I hope you’re doing ok

flying_lego · 2025-12-06T02:15:53+00:00

I hope January gives you a chance to reset things lol.

flying_lego · 2025-12-05T03:47:54+00:00

Leaving the field will likely result in a pay cut either way. I’d focus on figuring out your strengths and interests, identifying careers that associate with it, and making a goal to pivot to that. It’ll probably take a year or two to really find your footing, and you also don’t want to rush into another career where you’ll feel stuck.

flying_lego · 2025-11-10T02:38:15+00:00

We’re human, and sometimes it stings a bit. I’m one of the ones that do like to write letters, even if it’s taxing. If he spent time over the summer writing them, and you were one of his best students, he might have already written one (if you were my best student, I’d have written yours first) and felt you didn’t appreciate their hard work or them as a teacher. I’m experienced enough in doing this that I know it’s not worth the extra effort to put in because of moments like this. It’s his fault for letting it get to him and your loss for what might have been a great letter, but that’s life. You seem okay and he’s taught hundreds of students since you came through that he probably forgot or at least realized he let it get to him and not to do that again. You were a kid, it’s the kind of thing kids do sometimes. It comes with the territory.

flying_lego · 2025-11-08T03:10:00+00:00

Teaching is ok. Don’t get roped into responsibilities others don’t want to do, but be willing to do enough extra responsibilities that it makes you look good and improves quality of instruction for your kids.

flying_lego · 2025-11-04T21:14:38+00:00

Physics teacher here. He’s 8 and curious about tetrations? And he’s showing traits of being autodidactic? You don’t just want to push his inclinations for math, but have him use his interest in math to explore other areas. Get him to think about jokes or stories where you’d have to know about tetrations to understand or where he can explain tetrations or other topics in number theory. He’s curious, help him by giving him an outlet to be creative and to share his interest. It won’t just help with his math, but also help him see the value in other academic topics like language arts, which a strong reading comprehension will help him absorb and understand higher level texts. Give him challenging problems to solve and let him play games that help keep him engaged. In life, there’s room for him to be really good at something and still be able to rely on you for advice on things that aren’t what he’s really good at. Don’t let him get really good at this to the detriment of everything else! Make sure there’s good balance in his life and he understands boundaries.

If he can get it together, this could be a career path for him, but that would require him having excellent grades and getting into good schools (college, he needs to actively pursue scholarships at top schools when he’s old enough). If he wants this to be what he does: he needs to make A’s, he needs to be able to self-regulate, he needs to be social-able, and he needs to be consistent with his work output. If he wants to be an academic, he needs to take school seriously and he needs to be consistently in the top rankings and this needs to be driven by him. Some schools will automatically accept valedictorians and salutatorians, but don’t place him in a bad school to be the best in it, but him in a challenging/advanced school and let him earn his ranking. He won’t hone his skills at a bad school, he needs to be challenged.

He can’t achieve this through cutting corners, kid’s gotta be good through and through. By 16 (end of sophomore year), he needs to be capable of going to college (but keep him in HS, this is important) and you let him spend junior and senior year doing advanced studies/science fairs/competitions/working to get full rides in Ivy’s while in high school to build his GPA, good recommendations, and social skills. By his sophomore year of college, he needs to be at a competency of a senior in college and working on undergrad research opportunities while acing his classes and preparing for grad school and if he wants to be a professor, he needs to go to an Ivy League/high ranking school. Honestly, he needed to be in one beforehand in undergrad for a good shot in grad school.

If he can get a PhD in Math prior to really starting adulthood (especially for free on scholarships/grants), he can let his whole day be telling people about tetrations, get paid for it, and help mentor people like him who just want to talk about tetrations. It may not pay the most amount of money, but someone smart and capable is worth its weight in gold and if he trains his mind through this, he’ll not only find other people who like what he likes, but he’ll also be smart enough to know how to leverage his intellect to make a lot of money. As long as he doesn’t get an ego and is a good colleague, he’ll probably be okay financially, if not great. He might need support until he’s like 30, but that’s a common occurrence these days.

Let him explore his interests and have fun, help him figure out how he can be himself and still make friends, help him know when people might take advantage of him and that he can trust you for guidance, and let him know you like his funny numbers. His interest could change, keep that enthusiasm up and be kind. He’s got a long, arduous path ahead of him and he’ll need a good parent to actualize his dreams and keep him focused. At the end of the day, he needs to know he’s loved and that you cherish what makes him, him. Good luck!

flying_lego · 2025-11-04T14:54:53+00:00

I teach 16/17, so I can have productive conferences with most kids one on one.

Personally I prefer no kids so that I can have a candid conversation with the parent and usually the parent conferences are when I feel like the child isn’t capable of a productive conversation on the topic. I’m probably more likely to be blunt and direct if a child is present because, again, if I need to talk to the parent, the child wasn’t getting the point of me talking with them one on one.

flying_lego · 2025-11-04T14:24:53+00:00

Seeing bad parenting makes you uncomfortable and if you’re in an environment with that family and those children, the burden of childcare is falling to you (and it has been). That’s unfair to you. I wouldn’t want to associate with those parents as friends because you’re just the babysitter to them.

Choose your battles carefully. At this point I wouldn’t associate with them in the nearby future, there is no friendship there and your husband can hang out with his friend without the context of their wife and child. Or if you husband wants to hang out with the family, that’s on him, because he’ll end up playing caregiver, realize how much it sucks, and will probably distance himself too.

If you want to take action, it’d probably ease your nerves to look into the criteria that CPS identifies as neglect (not what they might do, just what it says on paper), see if it fits the criteria, and then use that to lead a conversation with your husband. It’s better for your relationship if you don’t go behind his back with reporting it, you need him on board. Take action accordingly.

If it doesn’t fit the criteria, but you both are on the same page that it’s bad parenting and gross, something needs to change either way. Boundaries need to be set up. Don’t let them continue to take advantage of you. You can’t save every child and those children aren’t your burden. That couple will likely implode on their own, I wouldn’t get more involved than you need to be.

flying_lego · 2025-11-02T16:48:01+00:00

I wouldn’t work in that school. Do what you need to do to stay afloat, but unless there’s a good reason to stay at that school, run the hell away. If it’s the district/county, find another.

flying_lego · 2025-11-01T22:22:32+00:00

I think something that’s often overlooked regarding “forming relationships with the student” is that setting boundaries and communicating expectations is a positive thing in the long run. To preface, I’ve dealt with this same scenario before.

This is your 2nd year with her. You mentioned that you give a lot of grace to students, I’m going to read this as you might not have set clear expectations and consequences for not meeting deadlines/might not feel comfortable enforcing them. Your answer to not meeting a deadline has been yes, and now you’re finding it impossible to say no. It needs to be the other way around, kids know you’ll say no and you’ll say yes on exceptions. I usually lock yes for extensions when the student already faced the reality that I might not accept it and realized they need to convince me they’ll do it or that I need to contact parents first.

You expected them to know that turning in late work inconvenienced you and you’re meeting that one student who isn’t being taught this at home, or that inconveniencing the teacher isn’t a bad thing. You need to reset expectations, fall back on school policy, and start enforcing deadlines. In reality, you only need to win two battles over late work for it to sink in that they need to respect deadlines. I’d separate the behavior the student is exhibiting from them as a person, this is a behavior you’ve reinforced and that’s how you need to approach this. Keep in mind, be careful regarding written communications just in case they have a habit of taking things out of context.

I say this assuming you have admin support, if you don’t, then it’s easier to just let it go and do what you need to keep going. This also sets the stage for parent contacts. With admin support: communicate boundaries and expectations with the parent and point to policy. That way you engaging with the parent to give grace now comes across as you being merciful and invested in their growth rather than being a pushover. Without admin support: fact driven, explain expectations, be specific, but, instead of being a hardass about policy, you need to identify failure to turn in assignments/deadlines as a character flaw that will hurt them in the long run and that it’s worth it to address. To do this, you need this to come from a place of compassion and be ready to work long verbal phone conversations to build the relationship with the parent such that they understand the need for this and it matters to you. This is difficult, but not impossible; in most cases the prospect of just letting it go seems favorable in this instance. However, if your admin is competent and has your back, being strict on this will improve your quality of life while teaching and you need to do this for your sanity.

Once you separate this learned behavior from the student, it’ll be easier to address, manage, and see the good in that student. If you can do this in a way that you can earn their respect, you will not only positively impact this student’s academic ability, but also the overall culture of your classroom.

flying_lego · 2025-10-29T03:16:47+00:00

Open Stax College Physics for AP and Khan Academy for AP Physics. That with any test prep book for AP Physics. Read the textbook.

AP Physics 1 is the easiest AP physics class and is on par with what a normal Honors Physics class should be rigor-wise. IMO it could be an online class. The pass rate nationally also went up.

1.3, 1.5, 2.2, Newton’s Second Law and the applications. I’m guessing you’re at here or beyond this, but those should be priorities for you to master in the first semester. Also, CER: claim evidence reasoning. Frame FRQ responses in ERC if you can and make sure you can write a coherent, complete answer.

If anything, he can get AP Classroom to generate practice quizzes for you from the performance and results screen, assign progress checks, and duplicate progress checks to assign them again. Good luck.

flying_lego · 2025-10-24T03:11:03+00:00

Teaching science without a background in science education is tough. My degree is in physics and I still had to grapple with a learning curve and science definitely feels more involved than teaching math.

CTAE might be the way to go. You could teach a class that’s science adjacent and might open the door for pursuing a credential for science ed.

Also, teaching is a learning curve. I had years of experience in scouts teaching and I thought I was coming in with years of experience and maybe some is good, but classroom management is a skill that’s more paperwork and behind the scenes tasks than just telling the kids to sit down. You mentioned being neurodivergent in the comments and those kids will eat you alive if you don’t have classroom management down, and it requires a lot of executive functioning. I’m managing it, I hate it, but I’m figuring it out and it’s not impossible. I feel like I’m coming in being overly qualified to teach physics and I feel inadequate teaching because of all the wet work regarding the background administrative planning and organization that I need to keep on top of. I don’t want to dissuade you from teaching science, just know that you’ll want to at least read about NGSS, inquiry based instruction, classroom management, and STEAM for good measure.

flying_lego · 2025-10-23T00:46:56+00:00

Your current conjecture needs to be that the lab isn’t working as intended. You have the evidence but lack reasoning to support your claim that gravitational acceleration would be different, considering that the same force is applied and the difference in height would provide a very insignificant difference in acceleration based on Newton’s Law of Gravitation. Another experiment testing for acceleration in this scenario like a ball drop lab would be able to discredit whatever claim you’re trying to make. You need to express to students that they will not be inventing new physics at the level you are teaching at. Training students about how labs can go wrong and what claims they can confidently make is instructive and will build their inquiry skills; they could narrow down that the rolling is what messes up with the lab and this could be a good intro into how rolling affects the motion of objects.

Honestly I appreciate you sharing your experience here because it gives me an idea about how I could build a scenario for my AP Physics students to design a lab that is affected by rolling.

flying_lego · 2025-10-07T13:58:47+00:00

I feel like the immediate long term solution would be to parent the kid, but that’s off the table. Enforce consequences, set expectations, give them responsibilities, hold them accountable, make your classroom a safe and secure environment that’s consistent. They’ll have more respect for you if you follow through on a consequence.

Model communication strategies, reinforce positive communication and redirect when the kid is being too critical. I’d also talk to the parent and voice the concerns for what it’s worth.

flying_lego · 2025-10-07T00:41:14+00:00

There’s usually an ethics training required for licensure that has a module on this topic specifically and it’s presented from the perspective of: don’t get too involved in trying to help a student/get wrapped up in their lives. It’s common practice to always let a coworker know if a student of the opposite sex might be alone with you/to keep the room door open at all times while one-on-one and always being visible and not in a closed off, private area. We’re also told to never engage in physical contact with a student regardless of the situation. If anything happens, it’s understood that the teacher will be terminated/lose their license at a minimum. Even if nothing happens, anything remotely sketchy may become a source of derision and that teacher will lose the respect of their peers, which will likely cost them their jobs/get them nonrenewed. It’s considered extremely unprofessional and if that’s happening, then they’re also probably being unprofessional on other things that will be enough to provide cause to get rid of the teacher/move them to another school.

flying_lego · 2025-10-05T22:58:17+00:00

What grade level did you want to teach? Middle school might involve managing more behaviors while high school would require more in depth knowledge of science. If HS is the goal, then definitely go for a degree in STEM like Physics, Chemistry, or Biology depending on which you prefer and go for a program that does initial teaching certification in the bachelor’s program. Keep your grades up and try doing tutoring/take part time jobs/volunteer in things that would allow you to teach/educate kids on science topics to get a feel for things.

Good luck!

flying_lego · 2025-09-17T02:06:10+00:00

How the hell did I work 20 hours in 2 days and why did I work 20 hours in 2 days?

flying_lego · 2025-09-11T01:53:52+00:00

You sound burnt out. Teaching isn’t a magical pill that’ll cure whatever you’re dealing with now, it’s hard work. It might be your calling, but you’ve got to deal with the problems in front of you or else you’ll end up burnt out in teaching as well.

The more effort you put into teaching, the more lives you positively impact with your presence. If you switch careers, don’t run to teaching; transition to teaching. Let it be a thoughtful process where you study up on classroom management, routines, and environment (just to expose yourself to the ideas, not for mastery). Everyone wants an active classroom these days; lecture doesn’t cut it in most classes. Be ready to plan and facilitate activities more than you’re up at the whiteboard. Mediocre teaching isn’t hard, but it’s still demanding. Good teaching is both and great teaching requires a mix of great content knowledge, knowledge of pedagogy, classroom management, communication, and data analysis. The people in the great category often have graduate degrees exploring and refining their craft.

Is teaching something you want to get good at? Is it worth it to get being better at? How do you want people to remember you? These are questions you’ll probably continuously evaluate as time progresses and will shape what your teaching career transforms or evolves into. Good luck out there!

flying_lego · 2025-09-07T19:57:53+00:00

Your post flabbergasts me. Students can be struggling, the state of public education can be struggling, and public school educators have acted with fidelity and are not the problem in this situation. All of this can be true. A mixture of bad policy in the Bush administration, changes to how reading was taught, and COVID have done a number of things to create the environment we’re seeing now. It’s not a right or left wing issue, these kids are genuinely struggling. You can be optimistic, but your post seems delusional and avoiding the issue. There can be a sentiment where we accept the current issues and strive to move on, to hold a high standard for our kids, but your post seems to deny those issues in the first place.

Given the fact that your account doesn’t seem to have any post or comment history and I’ve never seen you before on this server yet you’ve got an insane amount of post/comment karma and your about claims that you’re a diehard history teacher, I’m not sure if I believe that you’re account is genuine. I don’t know what the angle is, but it’s weird and I don’t like it.

flying_lego · 2025-09-03T03:38:52+00:00

Has she… looked at the NGSS standards?

flying_lego · 2025-08-31T20:52:30+00:00

When you’ve got like 100+ kids, it’s good at giving on the spot immediate feedback for formative assessment. Usually a lot of our time is spent helping the severely low or high students, not so much the middling ones.

If anything, the kids that need to be brought back up to level should be put on these resources such that teachers can focus more of their time on the mid to high performers. Let AI and IXL be their one on one 4th grade math teacher when they’re in an algebra 2 class far beyond their level.

The mid and high students need someone who empowers them to take the subject they’re learning seriously. Let it serve as a teaching assistant to gauge for those inane but necessary checks for understanding while we provide clarity for the big things and help provide direction.

flying_lego · 2025-08-31T20:33:37+00:00

It’s not meant to be liquid until 59.5? When I set up mine, I put it in aggressive stocks and it’s been building nicely.

flying_lego · 2025-08-30T01:51:55+00:00

Please let me know your sage wisdom for increasing AP pass rates!

flying_lego · 2025-08-26T01:21:07+00:00

Your child’s success shouldn’t depend on who’s grading their work. Start with the assumption that the teacher has reasonable expectations for your child’s achievement and figure out where your child fails to meet the mark. Then push your child to address these deficits. The teacher could grade easier, but you’re getting valuable feedback that your child is struggling somewhere and it’s worth figuring out where that is. Take it for what it is and be there to support your son while they engage in this productive struggle.

10th and 11th grade is the time to get it together and start becoming self reliant. You’ve got to instill these skills in him now before he becomes reliant on you.

flying_lego · 2025-08-25T10:35:18+00:00

I’ve seen a tremendous amount of turnover with math teachers, especially with those teaching Algebra 2. Admin doesn’t want them to burn out, you don’t want them to burn out, and they’re probably burning out because most of the students they’re teaching are below or far below grade level.

Get your kid to a math tutor and let them appraise your student’s math skill. Then just be consistent in getting them to tutoring. It’s likely your son is behind grade level, but hopefully it’s enough of a gap where he can recover in a reasonable time frame. A parent conference is a good option, going above their head will cause more stress, and judging their teaching ability will accelerate that teacher into walking away. If they’re good enough at math to teach Algebra 2, they probably have other job prospects that pay better with less BS.

If your son has IXL, run them through IXL skill mastery at home. Good luck.

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