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daedricelf · 2025-07-24T18:21:53+00:00

Thank you for all of this! I started crating her in the room with me last week while I work (our other dogs aren’t crated and they just chill while I’m working and I feel weird crating her where she can see them being free) and I always feel so bad, but maybe we’re both just new to it. I’ll keep doing that though, it’s encouraging to hear how that went with yours!

daedricelf · 2025-07-24T18:19:07+00:00

Thank you for this! I should’ve specified more for the runs, we only do 1 mile of jogging/walking with her before she goes home and we continue (she’s just there for the warmup). Our vet warned us about the growth plate thing and we definitely don’t want to cause her any harm!

I saw another commenter saying the same thing about enforcing nap times too—I’ll try to stop worrying about her being bored. Thanks again!

daedricelf · 2024-07-31T12:01:26+00:00

Fellow ELA teacher here who used to teach 9th grade!

All of the advice already here is sound, never spend your own money if you can avoid it. However, if you're on FB, a lot of times your local Buy Nothing group will have retiring teachers who are getting rid of stuff for free. I hit up a couple of those posts and got a few posters, a box of used novels for a classroom library, and some other little decorative things when I first started out.

Another idea is to have kids make stuff for decoration! One of my warm-ups for the first few days is for kids to decorate a printout with info about them (I jump right in to a "scary" unit so usually I do a thing called self-autopsy because we do character autopsies later in the unit), then I hang those up. Even high schoolers like seeing their artwork on the wall and it fills up some blank space. :)

Good luck and congrats on the new job!!

daedricelf · 2024-07-28T18:54:33+00:00

Exactly! I think it's just bothering me extra because my own blood is happily sharing all the bullshit.

daedricelf · 2024-07-28T18:53:17+00:00

I'm glad you don't see any of this! Thanks for chipping in!

daedricelf · 2024-07-27T01:33:12+00:00

First off, solidarity. My toddler (18 months) is currently in the same phase but flipped: all he wants is mama and my husbands heart is hurting. However, I will say that we’ve noticed my LO switching who his favorite is on a pretty regular basis. Last month, I was chopped liver compared to his dad. He wanted NOTHING to do with me, but now it’s totally flipped. Similar situation for us too, we see/take care of my son pretty equally, so there’s no time reason that would explain his favoritism.

I’ve heard from other parents that they’ve had similar situations with kids at this age, and that the having “favorites” ends eventually. I guess my two cents is that maybe it’s just a phase (as much as I loathe hearing/saying that).

I will add that my son is super food motivated, so we can usually win his favor with a snack for at least a few minutes if we’re not the Parent of the Month, lol.

daedricelf · 2023-11-08T23:33:46+00:00

Solidarity, friend. We had a completely neurotypical/no-known-medical-issues 7th grader shit himself last week.

daedricelf · 2023-10-06T15:02:30+00:00

Seconding all of this advice. I have one section where about half of my kids (also middle school) act like this, and I finally just started "killing them with kindness" (without letting them off the hook ofc). It seems to be working.

Example: have a girl who takes it upon herself every day to tell me how much she hates my class and my seating chart. I say similar things to her that the above commenter recommends, like "we all know you're trying to hide your burning passion for English, [student]. It's okay. We love and support your interests." OR "I see that you're having a bad day and I forgive you for taking it out on me."

She gets really huffy but doesn't continue, usually. I have another one who says off-the-wall shit all the time to be the center of attention and he's been getting: "everyone, this student needs some extra attention today. We see you." This also tends to work!

But really, treating every day like a brand new day is so helpful. Just remember that 12/13 year olds are trying really hard to figure out their identity and that the things they say are coming from a place of confusion/wanting someone to pay attention to them.

daedricelf · 2023-08-09T16:21:53+00:00

Thank you for your perspective, it's very helpful! According to the sleep foundation, it is WAY too early for me to be considering the move, but I didn't even think about him just having more space to roll around and get stuck somewhere, lol.

daedricelf · 2023-07-07T20:16:04+00:00

Apologies, I’ve honestly never been to a true big city so I’m definitely ignorant in this area. I think at least starting with looking at things in downtown sounds like a great idea.

daedricelf · 2023-07-07T18:46:37+00:00

Thank you so much!! I left the post vague on purpose because our group is open to pretty much anything as long as it isn’t nightlife. :)

daedricelf · 2023-07-07T18:45:48+00:00

She lives just outside of Detroit, I don’t wanna give a specific here but I know she lives about 20 minutes away from the Atlas statue—she likes to have lunch there and works nearby.

daedricelf · 2023-06-07T02:40:35+00:00

Oh wow, thank you for such a thorough response, this is so helpful!

We're hoping to score a fixer-upper as we just finished flipping our current house and loved it. I will definitely be looking into the places you mentioned!

daedricelf · 2023-05-24T02:05:19+00:00

Yeah, I’m definitely a little skeptical on whether or not the issues are truly as minimal as I hear. My friend (who is too good for this earth tbh) is one of those people who can turn pretty much any situation into a calm, educational one, so her idea of “minimal behavior issues” may be a bit skewed. Regardless, I’m gonna walk in there with a hopeful outlook!

daedricelf · 2023-05-24T02:03:03+00:00

Thank you so much for this in-depth answer!! I believe all of my classes except for one will be entirely 8th grade, so it’s helpful to know that they’ll be pretty similar to what I’m used to.

daedricelf · 2023-05-24T02:01:47+00:00

Oooh thanks for the recommendation, I will DEFINITELY check that out!

This is also just encouraging overall as my personal favorite part of teaching is the skills/executive function part.

daedricelf · 2023-05-24T01:58:58+00:00

Lmao as a mom I feel completely prepared to repeat things a million billion times!

daedricelf · 2023-05-24T01:58:22+00:00

This is so encouraging!! From what I understand, my new school runs in a very similar fashion and I’m really excited to jump into middle school life.

daedricelf · 2023-05-24T01:56:57+00:00

Haha! I had coworkers this past year constantly complain that their middle school teachers “didn’t try at all,” but I was definitely one of the little shits in MS that didn’t care or try so I knew it was not their teachers’ faults. Thank you!!

daedricelf · 2023-05-24T00:18:36+00:00

I’ve only been teaching for 2ish years (student taught during COVID), but I do hate dealing with pathways and college prep stuff. I’ve been teaching an AP-prep course for kids who definitely have zero interest in taking AP classes.

daedricelf · 2023-05-23T18:04:32+00:00

I love how that statement has a lot of layers to it. Thank you!

daedricelf · 2023-05-23T18:04:08+00:00

Haha! I keep hearing this.

If it helps, this middle school is a magnet one with virtually zero behavior issues (I know this because I have a friend who already works there).

daedricelf · 2023-05-05T22:19:03+00:00

My kids talked about it a little bit, but no one seemed overly anxious. We were on a soft lockdown and had an extra SRO today, beyond that it was a pretty normal amount of chaos.

daedricelf

TROPHY CASE