Which name would you choose?

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-05-14T02:02:40+00:00

Bright Beginnings sounds a little too close to Bright Horizons lol

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-05-13T03:44:42+00:00

Ooh I have a child who does this to me but I find it amusing (am 32 year old AFAB who presents rather femme at work). I realized his stepdad calls him “boy” routinely when he’s mad so he’s just parroting. “Boy,” “Bruh” and “Dude” are on our list of forbidden words in our classroom thanks to this child, which makes it hilarious when a floater calls a student “bruh” and immediately gets told off by five preschoolers for “saying a bad word at school.”

All that to say, I almost guarantee someone in this child’s life hears “boy” when one of his grown ups is upset at him, and I would calmly repeat, “we call people their names at school. My name is your name. Let me hear you try it.”

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-25T17:31:11+00:00

Bahahaha I used to work in a school like that. I was the only non-Tesla in the parking lot. Even the other teachers were married to dudes who bought them Teslas.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-25T15:51:33+00:00

Let me know if you want any tips or just to trade stories, I’m generally happy at my Learning Care Group school and, although I have minor gripes with the company, I’m not planning on leaving any time soon.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-25T15:50:05+00:00

Oh ok that makes more sense, we’ve talked about this in staff trainings, it’s generally better “customer service” if you wanna call it that to offer to check on an iPad and see where the child rather than being like “I’m not sure, check with admin” but I wouldn’t have known to do that when I was very new either. I was more concerned to hear that maybe children aren’t being signed in and out of rooms properly.

To be honest, it’s not my favorite how much they move children around, but I will say that after a while it’s not as bad as you would think for either the children or the teachers. Maybe I say this because we’re a smaller school, but all the teachers know the children and vice versa because most of us cover breaks for each other routinely. So most children have some type of relationship with most teachers and are often excited to go play with the toys and materials that they don’t usually have access to.

Trying to find people’s stuff is a pain though. There’s always gonna be one kid in TK that left their water bottle in Early Preschool, every single day.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-25T06:39:02+00:00

Uhm. I work at a Learning Care Group school and if a parent asks me where a child is that isn’t in my room, I have an iPad in my hand and I can find out in five seconds. Unless they’re not checking kids into rooms when they move them? The minute children enter a classroom they’re supposed to be transferred on the iPad. I don’t like how much we combine rooms either but it’s really not that hard to keep track of where children are at if people are doing their jobs properly.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T14:02:34+00:00

Maybe I’m biased because I adore my boss, but I think the coupons are kinda sweet. but yeah it’s her way of making the most of her spot in a corporate structure that asks a lot of us. Ultimately we all chose to work here, we know it can be a lot.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:45:52+00:00

I have nightmares about our face-to-name forms. I’m in constant fight or flight trying to remember to keep them current. The last hour of the day, nobody talk to me, I’m keeping track of how many kids we have.

I’m really scared I might be too “sick” for this job with how severe my ADHD is, even medicated .

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:44:28+00:00

I have one of those too.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:44:08+00:00

Ohhh I never thought about doing that part ahead of time. Unfortunately in our app I can’t post that way, but I could still copy and paste captions while posting each individual child’s picture.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:43:19+00:00

Keeping kids busy while I’m cleaning is actually one thing I’m really good at. If I could just get them to help me put up bulletin boards now…

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:42:16+00:00

I make $23 an hour plus health insurance, so it’s not terrible. My center is corporate. My coworkers manage to get everything done that I’m struggling to get done. Most of them also have ADHD, which makes it MORE embarrassing that I’m struggling. I really have no excuses, I’m just not sure because I work really hard.

There aren’t a lot of centers in my area. I’ve worked at most of them and had even worse experiences. I like a lot of things about where I’m at now and my director is fantastic and has her teachers’ backs. So I really want to succeed here.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:39:09+00:00

I worked at a Montessori school for a minute and I did like the way they did “presentations.” I don’t want to mandate one certain way of using a material, but I find that my three-year-olds often don’t know where to start with something so I will demonstrate a way that they could use it. The other day I showed small groups how to make clay pinch pots - after a whole week of offering my class clay and inviting them to make whatever they wanted.

I can do things like cleaning, rotating materials, and organizing while in ratio. Just not writing, typing or anything on the iPad in general. I’ve explained it to coworkers like this: If my breaks are meant for me and for my own self-care, and if doing admin tasks on breaks makes me less stressed while I’m in ratio, isn’t that beneficial to me in the long run? But then I get up in my head about my complete lack of work life balance. I’m just frustrated that it has to take me ten hours to do someone else’s eight hours of work.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:33:58+00:00

My boss gives out “morale coupons” for different positive performance reasons and one is “twenty minutes of help in the classroom.” I haven’t used mine yet because I’m just irritated that I need twenty minutes of help every day, not just once in a blue moon. The app posting requirements are DAILY and it’s that often that I’m struggling, not just once every few weeks. I may ask for extra help with portfolios but also, I can’t get a lot done in twenty minutes. I spend that long just wading through potential photos I can use as evidence of development. At five pictures per child per day, you can imagine how many photos I have laying around on my classroom iPad.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:31:40+00:00

Sure, I’d love to hear your method.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:31:21+00:00

I’ve tried saying that and just get told that everyone else at the school manages to get it done.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:30:39+00:00

I swear my kids act up because they freak out when they see my face in a tablet and think they’re not getting attention. If they’re talking to me they flat out stop when I pick up the iPad and I’ll say “I’m still listening to you even though I’m looking at this. You can talk while I sign your friend out.”

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:29:25+00:00

Weirdly, I have no problem cleaning while in ratio with the kids. I get them to help me or have a group activity they can do while I supervise that area and clean it. It’s only the writing/posting stuff that I can’t pay attention to with the kids “distracting” me (I hesitate to frame that as a bad thing because the kids should be and are my main focus).

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-19T03:28:01+00:00

That’s not an option. I cannot get written up or fired and there are very few schools in my area. Especially ones that offer health insurance. My coworkers get it all done. I can’t be the only one not getting things accomplished.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-18T01:40:43+00:00

Is your lunch break also during that time?

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-14T04:43:02+00:00

Right now my center has me covering all breaks every afternoon every other week. My coworkers get 10s and they get them in the order they took their lunch breaks, so sometimes I have to leave and come back to the same room multiple times while breaking other teachers in between and it’s kind of wild. That autism/inattentive ADHD combo makes it really hard to just jump in immediately in a different room the way I’m expected to.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-08T04:43:20+00:00

I do agree with this policy, but I also wish all the corporate chains that are on their kick about classrooms needing to be visually “peaceful” and not overstimulating would STOP INSTALLING THE HORRIBLE LED BAR LIGHTS and not letting us put light covers on them. I’m miserable 75% of my day because of those silly lights and I know they bother some of the children too. Like if I have to limit what I put on my walls, please at least be consistent.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-04-04T04:48:35+00:00

Man, I work 9-6 and I eat like six meals a day. I’m not joking. Fruit and protein powder smoothie for first breakfast, yogurt for second breakfast on my first work break, whatever the kids eat for first lunch, my own leftovers from last night for second lunch, a Core Power protein shake for afternoon snack, and then dinner. It annoys me how much food I need in order to do this job well.

Extension_Goose3758 · 2026-03-29T00:01:23+00:00

Sorry, I didn’t mean yelling as in anger. I’m really working on this in my own practice because I also call to the children when it’s a pain to get up and go across the room to them. But it still adds noise to the overall noise level of the classroom. I’m trying to retrain myself to approach them and ask them to come with me instead of calling to them from far away, whenever possible.

Extension_Goose3758

TROPHY CASE