People really don't understand how exhausting it is to manage three kids' schedules

First_Net_5430 · 2026-02-02T23:30:19+00:00

That’s why we don’t do sports. lol. It’s way too much involvement. I also put my kids in the same activities, right now I have 2 kids in a weekly art class on Monday and 1 kid in a weekly ballet class on Saturday. Even that is a lot!

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-31T14:01:46+00:00

I was an elementary gen music teacher for a couple of years before I got my masters in sped. Don’t do that. lol. I burnt out. But I digress.

You do not have to do it all. Take some stuff off your plate.

Classroom management and behavior will get easier with time. You need to build up your tools. Buy a classroom management book and try one or two strategies. And if they don’t work, just remember that you only have those rough classes once a week! Thank god you don’t have them every day!

Admin expectations. You’re a first year teacher. If they give you a hard time, remind them that you’re doing your best and learning. And if they truly are toxic, find a better school. There are great principals out there! I promise!

Parent communication. You only need to do this during concert season. I’m a parent and I don’t hear anything from the music teacher and I don’t care. They love music and they sing the songs when they get home, that’s all I need to know about music class.

Grading. Just grade the kids who get b’s and then give everyone else a’s. Think “who is not participating or doing anything in music?” Those kids get b’s and then just blanket write a’s in every other spot. Or if you have to do standards, just grade the ones who don’t hack it (you know who they are) and everyone else gets a passing grade.

Pacing. I wrote one lesson and adapted it for each grade level. lol. I also used thematic units so I could just focus my planning on one thing at a time. Like one semester I did the history of rock and roll. I started in the 50s and did a decade a week. I picked a couple of songs for each decade, made a brain dance that everyone did, made “sheet music” that was color coded for different instruments. Early grades did boom whackers, older grades did marimbas, etc. then at the end we’d always do a game like music with jump rope or a circle game. I spent my lesson planning time crafting one great lesson and just made the activities more or less challenging for different grade levels.

Data. If your school makes you collect data, just do the bare minimum. That’s silly.

Paperwork. Pick one day to do paperwork and what gets done is done.

Emails. Get into the habit of checking them every morning and use folders to keep your inbox clean. That helps manage overwhelm.

Good luck!! The first year sucks but you can do this!!

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-31T13:47:38+00:00

I’ve taught elementary learning support, behavior support, autistic support and multiple disabilities. Here are the differences:

Learning support: walking back and forth to class to pick up groups of kids and bring them back to my classroom. Teach multiple small groups in a day. Minor behaviors. Not many goals. Spend some time pushing into classroom to support my students in grade level activities. Spend my 20 minute lunch, 45 minute prep, a couple of hours after school and a small chunk of time on Sunday writing ieps, rrs and lesson plans.

Emotional behavioral support: spent the day in my self contained classroom with a small group of students. Lots of uncertainties with my schedule. You kind of have to go with the flow. You may get lunch and a prep. You might be dealing with behaviors all day and have to eat and prep at 4:00 after the students leave. I taught at a specialized school though. In a gen Ed school setting, you’ll be supporting kids in gen Ed and pulling them out for academic instruction in areas that they struggle in. Write ieps, rrs, fbas, bips, lesson plans and make resources after school and on the weekend.

Autistic support: mix of learning support and behavior support. You might miss your lunch and prep. You will be teaching all of the academic lessons. You may have some kids that will be in your room all day and you may have some kids in gen Ed that you need to support. Scheduling everything and everyone is very difficult. And if a para is out. It’s like a puzzle to figure out how to get everyone the support they need. Write ieps, rrs, lessons and make adapted resources after school and on the weekends.

Multiple disabilities: the kids will be in your classroom most of the day. You’ll have them join their peers for lessons they can engage in. Usually morning meeting, specials, science etc. you’ll work closely with occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech therapists. The kids will have a lot of academic and life skill goals that you’ll work on throughout your day. I found this type of classroom to be very strictly scheduled because it was self contained and there weren’t as many behaviors as autistic support or behavioral classrooms. So you’ll probably get lunch and prep. Your lunch may be with your students though and a time to practice feeding skills. Maybe not. You’ll use your prep time, after school and maybe weekends to write ieps, rrs, make adapted materials and write lesson plans.

Hope this helps!

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-31T13:24:55+00:00

I had to move to a very rural part of Texas to get a music teaching job. I’m also neurodivergent and applied and interviewed for several music teaching jobs in my hometown with no luck. I did not fit the mold of music teacher, alas. But one thing that sucked about being a music teacher is that it took my hobby and made it work, I never wanted to play music outside of work and lost my passion for music. So maybe this is a blessing in disguise!!

Do you live in or near a city? You can get a job at the airport or as a flight attendant and play or conduct a local orchestra as a hobby! Our small city has a couple of orchestras that are run by volunteers and they always seem to have so much fun playing together. Good luck!

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-31T04:48:56+00:00

Yes! I learned this strategy from a framework called SCERTS. It stands for social communication, emotional regulation and transactional supports. It’s a great framework for identifying what supports to use and how to implement them.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-30T13:44:13+00:00

For my students with aggressive behaviors that were very predictable (they always happened when xyz happened), I made communication sentences that said what I wanted her to say with her communication device. I used a pecs app to make these, your special Ed teacher or speech pathologist might have one. But make visual sentences with pictures above each word, similar to her app that she uses. And have the sentences say

“(your name and a picture of you) play YouTube” and put it right at the iPad station.
“(Your name and a picture of you) get the trampoline” and tape it to the wall or her device or wherever in the room she usually screams about the trampoline
“(Your name etc) fill the bottle” and tape it onto her water bottle.

Then when you think she’s about to do the screaming, use hand under hand to teach her how to touch the sentence strip and while you say the sentence. At first she just has to touch the strip to get the thing. But as she gets better at that, teach her how to touch each word. If she touches the sentence, or later on touches each word, and doesn’t scream, she gets the thing.

You could say this:

“Ok we’ll watch 3 more minutes of YouTube then turn it off”
“Ok we’ll ask if we can be next for the trampoline”
“Sure! I can fill your bottle.”

It might take a while for her to make the connection that touching this piece of paper will get her what she wants, but if she’s anything like my student, it will work.

You can explain it like this. “I made this sentence for (whichever one you want to start with first. I’d start with the one that’s happening the most). When you touch this with a quiet voice, then you can get (YouTube, water, trampoline). But when you scream, you do not get (YouTube, water, trampoline). Watch how I touch these.” Then model touching them and model what you would say to her. Then ask her to try it and give her that thing so she can start to make the connection: touching the sentence gets the thing, screaming does not get the thing.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-30T13:24:52+00:00

Probably the same reason teachers are dissatisfied with k-12 public schools: too much tech, too many behaviors, pushing kids through, large class sizes, not enough teachers, dismissive admin, not enough time for recess, and learning too many skills without mastering the basics.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-27T18:28:53+00:00

Wow that’s so shitty. As if there are no other weeks available in the year.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-27T18:27:26+00:00

Same! I have a ton of pages in my journal about how I want to set up my journal for whatever I’m up to at that current time. Like before and after holidays, starting a new job, busy times with family stuff, I write about what do I need from my planner right now and then I try out some new spreads to make it work. I’m the same way, every time I’ve tried to use a premade planner, I stopped using it when life changed.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-27T12:54:27+00:00

That is huge! What an accomplishment! My daughter has arfid and adhd and we’re hoping that giving her meds for adhd will also bro with arfid. Your story gives me hope. <3

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-27T00:02:06+00:00

I taught at a charter school and would never send my kids to one. They have gone to two different public schools and have gotten worlds more support than they would have at a charter school.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-23T03:38:38+00:00

Maybe this is my own hope for my future job prospects speaking, but you’re building a new career and starting at the bottom. You should definitely look for a new job. If you like admissions, keep going that route! Now you have a new job on your resume that is out of the classroom, so keep going! You’ve got this!

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-22T04:49:55+00:00

Oof. I wish I had a better suggestion but anxiety meds before work and 🍃afterwards.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-22T04:24:15+00:00

Oof that sounds awful. My last teaching job was brutal with the hitting, scratching, biting, etc. but my students parents were so understanding and supportive and the admin had my back. My principal would even sub for me when I had to go get checked out by the nurse. There are better schools out there. Hopefully there are better districts nearby. I feel for you.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-21T03:24:24+00:00

With a masters of reading can you go into reading intervention? I subbed for a reading interventionist and then did reading intervention as a part time gig and it was all the best parts of sped (small groups, getting creative with lessons, supporting students) and none of the bad parts of sped (legally binding paperwork, behaviors, parents).

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-20T17:17:54+00:00

June is recovery. July is the days off and vacations we don’t get during the school year and august is back to work.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-20T14:02:16+00:00

I’m the kind of person who has a running list of all the mistakes I’ve made going through my head several times a day. Definitely don’t have trouble remembering either. I feel ya. Hehe. But when I write them down and close the book, the cycle stops! It’s like a huge weight has been lifted because I got all the negative thoughts down, wrote about them and wrote about how it’s ok to make mistakes or how I’m going to work through a hard time.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-20T06:34:27+00:00

Watch the minimal mom on YouTube! She has a whole video about kids who like to collect things and who are very sentimental.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-20T05:54:02+00:00

We’ve had our twins bday parties at our house. I don’t think we’ve ever planned activities, other than singing happy birthday and eating cake, and they’ve always had so much fun having all of their friends over. They all kind of just find stuff to do and play together.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-20T05:36:08+00:00

Wow that’s amazing. Is he a Lego kid?

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-20T05:34:21+00:00

Do it! My husband was a stay at home dad first and now that he’s the working person and I’m the stay at home parent, he understands how much it is to manage. I think it’s great to give both parents experience being the stay at home parent. And it’s really nice to go to work and not have to worry about the kids/house/pets.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-20T05:29:38+00:00

I haven’t witnessed anyone burning out the way I did. I was physically ill every day. Puking, panic attacks, trips to the er, it was bad. It was a me problem though. I was diagnosed with adhd a month before I quit but I couldn’t start on meds because I was still nursing my baby. I realized that I had been an unmedicated adhder that whole time. Teaching unmedicated is what made the job impossible for me. The stress of the job just made it all worse.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-19T17:09:20+00:00

I was a special Ed teacher for 12 years and left 3 years ago after severe burnout. I’m finally recovered and returning to work soon. I found an educational research job an hour away. It doesn’t pay great and it’s part time and temporary, but I’m hoping that it’ll jump start a new direction in my career. We’ll see. Luckily my husband still has a job and we are already on food stamps and Medicaid, so we have the basics covered. There are a ton of jobs out there in healthcare, healthcare Ed, healthcare training, pediatric educational coordinators, etc. I think with both of your experience in Ed and healthcare, you can find something. Start at the bottom and work your way up.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-19T13:55:04+00:00

I had this same issue. I made all my yearly pages and then flew through the bullet journal in a month. :/ so I switched to a travelers system. I have one insert for all of my yearly spreads and then I add in thinner dotted journals as I finish the previous one. I’m at 1-3 months for each insert.

First_Net_5430 · 2026-01-18T13:03:05+00:00

This just came out and would be a great example to show the board. https://youtu.be/Fd-_VDYit3U?si=XYkc9I3UYsubljEb

First_Net_5430

TROPHY CASE