Hey everyone,

How are you? Teacher of 20 years here - all in middle school Science. I still like my job, but am getting a bit tired. I am wondering for those teachers who have taught over a decade, what can you say has "changed". (I use 10 years as it encompasses pre and post covid).

Part of me says that middle schoolers have always been middle schoolers. Wacky, forgetful, funny, random, etc. However, I would say that:

• Behavior management has become almost 60% of my job. And not because students are necessarily poorly behaved or mean, but because of the lack of self management/lack of situational awareness. Constant touching, making noises, getting up, etc.
• The touching, especially between middle school boys. And it's not playfighting, it's like...this constant touching of heads, grabbing books, pushing against one another.
• Lack of realizing routines and remembering them. Every day we start the same way in class. Every day they ask what to do.
• Parents. Definitely taking a student's side of the story before the teachers.
• Kids are SO anxious and need constant reassurance.

With all that said, again, I still enjoy my job. It has just gotten so much more difficult in the past 10 years (in my view). What about you all?

I was subbing at a new school today. Despite not having a uniform and having a very loose dress code, nearly every single female student was wearing the same thing.

Light-to-medium wash baggy/wide leg jeans, plain black tee shirt, and neutral colored sneakers.

It was a little bewildering seeing the hundreds of students exiting and having near-complete color coordination. (It’s a choir teacher’s dream, ngl)

I don’t recall this level of conformity back when I was in school. Elementary doesn’t have this same colorless pattern to fashion; kids are still just as vibrant and unique in their choices as ever. I haven’t been paying attention to Gen Alpha fashion whatsoever, so seeing the outfit uniformity replicated in each class was surprising.

I saw zero skirts or dresses. No graphic tees. Colorful ensembles? Zilch. Even the male students were mostly in black tees and jeans, minus the few wearing white. Accessories were limited to maybe a hoop nose ring or a single necklace. Hair also seemed either very low maintenance or not styled at all. It was a well-off area, so it’s not for lack of funds nor a strict dress code.

Do middle and high schoolers just not vibe with bright colors and accessories anymore? With this era of fast fashion and posturing on social media, the fashions seem remarkably bland. Choosing fashionable outfits and doing ultra-trendy makeup was all the vibe during my middle and high school years, so it’s interesting to perceive such a switch-up.

Also, any theories as to why this change happened?

A small teacher committee at my high school has decided that, for community building, each department will take turns feeding the staff once a month. We were told to plan to feed 75 people. Our district is in dire financial straits and has forced a 5 day pay decrease to cut costs this year. Am I alone and overly cynical in thinking this is a tone-deaf ask of teachers?

I'm happy someone at the faculty meeting said it. All of us were thinking it.

Our attendance numbers for August aren't great. We have a specific list of chronically late, chronically absent students with no documentation. Here's the thing. Those with documentation as to why they are chronically absent have been nothing but cooperative with us. One of my students is having health issues and has been communicating with the school.

The principal had the audacity to tell us that the students are just following our bad example. For instance, we're taking sick days in August, despite the policy being that no teacher may be on campus if a fever is 101 degrees or higher. We're told that the kids look up to us and will emulate us. I find that hard to believe considering this is high school.

Then the principal tells us that we need to incentivize students to be on campus with rewards.

One of the nuns pretty much tells the principal the title. She goes on about saying that if a parent wants to burn money on a private high school, then that's on the parents, not on the teachers.

I'm so tired of this principal. There is no responsibility put on students or families. If they do well, it's their achievement. If they do poorly, it's on us. If they show up to school, it's because they're interested in being here. If they aren't here, it's because we're not incentivizing them like we should.

It's so damn exhausting. I teach Chemistry and AP Chemistry. Those students are able to maneuver a deadly weapon in the streets, vote on public policy, or both. Somehow we need to motivate them to show up to school and insulate them from the consequences of their own actions because we are being "too punitive."

I can't believe that this moronic principal tried to say we should incentivize kids to come to high school as if we're doing fucking AR points in elementary.

No wonder why a good chunk of our staff left, including the one Portuguese translator.

2nd grade teacher, some students are using the calm down corner to sit out most of the period. I ask them what's wrong, how they are feeling, and they give harrumph shrug shoulder answers. Short of dragging them to the carpet or their desk, which I would never do, I can't do anything. I don't feel like it's a big enough issue to be calling the dean of students. So tomorrow I am integrating this "consequence": after 10 minutes in the calm down corner you must be feeling so bad that we need to call your parents during recess/specials (depending on the time of day).

Is this fair? I don't like having a calm down corner (whole other topic) because things like this happen too often but I have to have one.

Why do I need to sit in a room for 3 hours listening to admin talk about their summer and other random things, while then also listening to the same hoorah speech that is given every years, just to then go and have team meetings led by the same people.

Let me go home and sleep.

Less than a week after back to school night, syllabus distribution, and three explanatory emails home, i woke up this morning to an email where the parent wants to know why the kid is failing. Ughhh he hasn’t turned a single thing in. Arghhhhh

Talking to the school coach yesterday I tried explaining that I can have procedures in place and they won't matter unless I can enforce them. She accused me of dodging responsibility and told me to name one and I pointed out I'm teaching the damn class. At which point she accused me of being unreasonable and walked out. Also I spoke to a second teacher and he answered me in five seconds. This is the Toxic Positivity Tango. Just pretend everything is fine.

I view misbehaving as a problem to be solved. Here are my systems and here are the actual consequences for violating them. I need something with teeth to enforce them. And again given that another teacher knew the answer right away says a lot. Schools need to accept that asking a question means someone has a question and not an attitude.

If your commute is on the longer side, how long is it?

I’m going from 15 minutes to an hour in order to save money and my mental & physical health. I am a fourth year teacher who recently moved states to be closer to family with the intentions of looking for a different path. One thing led to another and l lined up a teaching job away from my family in a HCOL area, which defeated the purpose of moving closer to my them in the first place. My apartment is also making me physically and mentally sick, so it’s not worth staying.

I’m going to tough out the commute and job for as along as possible, but it would be nice to hear that I’m not the only one who is this position. Thank you!!

Does anyone else just utterly hate this is the default admins expect from staff past elementary school?

Like once they hit roughly 6th grade there's no question they know how to act inside of a school or classroom. There is no reason I should have to go through so many steps to wait for them to come to the conclusion when they should be able to just be told and expected to listen or be removed.

Just as quick edit, I am not talking about the 1-offs either. I mean the ones who its a daily question to ask of them.

"You're blowing my *mind*, Miss Teacher!"

2nd grade lol. Raised his hand to say it and everything 😂

If blowing kids' minds with knowledge ain't my job, then I don't know what is!

This is my first year teaching all honors students, and the difference in behaviors is noticeable. In the past, most of my students were several grade levels below. While my classroom management improved each year, even at my best, I'd feel like I needed to constantly monitor the class or else chaos would erupt. I'd avoid assigning group projects except on rare occasions because many kids would end up wandering around, arguing, or just avoiding the work.

Today, I assigned a group project, and except for a handful of kids, everyone was on task and contributing. I even had one group decide to split into two groups to avoid any arguments, and I was like, "They problem-solved without me needing to step in."

Obviously, kids will be kids, and there are still times when I need to step in or redirect students, but it's so much less than what I was doing before. I've been wondering why each day feels so much quicker, and I think it's because I rarely have to deal with the behaviors I was dealing with before.

It feels like what school was like when I was growing up: most kids are on task and listening to the teacher. A few kids might get off task, but they're easily redirected. Sometimes a bigger issue comes up, but not often.

It's still early in the year, so I'm hesitant to consider this the norm for the year, but it feels nice not having to be hyper vigilant. I genuinely love teaching, and I tried to be a supportive teacher even for my toughest kids in previous years, but I could always feel how anxious my body would get on certain days. Now, there's still stress, but its not the same kind of stress nor to the same degree.

I feel like this is what teaching should be, and possibly what it used to be like. Like no class or teacher is perfect, but our nervous system should not be constantly on edge because of behavior issues.

I am so sick of having to read and mark essays that have clearly been written using AI. I'm at the point where I have to take a break between every essay because I get so livid. Kids are turning in essays that 1) don't sound like them AT ALL and 2) look pretty but say very little. The AI use is even more obvious because the essay topic used a resource that will have very little research material out there, so all of these essays are coming up with the same (wrong, so very wrong) points. And then when it comes time to practice analysis in class or write a poetry test these kids can't answer anything because they've become used to simply being given the answers, and what's more frustrating is that I know they can do it, they've just learned to lose faith in themselves! My department is getting to the point where we aren't going to allow the use of devices for assessments because of this, yet this still likely isn't going to be enough to curb AI use.

Showed up for the first day today. First slide that admin has was labelled “ice breakers”. They hyped it up how important this was for the first day, and then started passing out “supplies”.

After a minute, everyone realized they were passing out ice breakers mints, and that there were no silly games coming. Finished their hour long session in 30 mins and gave us 30 more mins in our classrooms than they are contractually required to.

So for some context, I started teaching last semester in second grade in January and ended in May. I had only 12 students and it was a bit rough at the start but I ended up getting the hang of it. This year I stayed in second grade but now I have 28 students and I cannot manage their behavior at all. Admin has already talked to me about classroom management and being consistent but I have tried for the past 3-4 weeks and nothing has changed much. I have a lot of talkers and those who love standing up. I am Texas so it’s a new curriculum but the stress is what is getting me. I haven’t been eating well and have been dreading waking up each morning to go into work. I am already planning on leaving the profession and hopefully just survive the year. Any advice on what to do?

Not to mention the 20 or 30 that are barely speaking the language. I have 0 para help this year.

It's my 12th year so I can handle it but dang this is a lot. I feel bad for them but there is legitimately only so much I can do.

My admin response is basically oh well.

So... oh well.

It's my second year and I'm definitely "way to nice" and I'm clearly noticing that it negatively impacts the work and ambiance in my class. I've heard a lot that you have to "scare them" and "show them who's boss" but this is so far remote from my personality that i'm first looking for things that would "fit me" iykwim.
I'm mainly teaching IT to 14-15 yo kids but I have other ages also.

So yeah if you have any advice, experience or maybe a good book that talks about it I would be very grateful lol

Hi I'm is Eric (51M) and I’m an 11th grade maths teacher. I wanted to share something I have been noticing with my students a lot in the past month that has been making me somewhat uneasy and I am curious whether other teachers have experienced the same thing.

Since coming back to school i notcied studients using the adding ending pilled to everything like it has suddenly become part of their vocabulary. I’ve already heard things like ITS BASED AND CHRISTPILLED also terms such as "iqpilled" "autismpilled" "mathspilled" etc . At first, though, I assumed I was overreacting and that it was just another bit of dumb gen z/ gen alpha brainrot slang.

The thing is, I’m fairly familiar with gen z internet cultures and know that its influenced a lot by 4chan and andrew tate, including things like looksmaxxing and the broader “manosphere.” About a year ago, this same group of students were talking constantly about a looksmaxxing influencer "Calvivular" who had gone viral online. What caught my attention at the time was that the influencer had reportedly associated with Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist figure.

What makes this harder to interpret is that our class is diverse. It includes Black, Hispanic, Indian, and Asian students even though these groups make up a minority of the class, and students from these backgrounds also take part in the same humor. I have heard girls using the same language as well, so this doesn’t simply seem like a case of white teenage boys trying to be edgy. It appears to be broader internet slang that has spread across different groups, which makes me even less certain about how seriously to take it.

Should I sit down with the students, speak to their parents, or raise the issue with the principal? Would it be appropriate to teach a broader lesson about the dangers of fascism, Hitler, Christian nationalism, and incel ideology, or would that be too much of a leap based on slang alone? I want to warn them about how online communities can normalize misogyny, racism, antisemitism, and authoritarian ideas, but I also don’t want to accuse them unfairly or turn a classroom concern into a political confrontation.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it. I’d genuinely like to hear from other teachers: have you noticed students adopting this kind of terminology, and how do you approach it without turning every piece of internet slang into a political warning sign?

Excerpts, autocorrect :,)

Can we talk about this? I remember being in fifth grade and pestering my teacher at the time about how we are only reading short passages rather than the whole book. Kids today are feeling this disconnect likely just as much as I did, if not more.

Thirteen years later, as a teacher myself, my stance on this has only gotten stronger. The "passage-and-question" format of modern reading curriculums has turned literacy into a clinical process made to mirror the format of standardized tests. By replacing whole novels with snippets and text excerpts that only cushions the ever-shortening attention spans of kids (oh my god, don’t even get me started on brain breaks, by the way), we have systematically stripped away narrative context and cognitive endurance. You cannot build deep background knowledge or a genuine love for books 5-10 pages at a time. The current literacy crisis is largely about a system failing to give them anything worth reading. I’m sick of this, it’s not fair to my students, and I’m awaiting for the go-ahead to stray away from my given curriculum in favor of full YA chapter books for them to digest over the span of two/three weeks. Then, they will write a report. Pen and paper. The standards can still be met (if not exceeded) without cherry-picking.

It seems like our punishment for not improving state testing scores is to force teachers to do more paperwork because we need to 'unpack' the standards, or write about 'process'. Last wee we had a meeting about the future meetings we will have.

I wish we could be more honest about the causes like the bell curve that intelligence sits on. At some point, we have reached the point of diminishing returns. There is no scenario in which we get to 100% grade level. People seem to think that consistent improvements will happen forever. While I can understand this, there comes a point at which our goal of 2% is not met, and might not ever really improve.

Even if our teaching practices became perfect, I'm not sure we could maintain 2% growth forever. Why do people think this way?

That is all. No idea what to do about it and no one at my school cares. I don't even have materials or training and probably won't be provided with any. But it's for the kids, right? This is why they don't succeed. (Union, Blue State before anyone starts in on move somewhere where there's more support. There's none to be had in 2026 and they wonder why we quit.)

I am eight years into this job. I teach upper elementary. I have cried after school, every day since the first day. I do not like my kids. I barely like my school. This is my hardest year yet. The refusal to work, apathy, arguing, constant - and I mean constant - talking, even across the room or during tests. I have re-taught transitions, routines and expectations. I repeatedly make us try again and again till we do it right. I give consequences, I message home. It’s every. day. Everyone constantly complains or is hungry for snack time or wanting nap time??? Most my class is below grade level in math and reading. I have loved every single class I have ever taught, I have also loved teaching. But three weeks in and I’m having panic attacks at the thought of going back the next day. I don’t know what to do, I’m worried quitting would impact my ability to get a job at a different school in the future but I have some personal health things that aren’t impacting my work but that I’d love to attend to - idk family planning for one - and this is already all consuming only for them to say some bs like “this is so easy” (they failed at place value and rounding) we’re stiiiiiill practicing and reteaching this skill. I know I’m a good teacher but so far I feel very bad about myself.

Hi everyone, I am a first year male teacher who has a true passion for teaching and know it is my “calling”… I loved student teaching, college courses, studies, but have been struggling my first three weeks of teaching. I have worked in a education field in various jobs,observed any chance I could, and do my own research in my free time but I feel I have zero control, kids don’t care about punishment, most parents don’t care, they don’t understand my content,teachers could care less about me, many don’t care about grades just laugh when failure is a option. Gonna sound dramatic but I feel my passion burning out quick.. I never was a truly negative person and know everything happens and works out for a reason but I just am absolute shell of myself.. used to love working out,cooking, and, reading but just feel to defeated,depressed,sick and unstable. Came home to my bed and cried for a good 15 minutes for like zero reason. Just feel I am running around like a chicken with no head lol. Is this a normal feeling?? I give 100% to everything but seems to not matter and overlooked.. finally I also have random teachers constantly in and out of my room just coming to watch me teach at random times without checking in I don’t care that much just gets annoying when my students get distracted from me or the content. I just am looking for advice basically because I love education and want to be a light in this world. I know what I can do for myself and these kids but shit my passion is dwindling. I just want to be a change in these students life by providing 100% but that’s hard when your heart is fading away from the passion. I know this sounds like a rant or word slop but I just need to vent.. thank you guys.

I was just in a class today as they needed help getting kinders hooked on computers and it made me cry. They shouldn't be on computers at all. They are being taught by little monsters with squeaky voices, and they are being asked questions that they are not ready for. Fight me on this-- I want to be convinced that this is good for young minds as it is so widespread.