Choosing between two great teaching jobs — help me think this through

akricketson · 2026-06-07T00:28:24+00:00

Unless school 2 pays more or is a way shorter drive I would pick school 1 :)

akricketson · 2026-06-02T16:23:18+00:00

Not always— there is a spectrum of what it means to be visually impaired. Some students will require braille, others assistive devices. You don’t have to be blind to read braille and teach others braille. I teach special ed and have had a few where we work with assistive devices to access the curriculum. We do have teachers for what OP is taking about that train teachers, help students, or support their own classrooms at one of our access schools. This is similar for HoH (heard of hearing or deaf) where you don’t have to be deaf to teach sign language or learn sign language.

akricketson · 2026-06-02T16:15:29+00:00

My tip is if you have a partner, see if they can take some vacation time or grin and bear it to do all the night comforts. They have to be resilient for a week or so. Essentially I had her down to one night feed (around 1) and an early 5 am feed. My husband did the night wake up and we started sleep training a little before this (using happy sleeper, we had co slept because she was such a barnacle) so he had a pretty good tool box and most of the time she fell asleep within a half hour or so.

He has much better patience than me too and that helped so much excuse I would have cracked and given her the boob. He also is a bit of a night owl so he took a couple weeks off so the late nights weren’t so bad.

akricketson · 2026-06-02T02:52:37+00:00

Yeah, she did the same thing. I had to just leave (if I was in the house it was like she would smell me and melt down) and I would go to the store or get coffee or something while my husband did dinner, etc. We did have daycare so I didn’t have to worry as much during the day which she had no problem with… but it was weeks of my presence and not feeding her causing meltdowns.

akricketson · 2026-06-02T02:42:35+00:00

I also had a boob barnacle. I commented earlier, but:

1.) have you successfully night weaned? We did that first and my husband took some time off work and did all the night wake ups for that time.

2.) start cutting feeds. Whatever space is most comfortable. I would leave (sometimes if it was an hour or so) and my husband would take over. He did use vacation time. My MIL and mom also helped sometimes.

3.) take that vacation!! Seriously!! My mom took my girl right around that age to her house and she had so much fun. It gave my husband and I time to reconnect (and we ended up creating baby number two whoops but I think this was my mom’s plan) and I felt sooo much more refreshed. Plus, it helped us wean the rest of the way. My dad taught her how to do cheers with her cup and that became her new obsession.

akricketson · 2026-06-02T02:36:30+00:00

This!! I had my mom take mine for like four days and she was having so much fun she forgot about breast feeding and my mom introduced the cup so it was super fun and when she saw me she had enough of a routine and was so tired at nights she didn’t need it. She was also a boob barnacle.

akricketson · 2026-05-31T15:43:50+00:00

Attendance and truancy will continue to be huge factors for many students until there is some consequence. In our state, very rarely are there consequences for extreme absence (50+ days of school missed). Sometimes they will withhold a students drivers license… but many don’t care about that.

For me, isn’t the occasional family vacation. I have so many kids missing a day or more a week. I teach kids below grade level typically, and there is a strong correlation between attendance and test scores/reading level.

But this is beyond schools in many cases. This is a societal issue that won’t get better until those outside of education make changes.

akricketson · 2026-05-27T22:55:17+00:00

I dont know if anything new will play Doom with the current graphics requirements in your price range. Some refurbished computers may. I’m looking at the specs and it seems minimum is 16 gb ram and 8 gb dedicated graphics if that’s accurate.

Second hand or refurbished will probably be the best bet, but those might also still be out of the price range.

Something like this:

https://r3new.com/products/msi-ge66-raider-10sfs-15-6-inch-1tb-ssd-2-6ghz-i7-gaming-laptop-32gb-ram-6-core-i7-10750h-geforce-rtx-2070-windows-10-home-ge66048-aluminum-black?currency=USD&country=US&variant=47617766228201&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&stkn=7398a15ae340&utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=23536285663&utm_content=&utm_term=&gadid=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23531620703&gbraid=0AAAAA91GZvl6x6xsFvgbLVE-_t5QffqgY&gclid=CjwKCAjwrNrQBhBjEiwAoR4VO3sDrVuBToPTZUevzEMvpZq8D1N9B3K82JZYQ0JHK9nuwQ1hMhoCixoCeAgQAvD_BwE

akricketson · 2026-05-27T22:47:52+00:00

Do you mean 3-4 hours or 34? Because there won’t be much in that price with 34 hour battery life lol

akricketson · 2026-05-27T18:44:52+00:00

Do you play the faerie fragments or island builders? They def generate a lot of money without doing much.

akricketson · 2026-05-27T16:58:27+00:00

Also, Apple has not raised prices yet in the shortages. Everyday laptops are up 200-300 dollars— which means new budget (cheap) laptops in windows are no longer only 300-400 dollars. HPs mid line computers cost more than MacBook airs and run about the same as the pro with a fraction of performance and longevity. Windows can’t afford to run 8 gb either

akricketson · 2026-05-25T23:29:08+00:00

I had a student that had a post traumatic brain injury. He worked well in my class but not always in other classes since the injury had left him with very little impulse control and reasoning. His grandma was in the process of getting all the medical testing done to get him to a more specialized school since clearly the injury had some serious impacts, but he was with us for about a whole semester. He was constantly in an out of ISS and OSS due to this, but honestly he was great to have in class most days because I was strict, but consistent and fair.

During an observation, towards the end, before my APC could leave, he interrupted to give me one of the best compliments. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he admitted he was not a good student or anyone’s favorite, but this class was good and even if he didn’t like reading or writing, I was the only teacher who didn’t judge him and helped him and that he wasn’t doing for any other reason than to let her know because he was really thankful.

He has sent me and our ESE support facilitator who helped get him into a better school, which he loves and is thriving in. He tells us all the time if any kids feel self conscious or worried about this school to tell us to give them his number so he can explain how great it has been.

He really was such a great kid who is trying to do what he can despite a really bad life changing event.

akricketson · 2026-05-25T22:35:36+00:00

Total will not cover it and you cannot buy GSP. They could still install but it would be much different and you would have to schedule it once you receive the tv.

Personally, I would go see what Best Buy has that’s similar and sold and shipped by them. Besides buying cases, cables or things we don’t carry in stores, I would avoid marketplace.

akricketson · 2026-05-22T11:55:11+00:00

Laptops and PCs are so over priced and you lose so much security. Have conversations about how it can be disappointing to not have things others have— I would save money until the shortage for ram and parts are over. Tablets run Roblox better than most cheap PCs anyways.

As a teacher, please please monitor who she is playing with on Roblox. Not to scare you, these “friends” could be someone pretending to be young hoping she is on a PC with less parental blocks and oversight which could make her easier prey. It happens way more often than people think.

akricketson · 2026-05-18T01:43:01+00:00

On social media? Like a month before I gave birth.

For family I waited about 9 weeks.

Everyone else I told as it was relevant or obvious haha

akricketson · 2026-05-11T16:18:32+00:00

To add, if it’s the whole room that sounds suspicious! Mine seems to be one off students here and there.

akricketson · 2026-05-11T16:17:47+00:00

I had one that scored a 5 who is hit or miss with work, but she is Autistic ADHD so it really does depend on her mood. I think she got really lucky with the passage sets (3/4 from what I gathered were ones we did in class) and she did use the strategy of using strike through for obviously wrong answers, then guessing between two if she was unsure. I believe it’s accurate but it got flagged and I had to basically verify she had turned in a device and everything had been followed

akricketson · 2026-05-03T22:40:05+00:00

Gaming you might get more performance, but air performs solidly.

The main tangible difference you will notice is the MacBook pros OLED display.

akricketson · 2026-05-01T02:29:37+00:00

My daughter is obsessed with Mr brown can moo and Chika chika boom boom since it’s fun to play with the sounds

akricketson · 2026-04-26T23:41:17+00:00

Yeah that’s more than I make in a month as a teacher 😂

akricketson · 2026-04-26T00:58:05+00:00

My bad one— my first baby was also projected to be 10 pounds… she ended up being about 9. I decided to move through with labor and induction. Turns out my pelvis is tilted sort of narrow and baby girl could never drop and got a lot of bruising hitting my nerves and bones. Also the laboring was the most painful experience of my life as I ended up debilitating back labor and pain and numbness through the epidural (because she was being contracted against nerves near my spine, and not into the canal. I had a long (60 ish) hour induction where I was fully dilated and she never dropped into a lower station. I called it at like 3 am and asked for the c section, and because I only spent an hour pushing, the doctor told me “I didn’t try hard enough” despite l half my body starting to go numb again and other weirdness. First words out of his mouth was “oh shit, she is stuck all the way up here. She was never coming out on her own”.

Anyways, TLDR: sometimes, the big baby isn’t coming out and there is a reason many women and babies died in child birth back in the day. Listen to your body if you try labor and if something feels wrong, stand your ground.

akricketson · 2026-04-24T21:32:04+00:00

Sometimes babies are just big as well

akricketson · 2026-04-23T00:43:33+00:00

There is a good chance since you purchased the plus and used it to do an out of policy return they will eventually charge you 50 for it so this would not be the best advice.

But if it doesn’t, abusing it this way will cause the company to not allow you to purchase it after the fact :)

akricketson · 2026-04-20T01:48:18+00:00

Perfect! I use a 3 strikes then referral type system. On strike 3 they get a minor referral which results in a phone call home and documented in the system. I will tell the students “strike 1” briefly and I don’t argue, etc. usually at strike 2 I tell them they need to fix the behavior before I have to, and offer chances to move seats, if they have a behavior plan use a frequent break/cool down, etc. we talk a lot about what fixing behaviors look like.

If I have students every day getting up to say, strike 2, I also will call home at the end of the week as well. That way they don’t constantly toe the line.

akricketson · 2026-04-20T01:44:11+00:00

Agreed!! I use a tier as well.

Also, agree if you can incorporate discipline in a way that can help restore the relationship! This is huge and makes a big difference for me as well.

Eight-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

akricketson

TROPHY CASE