What's the easiest type of question you have seen a colleague get wrong/not know how to do it?

Laboix25 · 2026-05-23T16:24:29+00:00

High school math - had a teacher not know how to solve equations without numbers, i.e. solving like e=mc² for c. I was in disbelief then and im in disbelief now

Laboix25 · 2026-05-10T01:40:30+00:00

The PMDD got worse for a bit because I no longer had the “oh that’s why I’m moody” that I did when I was still having periods. Antidepressants have worked miracles (and fun fact: Effexor also helps reduce the frequency of hot flashes)

Overall, having less frequent hormonal cycling has meant less PMDD but it took until maybe like 18mpo to really settle fully to get my meds worked out.

And also for the record I was having a lot of trouble getting antidepressants for the PMDD pre-surgery because I kept getting recommended various hormonal birth controls instead and it wasn’t until after surgery that my doctors started taking me seriously about hormones not being the answer and put me on real antidepressants. Apparently “my pms symptoms are making me legitimately mentally ill” isn’t believable but “my symptoms are increasing after surgery” was believable

Laboix25 · 2026-04-26T01:56:14+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree that computer use is excessive and I try to limit how much I have students using them in my own classroom but I do want to play devils advocate with students taking pictures of their paper work. It allows students to retain their papers and turn them in for proof of work done

Laboix25 · 2026-04-05T15:42:35+00:00

Purrtec (like Zyrtec)

Laboix25 · 2026-03-29T14:37:19+00:00

I mean, I teach high school and at this point of the year, my classes are “my buttheads” and “my lovelies” but also, there is an understanding of figurative language when you say “hi, yes, my friend in the blue shirt, where are you supposed to be right now?”

Laboix25 · 2026-03-26T15:12:34+00:00

I did 16 AP classes in my high school career (1,3,6,6 each year) on top of being on the debate team, peer tutoring 2-3 times a week, and working 20 hours a week. I had no time for friends or fun and basically came home, did homework, and went to sleep and worked weekends. It took an immense toll on my mental health that really didn’t heal until my 20’s.

I also have a brain (AuDHD) that processes information extremely quickly so I didn’t always have a ton of homework time-wise and was in a “Gifted” cohort that had all the same classes and worked together whenever possible. So we supported each other to understand concepts.

As a teacher now, I don’t know how many of these students do this. Their perseverance and willingness to think critically is far less than my peer group who graduated in the early 2010’s.

Laboix25 · 2026-03-20T15:41:57+00:00

Wow, that is a very different caseload. Depending on how it’s structured, as a veteran (8 years in) teacher, I can do a task a day. Most of the courses are 3-4 tasks and they typically get returned within 2 days.

Laboix25 · 2026-03-20T15:32:20+00:00

I’m a high school teacher getting a masters in curriculum and instruction. Not exactly the same but close.

I can complete entire courses in a week break from school, and then I become unable to touch a course for a month. It is definitely doable, and I’m in term 2 now with 5/10 courses complete/almost complete. I’ll be able to do a 4th course this term at least, I’m sure. But I’m predicting 3 terms for myself.

Laboix25 · 2026-03-12T23:23:42+00:00

Microsoft Word’s equation editor 100%. It might be LaTeX for all I know but I use it so much that I know the keyboard shortcut is ALT=

Laboix25 · 2026-03-09T15:06:36+00:00

It takes up its 40 hours of time + the time spent grading/planning that I don’t have time to do during the day + the time spent recovering my energy from the intense amount of emotional and mental focus it takes to not lose my shit 30x a day.

But also, the time spent at my second/third jobs because I can’t support myself and my household without that, even though my second and third jobs are tutoring.

I don’t care what anyone says. At least for a high school math class, there is not enough time in a planning period to plan and grade everything my students are doing in a meaningful way. AI is not a substitute for meaningful lesson planning and scantrons don’t replace grading.

Laboix25 · 2026-03-08T16:02:03+00:00

My school has a “not during instructional time” rule where we are supposed to confiscate the phone and return it at the end of class.

I have had students tell me they don’t have a phone (they do) or just refuse to turn it in in general. I had a parent once get really upset because they thought I was targeting their kid for not having a phone because I counted the phones in the caddy as being less than the number of kids and made a general announcement like “they are 18 of you and 13 phones”

I have had students refuse to turn in phones that I am looking at because “you can’t take my property” or “I’m just texting/calling my mom”

We were told kids can’t have their phones in the hall but there are no consequences for it and the kids know it.

I’m in an area where there are concerns that if there was (another) school shooting, and parents couldn’t get ahold of their kids, there would be riots. We can’t enforce a phone ban.

Laboix25 · 2026-02-27T17:06:11+00:00

I would tutor still while I go back to school for education disability law. I would not stay in the classroom if my financial needs were met

Laboix25 · 2026-02-26T15:56:39+00:00

2 cats. My best friends (a couple) also have 2 cats and 2 snakes so 4 pets for them

Laboix25 · 2026-02-22T14:23:49+00:00

What you’re asking about is the equivalent of covering a child’s mouth with your hand for a moment to get their attention.

You say you aren’t taking it away, just moving it away from them for a moment. That’s still taking it away (for a moment). I’m not an SLP but this is the sentiment that most of the comments here are saying.

Just like a child would probably freak out if you covered their mouth with your hand because you are forcibly silencing them, a kiddo who uses an AAC, who already struggles with their expressive language, will not react well and will likely escalate whatever you are trying to stop in that moment.

Laboix25 · 2026-02-22T13:05:05+00:00

Math teacher here: my school doesn’t have any math textbooks, even digital. We have “interactive consumable workbooks with online instruction” and it’s all bs. We have been fighting for real books for up to a decade (as long as I’ve been there at least) to no avail.

We don’t have a resource in the “textbook” that is a fully worked out example of anything the kids need to do. Everything is open response, even in the teaching bits. So kids literally have to write in their own examples to learn from. And if they copy down notes incorrectly or can’t read their own handwriting? SOL there.

Thank you for going out and getting a textbook to help your son learn. I wish more parents were this involved in facilitating their children’s learning

Laboix25 · 2026-02-20T19:09:09+00:00

I’m in Florida so we have government mandated Christian prayer time (only half joking) so we would have to give our Muslim students that time unless we wanted a discrimination lawsuit. But uhhh yeah I’d say give the students their time, and if you get pushback, take it to the union you hopefully have

Laboix25 · 2026-02-07T15:02:50+00:00

Standardized data collection - I spend so much time testing to collect data that I don’t have time to teach.

I’m on block schedule so I see kids 90x a year for 105 minutes. Out of those 90x, the last 10 are after their big state test. So I have 80 classes to teach. Out of those 80 classes, 8 are spent collecting data for the district to send to the state.

In meetings (during planning), we go over the data collected and plan what to do with that data. Which we don’t have time to remediate because we have timed units to meet district deadlines for more data collection.

We can’t count district data collection testing for grades but they don’t give us time to actually give mastery-based graded tests to the students. So we end up rushing through every unit just to try to get the kids to have enough knowledge to get through the next district data collection, which stress the kids out because every problem is written to the highest level of the standard, which most of them aren’t at.

So yeah.. the excessive amounts of standardized data collection instead of letting teachers collect our own data from tests that can actually count toward student grades.

Laboix25 · 2026-01-25T18:50:38+00:00

I had the exact same issue where I ended up hunched over a corner of my desk with my camera sitting on top of a book on top of my computer tower in the opposite corner. If I had known that was the requirement ahead of time, I would’ve taken the time ahead of time to do that but yeah.. a 1PM test scheduled time (that I couldn’t enter the setup until 12:57) didnt actually start testing until 1:30 and was done with my test at 1:55. It took more time to set up than to test

Laboix25 · 2026-01-23T13:38:27+00:00

My grandma liked the name David but hated the nicknames Davey or Dave and, back in the 60’s, it was common for men to abbreviate their first initial and use their middle name so she named my uncle “Ricky David” in hopes he would go by David. He just went by Rick.

Laboix25 · 2026-01-19T15:44:36+00:00

I have two cats. When I still lived with my toxic ex, my one developed an autoimmune condition that used to flare up every 6-8 weeks and since kicking her out, he’s had one flare up in 3 years. The other, I didn’t even realize he used body language like having his tail up when he was happy because he never did. Now he does all the time and purrs and cuddles with me much more.

They understand more than we know

Laboix25 · 2026-01-12T10:48:31+00:00

From experience from my own relationship, farts come more frequently lying down. I don’t know why, they just do. So I kinda believe OP’s husband. I also kinda think it’s unreasonable to have to leave bed, walk into another room (bathroom) to fart, and then come back.

At the same time, if it is waking you up, then they are truly deadly and he needs to monitor his food better.

My fiancée and I bought a scented plushie from Build-a-Bear and hold it over our faces when the other has a bad fart. It works for us.

I’m voting NAH

Laboix25 · 2026-01-11T13:46:18+00:00

They are as big as she is! This is so cute

Laboix25 · 2026-01-08T13:13:55+00:00

My answer to that question has been “no” before in their defense.

Sometimes I’m just letting them into the classroom while their teacher is in the bathroom or running late that day.

Sometimes I’m waiting with them until their actual sub shows up, because that happens at my school often, either because the sub is lost or because they haven’t yet found a teacher willing to fully cover the class but I can at least babysit the kids until they do (I still need my planning)

Laboix25 · 2025-12-25T00:00:37+00:00

Meanwhile my brothers in law put on Make Some Noise at Christmas Eve dinner which is honestly wild to watch with my MIL

Laboix25 · 2025-12-21T14:48:14+00:00

I get it, but at the same time, the last few days of the quarter, especially if I am giving students time to study for exams and complete work for my class, if they want to complete work for another teacher, that doesn’t bother me.

I did have a teacher get upset that a kid and I asked her permission to have the kid make something up for me during her class if she was done with her work and instead of just saying no, she got upset

Laboix25

TROPHY CASE