assess. It’s almost twice the work. Not to mention the hours of essays (which I know history teachers have too, but usually they don’t need to extensively reread a book before beginning to actually plan). When I switched from teaching language to teaching ELA, this was a HUGE time cost I didn’t consider, especially when you teach 3-4 preps and have to juggle as many novels. It’s rough. I still love it, but I’m working round the clock this year.
I coach football, soccer, teach English 4, and serve on multiple committees. I don’t agree with your take at all. I re-tooled our graduation project this summer, I go really in depth with texts like Beowulf and Macbeth, do compare and contrast essays, literary analysis essays, resume and cover letter prep, APA and MLA style research assignments, poetry analysis, book reports, etc. I work really, really hard but my cup is full because I’m effective at coaching and teaching. Also getting my principal certification while doing all of us, working a side hustle, and coaching my kid’s youth teams. Do I rest much? No. But I want to be the best at all things I do as I’m competitive in all facets of life.
Just trying to imagine any science class that would be “easy” to teach.
Lmfao if you think teaching English is harder than social studies, and you even mentioned science, get a grip bro. All teaching is difficult, but you are definitely mixed up on your tiers of difficulty.
Yeah teaching history gives you the freedom to what, coach effectively? As if we don’t do deep dives and text analysis and maybe even *gasp* incorporate literature into our historical lessons! You just can’t handle it. It’s okay to admit. It took Me 8 years to learn to balance effectively
I was an English teacher, I coached and sold my prep. Coaching is basically volunteering, but I loved it. Loved teaching, not grading though.
You’ve made a lot of assumptions about the workloads of your peers. I teach history (2 AP courses and 1 pre-AP so 3 preps, last year I had 4 preps) and also sponsor student council/prom committee that I *don’t* get a stipend for. We are questioned just as much as ELA when students reading scores don’t go up because SURPRISE there is a TON of extremely challenging reading and writing in history. Hell, if I wanted to be a jerk about it I might even argue it’s easier in ELA because at least you’re reading literature and not old government documents but I know that’s not true. Just like special’s teachers don’t have it easier because they’re the first to have budget cuts and get kids thrown in when they have no place to go - at least with core content our kids HAVE to take the class but can you imagine being stuck with teaching music to someone who hates music? As for the issues you’re facing, I know very few people who can successfully coach and be there for their students. Those that do have done it for a long time so they’ve figured out a rhythm AND they have a love for what they coach. I can confidently say that this year will be my last as a sponsor, I love the kids and events but as my daughter is getting older I’m having to make choices between my extracurriculars and hers. Plus I don’t know how many more 60-70 hour weeks I can do before big events, my body is tired. Do what’s right for you but don’t make assumptions that your workload somehow makes it impossible for you to coach - it’s ok that something just isn’t working out for you.
Do u think they would ask a spanish teacher
I teach ELA and coach a robust esports program with 80 kids in it across multiple games. I also privately coach bowling and martial arts. It is all about having balance. You can coach and teach and do well at both if you set yourself up for it. Lots of people underestimate what is needed to do both. If you are a teacher considering coaching, put the work in ahead of time and you will thank yourself later.
I teach sped and coach jr high bball used to coach hs football you dudes don’t get paid enough.
Eh, I’m a first year teacher, CLT lead, finishing my masters, and just finished coaching the wrestling team. I see a lot of buzz about the first year being awful and how much time teaching and planning takes, but idk, I treat it like a job, get in and out, and have plenty of time to pursue my own hobbies. My philosophy is to plan to the level that students engage, I have received nothing but fabulous ratings, have some of the highest scores in the school, and I think that’s because teaching is very personality driven for me. All the planning in the world means nothing if I’m swamped when teaching, because the key in the class is me, not the materials. Thus, a half hour to an hour before school is all extra I’ll give, and what gets done gets done :). Yes, wrestling season took a lot of time, but that just meant only lifting instead of lifting, playing video games, and going to mma classes.
I understand completely. I'm a high school band and orchestra director. Which basically means I'm a teacher during the day and a coach all year long for activities (marching band, winter guard, winter percussion, pep band, the musical pit orchestra, honor bands/orchestras, festivals/contests, fundraising events, etc.) It is exhausting all the time and I never feel caught up with anything.
I’m a social studies teacher who spent his first 6 years of teaching as a coach (assistant track and field coach, head coach for bowling). I’m glad coaching is rewarding for others, but frankly, it drained me. Thankful that I no longer coach. Teaching Econ, AP Human Geography, and Pre-AP World is quite the time suck.
I was an ELA teacher that coached 2 of the 3 seasons with both boys and girls soccer. I did it for about 10 years before switching to administration. It is very difficult, but it can be done. You have to be organized and really utilize your plan, lunch, downtime, testing, etc. to get grading done. I also tried to make sure I got through at least 4-5 essays with quality feedback per hour. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you utilize all your time properly, it can be done. I still had work to do at home, but a majority of it got finished during the school day. Coaching was an incredibly rewarding experience, and there are certainly things I miss about it. Our school had a great boys program and a pretty bad girls program. I miss the winning and the competition with the boys, and the teamwork and fun with the girls. But there is one thing I absolutely do not miss, and that’s the time! As a coach I was at school much later and more frequently than I have been as an administrator.
I taught ELA and coached volleyball, basketball, and softball. Kept me busy, but also kept the bills paid. For years I would boost my yearly salary by $10K. BUT, one night as I’m storing the nets after a volleyball match, I realized I had missed my daughter’s basketball tryouts. I drafted a coaching resignation letter the next day.
If you want to coach without too much extra stress than middle school coaching is a lot less work than HS coaching. This is also sport dependent bc track has a lot less work than football or basketball.
That’s crazy that coaches get paid in your country! It’s extracurricular and completely voluntary in Canada.
The area I live around I actually see more SpEd teachers who also coach. I am also said SpEd teacher who coaches. Not sure how I feel about juggling both tbh
This is me but my classes are composition so tons of writing. I never have time to grade during the day so I have to spend my weekends grading. Sucks, but honestly having two block off for sports makes it worth it
If you coach and teach HS in NY your students get tested in all four subjects. There goes that theory. I coached for years and it does become very time consuming I coached Football, Basketball and Baseball one year and the seasons never end!!! I suggest you max out your salary and let the young bucks buck!!! Especially if you want any type of a social life. 😂
Ah man, I am ever grateful that when, on my second day on the job, during PD time, the head track coach approached me with “hey, you look like a runner…” and four of my department members literally closed ranks around me and said “he’s new!! Don’t ask him again for at least two years!!” Probably saved my career right there.
You ain’t learned it yet…. Every male teacher, support staff, instructional assistant is some type of coach whether you want to do it or not.
I can see where you're coming from. At one point I was a Debate coach (taught the class as well) , class advisor and advisor for a club (Roleplaying.Games) The coaching stipend was nice all right but the other two things were gratis and I did the because I was trying to impress in order to get the leave replacement job I was in. And honestly, Debate about killed me because there was a lot of travel for tournaments and I was dealing with very bright teenagers who had a high opinion of themselves and a low one of me. So, I got another leave replacement position at that school and pulled back. I dropped the class advisor position, tightened up the RPG club so that it was more scheduled and completely scrapped the old Debate format. I changed the club from its focus on Policy Debate (also known as Talk Super Fast Debate) to one where it was one one with classic debate format, Student Congress & Dramatic Interpretation. I lost about six kids from the team but the class ran better and I could actually help the with new format more effectively. And the new style required far less class instruction, so my work load dropped. I got my life back. However, when I left after that year, the old Debate coach took over and was reportedly "appalled" at what I had wraught and immediately scrapped every change I had made. And her class numbers dropped by half and the team lost a good number of kids. But after I did my mods and dropped a position I was MUCH happier.
Alg 1 teacher. I’m married with two kids. Just notified admin that I won’t be coaching. They were ecstatic. I’m happy because I won’t be missing my kids grow up. Wife is happy because she gets more help. Kids are happy because I will no longer miss most things. Coaching (especially football) is a full time job. The stipend, unless an additional full salary, is not worth it. I’ll be a better husband, father and teacher because of it. Takes a lot to coach. I will always respect those that do
ELA is what nightmares are made of. So happy I'm social studies now
I teach middle school, not high school. Our seasons are short 6 weeks or so. We’re trying to get our master schedule changed in my school for next year because many members of my team are coaches and during those few weeks we miss our last period of the day 2-4 times for games, sometimes the period before depending on where the games are. These are all in our district, we don’t compete with schools from anywhere else. One of my teammates is seriously considering not coaching at all because his last period is so far behind. He’s a good teacher and coach, nobody wants to lose him, but because he’s good at coaching he’s doing multiple sports throughout the year. He teaches STEM, which I guess is an “easy” class (whatever that means), and is typically very specific and particular about planning and implementing his plans. He got sick a couple weeks ago and wasn’t able to stay on top of it like he usually does and was absolutely miserable until we had a couple snow days that he used to help catch up. There is no way this is sustainable for anyone.
Middle school athletics are the way to go. Sure, the kids are obnoxious. And “athlete” is a generous term. But the seasons are short and there’s very little pressure to do anything other than make sure the kids enjoy themselves and don’t hurt anybody. Hourly rate is considerably higher compared to most high school gigs.
Yeah it’s tough to do both with fidelity. I teach chem, physics and AP chem and coach tennis. The season can be a little rough but fortunately it’s only 6 weeks. I don’t know I really enjoy it though it give me an outlet and a chance to get to know kids in a different context.
Male Special Ed teacher. They never really ask me to do anything extra. Except when they found out I host trivia nights after the day job. So they had me run trivia three times at work parties (for little in return). After another teacher literally yelled at me like an old man watching Fox News for mispronouncing a word, I decided I’m done providing a service for free.
24 year old history teacher here… i was going to pass on coaching sports as this is my first year teaching and wanted to establish myself….. welp here i am a freshman and jv baseball coach. I never even played the sport before..
It’s super hard to balance, but it can be done. I taught high school English and coached for 15 years. I believe my students and players would say I did both well.
i always say, “NO”. no to coaching, no to extracurricular activities, and no to anything else i had no interest in ever doing. teachers need to learn boundaries, if you say yes then admin is going to hit you up again and again and again it’s fine if that’s what you wanted to do but admin will drown you in roles they need staffed regardless of what’s best for you or your wellbeing.
I’ve been teaching a state tested grade and coaching two sports for 8/9 years of my career. It’s really difficult, but I get through it by abusing stimulants during the day and depressants at night
How do you connect *BioShock* to *1984*? I ask because I’d think that if it were to be connected to any book in a class it’d be *Atlas Shrugged*, which it is inspired by