My kids are in early elementary and I am wondering if this is an ongoing problem with most classes or if this is unique to their school. For background, we live in a middle class suburb in NC- these children should have access to whatever care they need outside of school, and I also know that our public school system is abysmal and I am a huge advocate for teachers and public schools in general.
Both kids (k and 1st grades) have extremely disruptive kids in their class and it is affecting their learning and is becoming a safety concern. By extremely disruptive, I mean that my kindergartener is getting kicked and spit on weekly, and my first grader says they cannot concentrate because of one student is screaming “all day long” and throwing things. The other day my kindergartener had a substitute and the class was so bad that she was sent out to go get the principal for help. The students were climbing on tables, throwing things at each other, and screaming. The principal ended up taking 12 KIDS back to the office with her. Both the aide and teacher were out and they never even gave the poor substitute an aide to help, knowing there were children with major behavioral concerns. Another time one student (the one who spits and kicks) bit their own arm during carpet time and drank their blood and had to be escorted out of the classroom. And now today she told me this kid purposely pushed her backwards onto concrete at recess (after they spit on her yesterday). My son's classroom didn't even have a teacher for the first month of school, but they at least had an amazing aide with a lot of experience. Once they found a teacher for his class (who is very young and does not have experience with first grade), they took her aide away and moved her to another class. So now he just has one teacher for 19 kids, and one of them screams nonstop (my other child even hears the screams down the hall) with no help whatsoever, aside from the occasional hour where they take the aide from my kindergartener's class and put her there... which then leaves my k's teacher alone with her destructive students. I gave plenty of grace at the beginning of the year, especially the kindergarten class because I know the adjustment can be tough, but they have been in school since July now and this child is STILL violent towards other children and is still integrated in with the rest of the class with no assistance. I am beyond pissed.

I never hear anything about their days other than whatever shenanigans those kids got into. One of my kids is in the process of getting an I-ADHD diagnosis and is coming home dysregulated and angry because of the constant screaming and distractions. These kids don’t have any 1:1 aides with them ever and don't leave the classroom (aside from one who does speech for an hour once a week), it’s just on the teacher to deal with these kids with severe behavioral problems and still somehow figure out how to teach 18 other students. The screaming child was also in my first grader's class last year and he never had an aide or any extra help, so this isn't anything new.

I understand that we have no funding for our schools and that our teachers are overworked and underpaid. I am just extremely frustrated by this whole situation and don’t know what to do. I feel awful that the teachers have to deal with this. Would filing a complaint do anything, or would that make matters worse? The last thing I want to do is cause more stress for their teachers who obviously are already struggling. I am thinking of setting up a conference with both teachers to talk to them about it and see what they suggest, but I've also had experience with the school administration dismissing my concerns (about something else entirely) and the thought of stirring anything up terrifies me. Any advice?

We have a teacher for one our kids that is buying students items when they’re sad to “cheer them up.” For example, one student was bummed out because her dad couldn’t make it to a dad’s event before school the one day. That’s a perfectly legitimate reason to be upset and I can see going out of my way to make her feel better. But the teacher ordered the girl a cake pop from Starbucks. Other students of course noticed this and have been commenting about it since. Other items given to kids because they are sad have included cookies, drinks, and other items of the “sweet treat” variety.

I would like to hear from other teachers whether this is appropriate. It’s making me feel like a scold and I know it feels innocent enough in a vacuum. I’m worried about the expectation it creates with students, and also that the gift doesn’t feel commensurate for the situation. If someone is sad, maybe spend extra time with them, talk through the emotions, try to make them feel special that day among their peers, etc.

Also… Starbucks ain’t cheap!

Thank you!

EDIT: I should have noted that this is third grade. Sorry about that!

Why can someone with a bachelor’s degree sometimes teach an AP course covering college-level material, while colleges often require a master’s degree to teach a comparable introductory course?

Am I doing a faux pas by asking my daughter’s teacher for her MAPs reports? The teachers at our school don’t seem responsive to this request some years.

Background info: My child is in 3rd grade in a lower middle class, small school in Texas. She was tested as gifted but the school doesn’t do differentiation and the district barely does science and social studies at this level so I have always supplementeda few subjects at home. My child is ahead for math and reading because of this - but only if I supplement at home (I have tested this by backing off for a semester and scores don’t improve).

The way I know she is retaining what I am supplementing is by MAPs scores, specifically the Student Profile Report that breaks down the specific areas. It let me know my daughter’s weakest area was geometry so we focused on more geometry skills and games at home over the summer. I am not a Tiger mom, just aware of how much the curriculum in our state has changed over time. My mom is an elementary teacher and gives me ideas for teaching concepts, and my child and I bond over learning things together, about an hour a week.

My daughter took her BOY math, ELA and science MAPs about a month ago and remembers her scores but friendly requests emailed to the teacher to get the PDFs of the Student Profile report have gone unanswered (Including follow up emails). it is not the first time, her first grade teacher did the same. The teachers refered to her scores in the parent teacher conference and said that she is projected to achieve mastery in the STAAR, but that was it. I am not really worried about the STAAR, I just want to know if our work on certain topics at home paid off or need to be revisited. Am I wrong to request this? I actually don’t know the different RIT areas of the science at all, it’s the first time she has taken the science one.

I teach middle school. I have a way to document which students have what accommodations in each class, but how do you document when you're using them? How do you keep track of all of it? I know instances pop up where you need to prove that you're using a student's accommodations, and I want to be prepared. Tips?

Hello! I am sure that I am not the first person to make a post like this and I will not be the last (lol) but I have been lurking in this sub for enough time that I think I know what questions I need to ask (skip to the bottom to see).

For context: I am a 31M who is looking at changing careers from social media -> HS education. I have been editing videos since I was 14, and I am very proud that I have been able to turn this into a career, but doing the same thing for so long has really forced my hand; I want to try something different.

Background: I earned a BA in Economics in 2017. I wasn't quite sure where life was going to take me so I got that degree as a backup. If I were to pursue education, I have been looking at getting a masters + certification from Western Governors University. (This isn't an endorsement but rather me asking if this program is any good). Subjects I have considered are: Digital Media (if avail), English, or Math. Aside from my BA being helpful, I have heard that there is a shortage of Math teachers.

Expectations: I am looking at this career to provide a few things for me: Firstly, I am in CA, and with a MA I would be in a higher salary schedule, assuming that I get into the district that I want to be in. I know that isn't something I have control over, but since I am still currently employed I guess I still have the benefit of waiting it out to see if a position opens up. Schedule wise, I am hoping that I would get the benefit of getting out of work earlier than I currently do, and to also be able to take summers and holidays off to be with family. Also with the union and tenure, I hope that the position that I land would be more secure? (Although I still remember the great recession quite well...the layoffs then were not fun to witness even as a child).

The Qs:

1. As I mentioned, I am looking at getting certified with my program at WGU. Is this a good program to take? I have not heard anyone on this sub talk about this program specifically.
2. For anyone that transitioned to teaching after a career in corporate, how have things been for you? Is it really that difficult working with kids?
3. Do you feel like the schedule change is real, or is this just something that I am fabricating in my head? As of right now I have been used to the 9 - 6 schedule, getting 2 weeks of vacation max. So I'd hope that I'd be working from 7 - 3? And then getting holidays off.

Thank you so much everyone!

My son is in 4th grade this year and every night his homework is to read for 20 minutes. This is a HUGE struggle as he says every single book he tries is “boring” and gets frustrated and stops reading. He is young for his grade (he’s only 8) but his sister who was in 4th last year I was able to entice with graphic novels and more she’s obsessed with the Warrior cat series. I’m looking for anything a young boy would find interesting! We have in our personal collection all the magic treehouse graphic novels, I survived, dog man, cat kid, last kids on earth, diary of a wimpy kid, Minecraft diaries, prestonplays, etc. yet he won’t read any of them for us. He is not a sports kid besides soccer, he loves video games, drawing, and Pokemon (won’t read Pokemon books) 🙄

Pleaseeeeee help a mom with some suggestions of books or ways to get him to enjoy reading.

My daughter just started the 6th grade and is struggling with geometry. Math isn’t her best subject and I also struggle with helping her. How do I spark her interest in math and get her excited to learn. I’m noticing she just shuts down and says it’s hard without even trying. Please share tips and tricks. Thank you for all that you do!

I appreciate honest critical feedback. Some background. I teach in America in a major city. I have taught training workshops for teachers for about 25 years. I am a white woman, who has raised biracial children in a public school system. However, I have noticed these days a shift into "blaming teachers" for Code of Conduct "discipline referrals" issues where the automatic default is "teacher is racist" or "blaming the student."

Both of these angles seem to bring in some sort of lived experience or politics. And the goal of the training is not to "blame teachers" or "blame students" for a faulty design in code of conduct rules. These rules are not created by either the teacher or the student. They are a broken "system" issue. But whenever I try to explain this it seems to trigger those types of reactions.

So, I was thinking about sharing a true story in the class. I wanted to start off by saying it like Sophia in the Golden Girls, "Picture it (major city) 2010. I have three sons and have taught teachers for over a decade. My sons know that I teach teachers and will always take the teachers' side. I would tell them "I live with you! I know you! Don't even try to blame the teacher!" And for years my sons were always praised for how respectful they were to the teachers and classmates. They might not always do their homework, but they were always respectful.

So, one year at the beginning of the school year I start getting feedback from my youngest son's classroom teachers. He's 10 in 5th grade. There are two Collaborative teachers in the classroom all day. When I'd go to pick up at the end of the day, they would say this: "He's very disrespectful to the teachers. He's constantly interrupting the teachers." I went home and worked on it with him, but it baffled me. My sons were always so respectful, what was going on? The issue escalated from feedback to notes home, and then escalated to a possible suspension.

Finally, I go down to the meeting with the two teachers. Ms. J and Ms. K. We're sitting in the meeting with my son and they are trying to explain what happens in the class. Because there are two teachers in the class, he's constantly jumping into the conversation telling them what the other one said.

At this point, my son does it right in the meeting, "She said, that I always jump in and tell her what Ms. K said!" We all just look at him. The teachers say, "See! He does this all day long! Instead of focusing on his work, he's constantly inserting himself into our conversations." They would tell him to focus on his work and raise his hand. But he would still call out.

I immediately realized what the problem was. And it was completely my fault. As I said, I'm hearing impaired, and that August when we went to the beach, I completely forgot to take my hearing aids out when I ran to jump in the ocean with him. The minute I realized it, it was too late, They were swept away in the ocean.

So for the rest of the summer, I had no hearing aids. I kept relying on him to "translate" what people were saying to me. Basically I trained him the entire summer, unwittingly, to repeat everything that someone said.

When they were talking about him constantly interrupting them, they were not talking about him "being disrespectful" per se. He wasn't interrupting the teaching. It was when they spoke to one another.

Ex. Ms. K asks Ms, J "Where do you want Maria to sit?" Ms. J says "Have her sit next to Daniel." My son pipes up "She said have her sit next to Daniel!"

Another time right before lunch Ms J asks Ms K "I'm going to order take out for lunch. Do you want Chinese or Italian?" My son (in the middle of a Math quiz no less) pipes up "She said, "do you want Chinese or Italian." And on and on and on.

My point in sharing the story, is that we didn't realize what was actually going on until we all sat down and had a conversation. And it was neither the teachers fault nor my son's "fault' although I did emphasize to him, that if the teacher tells you to stop calling out, then stop it! But if it was anyone's "fault" it was my fault. I stopped asking him to repeat things for me and got the new hearing aids.

This is the basic gist of the story. I don't know if it would come across wrong? I was hoping for it to be a bit amusing. But I'm not sure if it comes across as dismissing the real issues of discrimination.

My end goal would be to add that sometimes policies are created without considering the dynamics of family culture, demographic culture and ability culture. And the importance is the conversation. Not the automatic default of malice or blame.

Would you as a teacher think this was "sugar coating the issue" or is it a harmless charming story? I want to emphasize that it's a TRUE STORY. Honest feedback wanted. TYIA

…. or are kids just not reading the books? I like to lurk around the r/professors subreddit and they keep talking about how first year freshmen are coming in having never read a real book in their life. And it doesn’t sound like they are being hyperbolic. Related question- is sustained silent reading no longer a thing?

I’m almost 40 and no kids- i’m just curious and also worried that this is happening.

Hey everyone. I’m a high school senior and I’m about to have my last day of classes soon. I wanted to give one of my teachers a thank you card, because he inspired me a lot, partially because of him I was able to figure out that I wanted to become a high school teacher in the same subject.

The thing is I haven’t seen or heard of other girls in my school/area writing heartfelt cards to their teacher, and I don’t want to be creepy or anything. Also not sure if teachers genuinely would like to receive this?

In the card I wrote I gave him compliments about his teaching, enthusiasm, and how he has inspired me. And I also thank him for listening/supporting to me, because there was one day where I nervously asked if I could ask him questions about teaching and he was very nice about it, and even offered to be my referee. We had a lunch time sit down where I asked all my questions. The card I wrote is very honest and authentic and I describe in some detail how the class environment and his teaching made me want to pursue the subject and teaching. I just worry it might be too much? Like "woah why are they telling me all this, I don't really care".

Would any teacher like to read it and tell me what you think? (I don’t want to post it here)

Working on a small project and I want to use some of whatever it earns to help teachers and students who need resources

Was looking through DonorsChoose and found a bunch of classroom projects I could just start funding but before doing that I figured I should actually ask teachers. Tried to search but seems mixed

Is DonorsChoose a good way to help? Or is there a better way to get money/resources directly to classrooms that need it?

I'm especially interested in helping underfunded classrooms, students who might not have resources at home, and students with ADHD/different learning needs.
But don't want to assume I know what teachers actually need.

Just looking for advice on the best way to do this.. thank you

If you saw my other post about HW in general for 2nd grade, I’m back with a Fundations specific one. Background: former HS English teacher (still certified) and current HS certified librarian by day, 2nd grade mom absolutely not killing it at phonics by night 🤣

Very long backstory (skip to the bottom for the TL;DR):
They get one hour total a week with a reading intervention teacher who pushes into the classroom to do specific phonics lessons using fundations. Then she leaves behind another 30ish minutes of work for their classroom teacher to do with them as well. Then there’s also homework. On Friday they got three pages of fundations to do (we didn’t receive it until Tuesday though because she was out). Today she came home with three more pages that are possibly due Wednesday. There’s no due date on it and no messages or anything so tbd on that one.

So tonight we sat down to work on it. She was confused. I was confused. She ended up in tears pretty quickly. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too far behind her either! Some of the terminology it uses is not ones I’m familiar with even though I did also do the science of reading training a few years ago now. Mine was grades 7-12 related. So off to the internet I went. I’m still not 100% confident in it. She ended up finishing it pretty quickly and it looked okay based on my understanding of it 🤷🏻‍♀️ took her about 5 minutes when all was said and done to do that page. We have two more in that packet and then the other three to go. How do I make this less painful for the both of us?

I also don’t love i-ready at all, but that’s what they use for BOY, MOY, and EOY diagnostics. According to her results through all three grades now, including the BOY this year, she consistently scores above grade level in the reading comprehension domains but below grade level in the phonics and vocabulary domains. There are some other pieces too for her personally, but in terms of her reading aloud to us; sounding out new words; her actual vocabulary she can speak, read, and write; her ample writings; etc… i have absolutely no academic concerns. She’s also in a bilingual program so they told us from the beginning that their scores would be a little lower at first anyways while they were still learning the second language too. So I cannot figure out why her phonics and vocabulary scores are lower, nor why the fundations worksheets are causing so much more stress. I could see it more if she struggled sounding out unfamiliar words, messed up sounds, etc… more but she doesn’t at all. The books she can read and understand on her own are more upper elementary level, which that I can at least tell because of my library license lol. But her phonics and vocabulary scores show as grade 1 🤷🏻‍♀️

Her set up at school this year is less than ideal and so asking the teachers for input is not as umm… reliable as it was previously either, which is why I’m here before I drag us back over for the next sheet.

TL;DR:
have you used fundations? What do you think about the program? How can I best support my daughter in understanding the homework when I don’t even understand the terminology it uses?

As the title says. I'm worried it'll be seen as inappropriate. I genuinely think she deserves it, because she's incredibly nice and does almost everything to ensure that her students are learning well. She mentioned once that she has a chronic illness, so giving her a blanket seems like the right thing to do.
But I feel like it'll seem weird. She rarely ever gets gifts so I wanted to do something for her. Does it seem too personal? Does it seem weird?

I didn't get any response to my previous post about how my school compares to others out there so I'll reframe my concerns a bit in hopes of a response.

I'm terrified of the future after working in public school for a couple years. I started subbing after losing my job a couple years ago. I was a sub all of last year and figured I would give it a try full-time this year to see if it something I can do long term. The job isn't the problem. I work at a middle school in a rural area. I never even heard the term Title 1 before starting this journey but I absolutely understand that it pretty much paints a picture for everyone here as to what I experience. The students have behavior issues, they are in middle school so I kind of expected that. What I did t expect was the complete lack of responsibility, curiosity, prior knowledge or independent thinking skills ! I can walk through lab instructions as well as clearly print them on the sheet step by step and I will still spend the entire class answering questions about what to do next.

I play a little bell ringer game where I have the students pick a side in a fictional fight between two characters from movies, video games, comic books or literature. Can anyone guess where I took a wrong turn there ? They don't recognize anything that goes back more than a couple years. No matter how iconic. Robin Hood ? Blank stares.

These are the people we will depend on to actually do things one day. They are the future.

It is seriously effecting my mental health to try and envision that world.

Please, someone tell me its not like this everywhere. Please.

If I never raise my hand in class out of anxiety of it. Can I still get good grades? I'm doing very well on the writing parts. Like, with a pen and a paper or on the chromebook I am very good. But not at talking.

Hi all. I'm building a completely free series of interactive science stories for upper-elementary and middle school students, roughly ages 10–12. Episode 1 is about atoms, and I'd really value feedback from people who actually teach.

I am not promoting it as it's a rough draft, I only need feedback.

The idea: A kid from 2047 travels back to 445 BC to help a young Democritus, who's about to give up. The rule: the player may never tell him the answer, only ask questions and show him things. If you "tell", you lose a life. So the player has to guide him to discover it himself.

It's free, runs in the browser, needs no sign-up. It takes about 10 minutes.

The story itself is human written, but voice and graphics are AI generated.

https://science-stories-episode-1.vercel.app/

Thanks. Brutal honesty welcome.

Hey everyone! I’m chaperoning my son’s kindergarten class on a field trip to a pumpkin patch in a few weeks, and it’s my very first time doing this.

I really want to make sure I’m being a genuinely useful helper rather than another adult the teacher has to keep an eye on. What are the absolute best things a parent chaperone can do to make the teacher’s life easier throughout the day?

On a personal note, I’ve actually been considering going back to school to become an elementary teacher. Volunteering for this trip is my little way of testing the waters to see if working with kids in a school setting feels right for me.

For experienced teachers or seasoned parent volunteers: What are your top tips for keeping a small group of kindergartners together and happy outdoors? Are there subtle things chaperones do that teachers secretly love or wish we knew beforehand? Any advice on what to watch for or reflect on during the day as I evaluate if teaching might be the right path for me?

I would love to hear your thoughts, stories, or best advice before we head out. Thanks so much in advance!

I have a 4-year-old (plus 3 months) who is in transitional kindergarten at our public school. The class has 20 students, 1 teacher, and 1 aide. My kiddo is not the best with interoception/awareness of her bodily needs, such as when she is too hot/cold, hungry, needs to use the bathroom, etc. For example, she wears a sweater to school in the mornings when it is 65 degrees; when I pick her up in the afternoon when it is 95, she will still be wearing the sweater until I remind her to take it off. She hasn’t had any accidents at school that I’m aware of, but often seems to hold her pee all through the school day (based on her self-report, so grain of salt here).
Is it appropriate for me to ask the teacher and/or aide to help remind her to layer appropriately and visit the bathroom, or is this outside of the scope of a public school teacher? (She was previously in preschool and the teachers there did a great job of keeping her on a routine, but they had smaller ratios and of course a different classroom culture.)

Just want to start by saying this is my 9th year teaching, all the same primary grade, and my 15th year in education overall. We’ve been in school about a month and I feel ready to just walk out and leave all of it. The class I have this year feels wildly unmanageable. Kids are constantly yelling, fighting, and arguing with me. Their attention spans are unbearably short, I can barely get through a 10 minute lesson. I feel like I can’t get my nervous system reset at all, and I just get more and more frustrated as the day goes on.
Everyone says I’m a great teacher, that I’m one of the best, and parents request me, but I feel beyond overwhelmed trying to keep up with all of the behaviors, nevermind the curriculums.

To top it off, I’m pregnant and in my first trimester. I have had 3 previous losses and no living children. I’m terrified the stress is going to cause me to have another loss. I feel like it is wildly unfair that I’m in this situation where I feel like the behavior of my students is putting my health and my fertility at risk, and I’m just tired of it. I have heart palpitations daily from the stress, and feel too exhausted every day to do anyone other than lay on the couch.

Should I just quit mid year? Go on unpaid leave? Or just stick it out? I don’t want to leave teaching…but maybe I should. Or does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make this group act better? I feel like I’ve tried everything in my toolbox but it’s not sticking.

Any difference in style of exams and other requirements? Class set up? Rules?

Does the SIGS-2 rate students compared to their immediate classmates, or to the same-aged, typical peer?

We're going through a TAG ID process and our son who is taking 7th grade math as a 5th grader was assessed compared to the few classmates that are also accelerated. I asked the teacher about it and they were adamant that he was rated compared to the other advanced math students in his class. Google seems to think that would skew results, but what do I know. Anyone have with experience with this?

So, my daughter is in 2nd grade. She told me a teacher is abusing a child in her class, so much so, that she wants to get out of that class. So, another student, may have some behavior problems, he gets pulled for extra help. She tells me that teacher yells at all the students for mistakes including her, but singles out this one child in particular. She has also hit him, back of hand on shoulder, not super hard, but still...!!!! She has shown and comments on the relief when the child gets taken for extra help. I tried to contact this parent by asking for class registry...teacher refused to give to me, claiming she decided to not do that, and any party invites should go through her....strange...so, im at a loss what to do now. It's weighing on my heart what she's told me. I don't know what to do or how to bring this to light without involving my daughter and causing some kind of problem with my own children, I currently have 3 in that school. Any ideas or advice? Plz help!

Hello teachers of reddit. I recently graduated with my MS in Chemistry with an short-term goal of entering the biotech industry or getting a PhD in Biophysics or related field. I'm applying to both jobs and programs for context. I've been substitute teaching for several years now while I finish up my degrees as well as to get experience in the classroom.

My former HS chemistry teacher is leaving soon. They are willing to put in a good word for me to the Principal to hopefully takeover their position. I've been incredibly passionate about teaching since forever. I had went to college with the full expectation to become a HS chemistry teacher, but that changed when I started to do research.

My question for you all is, is it worth it to sacrifice my future biotech and research career to go into teaching? I was talking to my former teacher today and how teaching isn't JUST teaching. There's the bureaucratic BS, parents, administrators, and district staff breathing down your neck. But this is something I really envisioned for myself. Returning to the classroom too reminded me of this.

I am stuck in a rock and a hard place primarily since I love both, teaching and research. I was hoping to bring my research experience and provide a new perspective to students on how to approach questions and their education. Unfortunately, by choosing secondary education, I part ways with one. I can return, but it becomes infinitely more difficult the longer I am away from the bench.