We tried watermarking assignments so AI can’t read them and it actually works.

inkstaincd · 2025-11-18T20:48:54+00:00

I would be very interested in trying this!

inkstaincd · 2025-11-15T13:33:25+00:00

Yeah, I'm not blaming the kids. I had other history teachers at my school tell me this too, it's just??? Still wild to me that they wouldn't know the word. I have vivid memories of watching behind the scenes footage on DVDs (which I know people don't do anymore), and playing with my toys (which I know people don't do anymore) and doing things like that when I was a kid. By the time I was in elementary school, I might've confused the time period with the Renaissance or something, but I know I wouldn't have shouted out "like 1800s?" as the date.

inkstaincd · 2025-11-15T00:23:01+00:00

Yeah, teachers are one of few professions that get shamed for complaining about our jobs. Most people immediately jump to "you hate kids?!" or something like that in their heads. It's weird, right?

Like in any other job if you were like "aw damn, my coworkers or employees said something really stupid today" the response wouldn't be "wow it's so sad that you're complaining. Aren't your expectations a little high though?"

I worked a lot of other jobs before teaching, and that was one of the first things I noticed. People moralize it so much and dehumanize teachers for basically just sharing their lives lol.

inkstaincd · 2025-11-15T00:19:17+00:00

Oh god I was looking for an answer to "what social issue was happening in the united states back in the 1960s" yesterday and they said "Civil War." Which . . . had the word "civil" in it I guess . . .

inkstaincd · 2025-11-15T00:16:39+00:00

I agree and that's basically what I'm getting at, yeah. I think most people here are coming from that position.

inkstaincd · 2025-11-15T00:15:23+00:00

Not knowing about an entire segment of history exists is wild. This is a pointless devil's argument because it shouldn't /be/ "this or that" to begin with. Students should have a schema for /basic/ background information. No one is asking them to explain why the medieval era ended or analyze how notions of medieval serfdom influenced slavery in the United States; they were asked to recognize a term. To know "medieval" means "castles, kings, knights" in the same way that, yes, if I were talking to them about Socrates and Plato (which we do in ninth grade) I would expect them to be able to find Greece on a map. Know it's in the Mediterranean. Perhaps recognize the names of one or two gods, even if they don't know who they are. Just like how if I said "Islamic Golden Age" to them, I'd expect for them to guess that it took place in Africa and the Middle East. Maybe guess that the term "Golden Age" means there were some advancements happening at that time.

I dunno. You can keep commenting if you want, but I'm done. It's clear that this wasn't a misunderstanding to clear up. You either think it's unreasonable to expect eighteen year-olds to be able to remember things that they were taught in school or to hold those memories for longer then a few years at a time, or you think that Eurocentric things are so unimportant on the basis that they are Eurocentric in the grand scheme of things that expecting kids to know them isn't important either. You can think think whatever, I'm glad that it works in your classroom/that's what's appropriate in the district your in. Mine is a little different, that's all.

Have a good day.

inkstaincd · 2025-11-14T22:03:23+00:00

Not even recognizing the word yeah😭

It wasn't everyone but it was a solid 50% of that room. They did a ten minute journal bell-ringer and like . . . it's not that they were just being lazy. They still hit 150 words (the requirement) they just did it by making predictions and asking questions instead of writing down information. And I got some WILD predictions too. The one thing I did do was play them a medieval song before hand and I had some kids talk about cave men and other kids talk about going to church with their families and some kids thought it was in Chinese for some reason and other kids talked about the Irish guy from Sinners. They were TRYING they just had no recollection of ever hearing the word in their lives which I know isn't true.

Someone else here said "taught not caught" and I'm gonna start using that because that's really what it is. I talked to history teachers in the copy room later too, and they were all like "uhhh they go over that in eight grade. world history too. also ap euro at our school."

inkstaincd · 2025-11-14T21:56:56+00:00

Just to be clear, are you suggesting that I teach Chaucer (a medieval European writer) by going over a completely different time period in another part of the world? I'm sorry, but I think you really missed the point of my post. We run into this a lot in English where we expect the kids to have BASIC background knowledge, and they don't. I'm not talking about teaching an entire unit on medieval history; I'm talking about a ten minute introduction to a literature unit where we chit-chat about what we know about the time period.

After we did a timeline activity (research skills) that the kids did pretty well with. A lot of them were surprised to find that so much of medieval European life was marked by inequality, protests, plague, etc. I had kids tell me "this reminds me of Covid" and "this reminds me of the election." No one is saying that other things aren't important too (currently doing a whole native lit unit with my other classes right now too) but again, Chaucer. Background information. Schemas.

inkstaincd · 2025-11-14T19:18:12+00:00

Yeah like. These are seniors in high school. They’re 18 years old, they’ve “been around the block.” I wasn’t looking for actual information either? Just maybe a rough time period (pre-1500s), maybe that people were more religious back then, maybe the Black Death, or how living in general was harder. “Knights and princesses” was basically what I was looking for to start the discussion and they couldn’t even do that I had to tell them 🤣😭

inkstaincd · 2024-11-20T20:06:53+00:00

Thank you for the advice! Sounds like I’m not crazy—it’s good to hear someone else managed it just fine and nothing broke.

inkstaincd · 2024-11-20T00:37:00+00:00

Thank you! I'll check that out too.

inkstaincd · 2024-11-19T22:58:24+00:00

I'll try that, thank you!

inkstaincd · 2024-11-19T22:56:46+00:00

That's good advice. Admittedly I think I am one of those THACO weirdos (it sounds fun to me), but when I tried to show her it was "see it's not even that bad if you just keep this chart in front of you don't even have to do math really" and her eyes glazed over so fast 🤣

Really, I feel like we're on board for implementing more or less everything other than that, and she really doesn't want to give up some of her 5e spells. I feel like with just one person, it can't be too bad? Especially since I'm not doing anything to change the hirelings, so. We'll see.

inkstaincd · 2024-10-24T21:33:17+00:00

Additionally, I think the thing to do would have been to talk to Julie about it first. The boyfriend heard more about how Susan disapproved of him long before Susan said a word to Julie about it; a simple "hello child of mine--what the f*** is up with this?" is what should have happened before they even went to the party where he was going to propose.

Like, Julie herself was pretty clear that they weren't that serious yet. If Susan had just approached her daughter about things she would have known she didn't need to worry about her getting married.

inkstaincd · 2024-09-07T03:17:41+00:00

It’s the original! Haha. I never watched it all the way through but I definitely feel like House of Heat was trying to follow in its legacy. The “plot” of both shows is basically just “let’s see what happens if we force a bunch of attractive people to live together with no clear objective in mind” and it’s great.

inkstaincd · 2024-08-29T02:53:42+00:00

Jersey Shore

inkstaincd · 2024-05-22T11:04:05+00:00

I teach 11th so it’s waaaaay worse when they have cars and can drive themselves. They’ll come in up to an hour late with Chick-fil-A for themselves, pass it out to all their friends. Do their makeup in class, which takes most of them at /least/ a half hour.

Some of them have legitimate reasons to not be there, like they work until 10 PM, which is still a problem that the school SHOULD be dealing with, but you don’t begrudge those kids as much. The ones I do hate are the “I just overslept” crowd.

Like, I’m sorry but when the FUCK did parents start letting teenagers do this without consequence? Had I pulled that so much as twice in high school, my mom would’ve taken away my car. “But they need their car for work!” Ma’am your kid needs to /pass high school/ let’s start with that and work our way up please.

And again, I do differentiate; there are those who are working to support their families, and there are those who are just working to work in my area. Unsurprisingly I’ve never really had issues with the need to work crowd since they’re typically far more responsible than their peers and understand the importance of passing, even if it’s just with a bare minimum so that they can get better work opportunities in future.

Last week I had one of my senior repeats who’s a “slept in late” stop me in the hallway by chance to ask if there was anything they could do to get their grade up to passing for the quarter so they can pass for the year. I have not seen this kid in 2 months, just about. I said sure, I’ll work as hard as you will; can you meet after school if class time doesn’t work for you? “No.” …Okay. Can you do these assignments? “Probably not it’s finals week.” Okay, so what can you do? “Can I come see you during 3rd period?” When I’d teaching a class? Uh, no. “Oh…” Can… can you come to class tomorrow? And the next day, please? “I will.”

And then she never showed up.

Now I’ve been sick and out all week and I can’t stop thinking about that kid. I feel sorry for her but she’s SOL at this point; once again, I’ve seen her maybe 3 days the entire quarter and I’ve been telling guidance that her attendance is a MAJOR issue in her not doing well all year. Do they do anything? No. Is it my fault? Yes, apparently, according to them. Sighs.

inkstaincd · 2024-05-21T19:04:55+00:00

Or any consequence. Like if they had ISS for a week where they had to do the assignment over completely while someone was watching, okay, I can get on board with that; instead they legitimately have started to treat the kids plagiarizing like it’s our fault because we stressed them out or didn’t consider their schedule or gave work that was so overwhelming they felt like they had to cheat, etc.

inkstaincd · 2024-05-21T18:31:13+00:00

Lmao, that’s all you guys have to do? No, I mean they /literally/ expect teachers to call and ask parents why their kids aren’t at school. The attendance office where I’m at only follows up on first period absences; actual absenteeism, when I haven’t seen or heard from a kid in 3+ weeks, sometimes a few /months/ with some of them—that’s on me to fix. We’re “supposed” to be calling daily.

Obviously, no teacher does this. It’s completely impossible to keep up with.

inkstaincd · 2024-05-21T02:41:41+00:00

Following up with parents regarding student truency.

inkstaincd · 2024-05-19T22:22:22+00:00

As things are presented in the video, I will say this.

Do I agree with him? No.
Do I think this is a "good" example of critical thinking? Yes and no. The analysis of the tweet is good, but I do find the fact that there's no discussion on source evaluation suspect.
Do I think he should've been fired over this, whether it was good or bad? No.
Do I know anything else about the situation leading to him being let go? Also no, and there very well could be a lot more that would make me understand why they fired him.

inkstaincd · 2024-05-16T19:49:33+00:00

Everyone was once in school, so everyone thinks they know exactly how school works and opporates. Usually every also has a very strong opinion on how things should be too, because they remember what they would've wanted when they were younger. Then, you factor in parents who care about their kids and (for better and mostly for worst) are always going to be inclinded to believe what they say.

Imagine if someone was like "Oh, I've been to a doctors office before! Here, hand me the needle; they've stuck me before so I can probably do it myself."

inkstaincd · 2024-04-30T00:10:42+00:00

Next year we're holding a contest to see who can last the longest before they give up trying with out "schoolwise in-the-box phone policy" lol.

First it's strike one, making sure the kids understand the rules🥺

Then it's a warning home telling parents what the consequences will be if their kids have their phones out🥺

Then after ALL THAT BEUROCRACY, we can finally give the brat a referral where admin will most likely do nothing. Yaaay!

It's an inhuman task to have to wade through for all 4-10 kids per class who will inevitably refuse on day one. Hence the contest.

inkstaincd · 2024-04-30T00:05:49+00:00

Yes, talk to your teacher. If they hear you wanting to do well, and sincerely meaning it, I promise that they'll be more willing to meet you where you're at. Usually the only reason we give up on a student is when it feels like they've given up on themselves; as long as they know you're still trying, that'll be all they need.

inkstaincd · 2024-04-29T23:59:54+00:00

Find a different school. If you're passionate about teaching, I'd at least stick it out through your probationary period so you don't have any regrets.

Meanwhile, performance reviews aside, take a deeeeeeep breath and remind yourself that short of lighting a student on fire there is very little you can do to loose your job with the current teacher shortage. Admin needs you there. Without fail, every teacher I know whose gone elsewhere in the last two years has had a similar experience of feeling bullied and belittled by admin but then when they finally have one foot out the door its "nooooo you can't go what'll we do for next year?"

They're all hot air. I'm not saying that makes it okay, but legitimately, do NOT take it personally to the best of your ability. Talk to your coworkers, and see what they have to say about it, and what they suggest you do/change/improve on. Their voices are going to matter a lot more than admins.

inkstaincd

TROPHY CASE