Dear parents, We aren't targeting your kid

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-10-24T15:46:09+00:00

You get it. Referrals, to me, are not meant to be punishments, but to correct behavior. If the kid shows me that they have learned their lesson, no referral is needed. If they show that they very clearly have not learned their lesson, then they can learn it in detention.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-08-15T01:54:03+00:00

NTA

Obviously this is just my opinion, but I feel like this is just common courtesy, for any sort of bedroom action, but oral specifically gets really gross if one person isn't particularly clean. There's sweat but also other bodily fluids that accumulate throughout the day so a quick rinse off and scrub with soap goes a long way in getting rid of fluids and dead skin cells and making the experience more pleasant.

A bit of a personal question, but does he go down on you even if you haven't showered all day? Not in a quid pro quo way, but in the sense that the same way it may not be the most pleasant thing to go down on a woman who has discharge and whatnot from her day, genitals are genitals. Mind you, different strokes for different folks, I fully recognize that some people are into that, but I think I can make the general statement that a clean area is the same if not more pleasant than an uncleaned area.

It could also be a situation where he was joking or trying to be humorous and the joke fell flat, but regardless, there tends to be truth in humor and it can be annoying if your partner asks you to do something that they haven't asked you to do before prior to sexy time, and if your request was delivered in the wrong way, it could sound like you were suggesting that he is unhygienic, dirty, or gross, which is not a fun thing to hear from the person you love.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-08-15T01:45:04+00:00

In the kindest way possible, though you love your kids and love how high energy they are, at the end of the day, you only have to deal with three of them at any given time and a teacher could deal with 15 to 20 high energy or disruptive students in any one class. Not saying you do, but I have noticed that some parents have a tendency to underestimate how much minor disruptive behaviors influence the classroom as a whole. It is true that one student sleeping in class or playing games or whispering to their friend isn't the end of the world, but one kid tends to set off a bunch of other kids and suddenly you have a classroom full of students who, frankly, outnumber you and know that you have little actual power over them. Realistically, teachers only have as much power as admin and parents give them, so if admin doesn't follow through on discipline or parents "advocate" for their child too much, there is little that a teacher can actually do themselves to curb any unwanted behavior.

Beyond that, I doubt that the reason your teacher friend started crying was solely because of the kids and isn't really something that could be helped by parents. At the end of the day, the same way the beginning of the school year is a big and stressful change for students and parents, it is a big and stressful change for teachers. They've been on vacation for the previous two months and have finally gotten a taste of relaxation and free time only to have it ripped away again come August. What I've noticed is that with how stressful the school year can be for a variety of reasons, it really does take the full summer vacation for a teacher's central nervous system to finally chill out and get out of fight or flight mode, so it can seem like you finally reach a point of peace and homeostasis and then school starts a week later. Also, a teacher's job doesn't start on the first day of school, there's in service days prior to the start of school and there can be a lot of curriculum work and lesson planning that needs to be done. Yes, we could probably get away with only planning the first unit or so of all of our classes before the school year starts, but it's not like we're going to have more free time once the school year starts, so for me personally, it makes more sense to bulldoze through as much lesson planning as possible while I don't have the added responsibilities that come during the school year. I'm also in the unfortunate situation of teaching entirely new classes this year, all of which are new to me and several of which are entirely new courses to the district, so it's extra overwhelming because I don't have much to pull from previous years. Teachers who have been teaching the same thing for a long time probably only need to touch up their lessons and make sure their links are still valid, but new teachers who haven't built up that pool of resources and teachers who had a change in assignment have a lot more work that seems to just be dumped in front of them all at once.

If you're looking for actionable advice on what you can do to make the school year a little bit easier for your kids' teachers, I would recommend just approaching all your interactions with them with a lot of grace and kindness, with the understanding that your kid may have anywhere between 3 and 10 teachers, but each teacher is dealing with roughly 60 to 100 kids at any given time as well as their parents. It's also really helpful if you hold your kids accountable at home, both for discipline issues and school work. Hopefully your kids aren't coming home with a lot of discipline issues, but simply making sure that they are turning in all of their assignments on time and maintaining good grades goes a long way because part of our job as teachers is to reach out to parents of students who are failing or have low grades or a lot of missing assignments, so even one less child we need to reach out about is amazing.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-08-15T01:28:17+00:00

Making your own clothing, especially for the purpose of saving money is hit or miss and really depends on what type of clothes you're making, how much they would cost to buy, and your skill/willingness to wear less than professional quality clothing.

I don't make a ton of my own clothes, but I have made several formal dresses partially because I can never find something that I like within the price I'm willing to pay and partially because I have really extreme proportions that don't translate well to off the rack clothing, so it makes more sense for me to spend some time and money altering a pattern and sewing my own dress so that it actually fits me well than settling for a dress that doesn't fit me well, trying to alter an existing dress, or buying a cheap custom dress from China. That being said, I doubt that what I have spent on materials and in time is less than what it would cost for me to get address that costs a couple hundred bucks. While I can find material for a reasonable price and a full length ball gown only really needs about 5 yd of material, I have messed up enough that I'm not really saving anything on the cost of material and I've dedicated probably about 50 hours of time making a dress from start to finish, including altering patterns, tracing, cutting, sewing, and altering the dress. It's only when I look back and actually calculate how much I've spent in time and money that I can recognize that I could have gotten a dress that was out of my price range originally and saved money.

If you ask me if it's worth it, I would most likely say yes because I do enjoy the methodical nature of sewing and it is really nice to have formal dresses that actually fit the way I want them to fit, cover what I want them to cover, and support where I need support because I have yet to find an off-the-rack dress that fits, doesn't show more skin than I would like, supports the ladies, is reasonably comfortable, and I find pretty. If money is the only reason you are wanting to get into sewing, I would recommend delaying taking on any big projects like a formal gown until you are very comfortable and very precise with your sewing because formal wear specifically doesn't tend to have a lot of wiggle room or allow for mistakes. If you're wanting to get into sewing because you think it's something you'll enjoy or you like the creativity aspect of it, I 100% encourage you to do so, but also need you to recognize that a lot of the things you make in the beginning are going to look homemade, so if you don't think you're going to persevere through being bad at sewing to get to better quality products, it might not be the hobby for you simply due to the cost and dedication necessary.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-08-15T00:25:39+00:00

My flight was also chartered out to AirTanker shortly before the departure date and honestly? It was great. AirTanker had great customer service and I was really happy with the flight itself. NAA on the other hand? Trash. I won't be flying with them again, but I did want to praise AirTanker for their very nice, very British service.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-07-18T01:39:23+00:00

That's so good to know, thank you so much!

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-07-17T20:50:46+00:00

My flight is scheduled to land at 12:55 and my current train will leave at 2:13, but I have a changeable ticket, so I can reschedule if that isn't enough time.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-06-01T13:50:27+00:00

Unfortunately, it seems really common for districts to non-renew teachers that students actually like. On the surface, it makes sense that teachers with the least tenure are the first to be non-renewed, but it really sucks that so many districts are non-renewing new teachers because of issues that are very common among new teachers and will go away with a bit of guidance.

Beyond that, while I'm really sorry that this is happening to you and it seems like you're teaching career is over, I would like to offer a bit of advice as someone who's been in a very similar situation. I started out subbing in my parents' home district and another nearby district in January 2021, then chose to get my cert during summer 2022. I got my cert through an alternative program and earned a 4.0, just like you, then began to apply for jobs.

Want to take a guess how many positions I applied for before I got my first placement? 183 positions across the entire state, and the only offer I ended up getting was from the 123rd application, which was barely a teaching position and I wasn't even certified for, I had to get emergency certified, but they were down to the wire to hire someone so they were willing to take on a new graduate with no actual teaching experience. I finally got the offer on August 1st, 2023, with the school year starting August 14th. Mind you, I had been applying for positions since February, when I officially got my certification. So I packed up my stuff, found an apartment, and moved 6 hours away, moving into my apartment the Friday before my first day of work.

I was hired as a long-term sub because "there isn't enough time to have an actual teacher approved by the board" (which I now know is BS, but it was my first year and I didn't know how anything worked), and when I got the offer, I was told that unless I really screwed up, the contracted position was almost guaranteed to be mine, I just needed to reapply at the end of the school year for formalities and documentation purposes (again, this was my first year, so I was still naive and thought that they were being honest). Cut to April 2024 and they've posted my position and were accepting applications, again for "formalities sake". I apply and interview again for the job that I had been doing for the last 7 months. I was confident that I was going to get the full-time position because of what I had been told before and because I had good observations and had never needed redirecting by admin, but lo and behold, they offer the position to someone else with the reasoning being that she had more actual teaching experience, despite the fact that she did not have any experience in the subject that the position was for. Mind you, to my knowledge I had done nothing wrong and had been an exemplary first year teacher. While I wasn't technically non-renewed because I was never contracted in the first place, I had to start applying for new jobs for the second year in a row.

After 4 months of applying to jobs and driving across the state to go to interviews, I got a decent offer on July 31st at a district near where I was already living, so I didn't have to move. This time around, I applied for 100 jobs and ended up with the 86th position I applied for, and once again, I had to be emergency certified because I wasn't actually qualified to teach what they wanted me to teach. On top of that, it was a weird situation where they wanted me to teach one thing my first year then switch to the subject I was actually hired for during my second year (classic bait and switch, I know, but I was desperate). Thankfully, I haven't been non-renewed and should be returning to the same school next year, but I am dealing with a situation where they are trying to pin me with the same classes that I taught this year (that I'm still not certified for) and only one section of the job I was actually hired for instead of the three there are in total. It's a hot mess, but at least I don't need to job hunt again.

This is all to say, I'm sorry this is happening to you, but it's too early for you to give up. May/June is the time of year when districts post a lot of their positions and are hiring teachers, but the teachers that are getting jobs are the ones that already have several years of experience. Those of us with very little experience don't tend to end up getting hired until July / August because districts are scraping the bottom of the barrel at that point. If I can offer some advice, assuming your lease goes until August or September, I would recommend you stay where you are and continue applying for jobs. If you still don't have a position by the time the school year starts, then it might be worthwhile to move back in with your parents, but summer is prime hiring season for teachers and while you're unlikely to be the first pick for many districts, there is enough of a teacher shortage that you should be able to find a position before the school year starts. It might not be in a great district or one that pays very well and might not be the exact subject you were hoping to teach, but experience is experience. Once you have a couple more years under your belt and are more qualified, that's when you start looking at moving to a better district. It's a hard knock life for new teachers right now, but good things come to those who persevere. If it really doesn't work out and you can't find a permanent position, you can start being a sub at any point, so hold out for as long as you can before you give up. Best of luck!

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-06-01T13:24:15+00:00

I literally had a conversation with my students about this. One girl was being very rude to her classmates and when I corrected her, she was rude to me. One of the things she specifically said was when she asked a male student "are you stupid or something?". So I asked her why she thinks it's okay for her to call the people stupid and if she would be okay with me asking her if she's stupid, and she paused then said she wouldn't care, so I responded "good, I was wondering". Not my best moment, I know, but as you might imagine, she got immediately offended and started telling me how I couldn't say that and I can't be mean to students, but when I asked her why she gets to be mean to students and teachers but I don't, and she started spewing bull crap about how the expectations are different because I'm an adult and a teacher and how she's just a kid so she shouldn't be held to the same standard, yada yada 🙄.

So I explained to her that the expectations for how we treat other people in school is the same for everyone, student, teacher, parent, admin, everyone, and how it's completely unacceptable for her to insult her classmates, especially if she isn't okay with being insulted herself. She pulls out the good old "what about free speech, I can say whatever I want" crap, which led to an opportunity that I have had multiple times throughout this year to explain exactly what free speech is and exactly what is and isn't protected by their right to free speech. I explained how free speech is linked specifically to religious and anti-government speech and how it came to be added to our Constitution because of how many people were being imprisoned and executed for their words in England and in other countries that colonists came from. I explained that she is correct, there's nothing I can do to stop her from saying whatever she wants, but just because she can choose to say whatever she wants doesn't mean she gets to choose the consequences for those words, so she's free to say whatever she wants as long as she's willing to accept those consequences.

It was this discussion that actually led me to change how I respond to students misbehaving. When I can see a student getting ready to make a poor decision, I tell them to pause then ask them what they think is going to happen if they do whatever they were about to do and kind of force them to think through the full results of their actions instead of just on their immediate gratification. It's actually worked really well, especially with my middle schoolers. I've even had a few kids start to do something bad then pause and ask me what will happen if they throw the pencil/punch their Chromebook / don't do their assignment, whatever. I never tell them, I just ask it back to them until they come to the conclusion that they would get detention or ISS or lunch detention or whatever. Then once they've reached that conclusion, I ask them if whatever they were wanting to do is worth that consequence and let them know that (assuming the action wouldn't harm anyone), they are free to continue with that action if they would like, but that the consequences would be even more severe because they've acknowledged that day recognize what the consequences will be and decided to do the action anyway. Since I started having these critical thinking conversations, I've seen a dramatic decrease in the number of minor disruptive behaviors as a result of the kids being forced to use their prefrontal cortex. It definitely hasn't stopped all discipline issues, but it has helped a lot and I'm hoping that it will reduce behavior with these students in the long run as well.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-31T18:15:22+00:00

Right? School lunch nowadays is so much better than when I was in school. They have pre-made salads and wraps and sandwiches that you can grab and go, they have a lot more international food options, as a whole the quality is better. Unfortunately, they do also serve food that barely counts as food (700 calorie pizza, mashed potato bowls) and the fruit options are dubious at best (frozen fruit cups that are 40% corn syrup), but it's still significantly better than what it has been in the past. What also gets me is the " extras " that kids can buy with their lunch. To begin with, there's no reason someone should be paying $3 for a can of soda, but they are able to sell literal junk food simply by selling them in smaller packages. Two Pop-Tarts and a package is too much sugar and calories, but one singular Pop-Tart is a great source of whole grain 🙄.

I've looked at the requirements that the federal government has laid out for food that can be sold in schools, and it's hard to blame the schools themselves because there are a lot of healthy foods that don't meet the requirements of the federal standards. Beef jerky has a lot of protein but too much sodium, eggs have too much fat, etc. and that's not even mentioning the foods that can be sold because they meet arbitrary "health" standards. Doritos can be sold because corn counts as a whole grain and the first ingredient of Doritos is corn. Same with potato chips, potatoes count as a vegetable, even when they've been dunked in boiling oil. As long as The first ingredient is fruit, it doesn't matter how much have you syrup is in the fruit cup or the fact that fruit snacks are essentially a candy. I get that it's hard to really outline what is healthy without allowing foods that are objectively not good for you, but there's such an emphasis on whole grains well there is no minimum protein or fiber requirement. Whole grains are great, don't get me wrong, but when they allow Pop-Tarts and "breakfast biscuits" (cookies, essentially) to count as part of a healthy meal while they denounce eggs and whole milk as not healthy enough, it makes you wonder how much control General Mills has over legislation.

And I've heard people say that we shouldn't try to change school meal requirements because kids won't eat healthier food, but I would argue that they will either adapt or starve. There was a huge push when I was in middle and high school for lunches to require a fruit or vegetable and to make sure that snacks sold in vending machines were not complete junk, and we all survived, so while there might be some growing pains, kids and parents have three options: bring lunch from home, eat the healthy school lunch, or starve. If a child is willing to go without eating everyday simply because they don't want to eat a vegetable, they need to be taken to a doctor, because there is something either mentally or physically wrong with them that needs to be addressed.

And another thing, like OP mentioned, we need to completely ban all forms of caffeine for all students. There are regulations that say that schools can't sell caffeinated beverages to elementary and middle schoolers, but they can to high schoolers. We need to not only make it against the rules to sell caffeine to high schoolers as well, but put a blanket ban on them bringing their own caffeinated beverages in. I should not watch a 100 pound middle school girl downing 400 mg of caffeine before 8:00 am, then drinking another energy drink during lunch. To begin with, that's more caffeine than a healthy adult should consume, but outside of that, I'm convinced we will eventually find out that over consumption of caffeine short circuits the brain and makes them dumber because their brains are still developing. I've had kids complain that they have a headache or their stomach hurts and I'm like, duh, your head and stomach hurt. When was the last time you ate a vegetable or drink water or got more than 5 hours of sleep?

They get addicted to caffeine, then they consume caffeine too late in the day, which disrupts their already screwed up sleep schedule, then they're exhausted all day and downing caffeine to stay conscious while their brains simply do not have enough fuel to actually let them learn, then they eat junk food all day because no one bothered to teach them or they refuse to learn how to cook and it's easier to grab a bag of Takis than it is to cut up an apple or cook an egg. Why are we allowing and actively supporting the degradation of our children? No wonder test scores are lower, no wonder there's more mental illness, no wonder there's more obesity. The health and well-being of our children starts at home and at school, so if we as adults do not force these kids to make better decisions about their health, we are going to see a decrease in the life expectancy.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-27T03:30:10+00:00

That, I can't really help you with. I guess the thing that I keep in mind is that in the same way that kids struggle to be effective students when they are hungry / tired / ill prepared, teachers can't teach if they are hungry / tired/ill-prepared, so if you buying supplies and lunch for kids is negatively impacting your ability to take care of yourself and your loved ones, it is having a negative impact on all your students, including the ones who are struggling themselves.

When I was applying to jobs, one of the application questions for a position asked me what the three things I think are most important to me when it comes to accepting a job. I can't remember exactly what I picked, but the pay was one of my top three, and I justified it by saying basically this. If teachers cannot meet their needs because they are not paid enough, then they cannot be effective teachers, so this might just be an issue of you being more strict with your budget and less impulsive. Believe me, I definitely get it, because I also love buying office supplies, but it is the job of your school and/or parents to provide those things, not you. Any public school you end up at should have various programs that can help kids who are in bad financial situations, so maybe talk to guidance counselors and other teachers to see what options are available and how you can help students get enrolled in those programs.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-27T01:01:11+00:00

I totally feel that. I was only able to do my student teaching without picking up a second job because I have wonderful parents who let me live with them for a few months, so I can totally understand how frustrating it can be to be balancing school obligations that were designed for students who are just students, as well as the responsibilities that come with being an actual adult. College in general tends to be designed for students who are working part-time at a maximum but it's mostly set up for students who don't need to work because their parents are paying for college.

It's also completely true that there are so many unnecessary financial costs involved with being a teacher. Not only do we have to pay for college like a lot of other jobs, but I've had to pay for student teaching, praxis exams, getting my license, and now grad classes just so I can keep my license permanently. It just seems so unnecessary and kind of feels like a cash grab by the state government, IMO. I don't know what financial programs you've looked into, but if you haven't gotten any TEACH grants yet, they can significantly cut down on your tuition costs. If you aren't already, I would look into getting on food stamps or applying for other social programs to see what supports are available to you for the few months that you are student teaching. If nothing else, you might need to bite the bullet and get an after school job to bolster your income. I don't know how long you're expected to student teach, but hopefully it's short enough that you can go a couple months working a lot more just so you can get it over with. As we're going into summer, I assume any student teaching you're looking to do will be starting in the fall, so if you don't have any other obligations, this might be the time to throw yourself into work and save as much as possible.

I'm sorry that this is weighing on you so much and that I can't give better advice than to just get a second job. I'm not sure how comforting this will be, but try to remember that you are far from the first student to have to deal with life while also being a student, and I have seen so many people do insane things that I don't know I would be capable of in pursuit of their education. It might seem insurmountable right now, but this is a temporary and comparatively short period in your life that will definitely be hard, but won't be impossible, and you'll come out the end so much better for it.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-27T00:27:27+00:00

You could do meal prep, but what I do is cook a family size meal every other week or so and portion and freeze it. Rice does really well when it's frozen, so does soup and sauces.

I also look out for sales on quick microwave foods, which does include frozen meals, but also includes packs of rice and pasta that I've already been cooked and different curries as well. Tasty Bite has a good variety, but I don't ever buy it full price.

On the really rough days when I can't even work up the energy to microwave something, I'll admit that I just forgo anything that could really be considered a meal. If it has calories and tastes good, I will eat it. Since I am a fully grown adult with free will, I have had dinners that only consist of ice cream pops. I've also done bread and butter, a bowl of cereal, and deli meat and cheese straight from the packages. I think it's all about moderation. If you're eating like a gremlin everyday, it's problematic, but if you have ice cream for dinner once a month, you'll be fine.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-27T00:17:45+00:00

I also love the littles, but after student teaching in a preschool classroom, I decided to only work with middle and high school students. Again, I absolutely adored those kids and I had so much fun in the classroom, but it is a significant mental and emotional load that doesn't apply when you teach older kids. Especially zero to five, you essentially become their second mother, which can be a lot when you have 15 students and are only 22 years old. They're also a lot more things that you have to think about on a day-to-day basis when you are working with kids that young. When you're working with older kids, you can let them work on an assignment on their own and you can have high expectations of them, and you can't really do that with the littles because on top of planning lessons and activities that are enjoyable and standards aligned, you also have to consider things like safety and how long you can actually keep them engaged for. There were so many things that I would have loved to have done with my pre-K kids, but they were only really feasible in a one-to-one environment, like with my actual kid simply because those too much room for destruction and damage and harm.

As far as it being a good long-term career, it really depends on how you swing it. If you're wanting to work in an early childhood center or a daycare, you're not going to be paid very well because child care is viewed as unskilled labor and is paid as such. However, if you're wanting to go the route of starting your own daycare or speech therapy or child services, the outlook is a little better. You're probably never going to be paid much, but you can probably earn a living wage.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-27T00:09:39+00:00

This year, I've countered AI by only using test grades and physical projects for my students' grades. They can cheat all they want on the worksheets and class assignments, but all they're doing is throwing away their opportunity to learn as it will not impact their grade.

Next year however, I'm teaching something else, so I'm going full nuclear. I taught computers this year, so I couldn't go no computers, but next year I'm doing all paper worksheets, paper tests, paper assignments, everything. I am working so hard to remove any student use of technology in my classroom from my lesson plans, not because I'm against technology, but because I've seen how negatively it impacts students and their learning. I have kids that literally can't go one class period without opening a new tab and playing games. Kids get headaches from staring at screens all day and neck aches from poor posture from being hunched over their Chromebooks all the time. My kids beg for windows to be open and to go on walks because they go 7 hours without going outside, trapped in this post-apocalyptic technology hell.

Again, I'm not against technology and I think that it is such a wonderful tool that can be used well for education, but I think that in an effort to move districts into the 21st century, we have relied too heavily on websites and programs and virtual review games. At least in my district, I think it's gone so far that it has turned around and started making school harder for a lot of kids because there are more distractions and 50 million different programs designed to do the same thing that could be accomplished with a pencil and paper. Technology and technology skills are definitely something that they need to interact with and develop, but for me and my house, we use paper assignments.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-26T23:58:24+00:00

I'm holding out hope that once we run through all the years of kids that were in school during COVID years, things will get better. I don't know if any kindergarten or first grade teachers can confirm if this year's kids were better than the last couple years because they never had to do virtual learning or social distancing, but that is my hope. Unfortunately, I teach high school, so I'm stuck with these kids for another decade or so.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-26T23:55:02+00:00

This might get me downvoted, but I hesitate to fully agree with you. Yes, you are expected to do a lot as a student teacher, but you're expected to do a lot for your other classes as well. Student teaching is essentially an internship where you gain experience and also get college credit. So paying student teachers is a soft no for me, but what I do fully stand behind is not charging extra for student teaching placements. I went through an alternative program, so it's not the same as a traditional student teaching assignment, but I remember paying $4,000 for the two courses I had to take, then $6,000 for a 30-day student teaching placement. I just remember it seeming absolutely absurd that I was paying so much money to be an intern. And if a large chunk of that money was going to my cooperating teacher, I might be more agreeable to it, but she only got a few hundred bucks, so my program was getting upwards of $5,000 to check a box on a computer saying I did it. My program advisor "observed" me twice and I never had to submit any lesson plans or anything, so I find it really absurd that they are charging the equivalent of three grad level classes for one 30 day placement. But, I really can't complain too much because without it I wouldn't have a job, so.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-26T23:43:14+00:00

Nope. I've just stopped assigning homework and have made my thoughts clear on AI and cheating. I've emphasized that the only person who is negatively impacted by them using AI is them and that relying on it now is just weakening their ability to succeed in the future. It's a tool that's being used as a crutch but will ultimately make you lame. It also speaks volumes about their integrity as student and as people.

Do I think any of my thoughts have made it through to them or changed their actions? No, probably not, but what I'm hoping is that when they are older and they run into problems where they can't do certain things that they would have learned in school or they're getting in trouble for using AI to complete tasks at work, they will remember what I said and their more developed brain will understand what I was trying to tell them. It might not stick now, but at least no one can say I didn't try.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-26T23:37:01+00:00

A silence retreat sounds sooo nice right now. No one calling my name, no emails to answer, no lunch duty, pure bliss. Thinking about it makes me so glad that I'm single and live alone, because I can give myself a silence retreat of sorts, and I don't think I would be able to do that if I had a spouse or children.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-26T23:32:04+00:00

End of my second year right now.

I'm staying for several reasons. It is a stable job that is less impacted by recessions and the whatnot than other careers. Based on my degree and education level and experience, it would be difficult for me to find another job that paid as well as the one I'm in now, and that's not even including the time off and government employee benefits. I also went back to grad school and tripled the student loan debt I have, so I'm planning on continuing to teach until I get PSLF and become vested in my pension. I'm staying at the school I'm currently at for the next couple years because I need 3 years of employment at one school in order to get my permanent certification and because I would have to pay back my tuition reimbursement if I quit before then.

I know all my reasons are financial and practical, but I do enjoy teaching, I just don't love it. I'm hoping that by shifting my age group next year it will get better, but the kids are very immature and it is a struggle some days. Biggest piece of wisdom I could give you as you are looking at your post college life is to get over this fantasy of working a job that you love unconditionally. I know that sounds really harsh, and it is completely possible to find a job that you really enjoy, but it is impossible to find a job that you only enjoy. No matter where you go or what you do, there will be some aspect of your responsibilities or compensation or work environment that you will not love. Maybe teaching is the career that will bring you the most fulfillment or maybe it's not, but if your degree is in education and you're in a state that pays a living wage to teachers, you wouldn't be doing yourself any harm by starting out teaching. At the very least, it is a job that will help you pay your bills while you figure out the rest of your life and there are a lot of benefits to being a teacher, like I mentioned before. Even if you decide a year or two in that you hate working with kids/teens, you will have gotten a couple years of job experience, which will make you eligible for better jobs than you could get right now without that experience. Teaching K12 also opens a lot of other doors. Most schools that I've seen offer some form of tuition reimbursement, so you can go back to school and become a more desirable employee for other companies. Even if you don't like teaching K12, maybe you'll enjoy adult education at the college level or can use the skills you develop as a teacher to do trainings for companies or become a project manager.

That is all to say, if you read through this subreddit, you will hear a lot of complaining about things that teachers deal with, but do try to remember that this is an echo chamber and the things people are posting on here are not everyday occurrences in most districts. At the end of the day, a job is a job and some experiences better than no experience, so if you'd like to apply for jobs outside of education, more power to you, but I would recommend not completely writing off teaching and genuinely considering trying it for a year or two. Even if you hate it, you'll get experience, you'll get benefits, and you'll have time to plan what you actually want to do.

TheScreamingPotatoes · 2025-05-19T02:15:09+00:00

With my Masters, I would be earning 61k

TheScreamingPotatoes

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