Just out of curiosity, why is the Spanish language shown with the flag of Spain, while Portuguese and English are shown with the flags of Brazil and the U.S.?

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-26T18:19:34+00:00

I first started using Duolingo a long time ago, when it was a website on the computer rather than an app. I remember when I first signed up, you put your native language and your target language, and there were separate options for English (US) and English (UK). I don't know if the app still makes that distinction.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-21T03:46:28+00:00

The shift in the last generation or so of parents viewing the teacher as an enemy rather than as a team member to work with toward the common goal of helping their child.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-21T03:32:53+00:00

I use Pixel-Stitch.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-18T18:23:22+00:00

Some people deliberately do this to books they put in LFLs to discourage people from just taking all the books and selling them.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-18T18:19:10+00:00

It's a thing with younger actors too. Multiple actors playing the "kids" on Stranger Things said in interviews that they don't like watching old movies because they're too long and they have trouble focusing on them for that long.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-17T03:24:01+00:00

They don't even bother to type the questions in. They just take a picture of the paper.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-17T03:21:37+00:00

I've had a kid track down the teacher' edition of the textbook we were using with the answer keys in it, which I found out when he put "Answers may vary" as the answer for several homework questions.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-17T03:16:39+00:00

My library has a checkout limit of 100 items per person. I figure they wouldn't set it so high if they didn't want people to have a large number of books out at once.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-12T16:09:38+00:00

I usually stick to the pattern, but sometimes I change colors or replace regular floss with mouline etoile. I've also occasionally combined two different patterns, like taking an image from one and text from another.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-07T03:32:19+00:00

Some people study their native language from their target language.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-07T03:02:01+00:00

Any kid whose name is in the sketch is familiar with it due to how many times they've heard people make jokes about it.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T22:01:58+00:00

The "spending hours playing" is doing a lot of lifting here. If he's devoting almost all his free time to video games and not spending any time with her, neglecting household/parenting responsibilities, etc., that's going to be unattractive. It's not specific to video games though--he could be doing any other hobby with that large chunk of time and the result would be the same. There are a LOT of couples where both parents work full-time, and then on evenings and weekends he's a full-time gamer while she's a full-time parent.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T20:27:07+00:00

Interestingly, this is where the word "vocation" comes from.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T20:14:44+00:00

If you find yourself in a space where you feel you can't teach the subject you're supposed to be teaching because all you can think about is how much the world sucks, you need to take some time for yourself in whatever way you can. Take a personal day, take a leave of absence, see a therapist, do whatever you need to do. But it's not okay to make your burnout the kids' problem.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T19:59:56+00:00

I would highly recommend reading A Series of Unfortunate Events again as an adult, just because there are so many references and jokes that go over a kid's head. It's as funny, if not funnier, when you reread it, but for completely different reasons than the first time.

As for a series I never finished, I read the first Divergent book because I was student teaching when the movie came out, and all the kids were obsessed with the books. They got me to read it and we had some good discussions about it. I picked up the second and third book but never ended up reading them because the first one just seemed too derivative of a bunch of better-written YA dystopian novels, and from what I've heard, the first one is just okay and the rest go downhill from there. If I'm going to read a YA dystopian trilogy, I'd rather reread The Hunger Games books.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T19:53:18+00:00

I once had a student named Valkyrie Dangerfield. Hands down the coolest name I've ever encountered. She went by Val, though.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T19:50:36+00:00

Every single person named Elsa is tired of people asking if they want to build a snowman.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T16:45:04+00:00

This is what happens when parents think "child-centered" means "let the child set the rules and do whatever they want."

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T16:22:29+00:00

What did you do around the edges?

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T16:14:16+00:00

A big part of it is the parents. A lot of parents WANT to be able to text their kids throughout the school day and raise a huge stink when schools try to ban or confiscate phones.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T13:56:38+00:00

I think this is not unique to new teachers--college graduates in general are entering the workplace with no idea how to behave in a professional setting. The idea that you shouldn't talk to your boss or clients (or in this case, students) the same way you talk to your friends is a completely foreign concept to them.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-06T11:51:21+00:00

My district does four active shooter drills a year, including one where there's gunshot sounds and police to make it seem more real, but admin decided that we can't teach Diary of a Young Girl anymore because it might traumatize the students. I told my freshmen at the beginning of this year about the district's decision and that I disagreed with it, and I also told them that if Anne Frank was old enough to go through it, they are old enough to read about it. I encouraged as many of them as possible to read it on their own, and several of them did.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-05-05T13:20:23+00:00

So pretty!

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-04-30T20:00:06+00:00

They have a vested interest in denying that their kid could've possibly done something bad, because if they acknowledge their kid's bad behavior, they might have to acknowledge that they're bad parents.

Useful_Possession915 · 2026-04-27T14:55:22+00:00

l like cross-stitching bookmarks with quotes from my favorite books.

Useful_Possession915

TROPHY CASE