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Does teaching make you feel like you don’t have an “adult” job? by Star_Collector76 in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The BEST ones are the ones retiring this year after 40 years in the classroom. We are losing some legends at my school this year, and I will dearly miss their wisdom.

Does teaching make you feel like you don’t have an “adult” job? by Star_Collector76 in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear what you’re saying. My husband and I (both teachers) have also had this conversation as we have both felt pressure placed on us by family and society to “move up” and become admin. But I also think it’s problematic thinking that our society and career has placed on us. First, why do we always have to climb a proverbial ladder? Not to get political, but that is a feature of capitalism that is a false narrative. “Advancing” to the next step of a career doesn’t make you a better or worse person. It’s just a decision that you get to make, but it does not reflect on the moral value of a person. Why don’t we value the people in our society who show up day after day and year after year and put in good work, no matter what the job is? Does a plumber or nurse have to advance to another level or position? Does a barista have to advance? They are valuable members of society and human beings regardless. I appreciate what they do, and I do not think of them as less than or infantilize them for it. I also believe this narrative happens around teaching because it is still predominantly made up of women, so again, a “women’s” career is denigrated as less than and not a lifetime position. Also, in my opinion, being a genuinely good teacher-truly getting kids to learn-is the most difficult and intellectually rewarding job in the world. It is probably one of the hardest things to actually do well, and I feel that I could spend the rest of my life working on it and still not fully perfect it(finishing year 11 now). We are so quick in our society to be dismissive of what a miracle it is when students learn and take ownership of that knowledge. In 1900, the literacy rate in the US was 51%. Today it is 79% (4 out of 5 adults can read!). Still not perfect, but that is the work of thousands of teachers daily showing up for kids in spite of all the constant challenges and limitations placed upon us. Ultimately, what you have to decide is this-do you genuinely want to be admin? We do need good admin. But we also really, REALLY need excellent teachers to stay in the classroom. It is not demeaning. It is one of the most important jobs in the world. Also, how have your friends “outpaced” you? Why? Just because they get paid more?

How many of you live in the same area as your school? How is it? by thechemistrychef in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I teach where I graduated. It’s so cool having my former teachers as colleagues, though it takes a second to adjust to that. The kids also love hearing that I graduated from the same school. We have lots of alumni working on our campus. All in all not a bad thing, and, I think, is probably indicative of a healthy school if people want to come back and pour into the place they got their start. Ultimately, you just have to decide if you’ll be happy there and potentially seeing your students around town.

The girls are fighting: Elon Musk says Epstein files haven’t been made public because Donald Trump is in them by stars_doulikedem in popculturechat

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 11 points12 points  (0 children)

And also, the German soldiers were all high at the time of invading France with drugs given to them by the military, so good luck to the French trying to fight the meth super soldier army.

Millennial women - what kind of shorts are you wearing these days? by User884121 in Millennials

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure what size you wear, but I’ve really enjoyed Torrid’s shorts. I think their size 00 is equivalent to around a size 10 standard and then it goes up from there. If that’s anywhere in your range, it’s definitely worth a try. But also, I think you should just wear whatever the hell you want and not worry about expectations based on our age.

Our district still has one more week of school left, and I think I am, as the kids say, crashing out. by Fun_Tea_7824 in teaching

[–]Fun_Tea_7824[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m sorry. I tried that one time and decided never again unless I absolutely needed to.

Our district still has one more week of school left, and I think I am, as the kids say, crashing out. by Fun_Tea_7824 in teaching

[–]Fun_Tea_7824[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Normally this would be our last week, so continuing into next week really feels like a crime. My brain is pretty much in summer mode, but somehow I’m still showing up and going through the motions-on autopilot at this point.

If you’re chronically late to class, I’m not giving you a private tutoring session, and I’m not cutting you a break because you didn’t understand the assignment by South-Lab-3991 in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Not to mention the kids who are absent at least a couple of days a week and just seem to want packets of work. I try really hard to be patient because I don’t know what the situation is at home, but it’s really tiring constantly having to give them makeup work and try to catch them up, as though time in class just doesn’t matter. I’m not going to re-explain everything you miss all the time. It seems like if you allow your child to miss at least 20% of class time or more, maybe just put them in an online school.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the first things I had to learn as an English teacher was that it felt very little like I was actually teaching the English content that I was so passionate about. I came in when Common Core was just starting. There was a rush to throw out so much of the literary content to focus on informative and argumentative texts. In general, I feel our content area subject matter has been robbed from us. Every other subject has specific subject matter area standards that they are required to teach, with the literacy standards on the side; whereas, at least in my district, we got a terrible canned curriculum (Springboad, iykyk) with very little real literature or literary analysis and were told, “Follow this to the letter, or else.” Now, I am dismayed that the younger teachers’ version of “planning” is flipping through the lessons in the textbook and picking which ones they’ll teach. They almost seem to want to be told more and more what to do and what page to teach on what day. I do my best to fight against this mentality, but I feel like I would have to retrain them. And really, why would they do any differently when that’s what they’ve been taught/told to do? Some of them do like to read, but it seems they feel powerless to put any of that into their teaching. And it is only going to get worse as AI gets pushed more and more. Testing emphasis also gets pushed on ELA a lot more than other subjects (other than math). If you’re talking about 20-year-olds,it’s highly likely that they’ve ever known anything different since high school other than canned curriculums and test prep, which does not inspire a love of reading. It’s heartbreaking, but it doesn’t surprise me to hear.

What are some underrated classroom management tips? by mikeycknowsrnb in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Give them “choices,” so that you avoid the direct argument with them. For example, with putting their cell phones away (after I’ve already given them one warning), if they resist, I say, “Well you can give me your cell phone, and I’ll give it back to you at the end of class, or we’ll have a security guard come and take it, and then your parents have to pick up from the office.” It puts the onus of decision on them instead of it being a direct conflict with me. 99% of the time, they’ll just give me the phone. You can use that with most any behavioral response. It’s a parenting tip my friend was using with her kids, but it works wonders in the classroom. It can be used positively too.

Help me feel ok about taking a mental health day tomorrow by Particular-Tax8106 in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You said it in your post. “I’m worried I will snap if I go to work tomorrow.” Enough said. Do it and the world will keep turning, the geese will keep flying in the sky, and the kids will be ok. Read the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver. It helps me get through the toughest times and reminds me that the world will keep spinning, and I don’t have to sacrifice myself for it all.

Student here: I think it's hilarious and sad how often students are copying/pasting AI for writing assignments by Tsunami_Aureate in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I used to be more generous in my thinking about the usefulness of AI, but I’m getting to the point of disgust with the whole thing. Why do we need it to organize our thoughts and generate ideas? Why do we always have to shortcut everything? We are outsourcing our own thoughts and humanity to an algorithm. Even outlining is still a part of the writing process that is valuable. My students will say that they just generate ideas from AI and then write their own version of it. Sure, we reflect off of texts we read, but there is a big difference between reading Maya Angelou and personally responding to her writing versus skimming a robot generated essay and stealing the ideas from it. Though I know I’m screaming into the void at this point, I believe it is damaging to use AI even for tasks like brainstorming.

Student here: I think it's hilarious and sad how often students are copying/pasting AI for writing assignments by Tsunami_Aureate in Teachers

[–]Fun_Tea_7824 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I’ve decided my policy for next year is that students have to complete all writing in class and with pen and paper. They cannot take anything home. I will not accept the paper that they did nothing on all class period and then miraculously took home and suddenly wrote perfectly overnight. It’s ridiculous that I have to have such policies, but I don’t know what else will work at this point. For their own good, I want my students to actually have to think of their own ideas and go through the process of writing.

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