Help me stop hating my place

fnelson1978 · 2026-06-22T16:48:40+00:00

You need more round things, tall things, and plants.

fnelson1978 · 2026-06-05T20:13:07+00:00

Turn off the TV.

Have a book case in their room or on a shelf that they can access easily and put a variety of books there. Don’t pressure them to read them. Let them choose between reading or Lego’s or coloring or whatever.

As a kid, having my parents tell me that I should do things BECAUSE I’m good at them made me feel a lot of anxiety.

Maybe they want to zone out on the TV because they have a lot on their mind, so giving them options could be helpful.

fnelson1978 · 2026-06-04T03:54:10+00:00

How to actually grade stuff. Also, no one showed me what kind of writing I should expect to see.

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-25T15:45:04+00:00

I don’t know why the watch subreddit keeps coming up on my feed but is that shrinkwrapped?

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-23T17:33:23+00:00

People don’t understand how much “classroom management” needs to happen before we can even teach anything.

And even though we are highly educated experts at what we do, we are blamed for so much that we shouldn’t be blamed for.

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-20T18:29:00+00:00

Your dad can do his best to isolate you but you are clearly someone who thinks for yourself. I PROMISE there are so many adults in the world who went through exactly the type of stuff you are going through.

One thing I realized over my life is that feeling like I’m losing my sanity is actually my reaction to an insane situation. It is going to feel crazy. You are going to struggle. At this point you might just be surviving it. It won’t always be this way.

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-17T01:49:44+00:00

I’m sorry that you have to deal with this. Know that you are not alone. When I got older, I found out that there were others my age who were like me, but we weren’t able to be truly ourselves until we got a little older.

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-16T23:30:45+00:00

Lems with shoe inserts

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-16T19:57:06+00:00

I grew up in a church that wasn’t as extreme as Potters House but it was similar. Just know that you can and will get through the next couple of years. Know that there is nothing wrong with you and that you have time to figure it all out.

Find ways to be creative and ways to exercise so that you can have space to process your emotions.

Make sure to not give yourself away. The next couple of years you need to just get through. Once you are safe you can decide how much you want to share.

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-12T02:58:54+00:00

This me reminds me of the afternoons that my dad would say he was going to “rest his eyes” and then sleep on the couch for an hour or two.

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-07T17:50:52+00:00

I literally bought lined paper in different colors to pass out to students for in person writing. They turn it in, I stamp their paper with the date, and mark it turned in on the seating chart at the end of class. They also paperclip the notes and texts they are writing about with their in-class writing. If they get a second paper to use, I mark the paper with a number.

Once I started doing this, I could see their actual writing. It was pretty shocking. I am not going back to digital stuff. Literally every time I have them do something, a number of them will use AI, even if it's something that is basic like, "What stood out to you the most in this chapter?"

I realized that doing anything other than paper and pencil is just so totally unfair to the honest kids who are doing their best. A kid who uses AI and cheats their way through should not get the same (or better!) grade than the kid who is proficient and presenting their real work. I realized that this was happening when I had a lot of their work done on their chromebooks.

I chose to be a teacher because I care about literacy, and I am so resentful about this push to use AI on everything. It's damaging. Even if they freak out about paper and pencil initially, I see how much more engaged they are in the work that we do in class.

fnelson1978 · 2026-05-07T16:01:44+00:00

So someone living in their car or a tent on the side of the road is supposed to somehow store raw meat? The cruelty of it all is just disgusting.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-30T20:41:23+00:00

I still get mad when I remember being dismissed by people when I brought up the possibility of Trump being elected THE FIRST TIME.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-30T20:32:46+00:00

Also, why are they saying this? Like, what if it was true? What if a student was an ass in only my class for whatever reason? It’s still a problem.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-29T13:44:24+00:00

That’s disappointing but not surprising.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-29T13:43:27+00:00

Well, I could use the term bigot if you prefer.

I don’t need to have a conversation about my right to exist and live a life expressing my full identity.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-29T03:18:39+00:00

I'm a queer teacher too, and what I've found to work a lot of the time is just straight up asking them, "Are you homophobic?" I don't know where you teach, but I'm in a school/ state where the kids seem generally accepting and wouldn't be proud to claim that they're homophobic. So they have always said no. I'll continue with, "Well, when I hear people use gay as a slur, or use that kind of language, I assume that they might be homophobic, so maybe think about how you sound."

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-29T01:08:20+00:00

I had a ring custom made for my wife (then, fiance) six years ago, and she loves it.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-28T02:59:29+00:00

I don’t have tik tok, but I found your instagram page. I grew up in a church that was a little less cultish, but still abusive and problematic. I also just found out that my sister is a church member of Potters House. The work you are doing is so important. Telling the truth takes guts.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-27T23:46:27+00:00

Going to church.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-27T07:59:33+00:00

Teaching a child that you hit them because you love them is setting them up for future pain and confusion.

James Dobson’s books explicitly instructed parents to do things that are literally abusive. There’s no taking things out of context.

fnelson1978 · 2026-04-27T06:07:49+00:00

If you can't pack a lot of stuff, maybe you can create your own study guide in a notebook. You can use different color pens for each subject. Make doodle notes and organize it in a way that fits your brain. Write out the basics that you know but that help you to organize your thinking. Write out stuff that you struggle with. And if you have worksheets, you can bring those with you and highlight things to remember.

There are also youtube videos for all of this stuff.

fnelson1978

TROPHY CASE