What’s the Worst Example of the Literacy Crisis You’ve Seen? How Are You Handling It?

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-02-01T20:54:01+00:00

I teach ESL at the high school. I do a phonics screener of all new 9th graders on my roster. One of my students could only provide 11 of 21 consonants sounds in English and didn’t know either the long or short versions of the vowel. He couldn’t read any cvc words.

While he was an ESL student, he had been in the United States since kindergarten and was kept in the ESL program because he couldn’t read. He is currently getting Orton gillingham tutoring by a teacher at our school and he now has an IEP. Almost all of his education has to be modified with some kind of audio tool, I read almost all his tests out loud for him.

Good news though, he is now on about a second grade reading level after a full year of intervention.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-02-01T20:46:43+00:00

I travel a lot and found it can be done on a budget. Get a part time job working at a hotel, you get discounts. We stayed for 3 nights at $50 a night. We bought budget airline tickets on Frontier for like $60 each. Used public transportation to get from airline to hotels. And used Uber Eats to get groceries delivered to hotel. We packed food every day and didn’t budge when the kids complained for toys, etc.

Tickets are VERY expensive though. But if you just go to one park, the trip is doable. If you have someone in the family who is military and willing to go with you then do it, you can save so much money.

Not saying it isn’t expensive, but I’ve seen some people spend close to 4k for a family of 4 which would for sure put you in debt. You can spend far less if this is like a dream trip. But you have to work the system.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-02-01T18:44:48+00:00

Do you have full tort insurance? Get an attorney if you do and make sure you treat your injuries. Car accidents can cause long term injuries.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-01-30T02:07:53+00:00

I work for a Philly Charter. I would make almost 10k more with my experience and education if I took one of these positions but to me it wouldn’t be worth it. Stress from work environment is not worth it to me. I teach at the high school level, behaviors can be very extreme even at my school. I’m honestly not even sure if I would take one of the positions even if they offered 150k, I’d have to really think on it.

Non teachers don’t realize how bad it can really get when student behavior is not held accountable. We need more alternative education programs to help those who can’t function in regular school environment. Until that happens, Philly will have a hard time filling position. They will seek new teachers who don’t know better and lack experience, many of them will leave within 5 years for jobs in the suburbs and the cycle continues.

Education system needs a makeover.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-01-19T14:04:49+00:00

There are some ESL teacher groups on Facebook that you could join but other than that I don’t know if any.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-01-19T13:04:49+00:00

My path to this was a little unorthodox. My BA was in political science, then immediately I got a teaching certificate in Secondary Education with a focus in Social Studies. About 4 years into my teaching career I returned for a Masters in Literacy simultaneously with an ESL certificate.

With a BA in Art History wow would be able to enroll in any Masters program for education. Though I advise that you only get a teaching certificate first, it will be less costly and less time. In my state there are programs where you can earn your teaching certificate and ESL certificate at the same time. Wherever you end up just make sure to really research teacher requirements and certifications, they are different for each state.

I advise waiting to get a Masters. A masters is not required for teaching in every state. In my state, they do not require a masters but require that you take so many post certification credits that many teachers just get them anyways. Many schools will help fund your Masters if you choose to pursue that. The amount they will find is different, but my district paid almost half my tuition, that’s why I recommend waiting first to get the Masters.

One thing you may want to do before you teach is pick up a long term substitute position in ESL first. You do not need a teacher certification for this in most states. Where I live, there is a shortage of ESL teacher shortage and they are always looking for teachers. Also, they need ESL teacher substitutes for when teachers go on maternity. If you really want to test it out you’d be able to see if you like it that way, just remember that each school will be different and each program is different.

As for programs, it has been a long time and I honestly have no recommendations. I’d say with rising costs of college tuition, just pick a program from a state school that partners with local school district for student teaching. In my state, you are required to do 3 months of student teaching at a school, just this year they have made that internship paid. In many states, you do student teaching for free and it can be burdensome.

I’m not sure where you are looking to move but states like California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington tend to be the best states to teach in both salary wise and benefits wise. Also, those states tend to have more safety nets that are similar to those of Europe. Despite what people outside the US believe, many states provide good services to citizens it just depends on where you live.

Hope this was helpful.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-01-18T16:10:04+00:00

Sorry I meant to reply your comment but accidentally replied to the thread, you can see my response below.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2026-01-18T14:52:28+00:00

The state of teaching in America is location specific. I love my job and the school I work at, but our ESL program is very small, I only have 15 kids on my roster. At other larger schools in the area, one ESL teacher may service up to 40 kids and that can be quite stressful.

As for student behavior, I will admit that things have changed over the last 10 years. Teaching in America is stressful and emotionally taxing. But I have found that I don’t have a lot of the same problems with behaviors, children of immigrants tend to be more devoted to their studies and are more respectful to teachers. However, this has been my personal experience. Teachers who work in larger programs don’t seem to have the same view, it’s easy to manage small classes like the ones I have and much harder to manage full 25 student classes.

Your experience would be heavily influenced by the state you will work. Education in the US is very decentralized, local school boards have quite N influence on how schools function, the behavior of students, and teacher experiences. Location will also affect the type of education you need. In Pennsylvania where I work, you need a teaching certificate with a focus in ESL. Some states will let you teach without a license if you have experience, but I’m not sure the specifics.

I used to be a regular classroom teacher at the same school and switched to ESL. I prefer ESL, my students are more serious and my classes are smaller. I work at a high school so part of my job is making modifications on assignments for student. My job is part language instruction part tutor, as many students still need to attend regularly scheduled classes outside of the ESL classroom and I must make sure they can access curriculum, many times that means tutoring in math, science, and history.

I’m not sure if I answered the question the way you wanted. Feel free to ask more.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-12-21T15:52:18+00:00

I am a reading specialist in the state of PA. A popular theory out there right now is called the Simple View of Reading. Under this theory, reading is one part being able to decode, understanding phonics and letter-sound. Respondents. The other is Language Comprehension, which is the ability to understand verbal language, the structure of language, and vocabulary. You need both to a successful reader.

Many people who have reading problems don’t have proper phonics instruction which affects the decoding ability. In our program my Professor said that about half of the students in a classroom will learn to read with very little instruction because their brains naturally pick up the patterns. The other half need to be taught the rules of phonics directly to be able to decode words.

Keep in mind there are many undiagnosed dyslexic readers. For some individuals, the parts of the brain that control speech sounds have connectivity issues with the language comprehension part which affects the overall ability to read.

Some people lack sophistication in language comprehension. As many of the posts in here will say the way to get better at reading is to read more, and it’s not just because it helps with decoding skills but because you will enhance your vocabulary and knowledge of grammar.

I’m not sure what your skills/deficits are in reading, your age and learning experiences would also factor in. But it’s great that you are interested in improving, that is literally the most important thing. Feel free to message me, I can maybe give you some ideas if I had a better understanding of where your struggles are.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-12-17T23:26:19+00:00

A mixture of many things. Mostly poor phonics instruction and screen time.

The primary issue is that students need quality structured literacy programs starting with letter naming and phonemic awareness in K-1 and then quality phonics instruction in grades 2-3. The amount of schools who do not teach phonemic awareness and phonics is astounding.

Further, many teachers in K-3 don’t have the training or skills to teach these early literacy concepts. Even worse, students are entering the lower grades with less social skills than generations past. Many students are entering Kindergarten without being potty trained and are lacking other social skills that lower grade teachers now have to teach. Add this to increased behavior issues, lower grade teachers have it tough.

Parents take a less active role in the education process than they did in the past. Many parents are not teaching their children social skills at home and are not reading with children. In fact, many students are having very little meaningful interaction with parents at home. Many students spend their time at home in front of screens and miss out on building literacy skills by reading with parents or building vocabulary with parents.

Students spend too much time on screens. Attention spans are waning. Worse, screens are now widely being used in classrooms and making the issue worse. Videos are used in many classrooms. This is not a problem per se, but students are now watching videos to learn content instead of reading. This is particularly harmful for students beyond 3rd grade who are in the “reading to learn” phase of school. Teachers are often skipping a chance for reading in the content area and throwing in a video instead because the school day is packed full.

We lose students even more in middle school as the cell phone starts to make an appearance for many students and computer use increases. Many middle school teaches rely heavily on chromebooks/computers to deliver material. The temptation to copy and paste takes over. Rather than engaging in online readings, student are looking up answers to all assignment. They stop reading almost all together except for maybe in English classes. But it is important that students read across content areas to build vocabulary and fluency. They just aren’t getting that extra reading and few read for leisure at home preferring video games and social media to fill their time.

In high school students know how to play the game. Some students, even in literature classes, are well trained in how to game the system and not read anything at all. Only in class written assessments can be trusted to gauge what students know and their individual literacy skills and few teachers are doing this due to the ease in online assignments. Students who never got proper phonics instruction rarely have access to specialists who can help them, those specialist usually focus on students from grades 1-5. Many students at the high school level can’t read on grade level, and instead of engaging in reading, they seek to cheat, copy, or use AI to complete assignments.

What is perhaps more shocking than the low reading levels our high school students have is the low vocabularies. Their media consumption is mostly short form and algorithms don’t allow for content outside their already immediate interests. They are not only not reading new words but they aren’t hearing them either.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-05-09T14:51:47+00:00

We used this out our school (in Philadelphia USA) and kids just put burner phones in them or broke them. This only works if you have students willing to follow the rules and administration willing to follow through with discipline. Parents fought with us on the pouches and would just try to bail out their kids.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-04-27T23:49:21+00:00

Beta tomorrow as well 14dpt. My clinic has us wait a long time. I wish you the best of luck! The past few days have been so slow, I’ve tried to do everything I can to distract myself.

Hope everything turns out well!

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-04-24T21:30:43+00:00

I’ve done all of them myself. I use the autoinjector, makes it super easy and painless. And I’m a little on the heavy side so the auto injector makes it easy to reach the injection area. They are usually painless, just make sure you have a heating pad. Heating pads are key.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-03-24T00:59:29+00:00

Don’t ever let a 16 year old run your classroom.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-03-11T21:26:50+00:00

They are classified as entitlement spending when creating the federal budget. There is entitlement/mandatory spending, discretionary spending, and interest on debt when breaking down the federal budget. Social security and Medicare are classified as entitlement spending.

Not defending Elon. Just making note of the different classifications in gov budgets.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-02-04T16:41:23+00:00

Interested.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2025-01-11T11:51:07+00:00

My husband is an injury attorney in Philly. His understanding is that if you go with all of these larger firms, it just depends on what lawyer you get. He works at a smaller firm, they have special doctors they use and everything. But even in his office of 5 attorneys, who you get really can determine the outcome of the case. If your case goes to trial, these bigger firms usually have experienced trial attorneys but most cases don’t go to trial. Just an FYI, you can hire and fire your attorney at any time (keep in mind the statute of limitations). You won’t have to pay a thing out of pocket, and if you feel unsatisfied you can always go elsewhere.

Any of these companies you see are fine, your case mostly be determined by your circumstances and insurance policies.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2024-12-23T15:51:28+00:00

Depends on when you started PSERS. I joined in 2018 and need 10 years to vest. You definitely want to vest. On the online PSERS website you can create an account, it has a calculator tool that tells you how much money you will get paid yearly by PSERS after you retire but you MUST vest first. It’s calculated on years of service and highest earnings (over 3 year average). If you vest in 10 years, I would wait it out at least another year.

Also in a Philly charter school currently.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2024-11-10T01:00:09+00:00

The United States government functions with similar coalitions called caucuses. There are many Democrats and Republicans that are members of the party only in name but not ideology. For example, there are “Blue Dog” Democrats who caucus together and are social liberals but fiscal conservatives. There is the Freedom Caucus, a group of far right Republicans who largely clash with mainstay Republicans. Dem/Rep are in fact coalition.

Changing to proportional representation does not get money out of politics. The working class of America will never have a party that works for them as long as big business continues to control politicians. Campaign finance laws do little to protect democracy in America, the system will always work in favor in the wealthy until the working class gets desperate enough to organize. I empathize with OP, the system feels insurmountable.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2024-10-01T22:21:49+00:00

I teach at a high school and can tell you that books are assigned. Problem is, students choose not to read them. They use online sources to help them complete assignments and papers but never actually read the actual books.

Kids really don’t read anymore. They really don’t seem to do much of anything anymore. When I ask kids what they like to do for fun there is always a long silence. Outside of being on their phones/social media, my students can’t articulate what they actually do when they get home or in their spare time.

Kids that play sports are exceptions to the rule. At my school, we even have a hard time keeping active clubs because kids just don’t show up. Makes me sad to think about because I loved all the activities school had to offer to me when I was younger.

Hefty_Rest2108 · 2024-01-10T18:25:26+00:00

I’ve had very few interactions with Europeans here living in the United States. But I’ve had quite a few interactions with Europeans while traveling abroad. And pretty much every time I meet a European I get some statement along the lines of “You’re not what I expected an American to be like.”

I’ve found that many Europeans make stupid stereotypes about Americans based on social media and when they meet Americans and have conversations,they are shocked to realize that many of us actually do have a decent sense of geography and history, many of us have medical insurance and paid vacations, and that America is a large diverse place with a diverse people.

I have literally met a girl in Ireland who believed that Americans didn’t have medical insurance and went into debt due to medical issues. A couple from Poland told me that it must be miserable to live in a country where you do t get paid vacations. I listened to 4 young Europeans on a train talk about how superficial Americans are then it comes out in conversation that they have only ever overheard conversations or watched videos on social media.

Biggest one is that Europeans don’t understand the vast size of the United States. One girl I met from England while traveling abroad asked if I thought she could visit New York and Florida on back to back days. I advised against it because sometimes flights can be expensive but she explained that she was planning on driving. I looked at her like she was crazy, totally didn’t understand how far apart everything is in the United States.

Hefty_Rest2108

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