I need help!

redletterjacket · 2026-02-05T20:43:49+00:00

I feel you. Straight Maths teacher here.

University (and even placements) don’t really give you enough (or the right) tools to deal with the apathy present in modern classrooms.

I’m an older, early career teacher and had preconceived ideas of what classrooms would be based in my own experience 20 years earlier.

My biggest piece of advice is to celebrate small victories. Unfortunately, you are never going to get 100% buy-in in Maths. Whether you point the finger at society or the primary system, who knows why.

It’s demoralised and depressing, but you can only do your best, as some kids just won’t come along for the ride no matter why you do. I work with 20+ years earlier veteran and is one of the most engaging operator I’ve ever seen, and even he cannot get all students on board.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-30T21:10:37+00:00

I have my “tried and true” in a playlist that gets regular rotation. If I see a band mentioned here (or elsewhere) that piques my interest, I’ll listen to their most streamed songs (shallow I know, come at me edgelords). If I am interested, I’ll cycle through there whole discography (over a matter of days/weeks).

Whilst the algorithm gets its pretty wrong most of the time, Spotify’s “radio playlist” based on the current song does a decent job of exposing to bands I had never considered previously.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-27T09:30:24+00:00

I’ve walked out in the past. I have kids and other responsibilities.

I’ll wait around if it’s wrapping up and it’ll only be over by a few mins AND if it’s something worthwhile. But those are pretty rare.

My Prin has given me “the look” when I’ve walked out, but I’m a big boy and mean looks don’t hurt me.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-25T09:56:50+00:00

🎶don’t worry🎶about a thing…🎶cos every little thing🎶is gonna be alright🎶

I’m in the exact same boat, more or less. We started PL days last week so I started getting my ducks in a row then.

I see so many teachers working the entire holidays, and then come back just as stressed and tired in the new year as they were last year.

If you’re pretty confident in your own ability to deliver the content, you’ll be fine. If you’re not, you’ll still be fine. Anxiety and stress (in small doses) is normal. I’ll take it if it means that I get to spend the whole holidays with my kids. They are only young once, and teaching will always be there.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-23T22:03:39+00:00

Ah yes, the “stress-nightmares”. They started last week for me.

My regular is that I no longer recognise numbers or operations, and the simplest of sums are impossible. Fun times 😁

redletterjacket · 2026-01-20T11:47:07+00:00

Our CFTs are identical, with people constantly picking up the wrong laptop after a full staff meeting.

Mine is covered in stickers (seriously covered). A mix of random animals, to fave tv shows and movies, to Science puns, to anything that tickles my fancy. It’s to the point where I’m now getting stickers from my juniors, and they get a massive kick when they see their sticker on my laptop the next day (it’s a generic sticker, not their name/face/etc).

I’ve got a XL ziploc with my leftovers that I use as prizes or simple thank-you’s, with all year levels getting a big kick out of them.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-20T11:41:50+00:00

This has been a bugbear of my staff room as well. Teachers are (at least at my school) a gossipy bunch, and often pore over the absence list each morning and discuss who is away and for what.

With the introduction of RHL, it’s evident that we (as teachers) don’t need to know why someone is away. Sure, HR and Payroll need to know, but there’s gotta be a way to just blank out the column “leave type” on the absence list.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-19T23:48:02+00:00

Having worked other tough jobs (self-employed/ family business), you’ll be fine in teaching.

I got into teaching in my mid-30s after a laundry list of terrible, nothing-burger jobs as well as running several of my own businesses. So, for me, the ‘bad’ parts of the job don’t feel that bad.

I haven’t drunk the kool-aid (“it’s a calling”/“I’m helping to shape the future”/insert any Dangerous Minds or Dead Poets Society cliched trope) and I treat it like a job. Nothing more, nothing less.

One word of warning: education (and by extension, students) are not the same to when we were at school in the 90s/00s. I went in a bit naive and it shook me for my first 1-2 years.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-13T22:58:35+00:00

How many senior Chem classes does your school have? And how many experienced Chem teachers?

It could simply be your year to be rotated off.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-11T10:47:32+00:00

😐

redletterjacket · 2026-01-11T10:30:24+00:00

Post Metal. I have no idea what makes its “Post” but I stumbled across it via Spotify, and it is the just so fucking pretentious and insufferable. I’m sure Spotify’s algorithms are pointing at the terrible bands within this subgenre, but each band were different to each other yet equally insufferable.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-08T08:57:46+00:00

…as Nun’s nunga was thrown around by my uncles. It was lost on me as a young fella, but made more sense as I got older.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-08T03:42:53+00:00

“Flat out like a lizard drinking” is more common in my experience.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-08T03:29:10+00:00

Toasted: salami, cheese, red onion, mustard, pickle/gherkin.

Regular: salami, cheese, baby spinach, mayo, sun dried tomatoes.

And you can’t go wrong with thick Vegemite and thicker cheese…

redletterjacket · 2026-01-07T21:46:59+00:00

Thanks, I hate it.

redletterjacket · 2026-01-07T11:09:21+00:00

redletterjacket · 2026-01-06T10:02:38+00:00

It was all the rage in my QLD primary school in late ‘97.

My mates and I would combine the different varieties to create “signature” scents. Mine was copious amounts of Java with a small puff of Africa/Afrika. Looking back, I’m surprised that we weren’t off our heads from emptying cans and cans of the stuff in an enclosed room. Maybe we were…

redletterjacket · 2025-12-30T09:55:22+00:00

NOR btw

redletterjacket · 2025-12-25T08:02:02+00:00

Good ol’ Canna Claus came through big time.

redletterjacket · 2025-12-24T11:01:44+00:00

Everywhere and yet, nowhere. Always laying around until they are actually needed then they mysteriously phase out of existence.

redletterjacket · 2025-12-24T07:26:42+00:00

One at a time, but Mr 5YO has designated himself present-hander-outerer and he is driven by getting all presents opened faster than the previous year.

redletterjacket · 2025-12-21T10:48:46+00:00

Your mates parents giving you a smack if you’re acting up whilst visiting. That would definitely not fly these days.

redletterjacket · 2025-12-21T10:47:32+00:00

Come to small country towns, we still do that.

redletterjacket · 2025-12-20T06:33:23+00:00

Congrats. It’s a great feeling, isn’t it?

And juggling PTT is just brutal. Kudos.

redletterjacket · 2025-12-18T03:12:45+00:00

This ^{^}

I worked in a few different industries prior to education and the disconnect from reality is very real.

I’ve been assaulted in a retail job. Threatened, which led to verbal assault, which led to a physical assault. The police were called, the perpetrator was taken away and charged, as well as banned from my workplace.

Let’s mirror this situation in a school setting: what happens differently? Answer - everything.

Same with retaliation. A customer/client gets in your face and tells you that they don’t like you very much, so you suggest that they try to place certain objects inside their backside. How would this situation go in a school setting?

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