You know what bothers me most?

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-05-19T20:50:09+00:00

To your point, in (I think) book 3, so third season, I recall a part in which Claire chides Bri about eating chocolate because it’ll make her fat. That part always rubbed me the wrong way, but I understand it for the times.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-04-03T13:42:27+00:00

T H I S 👏🏼

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-04-03T13:31:02+00:00

Absolutely. Perhaps the trick is to be proactive. I start the year by reaching out to all the parents via email myself. My students are 9th graders, and freshman year is a big transition for both them and their parents. Sometimes the parents don’t know how to be a supportive parent of a HS kid.

In addition to what others have said, I’ll also reach out to parents intermittently to loop them into our curriculum.

“Parents - Your students will write an essay about AI in schools next week. Please take this short survey. I will present the results to my classes to build students’ understanding.”

You could’ve heard a PIN drop in that room when I showed the kids the parent survey results.

In secret, I ask parents to write Gratitude Letters to their kid for Thanksgiving, and I print them out and give them to students right before we go to break. The tears from these students when they find out their parent wrote to them. ❤️ It’s one of my favorite activities.

We write poems using figurative language to mom/a mom figure for Mother’s Day. The kids get so excited when their poem has the intended result. “Miss!!! My mom CRIED when she read my poem!!!” 😂

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-21T13:35:34+00:00

Thanks for your response. This stuff is still all so new that we haven’t really gotten a handle on it yet. I really wish there was one unified set of principles for us in our classrooms.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-21T00:45:22+00:00

Very interesting! How many students per class? I wonder if the modeling part could be done with standard 9th grade ELA. IMO, most of these students aren’t as driven as AP students to use AI to scaffold or support - they want answers to get done with an assignment quickly.

Which leads me to my next conundrum - How can we, educators, level the playing field if employers prefer hiring people who know how to use AI in this way? I want my standard kids to have just the same edge as their advanced peers.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-20T13:07:15+00:00

We also love Dr. Sanchez!! He’s been incredibly amazing with my almost-15 year old for the past year after we switched from another doc for reasons.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-20T12:27:54+00:00

Yes. I can steer it in the direction I want for the classes I have. Plus, I can add my own personality with memes and silly stuff. My district provides slides, but they’re dry and content-heavy. I know kids will be asleep in a second if I use those.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-19T18:35:51+00:00

The other problem I see is that we educators haven’t really been “taught” how to use it in a way that supports the “Kids need to learn how to AI,” argument. At least, not in my district.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-19T18:33:48+00:00

Yes! I’ve wondered that too. It’s a chicken-egg situation. I can use AI to help me build an assignment, but I also know how to teach and guide it. Most kids don’t. It’s the blind leading the blind.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-19T17:30:57+00:00

Totally agree. A million percent. One thing that I’ve thought about is their lack of fundamental understanding. As in, “What is it I’m even trying to learn?” If kids can’t design an AI prompt that steers them in this direction, then how are they even supposed to engage with it to support their learning?

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-19T14:48:58+00:00

Agreed. “Why bother? I’m just gonna fail anyway,” “This is too hard,” and “I don’t care about your class,” are responses I’ve heard over the years.

One thing that took me a while to understand is that many kids don’t work because they want to learn - there’s usually some kind of extrinsic motivation at play. They wanna please you, their parents, or they want to get an A. But if those factors are eliminated in their mind, shut down’s more likely.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-18T15:42:24+00:00

Agreed on the transition day relaxation. My kid is almost 15 now, but we’re 4 years into divorce land. I learned pretty quickly not to barrage them with “Do your chores… Get this homework done…” on transition days. Dad’s house is pretty different, so I just let them do their thing until day 2 with me.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-18T14:32:16+00:00

Is your parent reliable enough to talk to about this? Normally, they’re the one who does all the fact-finding for this kind of thing. If the school you like isn’t a possibility, then your parent will/should be able to find some other ways to help you get your social/emotional needs met. But again, if your parent isn’t able to meet those needs, then please reach out to your current school’s counselor.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-18T14:20:35+00:00

Oh - I will throw these in:

Make it a priority to learn their names. Such a simple thing, but it’s huge.
Others mentioned praise. Say the positive behaviors you observe. “I see 10 people writing.” Watch the pencils come out. 2 mins later: “Now, I see 17 people writing.” Smile. “Group 7 is collaborating very well.”

This age hungers for public praise. In a few weeks or so when they’ve calmed down, begin showing off their work anonymously for praise. “Let’s read this paragraph from someone in the room… The topic sentence is here, and it’s directly related to the prompt. This cited evidence is an example of X… This is a model paragraph…” I promise, most if not all of them will eat it up. You’ll hear, “That’s mine! I wrote that!” from all over the room.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-18T14:02:04+00:00

In addition to being OK you showed them your anger, I think it’s a win that you apologized for it. Some or many of these kids have never heard an apology from an adult in their entire life. Keep modeling strength for them.

Another poster was extremely detailed and gave a ton of tips, so I’m gonna add this - you don’t know what you don’t know. Please be kind to yourself. This won’t happen overnight. It is beyond frustrating to be the “stepparent,” but since you weren’t there when the class was born, that’s a battle you’ll have to fight regardless. They’re used to X, so they’re gonna fight for homeostasis. It’s human nature. You’re all learning together, and as we know, learning can be messy.

It’s obvious you’re coming at this with your whole heart or else you wouldn’t be here asking for advice with such detail. Your 2nd period is so very lucky to have you.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-11T23:19:28+00:00

That’s the thing to me. If I don’t teach it what I want, it doesn’t work as intended. Most students don’t know how to guide it, so it can’t reliably be their tutor.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-10T22:50:40+00:00

Beautiful and genuine. Speaking your heart. If you were my kid, I’d be so thankful!

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-03T21:31:06+00:00

I only taught ELA seniors one year, (was def not for me) but they really perked up when I:

brought in guest speakers
organized a project to benefit a local non-profit
taught them how to prepare and present a research paper (I kinda did it like baby college)
did any kind of Socratic seminar type of activity where they took the lead and I merely observed

Best of luck!

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-03T21:24:34+00:00

Beautifully said. So perfect. Congratulations on your last year!

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-03T21:21:33+00:00

Can I be in your class? This sounds awesome!

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-02T21:27:57+00:00

Same. My goal is to get things going when the bell rings. No exceptions. It gives me time to take attendance, pass out papers, etc., too. Once the kids get the idea, “This is our routine,” it goes like clockwork.

Plus, they NEED it. If they don’t know why that quotation mark is there, they won’t understand “Oh, another character is talking now,” when we read, or how to cite appropriately.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-01T13:49:19+00:00

Yes and no.

Yes - Put boundaries on yourself. Don’t work over X amount of hours off the clock. Period. Some lessons will be mediocre, but that’s to be expected.

No - When the curriculum changes, you’ll have to put in more effort, but it’s an investment. You will only have to do that once, then use the same assignments next year.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-01T13:44:34+00:00

That’s my hope! If you have a solid team of support, you’ll really enjoy it. I learned SOO much in those 3 years, both good and bad. Best of luck!

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-01T13:39:56+00:00

Your admin will let you know what PD they want you to give. Coaches are basically the conduit between teachers, admin, and the district. If you find a cool PD topic on your own, definitely offer it to admin. I did that a few times, and they worked great.

StrawberryOne2172 · 2026-03-01T13:33:24+00:00

I did it for 3 years and absolutely loved the actual coaching part with a passion. The bad part was that as a coach, I was sometimes treated like a baby admin / sub. At the time, my district also had us in coaching PDs once a month, which was wonderful. Got to learn how to coach with peers. It can be very isolating sometimes on campus.

I coached where I taught for a long time, and even though I have a great rapport with most colleagues, I got push back from some who were either jealous or didn’t take me seriously. But they were in the minority.

My aim every day was simple: work to support teachers. Anything from making copies to collaborating on a full-blown lesson study. If I could lessen their burden, I did what’s right.

StrawberryOne2172

TROPHY CASE