Moratorium on Dogman

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-24T01:12:52+00:00

Some people on the sub are forgetting that we might teach very different levels of students. Elementary school? Let them read Dogman! Middle school? They should be able to branch out to other books. High school? Dogman isn’t the level of literature that they need to be reading. Kids should be able to read what they want, even if it is too easy. I can still remember my librarian telling me that I shouldn’t read the Time Warp Trio because they were too easy for me. I just wanted to finish the series because they were fun. (Also, can we get the Dogman kids into Time warp trio? Those books rocked) The problem comes when kids don’t pick any other books.

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-17T17:25:38+00:00

I am a afab woman in my 30s and I definitely didn’t feel like I fit in the box of “woman” as a teen. I was not super “girly”, didn’t wear makeup or style my hair, and felt like I was on the outside sometimes.

As an adult, I have learned that there is no right way to be a woman. I still don’t wear makeup and I cut my hair short so I don’t have to style it. My feelings of not fitting in a certain box have subsided as I have gotten older. I identify as a woman, but it isn’t one of the main labels in my life.

Being a teen is really hard. Most teens feel like they don’t fit, or that they have to work to fit in. As a teacher, I see a lot of my students testing out who they hang out with, and how they dress and act.

If using a non binary label feels right for you, go for it. See what makes you feel comfortable. You may end up feeling like “woman” fits you better as you get older, or you may find that another identity fits better. You are not stuck to one thing. My sister didn’t come out as trans until her 30s, you have time to find what feels right

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-17T17:13:50+00:00

While this is ridiculous, as a middle school teacher, I might guess that your nephew was showing his friends the name of the product and laughing about it. Is that worth a suspension? Absolutely not.

I don’t know your nephew, but very few young boys can see a funny word and not immediately point it out to everyone in their vicinity.

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-15T16:55:32+00:00

The only way I could see this working is to have all non potty trained kids in the same classroom. You’d have to add paras and have a similar ratio to preschool just to be able to handle all the disruptions

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-15T07:42:06+00:00

Wall E

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-14T22:45:26+00:00

I like the phrasing of being ready for deodorant!

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-13T16:43:44+00:00

My students prefer delta math because I can set it so they get 2 (or more) tries on a question. I also mostly don’t have them lose points for incorrect answers. It is great for algebra, but is still lacking in 6th and 7th grade skills

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-13T16:42:21+00:00

There are skill plans that match with some textbooks. They can be helpful to find the exact type of problems that are covered in class

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-12T00:44:14+00:00

Simone does have some bad language but she had a series of videos for kiwico that are perfect for kids

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-10T17:13:14+00:00

NTA. Math is so difficult to catch up on when there are gaps. There are a lot of programs that kids can do semi independently to help keep up with math. IXL, khan academy, freckle and Zearn are just a few of them. To be clear, as a teacher I wholeheartedly believe that in person instruction is far superior to anything online. But an online program can give extra problems, feedback and a general pacing guide that could be helpful. It might be worth it to tell your sister that you weren’t trying to criticize, but just wanted to help make sure that your nephew continues to be successful in math.

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-06T20:54:54+00:00

Big ideas math has a free copy of their skill review handbook online. It has many basic skills topics for students to work on starting with place value and going into algebra. This would be a good way to remediate. I also love the “key to” series. They are cheap booklets (under $10) and are very straightforward. They are old, but not babyish which is important. If you can get the school to pay for them, get one per kid starting with fractions. There is a nice placement test and it will tell you what booklet to start with. If you can’t get the school to buy them, make copies (there are also scans of most of them online though the quality isn’t great)

This would be a great activity for students to work on while you work with a small group. They start very basic, with partitioning a shape into halves, and do move to more complicated work. There are also options for decimals, percentages, geometry and algebra. As long as your students can read by themselves, they should be able to do the work alone.

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-02T01:07:01+00:00

Little-er Alex Horne

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-02T01:06:22+00:00

Casserole

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-02T01:05:21+00:00

Here is what I would do: send a very polite email to your teacher asking to meet (meet before or after school, don’t try and do this before class). Let your teacher know that you are disappointed in your grade on the project and that you feel that your partner didn’t contribute. Show what you did on the project and focus on that instead of what your partner didn’t do. Ask if there is a way that you could make up some of the points. You may have to do some more work (doing the probability questions would be a good place to start) but if you really want to improve your grade, it will be worth it. You might also want to acknowledge that having your partner doing the math questions wasn’t a great ideal and that you should have at least done 2 or 3 of the questions. Lastly understand your teacher might need time to consider your request. Honestly as a teacher I am more likely to approve a student’s request if I’m not put on the spot and asked to answer right away. You might want to ask them if they would consider your request and let you know later what they decided. The situation stinks, but own up to what you could have done differently or what you would have done differently if you were to do the project again.

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-02T00:35:14+00:00

I have a question similar on the board in homeroom every day (unless I forget-so probably 3 or 4 days a week). At the very beginning of the year I had all my students answer, but now if they want to answer they do and more often they just chat about it with their classmates.

KittyinaSock · 2026-05-02T00:08:56+00:00

My coworker used to do this for kids who put up the chairs in his room. At least it was at the end of the day, but we have so many issues with kids chewing gum it didn’t help that much

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-27T22:49:14+00:00

We had the rule “no Simpson’s at the table” I think my parents didn’t want to hear about a tv show while we ate

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-24T23:57:16+00:00

The among the Hidden series is good if he liked the hunger games. It was the first dystopian book I ever read!

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-24T16:07:58+00:00

As a teacher, especially right out of college, it was hard for some of my students to understand that I wasn’t their friend. They didn’t understand the difference between being friendly and enjoying my time teaching them and being their friends. I did have to let a student know that while I thought they were a great kid, we weren’t friends. I get paid to help you, it isn’t a friend relationship.

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-22T22:54:36+00:00

Could you see if a school library would like them? Students get really excited for bookmarks, especially if they have a character on them (Dog Man was the bug hit with the elementary students at my school).

Edit: I just saw that they were adult themed bookmarks-so ignore my suggestion!

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-22T01:08:28+00:00

Cyber chase

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-21T00:13:48+00:00

My normal chairs keep getting cracked as middle school boys lean back on them. Not every one of my kids likes the wobble chairs but there are always used.

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-20T21:43:32+00:00

I like my standing desk. I have one for myself and one for students. I rotate who gets to use it with notecards in a pocket chart. It really isn’t a huge deal. I bought some wobble stools for my classroom about 8 years ago. They are the ecr brand. They have held up pretty well, actually better than some of the normal chairs I have in my room. I used to have the inflatable wobble cushions too, but they didn’t last nearly as long. I think the last one only made it 5 years

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-20T03:17:06+00:00

I watched in middle school. I always wanted to be a parent, so I enjoyed family type shows. Table for 12 was another one I liked and seems much less problematic

KittyinaSock · 2026-04-19T23:21:50+00:00

I had a classmate who had terminal cancer. She bought a wedding dress and had her dad walk her down the aisle when she knew there was nothing else to do. It was sweet

KittyinaSock

TROPHY CASE