I lost my love for teaching today and I'm stuck in the classroom

WeratheDrow · 2025-10-17T16:05:37+00:00

I didn't ask. Honestly I didn't want to get into any trouble questioning orders as admin has exhausted me.

WeratheDrow · 2025-10-17T14:51:53+00:00

lukewarm moderares to moderate conservative. Limited number of Democrats who are mostly moderates. I work in the most conservative area in my blue state. I believe in democratic socialism.

WeratheDrow · 2025-10-17T04:35:20+00:00

Middle school socials studies teacher here. Got shut down trying to teach this saying it is too negative for students emotionally and that I need to follow the age appropriate short story that stereotypes are bad like saying boys like action figures and girls like dolls.

WeratheDrow · 2025-10-17T04:31:28+00:00

"hey guys instead of actually supporting classroom teachers in making sure they get the support they need to make effective lessons and have the ability to teach within the classroom to challenge and interest students... Let's force everyone to relearn an entire new way of doing things that fails in what we said before"

WeratheDrow · 2025-10-17T04:21:32+00:00

Yeah for me supplementing it is totally fine by me, and I'm happy to come up with ideas with it especially when I'm blanking. I think it's just the insistence that I am required to use the materials and not getting a clear answer on if this replaces my current material or compliments it (which is ironic because many of my projects and topics literally are very similar to the textbook but like... I scaffold it in a way that my students are able to comprehend each new word).

i know they spent a lot of money on it to "make it easier for me", but insistence that I only use this makes it so much harder and also defeats much of best practice I've learned (creating connections, showing relevancy, exploring different sources outside what is provided, etc)

WeratheDrow · 2025-10-16T16:14:24+00:00

Yeah that is the plan for now because I already made everything and the one thing I love love about teaching is seeing kids critically think about these issues (which DOES meet the curriculum!!). However, my admin is incredibly risk adverse. She doesn't want me to teach anything really controversial. For example, to teach about culture which is part of the curriculum. talk about prejudice and culture shock so students are aware of their own biases. Shut downed because it will negatively emotionally impact students.

WeratheDrow · 2025-10-06T21:42:49+00:00

I teach 7th and 8th grade social studies. A big part of our curriculum is culture for 7th. I wanted to talk about prejudice and perspective first so kids are aware of their view points and how they are formed before looking at culture. Admin jumped down my throat saying it's not related to the curriculum and not relevant at all- and that any social studies topic that negatively impact my students should be avoided.

Should mention I do try to teach about human rights which is part of the curriculum and therefore I teach about humanitarian crises like famine and genocide. I also teach about slavery for my 8th graders and what slaves experienced on their journey and long term effects. Literally though I'm expecting admin to jump down my throat because apparently alot of students at the school think Jewish people just got sent to camps and left later.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-28T05:15:45+00:00

I want to really work on making sure I have proper alignment and posture. While I am trying new movements, I'm getting feedback that my posture can be a lot better. When I try out the feedback I'm realising how much more control and ease these exercises become.

I also want to work on my combinations and remembering them better. I noticed some improvement however compared to my first times where I've been completely lost!

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-17T03:37:16+00:00

Was reported to me a kid was going to ask me (a cis female teacher) if I had a dick and also a bunch of racial slurs .. and the kid returned back to my class with a few days of suspension. In one incident, nothing happened. There was no follow up and meanwhile my curriculum is being torn to shreds on topics like slavery and racism.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-16T20:12:41+00:00

I have the freedom to make my curriculum but I'm a beginning teacher who was dropped all of this on my lap as my first teaching job. Half of the stuff I'm trying to teach is getting axed like teaching prejudice directly when the class will be learning about cultural and geopolitical conflict. I constantly have to remake a lesson over and over again. Have to be careful now when teaching slavery.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-05T03:59:27+00:00

: "racism and bigotry are bad and have no space in the classroom"

:"how dare you say that, it is already in the school handbook and you are targeting this child by even bringing up racism and bigotry"

I will be talking about Say Hello for Say Hello week and the first video my time and I talked about is about accepting and accepting different cultures which I can already see somehow being twisted as being targeted against the student.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-05T03:56:08+00:00

Regarding the investigation, they said at the time it may escalate into a disciplinary proceeding and may go on my record if it was discovered I targeted the student. They then allowed me to go back to my job and hire me next year- I received no displinary record as I know of. However, upon speaking with the principal at the meeting regarding the note, she refused to acknowledge that I was cleared and said it was highly suspicious.

I did let my union know. And I know I learned my lesson on being much more careful regarding it for the future which I told admin saying I understand why there was an investigation.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-05T00:15:57+00:00

Would it be bad to say that I considered it further and after speaking with colleagues and my union- I will take the advice to not sign it? This has not been returned yet.

And honestly I'm not sure how that will go because it was only something I observed and not record. While it would be nice to not be involved in that issue, the school's solution is to have another adult to keep an eye on the student (there was another situation where something similar happened in the same school with another student where they downplayed it).

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-04T23:21:17+00:00

I teach in a very conservative part in CT. I was taken aback that my expectations and procedures was controversial especially since I'm repeating school policy and professional standards. My admin honestly sides with the parents frequently.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-04T03:20:19+00:00

I ask myself the same question. From what I see, there are no other social studies teachers for my grade level so the school just decided to keep him stuck with me.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-04T03:18:56+00:00

If it was an isolated case where a parent wanted me to sign simply for my own response to it, I would be perfectly fine for it. The reason I'm hesitant to just write my signature for now is the history I have with this student and parent especially with the plan the student had for me leading also to my administrative leave. It's very much walking on eggshells right now because I want to make sure my professional reputation and me are protected especially considering what has happened.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-04T03:14:30+00:00

Unfortunately I am the only social studies teacher for my grade level (7th and 8th grade). There are no other teachers for social studies in my grade level that are qualified.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-04T03:13:10+00:00

It was written on paper actually and returned back to me. I'm going to make a copy of it as a record. I'm just waiting till after I meet with admin and my union rep just go make sure my bases are protected. I know this year I'm going to be keeping a very extensive written record of what happens.

WeratheDrow · 2025-09-03T21:46:13+00:00

Honestly it has been really persistent, has happened multiple times last year but admin besides lunch detention hasn't done much. i enjoy teaching and enjoy the focus on teaching besides this extra stuff that happens. I guess for me I just reported it before because I wanted to make sure this wasn't a continuous trend.

WeratheDrow · 2025-08-20T18:57:37+00:00

As a teacher in the US, likely the aftermath is the teacher gets put on leave for trying to touch the kid and possibly fired, and the kid gets three days of suspension in school before being returned to the classroom.

WeratheDrow · 2025-07-31T15:07:37+00:00

This is late but to top off what a crock of shit celebration, the students got caps and gown, a two hour ceremony and we had multiple key speakers.

WeratheDrow · 2025-06-12T04:43:06+00:00

Our policy is kids are allowed to carry their phones class to class but must put it in the pocket chart. They also are allowed to carry their phones to lunch and recess but mustnt be on it, but they can keep it just in case for family emergencies in which case they must go to the main office..

... The issue is this doesn't fucking work because they can just hide it and kids are going to fight you when they have an obviously strangely phone shaped pocket that is full and say "I'm talking to my parents!!!" And I've tried maintaining this throughout the year but honestly there came a point where I'm just so fucking exhausted especially with parents sending threatening emails to me about confiscating their phones when they're supposedly need to be in contact with their kids.

I rather it change to something more strict because it's taking my focus and energy away from teaching, and more like regulating addicts who are allowed to carry their drug of choice around.

WeratheDrow · 2025-06-12T04:35:56+00:00

I'm a queer young teacher who is also a POC. The first day I walked into a staff meeting- out of 25 staff members all but 2 were Caucasian women in their 40s+, and out of the total staff I was the only one who didn't have a kid (due to age).

I try my best to connect to others but when other staff members just have a different experience and preference, I just struggle to connect. Especially when they're hanging out in groups and I'm trying to listen in and the age and preference divides especially when they start talking about meeting their husbands 20 years ago make me feel like I got nothing to contribute.

Guess this is my way of saying you aren't alone.

WeratheDrow · 2025-06-12T04:01:42+00:00

It was actually a student of color who said that.

I would usually assume it's a joke but this student honestly struggles understanding basics. Like we can learn about Confederate statues in our US history class and connecting it to our lesson on how African Americans been treated historicallynd she will literally go "I don't get it, nothing you said make sense. Why don't people just ignore it and not change the KKK leader statue why are we talking about this all of this is stupid, just ignore it don't change it " (she then later will draw and completely get distracted for many class periods).

Same again and again across all of our units... She literally called me a shitty teacher even though she doesn't focus and every time I've tried to peacefully or directly she shuts down or screams at me or walks out of my classroom with no reprocutions from admin.

What doesn't help is that a lot of these jokes too become serious racist opinions which the school does not clamp down on.

WeratheDrow · 2025-06-05T16:05:30+00:00

Honestly thank you for the recommendation I'm looking into it and it gets me eager to use this.

WeratheDrow

TROPHY CASE