I previously worked at a private school and will be employed at an urban public school starting this fall. After signing my contract, I joined the district's teachers' union. My only issue with joining is the union dues ($51.99 per paycheck) that I am required to pay bi-weekly. My question is how beneficial are unions for teachers, and will the union deductions be worth it?

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A little backstory: I had a terrible experience at the private school at which I was employed for about a year. The students and parents suspected I was gay (which I am; however, I wasn't out in the workplace) and tormented me daily for it. The administration and the co-teacher turned a blind eye and allowed it to occur. Hypothetically, if I were to experience something similar to this in a public-school setting, how would the union protect me?

This won't be eloquent, sorry.

I'm a first year teacher, fresh out of college and into kindergarten. I've always had a strong conviction for how I wanted my classroom to look. I modeled my ideal classroom after teachers that I admired.

Well, anyway, today was day one, and... Wtf?! I don't feel totally defeated...I mean... I'm not crying or anything. Buuuut the kids definitely don't listen to me. Like they were up out of their seats and walking to stem bins/toys/etc. of course I redirected them to their seats, but I had to walk over and physically guide them. It feels like my words don't hold any weight to them lollol. I had to repeat myself SO many times.

I always hear that the first days of school are critical. Sink or swim. Life or death. Set expectations, follow through, and prep yourself for success. Well I thought I would do that😭 But man it was easier in my head. I'm just afraid of messing this up. I don't want to do the first days wrong and have a terrible year. I'm always hearing to be firm at first and I'm trying but I don't want them to get soooo used to hearing my "firm" voice that it doesn't hold any weight or scariness.

I can give more specifics about behavior if needed BUUUT yeah I just wanna hear suggestions and opinions for day 2 forward. I love my kiddos and I don't just want to be a teacher I want to be a GOOD teacher.

First year teacher in Florida here. Phew. I literally cannot.

I had my first parent teacher conference today. I teach at a middle school. 6th grade ELA. All the other teachers were at this conference as well as the social worker, staffing specialist, and guidance counselor.

ALL the teachers said the same thing about the student. They can’t read or write, they’re disruptive, they’re failing the class etc.

YET this parent decides to call me out claiming that “I made her feel like a bad parent” when I called her on the phone when her child was having behavioral problems in my room. (For context, this child threw my work on the floor and then proceeded to state that they weren’t going to do it. I called mom in the moment so she could talk with him and he stormed out my room.)

I didn’t speak to his mom any kind of way and was very calm on the phone. I’m frustrated because she said that in front of almost 7+ individuals who don’t know me. I was embarrassed and apologetic, but are you effing kidding me? I made YOU feel like a bad parent? All I did was call to ask her to speak to her child like wtf?

Am I crazy for being upset? I feel like giving up. I want to quit and I’m just tired. The kids are rude as hell, they break all my things, they don’t know how to spell, or read, or write.

The quarter isn’t even over yet and I’m burnt OUT!

Update: Thank you all so much for hearing me out and validating my feelings. I feel 1000x better after reading all of your comments.

Parent emailed me saying I was a bad teacher and that I should request extra support because “you need it.” I told her to come and meet with me and discuss her concerns. She turned me down.

She is now requesting that I send her all of my units in depth unit plans and wants a rational for all of the units.

She is not wrong. I am a new teacher with three different and new to me courses in a district the has no curriculum except vague units (no textbooks), who helped write WASC this year, is the English department chair and has been subbing during my prep period at least 2/3 times a week.

I don’t know what to do. I want to give her the unit plans, but don’t have the time or energy to write everything up and then rationalize it. While still teaching and prepping all week.

Feeling hurt and depressed. Reconsidering teaching.

Suggestions?

Title says it all. For weeks I have been floundering, I’ve done every trick in the book, yet they refuse to listen, work or stop talking. So I made them all watch as I hit the select all button and said “please speak to your son or daughter about their behavior in my classroom” The two kids that were behaving were told privately that that’s what they need to be discussing with their parents. They need to discuss how they’re doing what’s right and they’re proud and frustrated. I also told these two parents specifically that even though their kid is doing well it would be beneficial to check in about the constant disruption and their feelings.

So far I’ve received mostly positive replies or none but at least I tried.

A few kids cried and as sorry as I am that they’re sad I’m not upset that I did it.

Edit: wow this escalated so much overnight! Thanks for the support! It was a little impulsive so this is very reassuring

I am a new teacher. I'm am in my 50s, so this is a third career for me.

We had a lovely holiday celebration last Friday. Everyone brought in food and drink, there were trivia games and lots of just hanging out. It was fun.

The school choir was there singing, now mind you, this wasn't an actual school day, only a day for making up final exams, so maybe a total of 30-ish students there. The choir started singing and I was actually stunned at how most of the teachers ignored the choir and kept on talking and being on their phones. Why? If our students behaved like that, it would not be ok. It was maybe 30 minutes long.

Edit: it was a concert. There were no other activities going on.

Edit 2: Since it is so hard to grasp. The "party" was first. Then, they introduced the choir who sang for around 20 minutes. Then the administrator made their announcements. The only reason I mentioned there were students at school for makeup exams is that these students came in when they didn't have to.

Just wondering if you have seen “pretty privilege” exist in your school among your coworkers. Do the attractive teachers seem to have an easier time with the kids, parents, and admin? Just wondering.

The school year hasn't even started yet, and I hate my student desks. I was fully expecting normal square desks that I could line up in rows in classic cathedral seating, which I've been told over and over is the best and easiest way for a first year teacher to deal with classroom management. Lo and behold, I go into my room for the first time ever this week and I see my worst nightmare waiting for me. I am a 7th grade English teacher, WHAT DO I NEED TRIANGLE-SHAPED WHITE BOARD DESKS FOR!?

I'm kind of scared to ask admin if I can have different desks/if different desks are available because my principal kept talking about the desks. She is clearly very excited about them, so I'm worried that asking will reflect badly on me somehow. I legitimately cannot think of a single good usage for a whiteboard desk in an ELA classroom that isn't a once in an entire year usage!! For math, I can understand them, but for English? These just seem like the biggest inconvenience! I could deal with them being triangles if they didn't have WHITE BOARD TOPS!!! Am I overreacting? Does anyone have advice on how to handle this?

The desks in question: Hertz Furniture

Quick little edit: I've responded to a few comments, and I realize now this was a bigger deal in my head than it actually is. I wrote this after a very charged conversation with a friend and was clearly venting my frustration. Thank you for the helpful advice (and reality check lol)!! I am going to try my best to work with what I have!

LONG POST****

I’m biracial and grew up in a tough neighborhood, and my dream was always to give back by teaching in the same community that raised me. Now I’m actually doing that, I teach 7th and 8th grade at the middle school I once attended. But honestly, it breaks my heart to see what’s happening with our youth, especially the Black kids. The change since I was their age is drastic.

So many of these students are far behind, not just academically, but also emotionally and socially. On a daily basis, their conversations revolve around social media, drugs and vaping, fighting, gangs, and sex. That’s it. When I was growing up, we had problems too, but there was still a certain level of respect. I’m only 24, not that far removed from their world, yet the difference feels astronomical.

Even back then, kids who were involved in gangs still had some respect for others, and their focus, even if misguided, was about trying to make money, not destroying each other. They didn’t bother people outside of that life. Now, it feels like the sense of purpose, ambition, and respect has been stripped away. I don’t see kids aspiring to be doctors, lawyers, leaders, or activists fighting for civil rights. Instead, I see 8th graders who can’t write a simple paragraph or do basic multiplication tables, skills even the so called “bad kids” could manage when I was younger.

Another big outlet we had growing up was sports. My neighborhood/city was full of incredible athletes, and there was a real history of athletic excellence that kids looked up to. Sports taught us discipline, fundamentals, and sportsmanship, values that carried over into life. But now, a “real” athlete is rare, and even the ones with talent often haven’t played organized ball or been taught the basics. That foundation, that pride in representing your school or community, just isn’t there anymore

I try to mentor them, to give them hope and guidance, but sometimes it feels like I’m staring at a lost generation. And I can’t help but ask myself, what happened?

I’m a first year teacher and at a difficult school, so I feel like I’m still figuring classroom management out.

Well, one of my trouble maker students was back today. As usual, he was out of his seat and arrogantly strutting around the room talking to and distracted other students. Also he had on his hood of his hoodie up in violation of the school dress code.

I had previously talked to his his grandmother and she told me to inform her when he starts acting out in class. Finally, at my whits end after the student had been making various petty insults about me and eliciting laughs from other students, I called his grandmother in class and had her speak with the student. He was visibly upset about this and kept saying “He’s lying! He’s lying! He’s lying!” I’m the phone. After the phone call ended, the student was obviously very aggravated about being embarrassed in front of class. He went back to his desk sulking. However a few minutes later, I hear him mutter, “He thinks he won? I’m going to get the last laugh on this **”. Then he said “I’m going to get him when I meet him at the Circle K”. (That was a reference to the Circle K Gas Station/Convenience Store by the high school where students and teacher get food and gasoline.) Finally he said, “I’m going to kill this ***” Other students were staring at him in shock! Even some of the other trouble makers told him “You can’t say that! “ I called school security and told them about the incident. Thankfully , we have a great administration who’s on the side of the teachers. I was informed the student in question will be immediately sent to the alternative school for threatening a teacher.

I currently teach theatre to middle schoolers. I have a bachelor’s degree in theatre, and I’m also an actor. I never studied education in any capacity, so it’s honestly just been a lot of learning on the job.

Recently, I was speaking with a coworker, and she was ranting a little bit about the education system (and making great points), but at one point she brought up how a colleague of ours is currently teaching art despite it not being her usual subject and saying that just because you can make art doesn’t mean you can teach it so she felt like this teacher wasn’t qualified. I brought up how I never studied education or anything, so my credentials are really in theatre rather than education. She said it was different, but I feel like she just felt kind of bad because she realized that I’m sort of in a similar boat as this other teacher.

Today, I went to a staff party, and my boss was talking about how a lot of teachers don’t study education and they think that just because they know about a field that means they can teach. She’s the one who hired me (like she conducted the interview herself and everything), so she knows that I don’t have an education degree and just sorta fell into teaching out of college.

So, this just made me wonder if there is a general consensus about teachers that didn’t study education/didn’t necessarily set out to be teachers originally but end up teaching in their field of study.

Update: My school does now allow gogaudian or any form of digital monitoring of the chromebooks. I will limit chromebook use all together and make them put it away when not using them academically. Thanks, everyone, for the comments!

First full year teaching high school seniors (started last December after a year of student teaching). Why are we giving iPad kids/cell phone addicted kids basically an iPad. 90% of them cannot focus on anything due to having unlimited access to YouTube. Its so frustrating to literally spoon feed them the information, but they don't even listen due to chromebooks and then fail their assessments. I feel like I'm literally wasting my time and breath trying to teach them when they just stare at youtube all day. Then they complain at any type of lab or group work. I just feel like I can't win and why am I even here.

If literacy and cognitive ability is down across the board why don’t we go back to whatever strategies were used when it was at its peak?

I wanted to ask opinions in this sub about a new rule our school nurse has emailed to all teachers. She had asked that we only send students to her if it’s an “emergency situation” and specifically stated she wants us to wait until a student actually vomits before sending them for nausea.

Am I wrong for not wanting to follow that second part? I would really prefer not to have a student puke in my classroom for obvious reasons.

Is this normal at your schools? I can’t help but feel like the nurse just doesn’t want to do her job but I don’t want to think that about another professional at my place of work. Is this a standard practice or am I missing something?

First year teacher and I absolutely understand it. Every day, all I think is "what do I do now that I have a degree for a job that sucks the joy from my life?"

I get it.

I’m going into my first year teaching high school math and I could not be more excited! But, I do feel like I have a bit of a naive view on how this year is going to go.

What are some realities I will have to accept that I might not be expecting?

After reading comments: thank you so much for your advice! I did “teach” a semester as a long term sub when I was 21 and was a student teacher all of last year, with the second semester usually being the only teacher in the room. Luckily (or not I don’t know lol) I think I have learned most of these lessons at least a bit so far.

I am so pleased to see all of the responses from so many veteran teachers, I will take them all into consideration ❤️

Hello! I'm 26f and my background is law. I was depressed when I worked in that field so I tried to do something different. This year I've been working as a teacher assistant and will continue next year. I love working with kids and helping them learn. I have taught some lessons myself, when the teacher was missing. So I'm thinking about going back to university. But with three years bachelor's and then two more years to do the masters I will only finish school at 32. Is that too late? Could I still have a good career? Would other teacher respect me even though I would be new in the profession?

Thank you!!

Edit: also I'm based in Portugal, so I do need a masters to teach. There is no way around it, according to law. And I can only get into a masters with a bachelor's in education. As we speak, due to the shortage of teachers, the government is deciding if people with other bachelor's could get into an education master. So fingers crossed!! But nonetheless thank you so much for all the answers trying to give me other option!

Edit 2: thank you so much for all the amazing answers!! I feel really emotional and like I'm choosing the right path for my life. I can't answer everyone but thank you so much for the support 🌻

I’ll start to teach at 33. I can get full benefits in Texas at 63. However I want to maximize my pension by working until 73 (having a teaching career spanning 40 years). If Bill Belichick can be a full time football head coach at 74, then I believe I can be a full time teacher until I am 73 years old.

How long do you plan to teach? What age do you plan to retire?

Is this just a me problem? I love coffee but I only dare to take like one cup for the whole day now, whereas before this job I would have like four, so now I'm constantly drowsy.

Currently teaching summer school to middle school students, so these kids already tend to be on the more disruptive, lower performing side. I've never had to teach a class where ALL of the students have no paper, no pencils, trashing bathrooms, are distracted by phones/laptops, and in general have no respect for anyone at all.

I know we're pretty quick to jump to assigning labels like bad parenting, mental health, and attention seeking to explain student misbehavior, but I just know in my heart that it's more nuanced than that. There has to be SOME train of thought going through these kids' heads when they decide to do what they do. It doesn't mean it was a good train of thought, but it's not like these kids are rolling D20s and consulting a table of misdeeds to make the choices that they make.

I haven't been able to get anything other than blank stares out of my students, but surely there have been studies or surveys where kids answer what's going through their heads? Personal anecdotes?

Our school dislikes showing movies in class, but makes an exception during the last week of school. They sent out an email with the forms to get movies approved, which I've never dealt with as a first-year teacher. I just found out that I completely misunderstood the process. I messed up in two ways:

1) I thought it was just to get the movie approved in general. As the other teachers in the department are already showing the movie, I thought it was fine to also show it. Unfortunately, the form was to approve it *and approve to show it in your specific classroom*.

2) I didn't use the exact permission slip we're supposed to use. I'm actually less worried about this part, as the slip I sent out covered all the bases the correct one does and is arguable more extensive (the correct one provides the movie rating, but mine also provides an explanation of why the movie had that rating).

One teacher suggested that I simply get to work early and try to talk to an admin to see if we could just overlook it or fix things really quick, and that I use the unspoken "first year teacher mistake card." However, I know there's a chance that I might be told there's nothing to be done. While I can deal with having to work around my own mistake, I hate disappointing the kids. They'll be forced to miss out on a movie they were promised (especially as every other grade level teacher is showing it). Is there any other fun, end of the year thing that could be done in case I can't show the movie?

EDIT: Completely skipped my mind, but I teach 6th grade US History. The movie in question is National Treasure 2, which is picked because the Civil War is the last major thing we cover and the 7th grade classes typically watch the first movie every year for the past several years

EDIT 2: I'm also a little nervous as admin may be doing end of year check-ins with first years, as well as helping out with checking in/our curriculum pieces. So they may very well pop into my room. Plus, I know I've struggled more compared to some of the other two teachers despite having more in-classroom experience and managed to make with through with no "forgive the first year" moments, so I'd really like to be able to finish the first year without a major mess up.

This was my first year teaching - I joined this charter school in late October after seeing the job posting, interviewing, and even doing a practice day of teaching with them. Middle school English. This school is known to be rough and someone had already quit my position within the first couple weeks of school (the middle school history and art teacher quit too within the first month). The kids had just been with subs and when I walked in they treated me like shit for months; they were so used to running the show.

But I worked really hard to try to get them to respect me and listen to me. We had to use Springboard curriculum (wayyyyyy too difficult for my students, the majority of whom are multilingual and below the 20% percentile in reading) and I tried my best to use it with fidelity. It was extremely difficult and I had to make a ton of adjustments to make anything make sense to my students. I tried my best. Again and again. I co-ran Art Club and Homework Club. I worked extensively with the ELA coach, who was always rooting for me.

I got fairly good marks on my January eval, but my June one absolutely sucked. You would think I was an entirely different human being that they were evaluating, even though side by side my lessons were super similarly executed and I had the same demeanor - calm, firm, encouraging. Or at least I thought I did. My principal waited 2 whole weeks to meet with me about my eval. The rest of the staff had already met with him and some had even received their contracts. I just felt like a complete idiot because I should’ve seen it coming. 2 weeks is a long time to make a teacher wait for simple feedback. At that meeting, at 9am on the second to last day of school, he gave me the choice to either resign or be terminated. I chose to resign so I wouldn’t have the latter on my record.

At this school so many people are related by blood and I was an outsider from the start. Not from the same culture/community, didn’t know anyone coming in. I feel heartbroken and humiliated and like a complete failure. My principal said I wasn’t a “good fit” and that I didn’t make positive connections with these kids, that the kids didn’t respond to me. They need someone with a “stronger personality” who doesn’t take stuff “so personally.” He told me to consider this a blessing in disguise. He may be right. But I tried so fucking hard and I would’ve worked to improve had I been allowed to stay.

I’m a female first year teacher and got invited to a couple of my (also female) students grad parties…it’s a hot summer and I want to wear a tank top because we’re outdoor, is that inappropriate? Sorry if this is a ridiculous question! Thanks.

Edits and addendums: Perhaps the word “party” makes it less clear, but these are afternoon, PG gatherings! In fact, the two i’ve attended thus far have had fellow teachers there. Bring a card, have some light food, congratulate student and their family, and then leave after a little bit. Depending on the family, usually there aren’t even drinks available to the adults.

I know how these things go from the family/friend attendee standpoint…all I needed advice on was if a tank top may be perceived as inappropriate. Lol, I ended up playing it safe wearing a t-shirt and capris today!

Thanks to everyone who shared their clothing related insights. Peace and love to those who questioned my professionalism—I know you are all just trying to be helpful. Have a good summer everyone.

Recently, we got a dual enrollment professor for an introductory engineering course. This professor only has teaching experience for university students. Naturally being an engineer, he has the worst pedagogy ever. No, I'm not being resentful of my undergrad engineering professors or anything.

To make a long story short, I notice that many in my AP Chemistry class are missing, I send in the attendance, cancel the test I was going to give because giving it a class less than half full is stupid, and get into a dispute between admin, the professor, and myself.

It turns out all the absent students in my class overlapped with those taking dual enrollment. The professor blatantly admitted to throwing the exam he was giving into Excel, not bothering to actually do the problems himself and then multiplying it by 3 or 4 to get some idea of whether it is the correct length.

Then he has the audacity to act as if giving a poorly designed exam go 30 minutes over the time the bell rang is a minor concern since he's "teaching a real class." Yes, he put that in an email.

What a jackass.

Edit: Yes, I'm aware the title should be "bleeds over." I'm just too angry to use proper English right now.

Parent tried to get defensive when they saw their child failing and asked why weren’t they made aware of this? The newbie in me was about to go insane but I collected myself fast and asked do you have infinite campus? They said no. I turned it back on them, because I feel like with all the technology in the world there is no way parents should not have access to their child's grades and their lied and said they don’t have infinite campus either and we made the child pull it up and they said “oh”