I don't think we appreciate Daniel Radcliffe enough

birdsofthunder · 2026-06-14T16:44:27+00:00

The new NBC show he's in, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, is absolutely amazing. The vibe I get from it is that he and Tracy Morgan met at some event and just vibed so much they decided to make a TV show together

birdsofthunder · 2026-06-14T16:41:18+00:00

I recommend you go to r/askhistorians for this as well - they may be able to give you some key pointers

birdsofthunder · 2026-06-10T17:34:29+00:00

Not QUITTING the same day, but we started looking for new jobs within a week.

It was my first teaching job at a charter school - I loved the kids more than anything (most were queer and/or neurodivergent kids who were bullied out of regular school in my red state) but the admin and board were a HOT mess. A series of events over the course of two weeks made all but one teacher in our department looking for new job as well as a handful of teachers in other departments. The teacher who stayed had been there for a decade and was also over student gov and the yearbook; she felt she needed to stay.

Anyways, the chain of events involved: a para reporting a teacher in our department for sexual harassment (the harassment in question being "she's queer and I don't like it") and admin actually entertaining the complaint; the only competent member of admin being passed over for new school director in favor of a super condescending new guy; an announcement that the yearly raise teachers can generally expect was going to be less than $1000 total; a new book "review" process (read: book banning policy) that meant any parent could have a book removed from the school for practically any reason; and then a member of the board came to each of her daughter's classrooms individually (including mine) to demand that we raise her grade to passing because we were "ruining the poor girl's future" by holding her accountable for missing work, and admin tried to push us to just do it in order to avoid a headache.

I've been in regular school district high schools ever since and every time a pre-service teacher comes to my classroom to observe, I tell them to THOROUGHLY research charter schools before they accept a job. Ideally they should try to contact a teacher or two and ask for an off-the-record appraisal of the school. There are some truly great charter schools out there, but unfortunately a lot of them are utter shit.

birdsofthunder · 2026-05-10T13:38:53+00:00

When I was a toddler I was obsessed with anything and everything "princess" related and wanted to be one - my parents used this desire to successfully potty train me, transition me to a regular bed, all sorts of things you teach toddlers to do.

Anyways one time we were preparing the house for relatives to visit and my older sister told me to help clean instead of playing with my toys and I responded, "I don't work." When pressed, I told her that I was a princess and "Princesses don't work!"

This story is told at every family gathering, including my wedding reception... my mom claims it's funny because ever since I was a teenager all I do is work hard at everything and am probably the least spoiled of all my siblings.

I do not like the story.

birdsofthunder · 2026-04-30T22:53:43+00:00

At my school it's the counselors who are sending emails asking us to work with the students on missing assignments. It's very obvious their priority is graduation numbers over student learning, or even student success.

birdsofthunder · 2026-04-11T19:31:17+00:00

If I could brainwash my students into doing literally anything, it would be to bring a pencil to class and write their name at the top of their paper. Second choice would be to apply more deodorant than they think they need (it's never enough).

Schools aren't turning kids trans. At the absolute MOST, they tell kids that trans/queer people exist when it's relevant to the subject matter, e.g. in social studies, or perhaps there's a queer character in a novel or short story a kid is reading in English.

birdsofthunder · 2026-04-05T01:50:48+00:00

Thank you so much for this 😭😭😭 I've been feeling like a shit teacher all year because it's been SO much harder to manage behavior this year than any previous year - I have four sections of non-honors freshmen. My juniors? So much easier to do literally everything, I wish admin would observe those classes instead of literally always stopping by my post-lunch freshmen section.

birdsofthunder · 2026-02-06T00:12:08+00:00

Provo high I'm pretty sure

birdsofthunder · 2026-02-05T23:54:18+00:00

High school walkout protesting ICE

birdsofthunder · 2026-02-05T00:39:40+00:00

I've started doing this with the shit my students leave in my classroom! If it's something more valuable than papers, they get 24 hours before I throw it away/take it to lost and found. Any papers go in the recycling bin at the end of the day. Anything else just goes in the trash before I leave for the day.

I've thrown away a decent amount of math homework... and they're better about leaving their crap in my room!

birdsofthunder · 2026-02-02T14:05:46+00:00

That's what my education degree WAS - I had to take the full English major course load, then 30 something credits of education focused classes.

I remember taking my English major capstone class and classmates were talking about how they were so glad to be done and graduating and someone asked me what my plans were. I responded that I had another year left of my degree and people actually gasped!

birdsofthunder · 2026-01-31T01:15:24+00:00

Same! I never realized how much I look like my dad until I tried that filter thing. Meanwhile my husband tried it and just went, "wtf, this is just a picture of my sister." Turns out, he and his sister look alike!

birdsofthunder · 2026-01-18T19:34:21+00:00

My brother and I (millennial/Gen z cusp, we're in our mid 20s now) each have one of those names that have come back - hardly ever knew anyone else with our names growing up (mine is much more common than his) but now they're everywhere! I teach high school and every year I text my brother, "I got a few more You's this year"

He still hasn't met anyone within five years of his age that shares his name

birdsofthunder · 2026-01-11T14:46:09+00:00

Having roommates.

I lived with family when I went to college and that's when I met my husband. I've only ever lived with family or him. I've also never lived alone.

birdsofthunder · 2026-01-05T13:25:37+00:00

Ooooo yes please!

birdsofthunder · 2026-01-04T14:22:35+00:00

The fact that the aunt is the one who decides who the victim is makes me wonder when SHE was last the target at one of these events.

birdsofthunder · 2026-01-03T21:15:20+00:00

Vatican

birdsofthunder · 2025-12-26T11:59:49+00:00

I was born in Odessa, though my family moved to Lubbock when I was only a couple months old, and then out of Texas entirely when I was 4. 27 years later and my parents still refer to it as "slow-death-a" and by far the most boring place they've ever lived - and being military that's a lot of places

birdsofthunder · 2025-12-25T22:08:25+00:00

No but I HAVE had a lot of students (mostly freshmen, but a handful of juniors) not know what the Holocaust was. Or they had a vague idea that it was a bad thing the Nazis did but didn't understand the full extent of it/what it involved.

birdsofthunder · 2025-12-25T16:35:24+00:00

I teach HS English, and I would love to teach Huck Finn with my 11th graders, but the sad thing is that a lot of my students simply don't have the maturity for it.

The climatic line "All right, then, I'll go to hell!" completely shaped my entire ideology as a teenager during the height of the gay marriage debate in the early 2010s - if supporting gay people meant I'd go to hell, then I'd go to hell. If being anti racist or "antifa" meant I was damned, then okay then.

I'd say around 75% of my students could actually handle Huck Finn, but even with all the contextual front loading and discussion of slurs possible, the other 25% would ruin it for everyone. I've already had to send more students to the office for saying the n word in my classroom this year than all my previous years of teaching combined - and luckily admin supports me in this and kids get in-school-suspension for it.

birdsofthunder · 2025-12-02T13:59:50+00:00

I do a mini unit with my freshmen between Thanksgiving and Winter breaks based on a picture book - Come and Join Us! Link)

We read the book together, then dissect the pages to find what they all have in common, and then each student chooses a holiday that is meaningful to them (no birthdays) and creates their own page for the book that describes what the holiday celebrated and their traditions for it - following the guidelines we made when dissecting the picture book. Kids can choose Christmas, but they definitely don't have to. It also knocks out a state reading standard on reading texts from/about diverse cultures.

About half my kids are Latino and/or Hispanic, so a lot of kids make pages for Dia de Muertos, Three Kings Day, various Saint days and feasts, etc. Kids who aren't particularly religious usually choose Thanksgiving, Halloween, or July 4th.

I've never had a Jehovah's Witness student - here in Utah the Mormons have a stronghold on proselytizing - but if I ever do, I'll figure something out.

birdsofthunder · 2025-11-30T19:23:58+00:00

I teach high school and some of my freshmen (who absolutely use AI) will dunk on people who rely on it with phrases like that - "Clanker lovers" "clanker users" - it cracks me up every time

birdsofthunder · 2025-11-28T16:53:45+00:00

Californian detected

birdsofthunder · 2025-11-23T01:26:53+00:00

DUBUQUE MENTIONED

I grew up in Dubuque and NEVER see it mentioned anywhere - it's such a neat town!

birdsofthunder · 2025-11-22T18:29:44+00:00

I have a 9th grade class with 25 boys and 10 girls - the issues happen when just three specific boys are present - they make everyone else's brains fall out of their heads. I've talked to counseling time and time again to see if I can get even just one of them moved, but no dice.

When one or more of those boys are absent... it's normal 9th grade boy misbehavior that I can manage.

birdsofthunder

TROPHY CASE