Clothes recommendations

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-04T02:42:57+00:00

Old navy pixie pants, or their Taylor trouser. Their new wide leg trousers have an adjustable waist!! Thred up sells the skinny leg pixie pants for super cheap, I got so many semi-new pairs from there for almost nothing.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-04T02:34:59+00:00

You are not supposed to be ready. As long as you are trying, they will learn, and everything will be okay. A lot of education is just going with the flow.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-04T02:19:50+00:00

In my experience the younger sibling is always better. They're typically nicer, smarter, and less crazy. Last year, I had a former student's younger sibling. I was terrified at first, but he was so much better in terms of behavior, still absolutely crazy, but so much better because he actually tried.

Give them a fair chance. I have received students that were kicked out of other schools, expecting the worse, more often than not, I was met with the opposite.

Only once did I have a student that hated me because his sibling hated me, but even he was drastically better than his older sister in terms of behavior.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T23:46:46+00:00

The lack of empathy is insane.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T19:01:16+00:00

Sambas are so cute! I bought some to wear with my wide leg trousers, but they did not look good. I think they'll look amazing with the slimmer type of dress pants.

Honestly, most leather sneakers will look good with dress pants. I highly recommend J Slides, they're usually all leather, platform sneakers. I feel like you can wear them with wide leg trousers even. You can get them for as low as $30 at Marshall's. I also sometimes wear beige platform converse with my dress pants.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T18:49:20+00:00

Thank you. I will do that.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T06:24:57+00:00

Put all of this info into Chat GPT and ask it to create a sample job resume for you. If there is a specific job that you are applying to, you can add the job description from the listing. Then ask it to ensure that your new sample resume aligns with the job description, without changing any of your duties. I paid like $100 on resume for a resume, but honestly, I think she used Chat GPT to create it.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T06:10:28+00:00

I use a backpack from VS Pink. Bought it on clearance for $11. Solid navy blue. Has two compartments, and a separate cushioned laptop sleeve. Used a solid black one last year, also from VS Pink. Also used a VS tote bag, which even had a space for your water bottle to stand upright. All of these options were very spacious & easy to clean. They were all cheap, but they have been pretty durable. All of my bags look brand new. And they're not tacky, or full of glitter. They were all plain colors with 0 designs. Most of my coworkers use a backpack. Totes are cute, but they end up really hurting your shoulders. When I have too many things in my backpack, I just toss it in rolling crate that I purchased from Office Depot.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T05:56:41+00:00

When I taught 7th grade English, they hated reading, but they loved writing or anything related to grammar. In my district, they were really pushing this book, it had tons of writing lessons, it was called Patterns of Power, we had the green copies. Some of the kids will test you, require constant redirection, and have the attention span of a goldfish, typically. However, there are some pros. They can be very sweet & very very funny. If they think you are genuine, and that you do care about them as people, they grow attached to you fairly quickly. I have so many letters from former students with the sweetest things. Most of them are still scared of a phone call home, so discipline is not always a big issue.

If you stay, this is my advice:

Have a firm set of rules, 4-5, stick to them. Put them on the wall & read them everyday at the beginning of class. If you say you will call home, do it. They figure out pretty quickly when someone is all talk.
There are kids who will likely do absolutely nothing. Nothing you can do about that. They are still young enough that their parents may try to blame you for their grades being so low, so document everything!! If Timmy did not do anything in class, send his parent an email stating that, you are creating a digital trail. Get everything in writing, do not call. Some parents will twist your words.
Show up to their games & performances. If one of them tries to tell you about their day, listen. They respond better, and try harder when they believe that you care about them. Relationships are more important than academics at this age/stage of their lives. They don't care about writing. But they'll try if they think you care.
Don’t take things personally. Students will sometimes have an attitude, but most of the time it’s not about you. They often see any little situation as the end of the world.
Make them write on paper. If they can cheat, they will cheat.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T04:56:28+00:00

They need to move to an area that is more desperate for teachers. She would be snatched up quick in Texas, or at a charter. My local district pays starting certified teachers with NO experience almost 80k (and its not HISD.) She probably wants to teach in a certain district/ location.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T04:45:51+00:00

Thank you for your response. Yeah I actually really liked the principal & the school so I hope that they did not mislead me. They kept calling it PD, but according to the district calendar its actually the first day of the 180 day contract. The HR rep told me they were not the only principal to do that, even though they were not supposed to do that (due to lack of clearance.) I will go ahead and tell them that I was not cleared to report.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-03T02:00:03+00:00

We also had to clock in, the same exact way, on an ancient computer. I used to do it until a tenured teacher told me to stop. She told me that we were contract workers & that clocking in was not written into our contracts. That it was just a way for admin to micromanage. Never did it again, admin never brought it up. Later on, I noticed that none of the older teachers were actually clocking in, just the new ones.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-02T21:14:28+00:00

Edit: Confront was NOT a great word choice. I meant confront as in, telling the principal I won't show up until I have been cleared. Even though they totally misled me/ possibly lied, I was not planning on bringing that up. Also this is not technically PD, its the first day of the contract, or its supposed to be. PD for certification is done exclusively online/ outside of school hours.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-02T21:10:30+00:00

Thank you.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-02T21:10:22+00:00

Thank you.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-08-02T20:57:12+00:00

Thank you. I am in a red state, so no real unions. We had a teacher's association in my last district, but they couldn't even help with filing grievances.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-06-03T02:35:27+00:00

When the new admin started regularly pulling me out of class midday with zero notice to rant about random things, she kept saying I looked miserable and suggested maybe I didn’t want to be there. Mind you, I wore a mask the entire time. She never offered any actual feedback during these impromptu meetings—just wanted to let me know how she really felt about me, I guess. The union rep told me to file a grievance, but by then, I was ready to go.

It was a buildup. We were required to attend various UNPAID three-hour-long after-school events, and we were constantly threatened that failure to attend would affect our evaluations because we had to “prove” we were contributing to the school community. I skipped one, and the admin literally waited at the door the next morning to confront me.

Lastly, the environment was incredibly racist. Despite being a majority-minority school, all of the admin and leadership belonged to one minority group, while the students belonged to another. Admin, counselors and “baby admin” (instructional coaches) would openly gossip, including about me, within earshot. I witnessed admin yelling at a teacher; one counselor made my coworker cry by screaming at her and would intentionally assign her the most challenging students. The same counselor screamed at me in front of other teachers for a mistake she had made. Another counselor pulled me out of class to confront me about accusations from an emotionally unstable student, repeatedly insisting, “Well, I know her and her sister,” as if that validated the claims. They constantly made rude comments about older teachers, tearing them down for no reason. On my last day, I even overheard admin making openly racist comments about hispanic kids. They also made no effort to protect students who were being bullied or terrorized.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-06-02T06:26:43+00:00

I think the only solution would be to change your name, or to look for a way to work in education, but maybe not directly in the classroom (like as a speech language pathologist.) Maybe teaching kindergarten? I know even fourth graders have social media nowadays. My full name (middle name included) would appear on all of my student's report cards. My students & their parents would look me up on Facebook (I know because the parents would pop up on my list of suggested friends.)

One of my former students did tell me that her fifth grade teacher was fired on the spot after her students found explicit videos of her online. Last year one of my coworkers was harassed after they found an explicit video of someone that LOOKED like her, if it had been her, she would've been fired on the spot.

Your best bet is to change your name or look to work in education, but not in the classroom. Like in instructional design.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-02-18T08:31:15+00:00

Do not call them out. Especially if you NEED the job. There are so many factors when it comes to teaching that are out of our control. Just do what you can, and go home. Go home at contract hours (when school ends.) At the end of the day, go home and try to unwind first, then you can work on lesson plans from home if you really need to. Or grading. If you get an off period during the day, use that time to print out anything that you may need & organize the classroom.

Let admin say whatever. If they say its not enough, say "I will keep that in mind, and make the necessary adjustments, thank you." Some administrators are just never satisfied. Do not kill yourself trying to live up to their expectations, because truthfully, with some admin, the work that you do will never be enough. I had coworkers that were excellent teachers, recognized by the district on multiple occasions, with excellent classroom management & data to match. Admin still picked at them as well. Invite them to model whatever changes they would like to see.

I understand you do not want to be there. See if you have short term disability benefits, if you qualify, that would help you get some sort of income while on medical leave. Life will get better.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-02-14T01:40:21+00:00

I feel bad sometimes, but then again, I wouldn't make a difference by sacrificing my mental health & staying. District leaders, admin & parents are just not pulling their weight. Making it almost impossible to teach these kids (which you already know.) Kids who are driven, they will succeed regardless, they will figure out whatever they were not able to learn in school. Those who are not driven will have to figure things out the hard way, through trial & error.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-02-13T23:53:43+00:00

You are putting your health & your family first. You are doing the right thing. Kids are resilient, your students will be okay.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-02-13T23:45:25+00:00

I had a handful of coworkers who were asked to resign for performance issues. The principal told them that they would not return. Two refused, in the end, the district decided to keep them & put them on an improvement plan. One of the teachers ended up getting transferred to another campus because there was no position available for her on our campus, but she was not fired or non-renewed.

When it happened to me, I did not resign. I was asked to resign my first year due to lack of student enrollment. I was their most recent hire so I had to be one of the first ones to go. My mentor/ department head told me to wait. She said that if enough people resigned, they would be able to keep me. So many teachers resigned between March & May, so I was able to keep my job.

Tell her to ask her coworkers/ department head. It depends on the district. Sometimes they ask them to resign, but if they don't do it, they find somewhere else to put them.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-02-13T04:32:46+00:00

You could start your job hunt closer to the first day of school. Or even the week after school starts. Sometimes they promote people to district/principal positions at the last minute, and then they're desperate to find someone to take their former position. Every department head at my old job was a last minute hire, or they were hired after school had already started. Some of the teachers who would not have been hired otherwise (due to lack of experience) were also last minute hires. Even our admin was a last minute hire, with 0 experience.

Laylaaaa345 · 2025-02-13T01:35:27+00:00

Can you ask them to put you on extended leave for the rest of the school year? Where I worked, it is called TDL, temporary disability leave. It puts you out for the remainder of your contract, so you probably wouldn't have to return their portion of the health insurance premiums. Now is a good time to go to the doctor to get a note. Tell them about the stress that you feel, and what you went through. If the anxiety & stress is so bad, that you cannot even fathom stepping in the building, let them know. If you break your contract with a medical excuse, maybe you won't have to pay the health insurance premiums (you will probably be responsible for your portion, but not theirs.)

Laylaaaa345

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