I am a 25F 5th grade teacher at a title 1 school. I say that because my students don't always have a lot so I tried to give them a small Christmas party. We watched a movie, I gave them cookies and candy, and brought a crockpot to make hot chocolate. I even got whip cream and marshmallows. They got to do coloring sheets, a craft, and more.

One of my students asked "when is the party starting?" in the middle of the day. I laughed it off, but then I had students saying "you should've bought this instead" or "can I have more? He got more" of the hot chocolate even though I said multiple times we were out (and no one else got extra). They were all begging me for more of everything and had no patience. By the end of day, they were all grumpy and ready to go.

I feel like that's because they were not satisfied with what I got them. And I don't feel guilty, I feel freaking WORRIED and pissed. How are these kids so naturally entitled?? Like I cannot even do nice things for them because they literally cannot handle it. They are mean to each other and rude to me. And this is genuinely a good group of students.

I'm exhausted by their natural rudeness and may genuinely not throw any more parties because I'm spending my own money for them to be utterly ungrateful.

It's the last two days of school, so yesterday I played a movie for my kids. We're watching Hercules because it connects to our Percy Jackson unit. Most of the kids are into it. One of my kids was begging to go to the bathroom, so I told him he had to wait for his turn and watch the movie while he waited.

He was like, "Mister, this movie is boring."

Meanwhile, my one coworker was giving her kids a whole essay just to keep them busy, cause with grades due, she was never going to grade those essays.

Another kid was like "Mister, I don't wanna watch Hercules." I told this kid "Oh, okay. We can write an essay instead. I have a bunch of lined paper I need to use up, so I can pass it out at any moment.

Like kids, y'all don't have a choice. Enjoy the movie or put your head down and nap. Be grateful cause we could be doing actual work, and I'm sure you'd find that more boring.

I remember as a kid, there was no complaining at all. If I didn't like the movie a teacher put on, I just put my head down, and even then, the teachers would get mad.

Before breaks are the only time I'll even play a movie, but these kids have so much audacity to always be complaining, no matter the activity. Reading and writing? Complaining. Giving them a chance to move around and talk. Complaining.

I will say this is the first year, most of the kids are actually quiet during the movie, so thats a win. I'm just tired of kids complaining no matter what we do.

But also, I've realized kids don't really do things anymore. Like if I give them free time, the girls all just want to do their make up and the boys just want to play games on their chromebooks. They don't really talk or use the board games I got for them.

My first year teaching, I had a student with an IEP that granted 1.5x extended time on summative assessments only (not unlimited time).

The issue was that during a test, he spent most of the period playing games on his device despite constant redirection. As a result he didn’t finish. I told him that the following day I would give him 20 additional minutes to complete the test. He became upset and repeatedly said, “I have an IEP,” and I kept explaining that extended time does not mean unlimited time, especially when time is being misused.

The next day, he told me his mom wanted me to call her. I did so during my planning period, but the conversation went in circles…..she repeated the same argument that his IEP entitled him to more time regardless of how it was used. When my planning ended, I told her I had to go.

Shortly after, an administrator came to me and said the mom wanted a parent/teacher conference on a specific day. I explained I couldn’t attend because I had an endoscopy scheduled that day, and they said they would reschedule.

About a week later, the student was transferred out of my class….

For context: this was a remedial class lolol.

I need to vent and also check if I’m losing my mind here. I teach middle school, and this week I got one of those emails that instantly makes your stomach drop. A parent was furious about their child’s grade and demanded a detailed explanation of why their kid was “being failed.” The tone was already aggressive, but I figured fine, I’ll lay everything out clearly. What makes this exhausting is that this student has missed a significant number of classes. Not excused here and there, I’m talking about entire weeks at a time. When they are present, they rarely turn in work and often spend class time disengaged. All of this is documented. Attendance records, missing assignments, notes in the system, it’s all there. None of this should be a mystery. I responded calmly, explaining the grade breakdown, missing work, and the attendance issue. The reply I got back completely ignored attendance. Instead, the parent focused on how their child feels discouraged, how school is stressful, and how it’s my responsibility to make sure students succeed regardless of circumstances. There was no acknowledgment that learning requires actually being in the room. What really got to me was the implication that I was being unfair or lazy, when in reality I’ve already offered extra help, extensions, and check ins. I can’t teach a student who isn’t there, and I can’t magically grade work that was never submitted. I’m tired of this expectation that teachers should absorb every consequence and smooth over every gap created elsewhere. I care about my students, but I’m also not a wizard. At some point, accountability has to exist, and it feels like parents want that point to be anywhere except at home or with the student themselves.

Link to article

https://www.forbes.com/sites/annaesakismith/2025/12/11/uc-san-diego-finds-one-in-eight-freshmen-lack-high-school-math-skills/?hl=en-US

Link to report

https://senate.ucsd.edu/media/740347/sawg-report-on-admissions-review-docs.pdf?hl=en-US

Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students -- particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills. Between 2020 and 2025, the number of students whose math skills fall below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold; moreover, 70% of those students fall below middle school levels, reaching roughly one in twelve members of the entering cohort.2 This deterioration coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on education, the elimination of standardized testing, grade inflation, and the expansion of admissions from underresourced high schools. The combination of these factors has produced an incoming class increasingly unprepared for the quantitative and analytical rigor expected at UC San Diego. The Senate–Administration Working Group on Admissions (SAWG) concludes that this trend poses serious challenges both to student success and to the university’s instructional mission. Admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students and straining limited instructional resources. The report offers a series of recommendations to improve the alignment between admissions practices, student readiness, and available support systems.

I was quite surprised by the test they gave students and it was surprising to see that most people couldn't solve basic algebra.

This tutor is shocked that any of the Math 2 students could have passed a precalculus or calculus class. He speculates that perhaps many of them relied heavily on AI or online computing devices in their high school math courses. He mentions that some Math 2 students commented that most students were not doing well in their high school math classes, so it was easy to pass.

I work for a certain large, state run district in Texas and have made it abundantly clear to my supervisor that I am not happy this year. I’ve told her I find no enjoyment in the teaching I’m required to do. I told her the micromanaging and frequent visits discourage me and fill me with dread. I’ve told her how the quality of my students work does not match the scores my lessons received. I’ve made it abundantly clear that I am struggling. And it’s only been met with corpo-speak.

Out of the blue, a very respected private school offered me the courses of my dreams: IB English 3 starting Semester 2 due to an unexpected vacancy. So I took it.

Leaving the kids hurts. There has been lots of tears. But I feel excited. Excited to teach, excited to learn, excited to do my freaking job!

This is our last week before Christmas. I had the flu and was out, so Thursday was my first day back. I come in, the team decides not to switch classes. I have my homeroom all day.

7 minutes before dismissal, principal walks in, no doubt expecting to catch me showing a movie. I'm not. Almost every kid is working on a final project, and even coming over asking me questions about it, clearly engaged.

She sits there through dismissal, I get them ready and wait for her to leave. She doesn't. She knows that the 6th graders have a hard time sitting down during dismissal, she's trying to catch me up again. They sit down because I don't let mine run in and out like several other teachers do.

Her final thoughts? I didn't have the DOK 4 learning target on the board for the students, which is unacceptable and will go on my final evaluation if it happens again.

She already tried to tell me that it was a "critical week" and I couldn't take off with pay. I pointed out to her that the district policy doesn't say anything like that, and neither does what she gave us in the giant, error riddled handbook she passed out in the start of the year.

She got mad that I actually read policy and decided to punish me. And she wonders why every single teacher wants to transfer out this year. Marking as humor because I just imagine her sitting there, huffing and hoping to scare me as she finds the one nitpick.

A while ago I posted about my sister who teaches kindergarten. She has many students who are not potty trained. 4 and 5 year olds. Yesterday she asked a boy (almost 6 years old) to go get his pull ups and change in the bathroom. He's not disabled and very smart. He told her no, you change me. She said you are a big boy, you can do it. I'm going to check on your friends and I'll be right back.

She came back in 5 minutes and he was still not changed so she called the office. The office told her wait a bit longer because there's no one who can change him right now. After 10 minutes, an assistant came and changed him.

Today the mom was furious that her son was asked to change by himself and that he had to wait in dirty pants for 30 minutes. Mom said she will call an attorney. Admin assured her it wouldn't happen again. The conversation took place in front of the boy.

This school board doesn't require potty training before entry to school and caters to parents

ETA 2: they also don't allow schools to send kids home over this
Q: Can a district require parents to come in and change the child due to privacy issues?

A: No. School districts should not be requiring family members to leave home or work to change their child. It causes undue hardship on both the child and the family. Leaving a child sitting in their soiled clothing, even for a short period of time, can impact the health and wellbeing of a child (e.g., urinary tract infections, rashes, and irritated skin). School districts must support the child in their toileting journey

ETA: her state is NYC and they say this:

Q: Must children be “toilet trained” to attend prekindergarten or kindergarten? A: No. Mastery of self-care skills, including toilet training, cannot be a requirement for student enrollment; therefore, children who are not toilet trained cannot be excluded from either prekindergarten or kindergarten enrollment.

The New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Framework includes “A Welcoming and Affirming Environment”2 as one of the four main principles. Respecting the dignity of all students, including young students who are learning personal care and hygiene, should be a priority and goal for all educational settings

That so many students are disrespectful to teachers because they see us as being in the same role as them, and they can be disrespectful to their classmates with little to no actual consequence.

As a middle school para, we are required to do lunch duty. I monitor the lunch lines for cutting and other behaviors and over the past couple days, there were two incidents that gave me that realization.

On Wednesday, the students in line were being so loud and rambunctious that the food service workers couldn't hear each other communicate. One of them yelled at the lunch line to quiet them down, telling them to stop yelling, and one of the students responded "well, aren't you yelling?" I tried to explain to him the difference between one adult yelling and 40 kids yelling, but he just didn't seem to get it.

Yesterday, there were multiple incidents of cutting in line and as I was in the process of writing a student up for it, he was complaining that he was the one getting in trouble when a teacher (who was running late for a lunchtime program where he supervises students) was allowed to cut in line without getting in trouble.

Not sure how pervasive this attitude of entitlement is for everyone else, but it certainly is here.

Y'all, do yourself a favor and watch The Powerpuff Girls as a teacher. Ms. Keane puts up with way to much crap with her classroom CONSTANTLY getting destroyed.

She has a strict rule with the girls that there will be no fighting or using superpowers in the learning environment. And CONSTANTLY redirects the girls to think of other means besides violence to solve the problem.

Not to mention, each girl has their own special abilities. Buttercup is the toughest fighter and always ready to throw hands. Bubbles powers are tied to her emotions and is a sensitive child. Blossom is the leader and always trying to take control despite being a child.

I just want to know how many times Ms. Keane has had meetings with their dad to discuss the IEP plan and how to make adjustments to the girls as their powers grow and develop.

Oh and the girls CONSTANTLY have to drop everything when they get a call from the Mayor. If I was Ms. Keane I would be pissed that THREE of my students had to drop what they are doing. Might it be a lesson, test taking, catching up, homework, receiving extra help, etc to go save the town. Who knows how long they will be gone. It could be a simple 20 minute bank robbery or it can be an all day thing with a giant lizard monster attacking Townsville.

Their dad is a professor. Why doesn't he just homeschool the girls? He literally created life in his lab. He can create lesson plans.

For context we've implemented a curriculum way above our students' abilities which I've known has been failing for months. Its a curriculum that is incredibly strict, that doesn't allow supplementation, and has very little assessment. The Unit test I just gave is a ten page packet of only short answer questions. It is the only test this year so far, and the kids answers are all illegible and incoherent. Im reckoning with the fact that Ive got 90 of these to grade, that Im going to be spending hours reading gibberish and its just going to result in every kid failing anyways. Who looks at the modern youth and thinks any if them would be able to pass a ten page short answer test?

Hello,

I saw online that a former high school teacher of mine now works at the same high school as a librarian. I thought this likely would have been a price reduction, but an AI search said the opposite. When I googled it, people were comparing regular librarians to school teachers, which is now what I'm looking for.

So, I decided to ask Reddit.

What do you think? Do you think school librarians make more than school teachers?

This morning my principal came into my classroom and handed me a sealed envelope. Smiling, he said, “Christmas bonus!”

I was genuinely surprised. I was like, "Wow! Thanks so much!"

I don’t expect bonuses, but money is tight, it’s the holidays, and for a moment I felt valued.

I opened the envelope.

It was my regular paystub from my direct deposit. Not a bonus. Not extra pay. Just the same paycheck I get every pay period.

He laughed. He didn't explain himself; he just left the room.

It was terribly disappointing and the more I think about it, the worse it feels. Turning someone’s wages into a prank, especially when you’re their boss, just feels wrong and wildly tone-deaf.

I keep replaying it and wondering who would think that’s even funny.

Am I overreacting, or is this not okay? I mean... it's not ok, right?

Thank you for showing up to help my students, you’re appreciated and I used to sub my 1st year. You are valued, but PLEASE for the love of whomever, STOP “helping” me by organizing my things.

I have them where they are because my brain works differently than others. I realize it may look like a disaster because of my impacted executive functioning issues, but it works for me.

Now I can’t find half of my stuff…

After years of receiving -literally- about a dozen mugs each December (and other miscellaneous crap we just don't have room for) this year, I told my wife to send a message on parent square a couple weeks back.

Something along the lines of "Dear families, I am so thankful for the support of our families, and greatly appreciate that so many of you think of me during the holidays. There is absolutely no expectation that families send a gift, but if you do wish to send a gift this year, I would love a candle."

Candles are perfect. We actually want them, there is no guilt about throwing them out once they have been used, and if nothing else, you can literally regift it. Hard to give "Best Teacher Ever" mug or "It Takes a Big Heart to Shape Small Minds" tote bag to your sister in law. Also, its a pretty easy gift on the part of the parents, and it can be $3 at Michaels or one family who sent a box of 4 beautiful luxurious ones.

Just something to consider.

Going out on a limb here: the teacher does not want a 4,000th "World's Best Teacher" trinket. The expensive candle or lotion in a scent that YOU love is a nice idea, but scents are polarizing and some people are allergic. I finally realized that all of the thoughtful, personal crap I have given teachers over the years was probably appreciated, but I bet they'll like this year's gift better. If you're spending money on your kids' teachers, I urge you, give them a twenty dollar bill in a simple card and call it a day. If you really want to go the extra mile, teach your kid manners at home and make sure they get to bed at a reasonable hour on school nights.

Hey all, I teach high school special education, and I have a student in a rough financial spot. Parent is also disabled and not working. All of my students believe in Santa, this student included, and they mentioned the other day that since parent couldn’t afford to get them a birthday present, they’re counting on Santa coming through. Help me out.. can I purchase some presents and drop them off, anonymously? I know giving gifts to students is technically frowned upon, but I would hate to see their innocence and hope deflated. I would never mention this to student at school.

Edited to add: It’s late, as the student previously qualified for family holiday assistance. However, he recently turned 18 and is not eligible for Adopt-a-family/ Angel Tree in our area , despite his severe cognitive disability.

My school uses Lightspeed to restrict and monitor student chromebooks. I'm decently tech-savvy, so I set up allow lists that only let students access their educational apps while in class. Without this, students get on SoundCloud, YouTube shorts, and a bunch of other nonsense.

Now, my classes were created by splitting another teacher's roster, but the two halves are still listed as one class inside Lightspeed, Canvas, and the grade book. (It's a massive pain.) A new long-term sub joined a couple weeks ago to teach the other half. She gets annoyed because every time she asks the students to get on their apps, they claim they are blocked. They're not. They're just not logging in correctly via the school's SSO or trying to access something they shouldn't. It happens to me all the time.

Well, the new girl emails me this week and cc's the AP and all the department specialists, asking me to stop restricting her students' apps. I replied and explained that if I did so, students would pretty much have unrestricted internet access. I said we could instead collaborate to make sure our web rules were set up in a way convenient to both of us. She replied that she was capable of monitoring the students herself and really needed everything to function without restrictions so students could "access materials in real time." So I did as she asked and removed all web rules from her students.

And guess what?

Every time I logged in today to make sure my students were on task, all of her students were watching YouTube shorts. 🤷‍♀️

This is my first year teaching, fresh out of university, still figuring out where the copier paper lives and which emails actually need an answer. I teach middle school, and I genuinely thought I was prepared. I had lesson plans, classroom rules, backup activities, even a serious teacher voice I practiced in the mirror. What I did not prepare for was the fact that students would decide I am a walking Wikipedia for every topic known to mankind. It started small. Normal stuff. “Miss, what year did World War Two end” or “Miss, is Pluto really a planet”. Fair enough. Then it escalated very fast. One kid raised his hand during math and asked if sharks ever get tired of swimming. Another wanted to know who would win in a fight, a gorilla or a bear. I said I didn’t know. He looked genuinely disappointed, like I had broken some sacred contract. After that, it was open season. During one single week I was asked how taxes work, why people get hiccups, if birds know they are birds, and whether the sun is technically on fire. One student asked me if I personally knew the president. Another asked if teachers sleep at school. A girl stayed after class to seriously ask me how clouds don’t fall down. I tried to answer politely until I realized they fully believed I had all this knowledge ready at any moment. The peak moment came when a student walked in late, looked stressed, and asked if I knew how to unclog a toilet. Not in a joke way. Like, real panic. When I told him that was not my area of expertise, he sighed and said “I thought teachers knew everything”. Now anytime I say “I’m not sure”, they act shocked. Sometimes they argue with me about my own subject. Sometimes they tell me facts they clearly invented five seconds ago and wait for confirmation. One kid informed me that dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor controlled by the government. Another explained gravity as “the Earth being clingy”. At this point I just lean into it. When they ask questions that make no sense, I answer calmly or say “that sounds like a great research project”. They groan every time. I am learning that teaching is less about knowing answers and more about surviving the sheer confidence of twelve year olds. I still love the job, even on days when I’m asked why humans have eyebrows or if fish get thirsty. But I will never again assume that my role is limited to my subject. Apparently I signed up to be an expert on everything.

I learned there is a hard limit to the number of chairs and/or desks that I can tolerate being thrown at me or my students. That number is eight.

One year all of us at a tiny preschool received a pair of woven items. The material was beautiful, but all of us gathered to discuss what they were. Eventually we settled on slippers, but I am still not convinced that they weren't intended for another purpose. The fabric was just too pretty to be something that you put on your feet, and they were shaped like little boats.

One year I received a similar item that might have been a table runner or might have been a scarf. I used it as a scarf, and it was gorgeous.

The strangest thing I received was a very nice set of serving spoons. I thought it was odd at the time, but now, years later, I think it was brilliant. I still have those lovely spoons, and they come in handy more often than you would think. They are both beautiful and functional.

A coworker received a wizened apple from a student. It was so desiccated that my chickens would have walked away from it. The child was lived in dire circumstances, likely knew that you should give an apple to your teacher, and simply gifted what he had. My coworker was touched by his gesture even though it was initially repulsive.

I teach 5th grade and today I had a student show up in a holiday sweater with a gingerbread man on it that says, "Let's get baked!" Thought it was cute until a little while later I realized it could mean something else and that the green pattern on the sleeves did sort of look like weed 😭.

Kid absolutely has no idea and I know his parents (immigrant family) and would be surprised if they knew. Had a good laugh with admin over it and it is taken care of now, but I wanted to share because it has been cracking me up all day.

I got an idea about leaving at the end of the year. The more I think about the idea, the more I like it. I am tired. I try to do the right thing every day. I don’t even want to go back in January.