I teach some kids part time, one of the kids shares my keen interest in mathematics.

This kid at some point asked me about multiplication I told him about it but also told him it will be taught in detail in the future. At some point this kid flipped forward in his book and started doing multiplication exercises based on the little that I taught him.

When I took the test he did it as per his syllabus/curriculum but in school he did it a different way.

It was a basic addition problem that he solved with multiplication instead.

The teacher gave him a zero. I understand the zero as the question says to use addiction but could have at least commended him on doing something advanced.

My negative mind wants me to think the teacher wanted to send me a message as I am from a city living in a small town, when I started teaching there was a line of students and as I do it part time I couldn't take on so many. There was some negativity created from this and this rumour started that I think I am better than the school teachers.

I don't care about rumours but I don't like kids being used like this when they should be made to feel proud and encouraged to learn themselves.

I found out about this today and kid was upset, the parents(uneducated) came to me and asked me to not teach things out of syllabus. Imagine what this will do to the kids desire to learn.

Office politics and social fights are fine but keep the kids out of it.

Previously the science teacher failed my kids for no reason, I had to go to the school and talk to the principal and threaten him that I will go to even higher authority if the papers aren't checked again. Upon checking all of them got 90+ and that teacher was making excuses for his actions. They said that this line was drawn over the words, the words aren't clear, spelling mistakes and other nonsensical arguments.

People can be so disgusting, they don't even think of the child's future. Most of these teachers are doing it for the money and care very little about the future of the kids they teach, they set horrible examples for the kids with regular absences, activities in front of the class that is inappropriate and smoking right outside the doors of the classroom because this makes it so that they aren't technically in the class as they smoke.

Growing up I had a secular upbringing while these teachers are filling the young minds with anti secular thoughts.

As I am Christian many started saying that I was trying to convert their kids, I am a person that grew up among Hindus and went to a hindu school where I(every student) often conducted a hindu ritual of hawan, I learned shlokas, bhajans and studied ved path.

I, in this Hindu school was taught secularism, we had students from all religions. I have some Christ related things around the house like the commandments and some verses which some kids may have read and memorized. This led to some parents to be concerned and I told them the only things I teach are manners and what's in the books.

I can go on forever.

All this aside back to the topic, would you fail a kid for using something slightly advanced?

Hey guys. My situation is a bit complicated. So I needed help with this. I'm a Hong Kong resident who finished her studies in the Philippines. I'm interested to work as a teacher in Australia but my bachelor's degree is in Psychology. Although, I did gain teaching experience here in Hong Kong. What program do you think I should get? Masters in Education or just take a PGDE?

I appreciate all tips and comments.

I (28F) really want to get a nose piercing. I teach at a high school in the Midwest, about 5 years in. I can’t think of any other teachers at the school who have a nose piercing. I was wondering if it would be acceptable for me to do. I am a very wholesome (lol) and professional person. I would likely get a stud on the corner of the nose and I eventually might try a hoop on the side. As a queer person I thought it might be fun to have a new way to express myself. I can’t really be openly out at school, but maybe I can do something fun for myself at least to enjoy in my personal life by getting a nose piercing 😂 But, I don’t want to add an extra judge-able thing to the list.

What do you guys think? Is it too controversial or unprofessional? I don’t want it to reflect poorly on me… thanks for your opinions.

My boyfriend is graduating in June and will be taking a high school math teaching position towards the end of the year. Does anyone have recommendations on personal items I can give to him to help him be prepared for his first teaching job? Some items I’m thinking of getting-

Convertible briefcase

Clever Fox Teacher Planner

Presentation Clicker

Flair pens

I’m sure I’m missing items, any help would be awesome. Ideally I’d like to fit everything into the briefcase to surprise him.

First and foremost, I feel like this is going to turn into a rambling mess. I apologize in advance.

I teach in gen. ed., California, primary education (currently, 3rd grade), multi-subject if that helps with perspective.

My program through Cal Poly Humboldt (one year credentialing program, c.o. 2022-2023) (or whatever it's called now) had us attempt the edTPA to graduate. The long story short is that, of 18-ish of us, only 2 received passing scores. We were not properly instructed in what to do or how to do it. Most of our professors had a focus on secondary education. As an aside: If you're thinking about becoming a teacher through Humboldt: don't.

Anyway: I failed my first edTPA. I resubmitted a portion of it after significantly revamping it and pushed my score up to a 40. I need a 49, but a 46 plus a letter from one of my professors will also be good enough. I am in the throes of designing and executing my second edTPA. I will film enough to do tasks 1 through 3, but will only submit 1 and 2 to save money and hopefully time. I have done my best to have my lessons be engaging, and standards-aligned, and have it be as much about the kids as possible while also learning and displaying new skills. But I do not want to do this shit a third time. Very clearly, my program doesn't know what the hell it's talking about. The feedback from the edTPA was so painfully vague that I couldn't glean anything except that I had to make personal connections with what I was teaching (nevermind that they're first graders and should be explicitly talk about how sentence structure works; wHy ArE tHeY iNtErEsTeD?).

I have a lot of questions all in a row and, generally, would appreciate advice.

First: Can anyone suggest a tutor to look over what I have before I submit it?

Second: Should I just pivot to the CalTPA? Is that easier? Is that feasible at this stage of the game?

Third: Is there any way in hell I can bypass this shit entirely?

For the sake of accuracy, let's assume that I have to stay in California and cannot relocate. Which is true for the next three years, since I need to work off my grants.

Edit: I added the year I was in the program (last year, so 22-23)

Hi everyone. I'm sending out a last-minute post on reddit for some advice.

I'm a TA at a college where being a TA doesn't mean that you're grading papers/giving lectures constantly. Usually, I facilitate some discussions of respond to student writing. This is my first lecture of the semester and is meant to be an hour long.

And I have no idea what I'm doing.

The class is an undergraduate course on Pacifc Islander literature. I don't have much familiarity with the subject, but I DO have a familiarity with creative writing. The professor has asked me to give a lecture on the component of creative writing I find most engaging (in my case, character writing) and apply it to a text they're reading. This sounded simple enough.

I am now scrambling trying to figure out what the heck I'm doing. Here's what I've thought of so far:

1. Open with talking about the importance of character within story
2. Do a character creation exercise with students where the class comes up with core components of a character (identity, personality, want/goal, flaws, arc)
3. Identify these same components in a character from a select scene of the text they're reading
4. Have class identify these components of character for a (different) select character in the text on their own
5. Come together and talk about what they identified
6. ????

My problem is that the character building exercise feels incredibly basic. Obviously a character has a personality. So what? What am I supposed to say about that? Wouldnt it be intuitive that creating a character involces giving them flaws? I tried this part of the lesson out on my younger siblings (high school and college aged), and they were like "this feels like beginner stuff." They are artists to be fair, but so are most of the students I'm going to teach.

More importantly, why does it matter to what a given text is doing? Why is any of this important or relevant to the class? The character's goal can help reveal theme (ie, tell students what the story is ABOUT), but would that be shifting the conversation to someplace outside of the sphere of character?

Another problem is that aforementioned analysis of a select scene from the text (step 3). Not every component will be noticeable in a given scene. And I haven't really gone over how to identify these things in a character in the lesson thus far. I'd love to talk about action/reaction/dialogue to reveal character, but would that be throwing too much at the student for one lesson?

I could be overthinking this. I'm notorious for overthinking. Alternatively, I may have dug myself into a hole with my lesson. For anyone who has done this sort of thing before, how would you approach the prompt of "give a lecture on writing characters and tie that to the assigned reading for class?"

I have my first class tomorrow (Middle schoolers) and I'm a bit nervous. Any advice would be appreciated :)

So some of you are reading my situation with getting a hold of references. I don't always know after an interview that I'm being considered for it and then get called a few days or weeks later saying someone didn't answer the phone or weren't available during the day if they are working. I have much more success with email because it gives the reference more time and they can do it more flexibly in and outside of office hours.

We use EdJoin in California and it requires a number. Can I refuse to give them a phone number and require they send an email? Some HR or admin get pissy over this because they don't like being told to do something like that even though it's more efficient or they get alarmed there aren't any phone numbers.

i’m a high school student and going ahead and getting some classes out of the way, i’m signing up for more courses to get out of college early, does anyone know what classes i need to take math and english wise? sorry for writing bad, it’s my first post. i’m going into early elementary school, up to 3rd grade, i know English 101 is needed but i need help identifying the others.

When you left teaching what profession did you go in to?

There's a district where I applied for a social science position for the remainder of this academic year at a middle school with the deadline closing in mid-March.

It's one of the few that hasn't been posted more than once again and again. This district I've applied for many positions just this year alone including an elementary position like three times. I had one interview there but the principal used me as a pawn in February so they can keep a long term sub in the remainder of the year.

I've seen so many elementary positions posted again and again and again and I've applied for them. When I ask their status I'm told I wasn't selected to interview which I know is a lie because they interviewed no one and are just keeping it open to keep in subs.

Am I going to be lied to again by this district and really shouldn't get my hopes up? It's probably my last shot for a full time teaching position in the 2023-2024 academic year. I just lost an elementary art one which they may or may not have hired anyone for.

How should I proceed with this?

I apologize for the lengthiness of this post. I wanted to give a good idea of my situation.

I’m 26 years old and nearly got an education degree. I loved the idea of teaching and babysat up until I was 16. I did practicum and the whole shebang but life had different plans and curveballs for me. I ended up with an Associates in Deaf Communication Studies and am being licensed to interpret this summer. I also did a week of practicum at SSD with that program and it planted a small seed in my head of going back to education.

I've been working in the Cannabis industry for four years now. I started during the pandemic because I moved back home and was going to school for my AAS degree and just needed a job that would pay well and work with my schedule. I also had a passion for helping people seeking therapeutic use of medical marijuana. I felt like I was helping my community. Over those four years I became shift lead and eventually ended up in the back end doing inventory related jobs.

Now, i'm tired of the industry. It’s becoming corporate and no one really cares about the therapeutic uses anymore. I see parents come into my workplace with little to nothing in their bank accounts, kid in tow, getting pissed at us because our product isn’t cheap enough. My job is becoming more and more of a toxic workplace and I dread going in to work. I see the same kind of person at my job and I feel like I don’t belong in that group. At the same time, I’ve been hanging out more with family and family friends (now that I'm no longer balancing a job full time AND a nearly 4 year long AAS program) and I’m getting to spend more time around kiddos again! I forgot how much I enjoyed it. My practicum at both schools had me working with high school aged kids and I never really got to interact with the younger kids until now!

I desperately want to leave my job in cannabis and transition back to education. My current job has great pay and benefits, but at this point, I couldn't care less. I'm not helping anyone, either individual or my community, my coworkers all act like high schoolers, and it's becoming intolerable. This is not a career.

Is it possible for that kind of career change? I know there's still a stigma around cannabis, cannabis users, and sometimes the workers. And sometimes it’s true, sometimes it’s not. That being said, I am a hard worker, passionate about whatever I do, reliable, good with kids, and searching for an actual career. I know just a resume won’t prove that. Will four years of cannabis work make me look less desirable as a candidate for even substitute teaching? Or a teaching assistant? I have amazing benefits and work full time M-F (but it looks like they’ll take that away from me too) and don’t know how to bridge that gap from taking substitute teaching jobs. I’ll have to quit outright because there’s no way they’d let me go down to part time without probable cause. But I’ve never quit a job and not had a back up. Any advice?

I am about to begin my Master of Art in Teaching (MAT) program for elementary education after changing careers/education from social work. I have been accepted into a residency program through my university that partners with the Americorps. The residency program partners you with a mentor teacher 4 days a week in a school, and you also must commit to teaching in a local school district in a "high-needs" school for three years upon completion.

The thing is, I'm not sure if I want to pursue the residency program or continue teaching afterschool (what I am currently doing). I love the after-school foundation I work at, and it is the same student population that I plan on teaching with.

I would love some insight and ideas about my current options. Thanks!

I've taught full time for four years. Most of my references don't remember me enough to make them deeply positive, are too busy, or I can't get in contact with them any longer because they don't answer the phones. Whether it's teaching mentors, colleagues, admin, whoever, I've ran out of people to use now. It didn't help much of my experience was teaching virtually during the pandemic.

So I use them as the bottom of the list and turned to people I volunteer with doing marketing campaigns, have done graphic design work, murals, worked in the community, whatever. One is a regionally renowned friend and architect who has worked with Disney Imagineering and more. The other is a friend who is a medal Army veteran I have volunteered and worked with extensively. Another one is an engineer at Boeing. I've never worked with them but this is what I have left now.

I had the experience below about it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/teaching/comments/1bwudai/comment/ky9dhw1/

How do I make these references successful or how do I change them to people who can support me?

I (17M) am currently a junior in high school and my whole life I have wanted to become an elementary school teacher. Many people tell me that they regret studying education in college since they did not enjoy teaching due to factors such as pay/administration/parents ect. I work at an after school program at my school where I watch elementary aged kids and I love it but I am worried that I will regret becoming a teacher in the future. Do you think it is necessary for me to major in Education/Elementary Education or would it be better to major in something else so that I have something to fall back on if teaching is not for me. Any advice would help. Thank you!!

I applied for two high school positions through the Bureau of Indian Education in another part of the US. The opening closed at the end of January and I received an email three weeks ago saying I was tentatively eligible. I emailed the contact to see what it meant and they just said it was that you could be contacted by the school potentially for an interview.

How long does this process take and how likely is it this could potentially open up to someone actually being hired?

https://www.reddit.com/r/teaching/comments/1bvru0t/hiring_decision_taking_long_time_from_district/

I finally got a resolution on this situation after going back and forth with them for a month.

They decided to not go ahead with my application because I wasn't a good fit. My teaching references are always too busy to get ahold of or its been too long for them to be a positive reference for me so I used a friend of mine who is a highly regarded architect and another who works in civil service, a former soldier who gave me very positive references. We had worked together as volunteers doing mural work and coordinating campaigns. I thought that should've been enough.

There were two teaching colleagues on there but they are always difficult to get ahold of.

So after taking two weeks to simply call the references, then close on spring break, and then take a week of me calling and emailing every day to get the outcome, I'm told they didn't think there was a good fit.

So even if they move onto another candidate that person only has like a month and a half in the school year to teach the job.

To me these people had both seemed deeply disorganized and have unrealistic expectations. I could've been told I wasn't getting hired weeks ago and moved on with my life.

​

​

I hate when I didn't phrase my answers well and think of how I could've been clearer in my explanation after the interview, especially for a position I really want. Kicking myself.

Hello ! for the last couple years I have been trying my best to solve the problems of AI in education, while attending classes and speaking with other professors I found all sorts of issues from cheating, to laziness to the fear of replacement.

I worked hard figuring out solutions to all of these worries and ended up getting a paper published where I actively and openly used AI in my research and then education on it.

I started giving workshops to professors and streamlining the process and after lots of feedback figured out a way to really streamline and understand the process of integrating AI into academia.

Eduba is a software(video overview here) we have made to try and solve the problems in a more focused way beyond just workshops. We are still in our early alpha stage and working with professors on expanding or working with it but I think we are at a point now to start sharing our progress.

Derived from the Babylonian word for "hall of tablets" or "hall of writing," Eduba is a powerful platform that allows users to collaborate with various AI agents, streamlining the productivity process and fostering seamless teamwork.

We explore the features and capabilities like the user-friendly interface to its innovative document management system. It can also be tailored to suit a wide range of applications, from classroom settings to software development teams.

I'd love to hear feedback from other educators on what your opinions on something like this is?

what are the essential components I should include in a sample letter to parent of a misbehaving student? I'm interviewing for a job and need to submit this as a writing sample. what not to do? information given is that the student has been disruptive (calling out, rolling eyes) and the art teacher had trouble with the student too.

I know I should start with something positive about the student, and also I want to invite the parent to share any suggestions they might have. do I specifically also share about the art teacher? do I name every misbehavior? anything else? thanks in advance.

Hey there fellow Redditors! 🙌 Need your help with a bit of a dilemma I'm facing.

So, I'm diving into the world of teaching gigs... I've got applications rolling for gigs starting around Jul-Sept, and honestly, I'm clueless about what to expect or how to even compare these contracts.

I should mention, I hold a teaching degree and TEFL, but I just finished uni so I don't have any classroom experience yet. I'm planning to use this gig as a stepping stone for my career.

First off, I'm debating whether I should go through agencies. Yeah, I know, they take a cut from your paycheck, but the idea of a bit of security and not being stranded jobless overnight sounds pretty appealing.

I've got offers from both China and South Korea, and I'm torn between the two. The internet's giving me mixed vibes...

So, in China, there's this offer from a primary school in Zhejiang province. It's around 20 teaching hours per week with supposedly 25 students per class. They're offering 17k RMB plus a 2500 RMB housing allowance and health insurance. But hold up, during holidays, it's just 3k RMB. Is that cool? I'm thinking it's a decent starting point, but then again, I've heard whispers about better-paying gigs down the line.

Now, onto South Korea. It will be around 2.6 mil KRW (including housing) with health insurance and all, and the class sizes are capped at 15 students max. Plus, there's a sweet bonus of one month's pay upon completing the contract. But, and it's a big but, I've heard rumors about getting the boot in month 11 to dodge that bonus.

So, what do you guys think? Any feedback, advice, or anecdotes would be an absolute lifesaver for me right now. Seriously, I'm all ears! Thanks a ton in advance! 😊🙏 Also, any recommendations for reliable agencies, potential salary feedback, and tips for saving opportunities would be gold!

Hi teachers, I built a website. It lets you write down any topic, e.g. U.S. History and it will generate an exam with up to 50 questions.

I’d be happy to let anyone interested try it.

Please send a dm as I don’t want bots to see the link and run up my server bills. :)

6th grader. It was in his backpack for seven hours before anyone became suspicious. He had plans. Student is in custody now, but will probably be back in a few weeks. Staff are understandably upset.

How would you move forward tomorrow if it were you? I'm uncomfortable and worried that others will decide it's worth a try soon.

Hi! I’m currently about to take a role as a middle school design teacher, and my experience in teaching design is pretty limited. Hoping to hear some great ideas for middle school design projects? Thanks!

A month ago I interviewed for an elementary art position funded by proposition funds for the remainder of the year. They called me three days later to say they couldn't contact my references. They were reachable but at that time they didn't answer the phone. I updated the references but it took them two weeks to do the check. It was done two days before they went on their long spring break.

I followed up a week ago which was their spring break and every office was closed. I did get an email reply saying that they didn't have a new update or next steps yet from the director because they were closed.

I called on Monday of this week to see what was going on and the woman who processes these positions wasn't in because she took additional time off. As of yesterday I got an out of office email so I know she wasn't in the other days.
So I gave them yesterday didn't hear anything. I'm assuming they are busy, but I do need to start knowing. How should I respond to this?

I'm hoping they don't do what others did to me last month in saying it's too late in the year to hire a credentialed teacher and I've just wasted a month of my time on a ridiculous school district that's disorganized.

I'm still studying, and teaching is on the cards, maybe not a first career, but eventually for sure. my dad is someone who has basically climbed the tech ladder and is in a very comfortable position in life right now. when discussing about my intentions, amongst several reservations, he (whose only teaching stint was an adjunct lecturer for less than a year almost 30 years ago), claims that I'll only be excited to try new methods and teach in my first year, then afterwards, it's going to be rinse and repeat.

is this true? if it's true, what motivates you as teachers to go on beyond that first year?

edit: thanks for the overwhelming responses! I'm slightly more reassured now, but I'm also afraid whether it's just a case of a silent majority not speaking up

anyways, in life, if you don't take the risk, jump in and do it first hand, you'll never know, would you?

Hi teachers! First of all I just want to thank each and every one of yall for what you do. I cannot imagine the daily stress of it all (I'm not a teacher obviously lol).

So to get your mind off of the bad parts, please tell me about your favorite student/students of all time!

Seeing as there are teacher shortages everywhere, it seems like it would be worth reconsidering if these barriers to becoming a teacher need to stay in place.

On the plus side, I think it might help alleviate the teacher shortage because less people would be discouraged by the process of getting licensed. The downside might be that the extra competition drives down wages.

Do you think this would be a good or a bad idea?

I want to do science communication. I am studying physics and chemistry.

When I take the train home every few weeks I often meet young families with children and we (parents, children, me) speak together. Often the children ask questions about so many interesting things (things the see while travelling at the moment or what I am studying. The topics vary a lot but mostly stem). I really enjoy explaining those things and I see by their reactions that the children enjoy and actually understand what I am trying to explain.

I would like to do this as a hobby. My question is what format (video or book/blog) would be best for this? I guess video is a better option as I would focus on 5-10 year olds. But what format? Animated, whiteboard, mostly me speaking (as this seems to work on the train)? And what platform. Is YouTube still a viable option for this or should I rather create them for Instagram/Tiktok?

Do you have some advice on this?