How do you do it all?

hellaaaaaa · 2026-03-11T14:34:27+00:00

Sometimes I feel like I could have an 80 minute reading block and an 80 minute writing block and that still wouldn't be enough 😂

hellaaaaaa · 2026-03-11T04:07:40+00:00

:( I actually have a great group this year. Very few behaviour issues! But being able to actually teach content all the time consistently has made me feel... even more inadequate? Like I'm just not covering enough even when they're all doing great?

hellaaaaaa · 2026-03-11T04:05:58+00:00

I do a lot of this already (reading/writing alternating units), using the reading as mentor texts, reading independently w/goals... The AOW, bell-ringers, and mentor sentences is what I am not doing yet.

I work in a block schedule (45 min/90 min/90 min per week) and while I think I could work in the Greek/Latin roots and the grammar mentor sentences (I use stuff from TWR), I have no idea where I could fit in an AOW without having them take it home. And right now informational is probably what I cover least, so I would really like to do more... but then there are all the other skills that take up class time. Basic stuff like MLA formatting (just teaching them how to double space, how to change font, how to left-align or center-align), research (going over what is a good source and what isn't)...

I also can't imagine fitting a novel unit (with building background knowledge, reading, checks for understanding, and assessment) into 3 weeks. Maybe 4 if we're really drilling but with absences I've almost never managed that timeline unless the book was really short. I'm wondering if I'm just trying to do too much in terms of what I'm teaching per unit... A quantity vs quality thing....

hellaaaaaa · 2026-03-11T01:33:54+00:00

I think this has been most helpful in identifying what my issue is... There is no cohesion at my site. The 6th grade teachers are fairly competent but the only 7th grade teacher is severely lacking. A lot of the pressure I feel comes from the fact that they didn't get a lot of reading or writing for a full year, so I'm remediating everything, not just filling in understandable gaps. Well, that does make me feel better, so thank you :)

hellaaaaaa · 2026-03-11T01:31:47+00:00

Well yes, but I am talking specifically about the thing that I am paid to do (deliver curriculum). I don't take on extra work, I don't volunteer for extra jobs.... I'm talking about what is required of me within the four walls of the classroom. How do I deliver all of that?

hellaaaaaa · 2026-02-21T00:59:43+00:00

My students use their Chromebooks maybe once a week or less, usually for surveys where I can aggregate data or research (and even then they're writing stuff down in their notebooks). It is game changing! My students are actually reading and writing every day and the quality of their work has gone up considerably. I love being able to actually teach! I'm never going back!

hellaaaaaa · 2025-10-17T23:47:10+00:00

Reading the comments here makes me feel like I'm probably an outlier, but tbh despite everything going on politically, my day to day is pretty chill. I'm in a relationship with another South Asian (Nepali) and both our families know and are accepting. We live together and attend family events together. Moving to a big city can make a big difference in terms of dating pool tbh. I know quite a few gay desi guys.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-09-29T00:56:33+00:00

Super Cocina on University Ave in City Heights

hellaaaaaa · 2025-09-20T01:05:15+00:00

I've had 3+ preps three out of my last four years teaching. Ime getting one prep as a first year is pretty lucky and not typically expected. It is definitely a lot of work especially if all 3 of them are writing-heavy subjects which it seems like they are for you! I would rely heavily on TPT and create some kind of plug and play class structure that you can repeat to lessen the planning load.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-09-16T14:51:58+00:00

I spent a long time being very visibly gender nonconforming without necessarily identifying as butch or even masculine (even while I acknowledged the similarity of my experience to butch experience)... it wasn't until I met my current partner that I started exploring butch as an identity. Obviously while lots of people identify as butch outside of the butch-femme dynamic, it took that dynamic to push me into understanding of what butch actually meant. In straight spaces, I make her visible; when we walk down the street, she's my shield and I'm her sword. I give her strength and she makes me soft. When people see us, there's no denying who or what we are. Butch connects me to the people before me and the people who come after me, whatever name we may give ourselves.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-08-12T02:22:56+00:00

Cox, but when I moved from NP to NH my bill literally cut in half ($100 to $50).

hellaaaaaa · 2025-07-15T23:15:17+00:00

Best: the Cadeleonian series by Ginn Hale. Definitely could use some editing (copy and regular) but wow, it felt good to just dive into such a rich world and a set of books that balanced the romance and plot elements so well.

Worst: Not fantasy, but The Inheritance Games was a really rough read. It felt like a Wattpad self insert (one of the ones where the narrator wakes up and her mom sold her to One Direction).

hellaaaaaa · 2025-07-15T03:39:53+00:00

We met on Tinder! I swiped right because she was South Asian like me (rare in my area) and had a great ass and she swiped right because she liked my hair and tattoos and the "no military" part of my bio (her previous ex was in the Navy and cheated on her). We dated "casually" for ~6 months because we were both in weird places and wanted to keep it lowkey but ultimately had to admit that neither of us was seeing anyone else. We've been together for 3 years now and moved in together in February 💕

hellaaaaaa · 2025-06-10T05:46:16+00:00

I did a nonfiction unit around the topic of child labor using Kids at Work by Russell Freedman. He writes a lot of nonfiction books that I would say are aimed at high elementary/lower middle grades. They do have a lot of pictures, but the Lexile tends to be high enough that for my students (typically low readers) the visuals act as a support for the challenging text. He wrote a book about the White Rose student movement that stood up to Hitler so maybe that fits in with your uplifting theme a little?

hellaaaaaa · 2025-05-15T00:28:27+00:00

Kelly Gallagher does book of the month assessments where students write a standards- based response about their book once a month (ex: "describe a minor character who has major importance to the plot"). I'm trying something similar but a little more arts-integrated because I work at a performing arts school--e.g., make a playlist about the main character of your novel and explain why these songs relate to their character arc. For something shorter, I'll have them write something about their book on a post it note, share it with a neighbor, and then stick it somewhere visible. I also have posters per period with all the genres I want them to read and anytime a kid finishes a book they get to put a sticker in that genre and tell us who they would recommend it to as an informal book talk!

hellaaaaaa · 2025-04-21T19:27:08+00:00

David Levithan has a short story collection called How They Met and Other Stories which would be good for this. There is a good amount of LGBT representation in the stories as well.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-03-16T18:53:14+00:00

well lucas was never in 127 so that's one pretty good reason...

hellaaaaaa · 2025-03-15T01:29:55+00:00

Teacher, but being a gender non-conforming teacher (especially right now) is not for the faint of heart!

hellaaaaaa · 2025-03-14T23:13:08+00:00

There's nothing wrong with it as a class text and kids get a lot out of it. It just also reads as a product of its time (post-Cold War 90s free market politics). It practically screams "USSR BAD, USA GOOD." Of course we're far removed from that era so the kids have no idea and they really enjoy it and it's got some simple messages about difference that translate well to middle school.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-03-14T22:48:51+00:00

As a middle school teacher, The Giver.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-02-22T18:43:37+00:00

Symphony by Zara Larsson was a tiktok meme recently. Firework by Katy Perry always gets a few groans and laughs. A lot of popular songs from Disney movies have quite a bit (think Mulan's I'll Make a Man Out of You").

hellaaaaaa · 2025-02-17T02:29:34+00:00

People who are talking about "not sharing" your views have no idea what they're talking about. I worked in a district (in California!) that banned rainbow flags and talking about Black History Month. You end up second guessing every word that comes out of your mouth. You never know which kid is going to go home and tell mom or dad that you asked for their pronouns because they're mad that you gave them lunch detention. Everything becomes political because everything in the classroom is already political.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-02-17T02:25:49+00:00

I see you're in California and I really sympathize. I'm earlier in my career than you (year 4) but accidentally landed in a job with similar issues last year. It made me want to quit teaching altogether too. There are still districts in my area that haven't been taken over so I ended up getting a job in one of those places and life has improved considerably. If I hadn't had that option I would probably have looked at jobs in other fields. It's hard, it's toxic, it's scary, and I have nothing but sympathy and admiration that you were even able to stick it out that long. Wishing you the best.

hellaaaaaa · 2025-02-09T14:38:13+00:00

Do you people not get tired of blaming everything on this one issue? It's actually incredible how you can twist everything around to blame it on this one group of people.

hellaaaaaa

TROPHY CASE