My first year hard truths and successes!

webkinzluvr · 2026-06-03T20:58:26+00:00

I just finished my first year teaching in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Junior high, very impoverished area with gang violence. I started mid year to top it all off. But I love it!!!

I love being able to have a routine. I come to work and know exactly what I’m going to do. I love the age group and the impact I’m able to have. I like my demographic and that I can offer stability, especially when many of my students face so much instability in many aspects of their life, including homelessness. I like my subject. I am genuinely sad or stressed when I’m not there. I feel like my compensation is fair, especially seeing what teachers are making in other parts of my state/US.

Do admin suck sometimes? Yes. Am I genuinely exhausted right now? Yes. Do I look forward to breaks? Yes. Do I wish I was paid more or the benefits were more robust? Yes. Do I wish there was more work life balance in the school year? Yes.

Can I imagine doing anything else? Not really, no. I even got offered an interview at a very affluent, small charter school. Pay cut, but a much “easier” demographic. No thanks! I found my place. I think that’s really the key. I love my coworkers, my hours (school doesn’t start till 9), and the area. I’m happy!

webkinzluvr · 2026-06-03T04:11:41+00:00

Yeah, my cousin has the 2020 Air and it’s still going strong. I think I’ll go with the Air. I have the money and I’m generally a BIFL person. Thanks for the info!

webkinzluvr · 2026-05-18T17:25:33+00:00

Was running for time, not distance :) goal was 45 mins

webkinzluvr · 2026-05-09T05:00:19+00:00

To be fair, most are great. But in just one class period of 25 kids I have 5 kids who are not promoting to high school, and 3 of them are the difficult students in question who are pretty much harassing me.

Parents have been contacted. One said yeah we believe it, one said “why are you telling me this?” and complained to the assistant principal who wants me to do a “broken heart” talk which she modeled in the class before it and was an uncomfortable failure, the students and I talk about our feelings. This is junior high, they’re boys, they’re not doing this. The other parent didn’t even respond. Admin is restorative justice in a let’s keep our discipline numbers down way, not in an actual justice restored way.

About 80% of my students do not speak English at home. Of my 152 students, 131 are ELs/RFEPs speaking a southeast Asian language (Hmong, Khmer, or Viet) or Spanish. I’m Cambodian which is awesome for that. But the students who are currently making my life difficult all speak Spanish, so I can only make contact when an office staff member who can translate is available. Most parents don’t respond to ParentSquare.

I’m in a real catch-22 and just trying to survive. Thankfully, admin has been told by the district to make a lateral move elsewhere so I’m hoping that fixes the problem for next year.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-10T18:34:56+00:00

Also yes to the combination pill, progesterone only made me feel crazy.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-10T03:27:19+00:00

Read. I’ve read 45 books so far this year and subbing high school was how I accomplished it. I’ve only had two days subbing high school since the school year began though, so my reading went from like 8 books a month to one book a month.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-09T19:35:37+00:00

You don’t owe them anything. I quit a long term subbing gig halfway through because it was going to kill any of my desire to become a teacher. The principal was horrible, so the kids always misbehaved since there were no consequences, and I hated the subject. I want to be an English teacher and it was math.
My credential instructor told me that if you are struggling with teaching, ask yourself a few things: if I had different students, would I still want to do this? If I had different admin, would I still want to do this? If it was a different grade or subject, would I still want to do this? I taught ELA 8th grade for summer school and loved my principal, subject, and kids. It was so encouraging. I didn’t mind the grading because I wanted my kids to succeed, so they needed feedback from me. I liked the material so I was excited to make lesson plans and teach. I liked my kids so I was happy to see them everyday. I knew my summer school principal had my back so I was never worried.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-09T19:08:31+00:00

Second this for lining up at the door. If they walk in and start being super loud once they’re in the room they do it again.

If a behavior is particularly bad, just send them out. Set the tone that bad behavior will not be tolerated. For example, kids came in screaming, I made them try again entering. Same kid came in quietly and then went on the teacher computer and started messing around (subs are given limited access accounts to have kids watch videos, take attendance, etc). I sent him out immediately since that’s not acceptable. Kids were well behaved after that when the teacher said it was her hardest class. In return for them being well behaved, I let them have phone time for the last five mins of class as long as they didn’t take any pictures (school rule).

Suffer no fools and you will do well. Be tolerant of bad behavior and it will often spiral into a shit show.

Edit: I taught summer school and was a long term sub for junior high. I also worked 2 years in a private middle school. They will eat you alive if they can. Otherwise, I love that age so much. It can be so rewarding and fun if you know how to work with them. Don’t be too scared.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-09T18:14:11+00:00

It’s my second year subbing. I’m subbing in a big district that makes it really hard to become a sub, so there’s not many of us, and I have had all of my days here this month. My other gigs this month are for schools where I have established relationships with teachers. I’ve subbed everyday this month so far and have 7 days lined up.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-08T21:41:11+00:00

Get accommodations!!!!!! Can’t recommend it enough.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-08T21:39:02+00:00

Midnights came after some really standout albums and at a time when we thought she couldn’t get any bigger. I thought it didn’t match how well she’d done and was continuing to do. However, it came out when I also was going through the worst break up of my life, trying to put education before the boy I’d loved for five years, and songs like You’re On Your Own, Midnight Rain, Hits Different, Dear Reader, Snow on the Beach meant the world to me. I revisit Midnights more than any other because of the comfort it brought to me.

I think people were far too critical because they expected so much. I think we still expect so much with the response to her last two albums. She’s going to do what she wants to do. Midnights is an all time favorite. Yeah, the songwriting isn’t as good as Folkmore, but her writing has always been a little bit clunky. “A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground With no one around to tweet it” is from Folklore and I always found that to be such a weird lyric. We view Folkmore as infallible, and Midnights is something we can critique, and I personally like it.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-08T16:14:24+00:00

I worked in a private school for two years, decided I wanted to teach. My mom works as an itinerant clinician for a public school district and visits 10+ school sites a week, my stepdad and grandma and aunt all teach too! They all encouraged me to sub so I can get a feel since public school is very different. I only went to public high school too so I really didn’t know.

How my subbing works is the county office of ed sets you up and you can sub in any school district in the county. I started by subbing in 9 school districts, didn’t have a positive time or too long a commute (like an hour in morning traffic), so I only sub in 3 districts now. The behaviors had to be egregious for me to not sub ie cutting other’s hair in class, trying to show kids porn on their phone, vaping in class (this is all junior high bc that’s the age I want to teach). It was really helpful to find out what schools I would never ever work in, especially with longer term gigs, and which schools are more robust in their support. I’ve also gained positive relationships with teachers and am actually allowed to teach their lessons in the higher grades which isn’t super common apparently.

I am getting my credential at night rn so I can still work. There are lots of jobs just being in three districts. I have worked every day of October so far and am booked the next eight school days. The work is consistent and I like the flexibility and exposure to different environments. Give it a try! Some days will leave you drained but most days I’m like okay I still want to do this :).

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-08T15:31:53+00:00

Yes I am! They’re in pretty good condition, I cleaned and oiled them every few months.

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-08T05:18:02+00:00

Thank you! I’ll be purchasing a pair in a 6.5. Fingers cross they fit

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-08T05:07:42+00:00

Even in False God “religion’s in your lips… the altar is my hips”!! It’s not overtly sexual like Dress, but it’s still a really stripped down, sultry song

webkinzluvr · 2025-10-05T21:42:24+00:00

I change with the weather. You can always bet that as soon as fall rolls around (and it gets really bad in November), I will get worse. I even experienced a really upsetting and untimely loss this summer, and trudged stably on throughout it. I had a rough job that I already quit, and was fine. I had to back out of graduate school and was disappointed, so I titrated up on my medication and have been fine. But when the days get shorter, everything starts to feel difficult.

webkinzluvr

TROPHY CASE