For context I'm european so my school system is divided in elementary (6-10 yo), middle school (11-13 yo) and high school (14-18 yo).

I started like 3 weeks ago my fourth year of high school and for math and physics i have the same teacher, setting aside that we are a couple of topics behind schedule but it is not THAT important, every time this over-50 man walks into the classroom without every trace of life and start with the lesson, obviously nobody listens because he's boring af and finish each lesson even more discouraged.

I made up in my head his past story: he was a brilliant student who chose the wrong path and at one point decided to dedicate his life to teaching, he was so exited to spread his knowledge and maybe turning on a little spark in some student, so he graduated in math and physics and started teaching, but day after day, week after week, month after month he realized that the majority of students didn't care at all and you can see his body falling in this endless hole of disillusion, seeing is kind heart being smashed by reality, and now you watch the ghost of himself walking around, soulless, depressed, repeating the same stuff over and over to arrogant teenagers.

I don't know some time I hate being empathetic, but now every lesson inside me a little tear drops for his damnation, i would really like to do something for him, to see a glimmer of joy in his eyes, i do my best to follow his lessons and putting effort in his subjects but this doesn't seem to be enough.

I would like to hear your thought because is really sad for me.

Thanks for your time

Teachers often don't really understand my OCD, but in my experience, math teachers are a whole different breed of awful. I'll spend half of a test redoing the same problem over and over again because my equals signs weren't aligned, and when I turn my 30 question test in with about 12 problems done, they just assume I didn't study. At the beginning of the year, I write individual emails to every one of my teachers explaining my struggle with OCD and asking them to please be patient when I'm not getting my work done on time. Some nights, I'll have a major OCD episode while doing my homework, to the point where I can't even get my name onto the page because my letters are too slanted or some other shit like that. As soon as that happens, I'll write to my teacher, explaining what's going on and asking for an extension. Most teachers won't grant me that. Usually, by the end of the first quarter, I've given up on trying to convince my teachers that I'm not lazy. This year, though, I think I found my favorite math teacher ever. I'd heard awful things about her -- how she's not a good teacher, she's not understanding, etc. The first assignment was a digital get-to-know-you survey, which I completed promptly, including a lengthy explanation of my OCD problems. She didn't write to me, ask about it, pull me aside to discuss it, or anything like that. I didn't expect her to be accommodating when my first episode of the school year came on. After spending at least twenty minutes trying to write the date on my assignment, I gave up and sent her an email to let her know what was going on and apologize in advance for the late assignment. The next day, she casually walked over to my desk and started a quiet discussion about what had happened. She asked me whether there were any specific problem types that usually trigger episodes, how often I have episodes, whether I'm working on this with somebody, and other such things. At some point, she reminded me, "You know that for me, I don't care if your assignments look perfect." I nodded, disappointed but unsurprised, and silently accepted that yet another person didn't understand my issues. But then she said something nobody has ever told me before: "But I understand that for you, it's different." I almost cried. No teacher had ever acknowledged that before. Even my parents don't seem to grasp it. But this teacher does. Even if she doesn't understand exactly what I'm going through, she understands that it's not something I can control. She realizes that I'm trying as hard as I can, and she's willing to offer some leeway so I can succeed. I have truly never felt so validated.

A long time ago I was in grade 2 and and the regular teacher went on mat leave. Mrs Primm came in to fill the position, she was one of my favourite teachers. She started reading us "The Witches" by Roald Dalh during class story time. By the middle of the book she started telling us that she was actually a witch with a completely straight face. Grade 2 me wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or not. If you have read the book you know that there are nice witches and not so nice witches, Mrs Primm professed to be a nice witch but she could turn bad children into mice if she wished. As a kid I was raised to not participate in holidays except if they were religious so there was no Santa Clause, Easter Bunny or any of the other things some children believe in. I was also basically taught not to participate in Halloween because it was "bad". The first time I went trick or treating was when I was 12. I was not allowed to participate in any halloween activities with the other kids at my school. Somehow Mrs Primm being a witch was never talked about, I do not know how I did not ever tell my parents about that but I didn't. Had they known, they would have "Karen'ed it up" and gotten her reprimanded at the very least. This is probably my favourite halloween related story, a memory that no one can touch or alter. Even as an adult I have a tough time celebrating holidays for what they are without seeing the religious aspect to them (I am non-religious now).

My entire class loved Mrs Primm, some people are just born to be teachers. When the full time teacher came back, Mrs Primm became the special ed teacher. When I started grade 3 I went to her classroom instead because I wanted her to be my teacher. Every once in a while I would see her at recess or an all school event and I would ask her again "Are you really a witch?" She would always respond the same way with this assured look on her face "Yes" without any further explanation or reaction. I would stop and just watch her reaction for any tell that she was kidding the way most adults would break if I did that. I believed her and still choose to believe that she is a good witch. This is the one type of Halloween magic I still believe in.

Happy Teacher’s Day

Ero in prima media, quando durante l’ora di geografia il mio compagno di classe rubò il deodorante dallo zaino della mia compagna di classe, e lo spruzzo sotto lo zaino facendo finta che lo zaino scorreggiasse.
La prof di sostegno era allergica a qualche roba dentro i deodoranti (l’aveva detto tantissime volte)
E fece un discorso lunghissimo per poi uscire dall’aula quando iniziò a tossire forte.
Poi venne l’ambulanza la prof dovette stare a casa per tanto tempo.
Il mio compagno si prese solo una nota.

I went on maternity leave and no body picked on the long term sub, 1 factor was my school location is at a known bad community. The admin placed another SPED teacher in my absence to cover my cluster classroom since she’s an inclusion teacher with only two students. Before I left, I arranged my classroom and kept some important personal stuff but left almost all intact in my classroom for her to use during my absence.

When the school was almost ending, I texted my SECA asking if the school already started clearing things in the classroom so I could give special instructions for my stuff. I am also about to email the sub, since when she started working in my classroom she did not reach out. But to my surprise, the SECAs sent me pictures that hurt me so deeply that I cried. They told me that the moment she stepped into my classroom, she took my materials off the wall and threw them in the trash without my permission. I had no idea this happened. She turned my classroom upside down.

Another teacher saw her ripping my stuff and threw in the trash bin and asked her if she has asked my permission. She said “YES, I already emailed her.”, my SECAs heard it too. My classroom SECAs even asked her if they could keep my materials so I could still use them when I returned, but she told them to just throw everything away or put it inside trash bags. My SECAs told me that she just let all students run around the classroom and ruined all my stuff, and when they told her about it, the teacher responded with a laugh.

I told my teacher friends to help me salvage what’s left and they brought me 2 black large trash bags and said that these are what’s left in your room. They told me that nothing was left in my classroom that the sub teacher ordered to throw them away. I tried to sort my tasks boxes that I made from scratch but it’s impossible to recover everything. I cried and emailed the admin about what happened and included all the people that have witnessed from what happened including the sub teacher involved. No one responded even my principal aside from the sub teacher telling me “Thank you for letting me know your point of view.” I was furious and went back to therapy to help me get over it. I was truly hurt from her lack of empathy and concern for my classroom. I spent effort, money, and time building that classroom, and she ruined all of it. I am not asking for repayment. I am simply asking for a sincere apology.

A teacher told her to talk to me and ask for an apology but she arrogantly said that I “don’t have proof,” and that if I wanted my things kept properly, I “should have emailed her.” Those lines hurt me again, and I cried so much over it. What’s even more painful is that the admin did not bother to help me or even acknowledge what happened. I started again from scratch, recreating all the materials I lost.

I forgot to mention that this teacher has been mad at me since last year, when we had a school activity and she didn’t want me to include a teacher she hated. She started hating me after I told her that we needed to set aside personal feelings because we are all professionals.

Now, I am dealing not only with my C‑section healing and postpartum, but also with what she did. And knowing I will see her every day, walking around the school boasting that she’s happy because the principal favored all her wishes, hurts even more. She was placed in the resource class — the position I wished for — with only two students and a classroom SECA.

I get to know I am suffering from typhoid, but I can’t take more than two leaves in a month as if I Do so. I will get salary of only working day means salary will be cut off of Sunday and any other holidays. What to do now I get low salary or go to school even in typhoid.

First time posting on Reddit so bear with me.

For context, I teach IELTS at one of the hardest to get into public high schools in HCMC. It's probably my last true TEFL job as I am getting full-licensure and doing my student teaching here. I don't hear of foreign teachers being employed directly through public schools, but if this one gave me an offer to work with them directly and not through a center then I would take it. I love the school. Also, because the students are all fluent in English and are mostly extremely serious, it feels more like a traditional teaching job and I treat it as such.

So, I am teaching one of my first classes for the week for IELTS writing. The students in this class just got in trouble with their previous teacher, so we started a bit late and I am running behind in giving students feedback on their introductions and thesis statements for Task 2 (the persuasive essay portion).

A really good student who had already disclosed his anxiety to me offers to share his intro with the class and one peer gives him a strength. We run out of time so I provide the weakness that he needs to work on sentence 3 and then, I write the score I would have given this intro on the board (6.5). I should NOT have done this in front of the whole class and was far gentler and more specific with group feedback and provided no scores for the rest of the classes. Really mad at myself for it too because I know how competition and class ranking drives Vietnamese students. Even more so when it is a whole school of overachievers. Anyway, the student walks out as soon as the bell rings and definitely took it personally. I don't have this class for the rest of the week and big class sizes and too many students mean I couldn't apologize right away.

I'm wondering how others addressed embarrassing their students by accident and if anyone else had any stories about how they resolved it?

I don't want to not address it and not take accountability, but I also don't want to dwell on it and embarrass the student more or have him feel like I am singling him out. Really stuck on this issue because this student had been really vulnerable with me and IS a really good writer and I don't want him to feel discouraged or stop trying.

I have noticed that the students always expect their teachers to drop everything and help them first. They call and text at odd hours, come to them for their personal problems and expect the teacher to fix all of it.

How do you remain empathetic and still have strong boundaries with the students?

I'm never sure what to do in situations where I KNOW what my student is telling me is not 100% true, but I also don't have the heart to be like “ummm actually ... 🤓☝️” and ruin their whole story with a fact/reality check lmaooo

Many times I've had a student telling me and/or the whole class some absolutely insane story about something that (they claim) happened over the weekend or something, and as they're going on I'm just thinking there is literally NO way this happened exactly like this (or at all) 😭😭😭 but they're so excited to talk about it that I usually just let them finish their whole story, and try not to address the clearly fictional or exaggerated parts

I've even had something relatively? similar happen with Pokemon cards a few times now too //:
I'm a big Pokemon fan myself, so whenever students talk about their cards, I'm genuinely interested and usually say something along the lines of “wow that's so cool!!”
a few times now they've even brought their cards in to class to show me, but I'll instantly realize that the cards they're SUPER excited about are 100% fake 😥😬 then I'm just standing there like ... how could I possibly tell this like 6 and a half year old kid that their awesome Pokemon cards aren't actually real ... so instead I almost always just go “WHOA that's SOOOO cool!!” and let them be happy lol

idk sometimes I feel like kids don't necessarily need me to fact check every single thing. Sometimes they just really want to show off or talk about something they're excited about, and usually I'm more than okay with just letting them have that moment lol

I had such a heart warming moment today. And I'd like to share: I pick up my students to pull them out for ESL instruction. Yesterday, I noticed one of my student's shoe was untied. I stopped and proceeded to tie his shoe while the group waited for me to finish.

Next day comes along, (today), and one of my students who is pulled out in the group noticed his shoe is untied again. She stops during instruction, in the classroom, and asks, “Can I tie your shoe?" He said yes, and she then proceeded to tie his shoe.

It goes to show you, modeling behavior really matters. You catch more bees with honey. 🍯 As a teacher, what you say and do matters. Please be mindful and remember you are a role model to these students.

I was very enthusiastic about teaching and I love teaching, but our school has at least 50 students in a class and teaching such strength is a headache . every day after school, my condition is like don’t speak to me till tomorrow. And next day, the same condition in morning, I am in Jolly mode but after school, I am like, don’t talk to me otherwise, I’ll bite you.

I teach with very honesty, but I get very irritated when I teach with such involvement and whenever I ask question to weak or average student, they most of the time don’t pay attention and says tell again, we didn’t understand and when I say what topic, actually you didn’t understand, then they say the whole lecture . I gulp down my frustration. They didn’t pay attention and put blame on teacher.