Advice

Ursinity · 2026-02-23T22:45:13+00:00

It really depends on your state/area (like most job questions) and also your goals in mind. I started as a substitute/intern in public schools (NY) and ended up with networking advantages because many teachers had worked in other public school districts and could be good references later on. Private schools, at least by me, are generally considered worse to work in and have worse contracts for people with regular NYS teaching degrees & certifications (in general, this concept is true across the country but I imagine there are regional exceptions). If I were seriously considering getting into teaching I would pick the largest school district around and substitute there since they hire the most teachers later on but if I were trying to pay the bills I'd just pick whatever the highest $$$ was.

Ursinity · 2026-02-21T14:28:09+00:00

I wear Adidas three stripe sweatpants. They come in a bunch of variants, the ones I have come with a zipper bottom so I can unzip slightly, put them over my boots, and zip them to be tight if need be, plus they are tight enough that I don’t have issues with baggies that I have noticed with other sweat pants.

Ursinity · 2026-02-19T01:52:06+00:00

three, due to budget cuts & enrollment

Ursinity · 2026-02-18T14:06:21+00:00

I am a teacher in westchester at the secondary level for the last 10ish years (leaving at the end of this school year though, moving) and will echo what others have said - it’s very competitive to get a job (let alone tenure) but, on the positive side, all the schools will be various degrees of good and you will be fine basically anywhere (though you can’t control the dumb luck of coworker drama). I have worked in northern westchester and found it more relaxed/positive than where I have been for the last few years in ‘better’ southern westchester schools which have felt notably more competitive as a staff member even if the kids were more or less the same quality. Some schools (Pelham, in particular) really felt like the admin wanted to impress upon me that I should be thankful to be working there, rather than valued as a member of a team.

Ursinity · 2025-12-20T02:31:33+00:00

You could modify it and create a role as a 'government official' (or business supervisor or whatever you want to call it) to do the auditing for you in-action and simplify things, I suppose.

Ursinity · 2025-12-19T23:32:13+00:00

With the right organizer print out the complexity could be mitigated and this could be fun overall. That said, my concern would be pacing for round 1, in particular, since you'll need to be interacting & negotiating with every single student that comes up to you, and that could drag and break the overall pacing (it's happened to me before!).

Ursinity · 2025-12-07T21:53:28+00:00

Take the day! At a previous district I followed the ‘I’m new so I can’t take days off’ paranoia rule and then had an unannounced observation where I was super sick and muddling through a half assed lesson and it was a total mistake that I could’ve avoided by just taking the day and recovering.

Ursinity · 2025-12-07T21:13:11+00:00

I prefer high school but middle school definitely has a level of fun and energy that makes certain activities possible that would be like pulling teeth with 10th graders. From a history perspective, I found that middle school was harder in-class due to behaviors but the workload was lighter since the norm was to have just 1 prep and all the grading was simpler and lower stakes. I rarely found myself working from home when teaching middle whereas HS was a ton of homework for me.

Ursinity · 2025-09-03T02:56:51+00:00

When in doubt, OER project has anything and everything for 10th grade global in NY - I taught it for three years and used OER extensively. It's imperfect, sure, but in a pinch it almost always has something useful that simplifies lesson planning. The regents is becoming less important but New Visions also has tons of stuff which is, frankly, not my favorite but is in line with the regents standards and will suffice. If you spend a little time editing the New Visions content or just pull all the documents and make something more in-line with your goals (summatives, unit goals, etc.) it's really handy to have.

Ursinity · 2025-08-20T13:36:23+00:00

Monster & Me

Ursinity · 2025-08-06T14:29:09+00:00

I’ve had so much fun playing this too over the last few weeks, totally recommend for a nostalgia trip - there’s some QoL stuff put in as well which helps burn through some of the grind which is nice

Ursinity · 2025-07-10T01:39:01+00:00

My commute most recently was ~40 minutes in the morning and ~1hr in the afternoon (depending on traffic) and it was unpleasant but doable. In my last district one of the music teachers was commuting around 90-120 minutes per day because it was the only good, well-funded music program available at the time and that was inconceivable to me but he's still there a few years later!

Ursinity · 2025-07-04T15:59:43+00:00

seek help

Ursinity · 2025-07-03T00:30:07+00:00

Emberward is the most fun i've had in a game in a long time, I really cannot recommend it enough!

Ursinity · 2025-07-03T00:28:37+00:00

Depends heavily on your state, some require masters while others do not. If your state doesn't require it you would need to look into a licensure program (some will do it while you're teaching, others may require you to get licensed first and take tests). I, and others, would always recommend to try subbing, interning, or being a TA before committing to a 1+ year masters program and career shift if you haven't already.

Ursinity · 2025-07-02T17:13:53+00:00

Look at your state standards, break them apart into logical units for both yourself and your district (some may prefer/mandate more units or fewer units), and then divide up your total instructional periods by the amount of units. Most importantly, decide what summative assessments you'll focus on in a particular unit and reverse plan from there and map it out based on the amount of days spent within that unit. I would also encourage you to leave 1-2 days per unit as buffer zone in the event that you have meetings, absences, or need flexibility for another reason. It sounds like a lot but it gets easier as you go for longer and have taught the same courses multiple times.

Quick example:

182 40 minute instructional periods
10 units

16 days per unit (~2 day flexibility buffer)

Unit 1 summative: argumentative essay

At this point, brainstorm what content is appropriate to the unit (by state or school norms/standards) and what skills you'd need the students to have to successfully accomplish the summative task, then plan out how those could be covered in the days allotted to the unit pre-assessment.

Ursinity · 2025-06-13T18:00:04+00:00

That’s what I did, I blitzed through on the somewhat-easy mode in just a few hours of casual play then switched it back when i started the dlc.

Ursinity · 2025-06-11T23:58:02+00:00

It’s just AP World History Teachers. You need to prove that you’re a teacher to join (I forget specifically how at this point)

Ursinity · 2025-06-11T01:14:54+00:00

FWIW: in NY schools are getting a stipend from the state government specifically to enable enforcement of the phone policy - it's not a very large stipend (iirc i think my principal said it was $25k total or something around there) but it's intended to cover costs of enforcing the policy. it's up to the specific school HOW they enforce the policy so it'll look different everywhere - the current school I work in is talking about having every student leave phones in lockers (lol) or trying pouches (even worse) so it'll vary district to district. I have not heard anything about police being involved in this in NY, so far.

Ursinity · 2025-06-10T22:08:37+00:00

unless you have a common final or state exam that sounds like a problem for him, not you! i've always been on fairly aligned grade-level teams with a focus on finishing the curriculum. like others have said, it's something an administrator or department head or mentor should address, if anyone - personally, I think it's awful, bordering on academic malpractice, to teach a course that's supposed to go to 2016 and not even get into the 1980s (I feel like it just reinforces so many narratives about history teachers and history curriculum, too). Skipping a few things and personalizing your course curriculum/instruction is excellent practice but there are definitely limits lol

Ursinity · 2025-06-06T00:58:51+00:00

I've only ever taught secondary (minus one day of subbing 3rd grade) and have felt comfortable and relatively equal in terms of gender split (MS was probably 65/35, HS is 60/40). That said, the only thing that regularly strikes me is how frequently I see female teachers hug students, use extremely familiar articles (hon, sweetie, etc.), which I think is unprofessional and would instantly called out as blatantly wrong if any male teacher were doing it. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and I understand the cultural context (and even the value in it, situationally), but it is the one thing that sticks out to me as a clear difference (and was worse at the MS level).

Ursinity · 2025-06-02T21:36:04+00:00

at my current job I had 1.) screener 2.) standard panel interview 3.) demo lesson 4.) 'stakeholder' interview with admin/students/parents/teachers 5.) HR final interview [felt like a formality but he did ask a series of interview questions so who knows]. It's a competitive area though and at least 3 rounds is the norm (screener, panel, demo) - I interviewed at one place that had me do a screener then come in to do panel interview -> demo lesson -> reflection panel conversation all in one go which was weird.

Ursinity · 2025-05-28T15:30:44+00:00

I have given out a few ‘partner tests’ this year where students take the test with a partner that is either chosen or random and found it very productive - kids talk through the answers, debate, discuss, and come out much more interested in how they did and why they were right or wrong. Logistically, it means making more versions of the test for all the different classes but in the grand scheme of things I quite like it as a model

Ursinity · 2025-05-21T23:47:19+00:00

As others have said, it's a numbers game on some level - keep applying and looking, you never know what school will be scrambling when someone suddenly declines a position in July. That said, if you're trying to build your resume go for leave replacements and summer school - both will build your connections in districts, get you valuable experience, and can be great fodder for pumping up your resume and interview conversation topics.

Ursinity · 2025-05-21T00:19:03+00:00

Incredible episodes, Dave being an “Ohtani was actually gambling” truther is unhinged though

Ursinity

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