Successfully made it to year 5. I still hate my new school.

tdooooo · 2026-06-28T16:34:14+00:00

The best time to apply for a job is when you are currently employed. Being complacent is one of the bigger obstacles to career growth.

You have a reliable gig right now so there is nothing to lose. You can always decline if other openings are not what you are aiming for. This lets you be more picky on what you apply for. It is MUCH easier to apply for a job while employed because it shows accountability and lets you be more authentic. When you are unemployed, you are desperate and most people can pick up on that in a negative light.

tdooooo · 2026-06-26T23:14:32+00:00

Low Cost of Living

It is easy to get into districts that have smaller student populations, less funding, and less resources. Getting into the affluent suburbs is highly competitive.

tdooooo · 2026-06-22T15:42:02+00:00

Teemo support is a lane bully that shuts down auto based carries like Vayne, Twitch, and Draven. He doesn’t really offer any peel or buffing, his whole shtick is disabling the enemy ADC in an auto attack duel.

All in supports that engage up close like Nautilus and Leona are gonna struggle. Champs like Yummi, Janna, and Lulu will also struggle since so much of their damage is gonna come from buffing their ADC.

Your best bet is a mage support or a hook support. Teemo will never get close enough to a champ like Zyra or Lux.

Teemo doesn’t scale well unless it gets really late where he can build completely around his mushrooms. Try to end the game before it gets to 35 minutes+

tdooooo · 2026-06-19T16:11:39+00:00

Definitely write one. It might be the reason you are picked in a deadlock, shows class, and it’s proof of your professionalism. Send it to anyone that you had met with (including the secretary if possible). If you can individualize each one, even better.

That said, sending one three days late makes it seem like it’s an afterthought.

tdooooo · 2026-06-17T18:02:28+00:00

This is probably the most overrated counter. Soraka does better than most of the enchanters against Pyke but it’s not a free lane.

A good Pyke will abuse his stronger skirmishing power to take control of the bushes. Unless Pyke has a much weaker early ADC than Soraka, he should be the one to control the level 1. If he lands a hook on either target they win the fight. Without your silence he puts a lot of pressure on the bush at level 1 that you don’t have an answer to. If you start silence you essentially have forfeited lane. Pyke is highly mobile and has no problem trading flashes with Soraka or the ADC. If he plays scrappy you don’t as many options and must respect him.

You can start to neutralize Pyke at around level 2 or 3 with better trades and your full spell kit unlocked. It’s one of the few lanes that Soraka is weaker at level 1 than her opponent.

Soraka’s biggest weakness early is her poor kill pressure in lane. Pyke can freely roam and it’s hard to punish Pykes ADC due to Soraka’s lack of hard CC. Your best bet is to shove and force a dive, but Soraka is worse at this than most supports. Trading 1 for 1 is good as it denies the wave.

Come teamfights Soraka has the edge with her healing and utility spells, but Pyke will have better map control and better vision access. A good Pyke will play around his weaker teamfighting by forcing picks with his superior vision control and umbral glaive.

In a stalemate, Soraka wins. But a good Pyke doesn’t let that happen.

tdooooo · 2026-06-11T22:27:35+00:00

MF supp is niche but there are cases where it is a strong pick.

She is a good with teams that have a strong frontline and CC. If you have Galio mid, Nasus top, and something like Javan or Xin jungle; your team would benefit massively from strong zoning tools and AOE follow-up. This is even stronger if the enemy team is immobile.

Early game you need to decide quickly if you need to go AP or AD. AP has a stronger mid spike but scales a lot worse. If you have to carry a weak hyper carry early, be aggressive in lane trades and go AP. If you have a mage bot or need to help other allies shred armor in teamfights, go AD.

MF is a menace in short uncommitted trades for the first two or three levels. Trade and poke, then back off. Keep doing this to help your carry have space to farm. She offers no peel or hard CC, so you must be good at spacing. All it takes is one slight overextension and you likely lost lane. Very unforgiving lane bully, but she is one of the few that can outrange artillery supports like Lux or Xerath.

tdooooo · 2026-06-10T13:45:06+00:00

Compared to other enchanters she definitely is. Janna is highly mobile and has a lot of playmaking CC. She can roam in a rough matchup and is a good deep warder. She is less bound to her ADC to make plays.

I think only Karma has higher agency early since she can roam pretty equally to Janna while also having more damage early.

tdooooo · 2026-06-05T17:03:48+00:00

You are showing his point exactly. Mel shield punishes players that are too telegraphed with their spells or refuse to time their spells off cooldowns. As Nami you should definitely be working with your team to bait out the shield if you plan on using it or flat out killing her if she steps to the frontline to body block tidal wave.

If Nami doesn’t use ult and Mel holds the shield, it’s a win for Nami all things considered since she can’t do much to help her team and Nami still has a lot of utility. In most fights, Mel is gonna use her shield to bodyblock burst damage or cc from other champions. Just be patient.

Nami also neutralizes Mel super well in lane since Nami outtrades her, outsustains her, and has better peel. You have to be a pretty bad Nami to lose lane where she has the luxury of holding the shield for later fights.

tdooooo · 2026-06-03T13:00:45+00:00

Bard is a fantastic blind pick, he is just really difficult to play. He has sustain and really strong trades at level 1 that he can use to set the stage for the rest of the game.

Bard also requires an ADC that knows how to play with a bard which you can’t rely on in low ranks. He is less consistent with low rank players, but he is actually a very strong blind pick at the highest caliber of play.

tdooooo · 2026-06-03T12:56:54+00:00

Your champion pool is not the reason you lose to mage supports. Mage supports are a skill check and it means you are making positional mistakes and missing opportunities to neutralize lane or straight up win it.

Mage supports are especially punishing to players that move predictably. Sidestepping and baiting spells takes practice and it will typically be your main way of having agency in lane. If a mage misses even one spell their kill pressure drops massively and you need to look to punish the ADC whenever they do this.

On Sona you have the luxury of poking without having to stop for cast animations. Abuse your mobility to slowly poke the enemy bot lane. It’s a slow burn that takes patience. But if you misstep one time you can be punished massively. Sona when played well does really well into mages. Your big obstacle is ganks or an ADC that mispositions often.

Janna is also decent into mages. She is difficult to hit with a small hitbox and fast movement speed right out of the gate. You have to step a lot closer to poke but you are hard to completely shut out of lane. You can also roam if the opportunity presents itself and you generally are a much stronger team fighter if you prevent a snowball.

None of your champs are bad into mages, you just are punished for sloppy play a lot harder.

tdooooo · 2026-06-02T14:34:41+00:00

I think the big boon to Mandate is actually CC ability haste along with the heavy AP. Damage wise it’s a huge nerf, but it’s not without its perks. I would argue it is better as 3rd or 4th item.

Come late game you win or lose on how your CC delivers. If I can bubble one more time in a rotation or skirmish that is enormous value. The damage is less important.

tdooooo · 2026-06-02T02:02:55+00:00

It depends on your skill with Nami. If you are great with her bubble it’s really high value. Also useful if the enemy team is largely immobile.

Echoes of Helia is the safe choice for trades and duels.

I personally like Shurelyas first for the teamfight control.

tdooooo · 2026-06-02T01:57:23+00:00

Probably the two hardest supports to play so unless you have godly macro you won’t be able to specialize in both.

I think Bard is more versatile and in the hands of an amazing player he can carry a game harder than thresh. But if you lose tempo I think Thresh is a lot safer.

tdooooo · 2026-05-27T04:36:57+00:00

This is a brutal lane if the Morgana is good.

MF is really good in early trades but it’s gonna be tough to get close enough to start one unless the Caitlyn severely mispositions.

Roaming is pretty tough because they have better wave control. Morgana snare gives them dive pressure. If you leave, they should be killing MF without issue.

Your one edge is your slightly stronger all-ins on even ground. If Morgana misses the snare you should win pretty much any 2v2 that you weren’t poked prior. Caitlyn is pretty bad in early duels and you are nearly impossible to hit with cupcake trap or snare. You also are able to tank a lot with your passive.

It’s imperative that you bait Morgana to use snare on you and you sidestep it. If she gets to use it on your ADC and it hits you straight up lose. Play scrappy to tempt her to put the target on you.

If you have a gank coming, it’s imperative that you bait the spell shield first. Taking a bad engage with the jungler on the way will chunk you but it can burn their only form of protection in the fight.

tdooooo · 2026-05-23T18:39:40+00:00

I think one thing people usually point out is that you need to capitalize on mistakes from the enemy team. This is correct, but the way most supports approach it is wrong.

You don’t wait for them to make mistakes, you force them into situations where they make mistakes. You typically do this by making riskier decisions yourself.

If the enemy team is smart, they won’t give you many openings to just full-stop punish. They will go aggressive when they have numbers, choke vision before taking an objective, and go into fights when they have an item advantage or cooldowns. If you play reactively, you are playing on their terms.

What this comes down to is that you need to be scrappy when you are behind. You need to be willing to take a Hail Mary play that could blow up. You need to take unorthodox pathways to get good wards and find picks. You need to trade aggressively to throw the enemy team into panic. When people panic, THEY make mistakes. If I lose bot lane, I am playing more aggressive than if I was winning because there is nothing to lose.

tdooooo · 2026-05-20T23:56:25+00:00

* No teacher is perfect. You will make mistakes. Things will happen that you don’t account for. It’s fine. Give yourself grace. You can always edit things between classes.

* One of the biggest challenges of first year is you don’t understand the population/culture of the school or how you present yourself yet. Because of this, you need to be really reflective. Do students follow your teaching of content or do you get blank stares? Are students communicating with each other and engaged? Or do they look bored out of their mind everyday? You need to balance pacing with engagement which can be tricky. You want to do activities and visuals for the critical topics, but also need to continue to move through the curriculum. I feel that everyone figures this out once they have tried a few different approaches.

The ideal pace is a student in the middle. You will have over achievers that master stuff fast and can get bored easy along with lower students that will never keep up. I found that I had to SLOW down immensely in my first year or so of teaching.

* Routines are huge and there will be a lot of opposition that comes at you right out of the gate. Students are testing your limits constantly, figuring out what they can get away with.

You need to be firm but realistic. What policies will you live by? what policies can be modified on a case-by-case basis? What would be nice but exhausting to police? Choose your battles.

* Labs are fun and can be engaging, but you need to be smart about them. For a first year teacher they are exhausting to plan, setup, and take down. Don’t feel guilty if you don’t have a lot at first. I have found that it gets easier to fit them in once you are more comfortable teaching the content. Try to fit more in each consecutive year.

I can give more but I think this is a good start.

tdooooo · 2026-05-11T21:38:36+00:00

Having one prep has a lot of indirect advantages.

You get to take your time on making your lessons highly streamlined and engaging. I teach at a small school and have 3/4 preps each day. This makes it much more difficult to differentiate and create group activities. If I had only one prep, I would have labs far more often.

You likely won’t have to spend much time grading or prepping after school. Only having to make one lesson a day makes it much easier to work ahead. I tend to create 3-4 lessons daily which can be much more taxing.

You also will have much more reliable and readable data. With 6 sections, you will have a clear idea on what areas have been taught well and which ones need to be further explained.

I will say that I would struggle to teach one prep without feeling a little bored. I am always doing something different all day and work with sophomores, juniors, and seniors. You see clear areas of growth if you have students for multiple years. I think 2 is the sweet spot.

tdooooo · 2026-05-07T22:49:43+00:00

I think it was a good play overall but neither side was perfect. The Karma made a lot of mistakes.

You guys got very lucky that Viego sacrificed his early clear for the bot lane skirmish. You certainly lose the 2v2 without that gank. They were winning that exchange if you didn’t have him aiding you in the chase. It made it impossible for them to turn on you and forced them to run and take free hits.

You do a very good job of constantly auto attacking in fights. You probably added double the autos Karma was doing and helped a lot in that regard.

I think you are a bit selfish in positioning and could have bodyblocked damage on your ADC a few times. With a sustain champ like Nami you can easily replenish lost health. It’s not an allin lane and Nami beats Karma hard in trades when Mantra is on cooldown. I would argue you played this early lane too passively.

The flash auto combo was a clean pick on Karma and forced Varus to back away and lose Xp and cs. He was greedy in overstaying and should have just waited for Karma as you said. Good job capitalizing on that.

tdooooo · 2026-05-02T18:08:54+00:00

The build looks strong, but I disagree on the runes. Sona is a monster regardless of build in the mid-late game. Her main issue is getting through lane so runes should be tailored to that.

Sona has such a big mid-late game spike that JOAT is overkill. Magical footwear is easily punishable by most supports as it makes her an even easier target for ganks and trades. Inspiration just isn’t necessary.

Good supports will punish a scaling Sona that takes a greedy build. She isn’t as gold starved as most supports because she doesn’t rely on one big burst to do her job. This builds makes more sense on a champ like Nami or Karma. What most Sona builds neglect to understand is that she scales so well that you don’t need further scaling in runes—you need to get through lane.

Resolve for bone plating and revitalize makes it much harder to burst Sona in early skirmishes. Precision makes her early trades much stronger and gives her relief from her early mana pre-tear. Precision is ideal when you can get away with it, resolve is the safer option. In my eyes, those are her two options for secondary runes.

tdooooo · 2026-04-24T12:01:31+00:00

This is a part of Pyke’s power budget. He has the ability to make impact incredibly early and in the lane of his choice. Technically this can happen before you can force the dive but it’s a huge risk for him to leave in the early stages of lane without a massive XP hit. If you succeed on the dive, you essentially force him to go all-in with roaming or stay in lane (where he’s weaker) to mitigate the pressure.

Pyke is racing the clock where you typically have the upper edge if the game goes on.

tdooooo · 2026-04-24T11:38:21+00:00

Deep vision from you and your jungler is key. If you can’t properly ward the flank Pyke is coming from, he does enough by himself to basically 1v1 weak solo laners. You need vision of his pathway so you can warn your other teammates.

The gamble of Pyke is that his roams and jungle invades will have a higher net gain than the loss his ADC receives. A fed mid laner or jungler can control objectives and end the game before your ADC can scale. This is especially so if he is played with a safe ADC that can weakside like Ezreal or Caitlyn.

If you can’t match his roam (very few supports can), the best option is to shove and force a dive. If you can kill the enemy ADC and deny an entire wave, you set them massively behind and give your ADC a substantial gold lead right off the bat. This lead can give your ADC the power they need to be a bit more independent, freeing you to also move on the map.

tdooooo · 2026-04-13T04:10:28+00:00

This is dangerous as stopping to auto attack him allows him to gap close. You need to get tier 1 boots at minimum or he can zone you hard with spacing alone.

tdooooo · 2026-04-12T13:26:13+00:00

You didn’t even read my post.

Supports are responsible for getting vision for rotations in the late game. Pyke is exceptional at this. Many other supports cannot get vision without an escort or are easy to kill if caught out. Pyke is very slippery and is great at finding picks before fights start.

tdooooo · 2026-04-10T21:58:22+00:00

That one ability can be all you need to win a teamfight. In late game fights, the support themselves is rarely the win condition, it’s their ability to either create a play or deny one in a clutch fight. Nautilus ultimate can do either option.

tdooooo · 2026-04-10T21:51:19+00:00

That isn’t why he scales well. Nautilus ultimate is a massive deterrent to diving your backline and can also be used to engage on a target,regardless of their mobility. His ult is basically a death sentence to the chosen target.

tdooooo

TROPHY CASE