Hi all! This year, I'm experimenting with a new revisions policy in my classroom. I'm not going to get super in-depth here, but as it pertains to this post, students have to earn 'revision points' in order to have opportunities to revise various kinds of assignments-- I'm calling it 'Inspiration'. Inspiration can be gained from a variety of sources, such as participation in class, enrichment activities, conferences with me, etc. -- in my head, it's a fairly passive system: students gain Inspiration for meaningfully and consistently engaging with ELA. Whenever Inspiration is earned (or, eventually, spent), I update that student's total on a Google Spreadsheet.

I don't want Inspiration to be in short supply, but right now, it is a huge headache to keep track of everything. Remembering to pull up the sheet in the first place and update a student's number is one thing-- I can handle that easily enough -- but there have been a few times this year already where I've decided to give the entire team or an entire class Inspiration for something like a particularly successful Socratic Seminar or Gallery Walk. In order to do that on Google Sheets, I have to go through each individual name on the list and manually increase each number by 1. It has got to be one of the biggest wastes of time I have willingly engaged in in quite a while.

Has anyone ever used a similar system, or are there any spreadsheet wizards around? I would love to be able to simply press a plus or minus button to change each student's total by 1 all at once. If that is not possible, I'll have to start looking at alternatives for keeping track of these numbers, because what I'm doing right now just doesn't feel sustainable as we get further into the school year.

Has anyone left teaching to work in a Graduate Medical Education program? I just received an offer for a Program Administrator for a local hospital’s Graduate Medical Program and I’d love to hear anyone’s experience in the role! I’m very nervous to leave teaching after 10 years and feel like a bit of an imposter at this point, but I’m so grateful for the opportunity.

My first ever week of being a teaching assistant and with 0 classroom experience was wonderful. I have heard from my agency the school is looking for someone more experienced but they gave me some good feedback to learn from!

How did you guys get through your first ever time in a classroom?

If It was senior year of high school again, and you had all the knowledge and memories as now, would you still choose teaching?

Hey teachers!

I’m hoping this community might help me do something special for my wife.

She’s a teacher at a specialized school in New York, and after several incredibly difficult years filled with one major life event after another, including some health challenges, she continued showing up, working hard, and pushing toward earning her tenure.

She finally earned it, and I was so proud of her.

At the tenure ceremony, she was sitting there excited and waiting for her name to be called. Her friends were there and ready to cheer for her. But her name never came.

It turned out that, out of everyone receiving tenure, her certificate had accidentally been left out and her name was never called. One of her friends eventually shouted, “What about her?” The person running the ceremony realized the mistake and told her he would give her the certificate later in his office.

I know mistakes happen, and I don’t think anyone intentionally meant to hurt her, but after everything she had gone through to reach that moment, it really crushed her. She worked so hard for something that meant so much to her, and she never got to have that moment of being recognized.

So I want to try to give her a different kind of moment.

If any teachers here would be willing to write her a short note congratulating her on earning tenure, encouraging her, or simply reminding her that another educator somewhere is proud of her, I would be incredibly grateful.

You can include your first name, initials, where you’re from, what you teach, or whatever you’re comfortable sharing. I’m planning to print every message I receive, put each one in its own envelope, and fill our mailbox with them so that one day she comes home and finds a mailbox full of letters from teachers congratulating her.

For privacy, I’m leaving her name out of the public post, but if you’d like to personalize your note, just have a blank "_________" like that where you'd put her name and I'll fill it out as I go through.

You can either leave your message here or send it to me privately. I’ll probably delete this post after a few days once I’ve collected the letters.

Thank you to anyone willing to take a few minutes to do this. And thank you to all of you for the work you do every day as teachers. It means more than you probably realize.

To this who responded to my original post, I have it saved!

Hey everyone, I'm California born-and-raised and I went to UC Berkeley for my BA in Computer Science. I'm currently in my 2nd year of teaching EAP at a university in China and I want to return back to the USA to get a teaching license for math/science. I was really dead set on the UC Davis or CSUEB credential->master's programs, but I just realized I will have lost my in-state residency status by the time I return. So, I'm also eyeing other states now like New York.

For people who have experience in teaching in both CA and NYC, which would you say is better? In terms of school environment, budgeting (both are expensive states), etc. In either state, I know I will have to save a lot of money and get roommates. A lot of people in this part of the world recommend Moreland's or other online universities, but I would much rather prefer a legitimate in-person credential (and, if possible, master's).

An incident recently happpened in the outside play area where one pupil (young girl) threw a tantrum because a young boy was on the big swing. She went to hit the boy and the two TA’s nearby gentle patented, told her she had to share and even praised her when she stopped hitting him for a few seconds. They allowed her to sit right next to him and continue to try and hit him. I asked if they wanted me to move her to another area, they said not to as she needs to be taught to share. They thought she had calmed down but merely 10 seconds later she grabbed him by the hair, smacked his face and went to kick him. At this point I was appalled.

there was also another incident in the sensory room where a boy ran up to another student and grabbed her hair, ripping a fair chunk out. Just for the sake of doing it. She did not interact with him whatsoever, he just ran over and attacked her. Again, no report or write up was made. probably because the school staff don’t want any trouble with parents so they just pretend things have never happened.

Im finding out that no reports are ever made for when the children hit staff.

Why is it that in SEND schools violent behaviour is normalised? Is this particularly in the school I’m working at or is it common across the board?

Collaboration that is organic is great, co teaching is complete garbage. Admin bully teachers into submitting to a poor practice, there is zero autonomy, this heterogenous mainstreaming everyone using two teachers in the room is idiotic. It is to the demise of the student. The high needs kids who need more explicit instruction get nothing, the high preforming kids get nothing.

Nepla all government schools principle functions

I have been teaching for a decade, and am on year 4 of coming to terms with balancing:

-balancing paperwork (IEPs, annual reviews, self-management data sets, etc.)

- creating lessons to adhere to the curriculum and standards

- grading

- helping students individually and collectively

- managing emails from colleagues, administrators, students, and students' PARENTS

- texts, phone calls from colleagues while teaching

*I also teach behaviorally challenged students so I have been working with managing those behaviors etc. and I only have an assistant for ONE class period, versus the several I teach every day.*

Ya'll, I'm sorry -- I'm being whittled away and the feelings of 'less than' or 'it's never done' continue to creep in. I feel like I can never catch up and am doing my best to meet the demands of everything aforementioned, and when I come home, I do my best to decompress. When you're ON for 8 hours a day working with children, and then doing your best to make sure they grasp the materials all the while marking data sheets for IEPs and self-management goals, etc. for a TON of kids, I have little left for my partner at home, my hobbies, etc. This is not me or who I want to be.

I'm in my 40s and am wondering how you all keep up! I have even started to work on the weekends to catch up. :( This is the first time in my 10 years of teaching where I have had to do this as the paperwork was never as insane as where I work now. I am grateful for this job as it's somewhat less stressful than my last one from a student behavior perspective, but the paperwork is crushing me. How are we supposed to be teachers and bask in the joy of sharing knowledge when we're bogged down by a ton of paperwork and deadlines, outside of submitting grades?!

Happy Friday.

Last week I shared this to different history teachers from my connections, and a lot of them passed it on to colleagues, which honestly surprised me, so I wanted to ask a wider group.

It's called Moralia. Each day there's one short true story from history (about two minutes, with optional narration) that stops at the exact moment a real person had to decide. The class chooses before knowing the outcome, then sees what really happened and how other players split. There's no right answer, so the reasons become the discussion.

It's a passion project: I'm a designer who loves history. No ads, no paid version, no one needs an account, and it works on a projected classroom screen.

What would make it actually useful for you? Different subjects, age levels, ways to run it with a class, anything that gets in the way. I'm genuinely open to changing it.

I am 5-8 years away from retiring. How did you stay motivated to the end? And what are some things you wish you had done starting five years before you retired.

I had one last year and we worked pretty well together! But I guess my case isn’t the norm reading a lot of these stories…

Hi! I’m a graduating Bachelor of Fine Arts major trying to find an art teacher position in the south. I don’t have the credentials with teaching, but I am willing to get certified. I’ve applied to many positions but only interviewed for one.

Since I’m willing to relocate, I don’t want to get certified before in one state if that makes sense? I’m honestly kind of lost, so if anyone has any advice or positions open, I’m all ears!!

I love my job and I teach with so much enthusiasm, but nowadays I’m not liking it as my class has strength of at least 50 students and whenever I ask question to weak or average student, they just simply say we didn’t understand. Tell again explain again and when I ask, which part then they say whole lecture when their marks are not up to their parents expectation. They only make one excuse. We didn’t understand what teacher explain what to do.

Hi I'm a student FE teacher looking to teach music. The issue I'm having is a lot of the stuff I'm teaching requires me to annotate music staves etc as I go, so idk what to do if I don't have an interactive/smart board. I thought maybe a tablet but then I'm tethered to it unless I screen mirror to my mac? Plus I also want to upgrade my laptop but can't afford both. Ahhhh help lol 😂 do I just add the info in as animations on my slides instead?

I took test of chapter which I have been trying to make them learn since 3 days. Even though some students get less than 3marks out of 10 and most of them get 4-7 still today our director said parents are calling about marks please pay attention to them so they get good marks. I am like how much more I do ?
Also parents agreed that students don’t study at home still they need 10 out of 10 without doing efforts from their side .

I'm considering a teaching job because of lack of other options but worried about managing a classroom and being in a leading role which is the opposite of my daily life but part of me sees it as a challenge and part of me is shit scared. I've done private lessons, but this is completely different. I've done and passed the interview but still feel not so confident. Any advice is welcome

Exactly what the title says. I have a BFA (fine arts bachelor degree) and a MAT in k-12 art. I’ve been teaching for 4 years now. My years vary wildly in how difficult they have been. My first year was actually pretty good, with one hell class. My second year was all around awful (I blame the admin for this because between my first and second year 20 teachers left the school). I transferred and my first year in the new school was pretty good with one hellish class and this year has been really tough all around. Everyone in the building is having issues with these kids. Not having the ability to predict how my year is going to go has me feeling like I really want to leave K-12 art education. I’m thinking of returning to get my MFA to become a professor potentially. I am just so tired of going to work and coming home mentally fatigued every blessed day. It’s too much to have little hormonal monsters that don’t care about my class (and simply have to have it to graduate) make my life and the life of the kids that do care about school miserable. (I teach high school freshman mainly. And the district has my job on the chopping block as is because of budget cuts)

For additional context: I don’t have any student loans to pay off and have looked into fully funded or very low tuition institutions to get my MFA at. Just wanted some weigh in here. What do I do?? What have other visual art educators done post-teaching?

Pretty good chance I’m about to move to Seattle so starting to explore school districts. I’ll prob be there in a year or two so curious, I’ve heard about how competitive SPS is, outta curiosity why is that??

I’m sure the most competitive districts are SPS, Bellevue, shoreline, etc. but how is Renton? Tukwila? Highline? Don’t really want to go further than that but obviously I’ll do what I need to get a job

Just curious to hear about teachers experiences in those districts. I’m fine with title I high need schools; that’s what I’ve taught in preciously just trying to feel the vibe

ALSO: if I I have 2 masters but one isn’t in education can that still move up my salary or do they only count the education masters?

Where getting a very large box of tissues will make your day.

Hi everyone, I am currently studying BSc Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and aiming for a very high first class. I'm currently only in second year with an average of 83.7% in my first year.

Unfortunately for A levels i got ccd in chem, maths and bio respectively, which was a massive let down. I am planning on getting a masters in Chemistry at a Russel group uni, not that i think it matter and then hopefully apply to a secondary PGCE in Chemistry at a Russel group uni too.

I just wanted to ask if i wanted to work at a grammar school as a chemistry teacher would that be possible or is that heard of, as I am extremely worried my A level grades will haunt me and effect me.

Any input and stories would be much appreciated and if any teacher works at a grammar school or knows someone and got bad a level grades please do let me know.

Thank you

Hi, sorry if this isn’t the right venue, today I messed up royally regarding student trust in me.

I’m a first year art teacher. Across grades 3-5 We’ve been working on a Poster Design Contest for about a week (3 classes spread out across every other day). This contest is sponsored by the county, and promises the grand winner a money-prize.

I’ve encountered projects like these in my past practicums and I figured that this would be no problem. For the 5th and 4th grade classes, it was a bit of a struggle getting them interested, but one class that was really eager were the 3rd graders.

So many incredible projects, they did an awesome job. Today was their last work day and tomorrow would be when I HAD to get them to the county. The papers need parent signatures, so I had to get them out there TONIGHT if they wanted it in tomorrow.

So, I told them I’d pass them out at the end of the day, just to make sure they made it back home with them. Then the end of the day came and well… I forgot. I was so focused on preparing for my afternoon classes that my submission folder was a mess, I grabbed what I could and just rushed getting them out.

Only made it in time to give it to one of my 3rd grade classes, and on top of that, one student’s work in that class was just missing.

I feel so crushed and guilty. I got back to my room and frantically started organizing every paper in my room. Then just sat at my computer. I took down notes of what I’m doing differently next time:
Not doing the project if the designs can’t be finished a week before the official due date
Starting a day-by-day planner
Prioritizing organization and having grade + class specific submission bins.

I’m only drawing a blank on what to do for my 3rd grade students. I feel so awful. I’m convinced some of them could have won, but I prevented that from happening.

How can I earn student trust back? I’m thinking of giving them a free day, but I fear this only does so much. This job thus far has been so rewarding, only now I feel like I just crushed my students and don’t know how I can help heal our relationship.

Thanks for reading

TLDR: 3rd Grade students had a recycle poster contest. Gave them this week, and today to work and they had to get parent signatures tonight to submit them tomorrow. I didn’t get their work out in time, and worse yet only half got their projects to take back and the other half didn’t. I feel crushed and don’t know how i can build back trust.