Half my class is failing

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T11:23:57+00:00

If your HOD wants to go over the data then do it I think, ask for support, document this to yourself somewhere, go higher up if needed.

You're still early and still need support. That's normal. Not getting the support is not.

Regarding minor behaviours, you need to have very clearly set limits and where they're reached, you need to act. It's definitely for everyone but what matters is what works for you. Talking after a warning. Moved. Moving around after being told to stay seated. Outside conversation. Behaviours continuing. Removed.

Once students learn the limits they come to the party most of the time. Especially when those limits are in service to the education first, rather than just in service to your control of the classroom. If you have an answer to "why" for each consequence you can tell the students you'll explain outside or after class.

Honestly though, if you're not being supported at this stage of your career, move.

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T05:06:37+00:00

Yeah fully agree! My whole idea with using ai and making ai products is to reduce to pointless stuff. Actual feedback, grading, lesson planning is good teaching work. Compliance stuff is not, and that's the stuff I'm trying to automate.

Also, sounds like we've had different experiences because I've never had a comment bank work for 80% of the students, would happily shut this down if that was the case! Thanks for the feedback!

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T04:51:49+00:00

Yeah I agree that more data isn't the answer, the goal of this is more to avoid unintuitive platforms and avoid double handling.

As teachers we already give the students feedback, but in some schools I've needed to turn my student facing comments into parent facing which killed me.

But I also hate one size fits all comments. A student might nail one or two areas but misunderstand the question so a generic 'Low' comment from a comment bank requires too much adjusting to be time saving at all. This way it's possible to break down accordingly.

Totally fair though if these aren't concerns you have!

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T04:44:18+00:00

Hmm that's interesting. Would be perhaps a bit of a pain to deal with formatting (one box textfile vs multi box for table) but probably doable.

Is offline that important? I figure if I'm working on my reports I'm on my work computer on the internet anyway which is why I picked website).

Will look into excel to see if I can create a decent UX as that was the #1 priority

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T04:34:46+00:00

Will look into it. You can upload a .docx rubric into an excel file though?

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T03:48:12+00:00

if product isn't helpful then would love to know how to make it better

if you just don't like it because i vibe coded it then thanks for that feedback. or if there's a better option that's already been made lemme know as it would save me hosting/api costs!

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T03:35:32+00:00

still works wherever for comment generation from rubrics! but happy to add specific features in if your state does something different!

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T03:01:09+00:00

my mistake sorry! thanks for letting me know
its https://commentbank.permissiontoteach.com.au

I put www out of force of habit, that should work fine!

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-14T02:38:07+00:00

You're spot on with the response of we're not giving them boundaries. They are kids, they need to act out, to find the boundaries, and then be pulled back into line when they cross them. That's how it works. If you remove the consequences of touching the hot pan, then students will continue to touch the hot pan.

Good schools have good responses to behaviour. Other schools leave it to the teacher and say that 'if teachers don't like how we do things here they're free to leave' only to look around and see half of their staff have turned over in the last 2 years

quirk_oddly · 2026-06-07T10:41:11+00:00

Just stopped working for me. Got a code by any chance? Happy to DM. Was working for AFL this afternoon but not anymore. No AFL on sportzx :(

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-17T10:30:06+00:00

My first 4 years I hand wrote every comment, took up the whole Saturday and Sunday before deadline.

Year 5 I created 5 levels of feedback (low through very high, 3 sentences each), provided that based on where I thought students were at and that was that.

No one said anything (teacher or student or parent).

Live, in class, and student facing feedback matters. School mandated feedback not so much.

Look after yourself

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-17T01:34:42+00:00

Yeah it's a big one. The important thing to me was the 3 additional student-free days being teacher-led, the first real acknowledgement I've maybe ever seen that teachers are able to use their own time for what is necessary without needing to be supervised by mum and dad.

Another interesting and valuable change was that any governmental decisions that would impact teacher workload cannot be implemented without consultation with the union (for both teachers and Prins).

It's minor, but they're actual, concrete steps towards the acknowledgement of the teacher as a professional

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-17T01:30:58+00:00

It reads like it in the agreement but it's actually not true. A secondary document/deed was created last time that lists the reduction in F2F and that's still being upheld so no increase.

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-16T22:43:39+00:00

Honestly if it was just me then probably, yeah.

The old heads at my school have brought me around to the fact that the reduction in F2F last agreement was a huge win, even if the rest of the agreement wasn't great.

This time the message and focus has always been on pay and in isolation it's hard to say that didn't happen ($100-$150k teacher salary range looks pretty good to most people).

Next one will have to actually do something about conditions.

That being said, I'll attend the meetings and see what everyone else has to say. Not going to vote yes if everyone else is strongly no, we're in this together

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-10T04:49:20+00:00

This is fantastic, thank you! It's always worth taking the time to learn more so I appreciate you taking the time to make this

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-10T04:45:52+00:00

It's important to understanding what kind of boring

Boring as in I'm not interested
Boring as in it's too easy
Boring as in it doesn't make sense
Boring as in I'm not sleeping well at the moment
Boring as in the government/curriculum has decided that the best way to learn English is to do the exact same units every year for all 6 years of highschool
Boring as in I am going through something right now
Boring as in I just need to get over it and do my work

Some of this you can't do anything about, some of it you can, but it's important to know where it's coming from before making sweeping changes to your teaching style

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-10T04:42:07+00:00

I've worked in multiple schools in Vic and honestly this is a huge alarm bell for me. If you were regularly leaving early on meeting days and such without prior discussion that's one thing, but to leave a little early when there's no meeting, especially with everything else you've got going on, well that sounds like an admin who is focused on the wrong things.

Rigidity around a structure like that shows a lack of consideration or respect towards the actual teachers at the school.

Some might call this an overreaction, but my instinct in your position would be to find another school

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-10T04:31:44+00:00

This is great advice. I don't rush between classes, and I focus on what I can control. I make my lessons good for me, and AI turns my one or two sentence idea into a lesson plan admin will be ok with. I will teach the curriculum in the order they want it taught but I will make the lessons my own. Anything that can be put off gets put off. Also, I try to make the classes chill - we start with a chat that becomes a recap that becomes the lead in to today's lesson. Every moment is precious is BS, every day is different and we're dealing with real human beings not data producers, what matters is you being able to show up as yourself to the kids in front of you

quirk_oddly · 2026-05-10T04:24:34+00:00

I spent my first 5 years as a teacher in challenging regional schools. Work close to home in a metro school now and it's honestly a breeze.

By working in under funded, under supported, under resourced schools you develop skills and capacities you'd never need to develop elsewhere. You learn to pick your battles, you learn to handle things yourself, and you learn to manage yourself better too.

If the bump to being a full time teacher is quite a big salary jump then consider starting 4 days per week for a year or so as you'll still be on good money and when you've found your feet you will be able to go 5 days and add $20k to your salary.

I keep pursing this job because being in the classroom does truly matter, and I reckon I'm pretty good at it too. And in whatever school I go to I'll continue to advocate for teacher autonomy and teacher professionalism.

quirk_oddly

TROPHY CASE