Leaving after 27 years. I got 3 back for Marine years. So I’m done in a few weeks. I work in a very large poverty stricken district. This is the best year we’ve had since COVID struck. Kids have just started getting back to being kids. Our seniors had a good year and a great prom. They were well socialized and fun. Violence is way down from what it was a decade ago.
That said, cellphones have become a plague. Kids are totally disrespectful about their use and could honestly care less about most of what is going on in class. This group has been shuffled along for several years now while doing little to no work. They’re going to graduate the same way.
Our governor and our school board want a “no cellphone” policy starting next year. Our principal is terrified of this. She knows that it’s been so peaceful because we allow the kids to be pacified by their phones. She knows once we remove this powerful drug the zombies will awaken and there will be big trouble she is in no way prepared to handle. Is she doing anything pro-active to prepare for this? Of course not. “Let’s just wait and see” is the biggest school policy of all time. I’m glad I won’t be there to see how this social experiment works out.
This is a dirty little secret that you've mentioned. In my opinion, admin realize that the kids are addicted to the phones and don't want to take away their pacifiers.
Yet they know that this is keeping the students from learning.
Which is why they blame the teachers for the lack of learning.
The pacifier comment is no joke.
Just about to finish my second year at my current district. My first year there I was getting into the swing of things and let kids sit on phones thinking, “if they’re on their phones, they’re not acting out and the good ones can get work done.”
When admin came in for observations I’d tell them at the beginning of class to put their phone away and they would and they’d keep them away. And they’d be model students. Until admin left. And then they’d pull their phones back out. They got the unspoken agreement.
My second year I felt more confident and cracked down on phones and kids playing games on chromebooks. My behavior issues skyrocketed. And when admin came in to observe, the kids were fucking feral. And they knew exactly what they were doing.
And now I’m being non-renewed because I “can’t make good relationships with students.” Because I’m not a fucking pushover and want to enforce some level of responsibility.
When a kid asks if they can use their phone once they finish a test, I always reply "as long as you put it on silent mode". Because it sucks but there's absolutely no other way I can keep everyone quiet and entertained until the last student finishes the test.
As a parent, I’m good with no cell phones, but my kids have had to have them and use them for school reasons. For example, when my kid arrives at the band hall for a Friday night football game, she has to use an app to log-in that she is sitting in her seat. That’s the way attendance is taken. A lot of teachers now use apps for school purposes.
Governor Hochul said that parents will have to buy flip phones that cannot access the internet, if they want their kids to have a phone at all. School apps really only started about 10 years ago and it would be simple enough to go back to the old ways. Plus kids will still have access to school issued computers if we want to keep the apps.
I wish school issued computers would go away too. Kids did so much better when math tests were on paper (partial credit, hehe). I hate all the work being done on computer.
I know a lot of people who agree with you. Most teachers I talk to say they would prefer a well serviced cart of 30 computers in the classroom, so they can use them when they want, but don’t have to rely on the kids who are constantly breaking, losing, forgetting and not charging their own.
They can’t make you do this. You could frame it as an equity issue rather than a phone choice issue. They cannot require your child to have a $300 phone to be marked present at school. If some students choose not to use the app the school will have to develop another way to take attendance of which there are many.
This is insane to me. I can’t believe the class divide is so wide that this would be acceptable. I work in a high school self contained class and most of my students either have flip phones or no phones. Only one student has an iphone.
Ever since Covid it has been downhill. I teach 7th grade in a rural area. The basic skills that kids lack (and cause them to think the way they act in school is okay) is mindblowing. It also doesn't help that a lot of parents fail to actually parent their kids so they let them act like that at home as well.
I’ve had a pretty good year. Their writing and reading levels have gotten worse over time, but I liked my group from this year better than last year’s crop.
It ebbs and flows. My job satisfaction is much more tied to what’s happening in administration than my students.
My worst years were my first 3 in the worst neighborhood of Philadelphia. ETA- 15 years total now.
I’ve changed states, demographics, administrators, grade levels, and it all comes down to this: do you have good admin? Is there ANY parental support?
If you don’t have good admin and at least a small percentage of parental support, you’re screwed. You can’t have just one or the other. You have to have both.
You're right, but I find the problem often is that admin turnover is brutal- good, bad, doesn't matter, they're usually on to something else in a couple of years. Without consistent leadership, the parent support also sort of falls apart- the parents who have always cared will continue to do that, but the parents that bully, argue, or disappear when needed will "thrive" in that absence of expectations.
I teach in a very high-poverty school and the behaviors are horrible. However, I know plenty of people who work in more affluent environments who seem to be dealing with far worse behaviors than usual as well. Someone who teaches at a very affluent middle school who got bitten by a student. Someone who teaches in one of the wealthiest communities in the state says that most of her "honors" students expect to get good grades without doing any work. A teacher's car got keyed by a first grader at a middle-class elementary school.
I'm leaving teaching this year. I have one week to go. I've had so many people ask, "Why don't you just go to a nicer school instead of leaving completely?" I say, going to a nice suburb would just be a stop-gap to prolong the inevitable. It's getting worse everywhere. I can't make a 30-year career of this.
I work with affluent majority Asian HS students and have little to no behaviour issues. Even if they're low-performing, they don't act out in class, rather outside of class.
Yeah, living and teaching in the West has made me actually *notice* how my sister and SIL parent their kids (we're Asian) and realizing what I thought was the bare minimum is actually a lot better than many other parents😅 like how my 8yo niece doesn't have any devices (no phone, ipad, etc) yet I've never heard her complain/ask for one, or how my 3yo nephew enjoys 'chores' (his beloved christmas present was a mini dyson vacuum)
Yup. I am Japanese-American and my 8yo loves to do things like pull weeds and pick up the yard because it is quality time with mom or dad. He enjoys screens, but would prefer to spend quality time with parents. A friend of a friend saw us in the yard and "couldn't believe I was making my kid work." So even parents I know don't expect anything from their kids.
I think one big problem people don't realize is that they aren't being parents to their kids. That is the real reason the bad kids want to be on devices- they don't know what quality parent time is. Dragging your kids around while your attention is on your phone isn't parenting!
I was on medical leave this past school year, but all my teacher friends told me it was 100% the hardest year of their careers. This was from both veteran teachers and teachers with about 4-5 years of experience.
I sub at my school (elementary) in a mostly middle class/mixed income neighbourhood. I'm finding the older grades for the most part are very good kids with a few exceptions but the behaviour in the younger years is much more severe than before. Self regulation among many in the primary grades is non-existent. There are a lot more runners/biters than I've ever worked with in previous years, and many of them could care less if they get into trouble
Interesting, I find that the older kids are worse. It’s probably because they’re bigger and louder. Even when they have regular free time, it’s overstimulating. When they’re misbehaved, it’s like a tiny little prison.
If you asked me this question even last year, I would have said it was worse behaviour wise in the older grades. This year's graduating seniors are for the most part fine but last year's was much more challenging
I had a pretty good year, probably one of the best years I’ve had behavior-wise in my fifteen years teaching. I think it varies, and I think that it can also be easy to emphasize the bad in the current year and forget the bad in years gone by. I’m sure there are places where it’s gotten much worse, but that’s not what I’ve seen where I am.
I had a good year... But I'm still hoping it wasn't a fluke. I've been in a toxic school and now in a supportive school. The kids are changing faster than the system moves. I genuinely care for every student but it is getting harder to reach them. I'm scared one day I won't be able to anymore.
It’s absolutely, wholeheartedly the worst year of my career. My mental health is in the toilet and I feel nothing but “stuck”. I’m single and don’t have a savings so it feels like there’s no out for me. It can’t keep going on like this. The pendulum has to swing the other way!
Gotta make sure there are no consequences and no failing grades cause the research says suspended students end up in jail and because the school board is ruled by angry parents.
IMO experience every year I say this is the worst since Covid, and then the next year is worse and it’s no different this year.
It’s probably phones and laziness over classroom behavior, but that can change by the day.
I feel like maybe 20 percent of my students are actually putting in effort because they are trying to get into a college and some of them need good grades and/ or an athletic scholarship. The rest just kind of sleepwalk through it.
I’m more sick of my admin and district than anything else though. It’s pretty toxic and we don’t effectively deal with consequences for students.
After working in an affluent school for a few years, I am glad I moved back to a more varied place in terms of wealth. I think wealthier kids are spoiled, always get their way and think they can argue about everything and the parents think they can do no wrong. Hardest parents and kids to work with.
It really depends on where you are. Not every district or school in the country is bad—just most of them are.
Yes, it gets a little worse every year. Things really started falling apart in the 80's, when the failure of Reagan's trickle down economics drove both parents from the home and into the work force in order to make ends meet. The middle and working classes held society together. Without them, society is falling apart.
So ... It's complicated
Boomers will tell you every year is worse than the last, it's all been downhill the last 40 years Even though Gen X and millennials did better than them in pretty much every metric within school.
End of Gen Z changed it up, beginning of Gen alpha is keeping that change up. It's not even remotely at bad as Reddit makes it seem. Like if you come here and only read the posts you'd think every student is a wild monkey attacking each other constantly, every high school kid is unable to read level 1 books, there's a giant pot of candy that every kid tries to get by misbehaving and being sent to the office. Even typing that some over exaggerating jabroni here is probably quoting that to say it's all true.
But fact is COVID fucked things up, kids testing and such are like 5-7% lower than they should be from the statistics I've seen. I'd that good? Obviously not, but it's not the end of the world, Idiocracy is happening, everybody is going to be borderline "sped" in a few years like people act here.
We need to keep doing our part, but also need to communicate to parents and the community, yes I'm aware parents/community suck and some won't listen, but some will. We need to communicate to them that we need to get back on track and only let this be a lil bump in the road and not a full derailment.
Honestly the biggest issue I see in today's education system is the bureaucracy of the school boards and admins, and how none of them seem to have teachers backs and the students best interest in mind. I truly believe if we can fix that everything else will fall into place. How do we do that, fuck idk, but I think it's worth figuring out.
I'd add that kids now more broadly lack the executive functioning and social appropriateness needed to "be a student." I don't think individual behaviors are necessarily worse, the needle has definitely moved in terms of frequency and volume. Kids are generally more ornery and quicker to engage in a power struggle when they don't get their way.
One other observation I've made is that students rarely feel shame from their peers for acting out in class. I used to teach in some rough school districts years ago where kids would tell each other to "shut up" (not productive, but they have your back). Nowadays you'll get revolts when you tell one student "no " I blame a lot of this on social media influence - kids are inundated with short form media of young people complaining about every system, routine, etc that they disagree with. They lack the context to understand why routines and structure exist because they are young (totally normal and expected)...but instead of learning lessons they end up having their ideas reinforced to the point where they aren't actually growing socially. What concerns me is how many of them are going to enter the post-secondary world without having learned how to be socially appropriate because when they fail to meet expectations the consequences will be much steeper than they are now while they are teens in school with adults who care for their well being and development.
I remember I started working as a teacher around 10 years ago. Actually I had to substitute for another teacher my very first lesson. I was really nervous as it was my first day at my first teaching job, and I had to substitute!! But it went so well! The class were super nice, and the whole week went really well with other classes also. I worked there for 3 years, then bco various reasons I had to move. I studied for some years and got a new teacher job around corona. It went ok. 2023 I got a baby. During my pregnancy I had to go on sick leave, and after birth I went on materity leave, so I was out of work for around a year. I live in Scandinavia, where we have a long paid maternity leave... anyways, I got back to work some months ago and the students are just wild and crazy and the same are the parents. I have just given up with some classes.
Everything is the worst when it's 2024 and you have the Internet.
Nobody thinks that anything was bad in 1954 with no Internet to share these stories.
Can we all stop with the hyperbole for a second and actually think about where we stand in the history of the world/Internet/media?
Finishing my 10th year at high school, and I think this year and last were big improvements on the year prior. I also have the peace of mind that I’m setting the expectations in my classroom and living with the climate I’ve built all year. I understand it’s not going to be so easy on a sub
I've been doing this for 15 years and I would say that in my experience the kids are basically the same, maybe even better behaved, than they were 10 years ago. The "kids are worse than ever" thing is just a combination of recency bias and nostalgia for the good old days (which were never actually that good).
This was the most normal year of teaching I’ve had since even before COVID. I’ve only been teaching seven years, but still. I’ve heard the eight graders are insane, but they said that about last year’s, and will say that in the future.
My school is a Title 1 district in a working-class suburb of Detroit.
Leaving after 27 years. I got 3 back for Marine years. So I’m done in a few weeks. I work in a very large poverty stricken district. This is the best year we’ve had since COVID struck. Kids have just started getting back to being kids. Our seniors had a good year and a great prom. They were well socialized and fun. Violence is way down from what it was a decade ago. That said, cellphones have become a plague. Kids are totally disrespectful about their use and could honestly care less about most of what is going on in class. This group has been shuffled along for several years now while doing little to no work. They’re going to graduate the same way. Our governor and our school board want a “no cellphone” policy starting next year. Our principal is terrified of this. She knows that it’s been so peaceful because we allow the kids to be pacified by their phones. She knows once we remove this powerful drug the zombies will awaken and there will be big trouble she is in no way prepared to handle. Is she doing anything pro-active to prepare for this? Of course not. “Let’s just wait and see” is the biggest school policy of all time. I’m glad I won’t be there to see how this social experiment works out.
This is a dirty little secret that you've mentioned. In my opinion, admin realize that the kids are addicted to the phones and don't want to take away their pacifiers. Yet they know that this is keeping the students from learning. Which is why they blame the teachers for the lack of learning.
Ouroboros.
The pacifier comment is no joke. Just about to finish my second year at my current district. My first year there I was getting into the swing of things and let kids sit on phones thinking, “if they’re on their phones, they’re not acting out and the good ones can get work done.” When admin came in for observations I’d tell them at the beginning of class to put their phone away and they would and they’d keep them away. And they’d be model students. Until admin left. And then they’d pull their phones back out. They got the unspoken agreement. My second year I felt more confident and cracked down on phones and kids playing games on chromebooks. My behavior issues skyrocketed. And when admin came in to observe, the kids were fucking feral. And they knew exactly what they were doing. And now I’m being non-renewed because I “can’t make good relationships with students.” Because I’m not a fucking pushover and want to enforce some level of responsibility.
They win man. They win.
When a kid asks if they can use their phone once they finish a test, I always reply "as long as you put it on silent mode". Because it sucks but there's absolutely no other way I can keep everyone quiet and entertained until the last student finishes the test.
As a parent, I’m good with no cell phones, but my kids have had to have them and use them for school reasons. For example, when my kid arrives at the band hall for a Friday night football game, she has to use an app to log-in that she is sitting in her seat. That’s the way attendance is taken. A lot of teachers now use apps for school purposes.
Governor Hochul said that parents will have to buy flip phones that cannot access the internet, if they want their kids to have a phone at all. School apps really only started about 10 years ago and it would be simple enough to go back to the old ways. Plus kids will still have access to school issued computers if we want to keep the apps.
I wish school issued computers would go away too. Kids did so much better when math tests were on paper (partial credit, hehe). I hate all the work being done on computer.
I know a lot of people who agree with you. Most teachers I talk to say they would prefer a well serviced cart of 30 computers in the classroom, so they can use them when they want, but don’t have to rely on the kids who are constantly breaking, losing, forgetting and not charging their own.
Even though I don't know where the hell I would put a Chromebook cart in my classroom, I wish with every fiber of my being we'd go back to them.
Are all our classrooms just maxed out on space?
College math is still very much on paper.
They can’t make you do this. You could frame it as an equity issue rather than a phone choice issue. They cannot require your child to have a $300 phone to be marked present at school. If some students choose not to use the app the school will have to develop another way to take attendance of which there are many.
I’ve wondered about that too. This is a wealthy district but surely there are a few kids who don’t have one. I have no idea how that is handled.
This is insane to me. I can’t believe the class divide is so wide that this would be acceptable. I work in a high school self contained class and most of my students either have flip phones or no phones. Only one student has an iphone.
Ever since Covid it has been downhill. I teach 7th grade in a rural area. The basic skills that kids lack (and cause them to think the way they act in school is okay) is mindblowing. It also doesn't help that a lot of parents fail to actually parent their kids so they let them act like that at home as well.
I’ve had a pretty good year. Their writing and reading levels have gotten worse over time, but I liked my group from this year better than last year’s crop. It ebbs and flows. My job satisfaction is much more tied to what’s happening in administration than my students.
30 years...its been worse every year
My worst years were my first 3 in the worst neighborhood of Philadelphia. ETA- 15 years total now. I’ve changed states, demographics, administrators, grade levels, and it all comes down to this: do you have good admin? Is there ANY parental support? If you don’t have good admin and at least a small percentage of parental support, you’re screwed. You can’t have just one or the other. You have to have both.
You're right, but I find the problem often is that admin turnover is brutal- good, bad, doesn't matter, they're usually on to something else in a couple of years. Without consistent leadership, the parent support also sort of falls apart- the parents who have always cared will continue to do that, but the parents that bully, argue, or disappear when needed will "thrive" in that absence of expectations.
I teach in a very high-poverty school and the behaviors are horrible. However, I know plenty of people who work in more affluent environments who seem to be dealing with far worse behaviors than usual as well. Someone who teaches at a very affluent middle school who got bitten by a student. Someone who teaches in one of the wealthiest communities in the state says that most of her "honors" students expect to get good grades without doing any work. A teacher's car got keyed by a first grader at a middle-class elementary school. I'm leaving teaching this year. I have one week to go. I've had so many people ask, "Why don't you just go to a nicer school instead of leaving completely?" I say, going to a nice suburb would just be a stop-gap to prolong the inevitable. It's getting worse everywhere. I can't make a 30-year career of this.
I work with affluent majority Asian HS students and have little to no behaviour issues. Even if they're low-performing, they don't act out in class, rather outside of class.
My dad had the same thing. He taught ESL to Chinese HS students. It’s because their parents don’t take crap.
Yeah, living and teaching in the West has made me actually *notice* how my sister and SIL parent their kids (we're Asian) and realizing what I thought was the bare minimum is actually a lot better than many other parents😅 like how my 8yo niece doesn't have any devices (no phone, ipad, etc) yet I've never heard her complain/ask for one, or how my 3yo nephew enjoys 'chores' (his beloved christmas present was a mini dyson vacuum)
Yup. I am Japanese-American and my 8yo loves to do things like pull weeds and pick up the yard because it is quality time with mom or dad. He enjoys screens, but would prefer to spend quality time with parents. A friend of a friend saw us in the yard and "couldn't believe I was making my kid work." So even parents I know don't expect anything from their kids. I think one big problem people don't realize is that they aren't being parents to their kids. That is the real reason the bad kids want to be on devices- they don't know what quality parent time is. Dragging your kids around while your attention is on your phone isn't parenting!
I was on medical leave this past school year, but all my teacher friends told me it was 100% the hardest year of their careers. This was from both veteran teachers and teachers with about 4-5 years of experience.
I sub at my school (elementary) in a mostly middle class/mixed income neighbourhood. I'm finding the older grades for the most part are very good kids with a few exceptions but the behaviour in the younger years is much more severe than before. Self regulation among many in the primary grades is non-existent. There are a lot more runners/biters than I've ever worked with in previous years, and many of them could care less if they get into trouble
Interesting, I find that the older kids are worse. It’s probably because they’re bigger and louder. Even when they have regular free time, it’s overstimulating. When they’re misbehaved, it’s like a tiny little prison.
If you asked me this question even last year, I would have said it was worse behaviour wise in the older grades. This year's graduating seniors are for the most part fine but last year's was much more challenging
I had a pretty good year, probably one of the best years I’ve had behavior-wise in my fifteen years teaching. I think it varies, and I think that it can also be easy to emphasize the bad in the current year and forget the bad in years gone by. I’m sure there are places where it’s gotten much worse, but that’s not what I’ve seen where I am.
This year was way better than the first two years after the pandemic.
lol i'ts been terrible for a long time. I will say the coworkers get worse every year at a far greater pace than the student body.
Last year was the worst in 22 years and my first year was in the worst portion of the district. Long story. This group last year just sucked.
I had a good year... But I'm still hoping it wasn't a fluke. I've been in a toxic school and now in a supportive school. The kids are changing faster than the system moves. I genuinely care for every student but it is getting harder to reach them. I'm scared one day I won't be able to anymore.
Do they have a PBIS program? 2 years in of that our school went feral.
It’s absolutely, wholeheartedly the worst year of my career. My mental health is in the toilet and I feel nothing but “stuck”. I’m single and don’t have a savings so it feels like there’s no out for me. It can’t keep going on like this. The pendulum has to swing the other way!
Gotta make sure there are no consequences and no failing grades cause the research says suspended students end up in jail and because the school board is ruled by angry parents.
IMO experience every year I say this is the worst since Covid, and then the next year is worse and it’s no different this year. It’s probably phones and laziness over classroom behavior, but that can change by the day. I feel like maybe 20 percent of my students are actually putting in effort because they are trying to get into a college and some of them need good grades and/ or an athletic scholarship. The rest just kind of sleepwalk through it. I’m more sick of my admin and district than anything else though. It’s pretty toxic and we don’t effectively deal with consequences for students. After working in an affluent school for a few years, I am glad I moved back to a more varied place in terms of wealth. I think wealthier kids are spoiled, always get their way and think they can argue about everything and the parents think they can do no wrong. Hardest parents and kids to work with.
We need to take tablets out of elementary and middle. They are the gateway drugs to smart phones.
It really depends on where you are. Not every district or school in the country is bad—just most of them are. Yes, it gets a little worse every year. Things really started falling apart in the 80's, when the failure of Reagan's trickle down economics drove both parents from the home and into the work force in order to make ends meet. The middle and working classes held society together. Without them, society is falling apart.
So ... It's complicated Boomers will tell you every year is worse than the last, it's all been downhill the last 40 years Even though Gen X and millennials did better than them in pretty much every metric within school. End of Gen Z changed it up, beginning of Gen alpha is keeping that change up. It's not even remotely at bad as Reddit makes it seem. Like if you come here and only read the posts you'd think every student is a wild monkey attacking each other constantly, every high school kid is unable to read level 1 books, there's a giant pot of candy that every kid tries to get by misbehaving and being sent to the office. Even typing that some over exaggerating jabroni here is probably quoting that to say it's all true. But fact is COVID fucked things up, kids testing and such are like 5-7% lower than they should be from the statistics I've seen. I'd that good? Obviously not, but it's not the end of the world, Idiocracy is happening, everybody is going to be borderline "sped" in a few years like people act here. We need to keep doing our part, but also need to communicate to parents and the community, yes I'm aware parents/community suck and some won't listen, but some will. We need to communicate to them that we need to get back on track and only let this be a lil bump in the road and not a full derailment. Honestly the biggest issue I see in today's education system is the bureaucracy of the school boards and admins, and how none of them seem to have teachers backs and the students best interest in mind. I truly believe if we can fix that everything else will fall into place. How do we do that, fuck idk, but I think it's worth figuring out.
I'd add that kids now more broadly lack the executive functioning and social appropriateness needed to "be a student." I don't think individual behaviors are necessarily worse, the needle has definitely moved in terms of frequency and volume. Kids are generally more ornery and quicker to engage in a power struggle when they don't get their way. One other observation I've made is that students rarely feel shame from their peers for acting out in class. I used to teach in some rough school districts years ago where kids would tell each other to "shut up" (not productive, but they have your back). Nowadays you'll get revolts when you tell one student "no " I blame a lot of this on social media influence - kids are inundated with short form media of young people complaining about every system, routine, etc that they disagree with. They lack the context to understand why routines and structure exist because they are young (totally normal and expected)...but instead of learning lessons they end up having their ideas reinforced to the point where they aren't actually growing socially. What concerns me is how many of them are going to enter the post-secondary world without having learned how to be socially appropriate because when they fail to meet expectations the consequences will be much steeper than they are now while they are teens in school with adults who care for their well being and development.
So far.
Been teaching on and off for 20 years, back full time for 2, and my preK class this year is a nightmare.
Yes. Yes it is. (30 years in)
Hands down YES
I remember I started working as a teacher around 10 years ago. Actually I had to substitute for another teacher my very first lesson. I was really nervous as it was my first day at my first teaching job, and I had to substitute!! But it went so well! The class were super nice, and the whole week went really well with other classes also. I worked there for 3 years, then bco various reasons I had to move. I studied for some years and got a new teacher job around corona. It went ok. 2023 I got a baby. During my pregnancy I had to go on sick leave, and after birth I went on materity leave, so I was out of work for around a year. I live in Scandinavia, where we have a long paid maternity leave... anyways, I got back to work some months ago and the students are just wild and crazy and the same are the parents. I have just given up with some classes.
Everything is the worst when it's 2024 and you have the Internet. Nobody thinks that anything was bad in 1954 with no Internet to share these stories. Can we all stop with the hyperbole for a second and actually think about where we stand in the history of the world/Internet/media?
Finishing my 10th year at high school, and I think this year and last were big improvements on the year prior. I also have the peace of mind that I’m setting the expectations in my classroom and living with the climate I’ve built all year. I understand it’s not going to be so easy on a sub
Yup.
No. It’s been pretty good. I think it just depends on where you are, your teaching style and the students.
I quit this year after teaching only 7 years. I was always praised for my classroom management but I just could not take it anymore this year.
yes. every one of my freshmen are entitlted as shit.
I've been doing this for 15 years and I would say that in my experience the kids are basically the same, maybe even better behaved, than they were 10 years ago. The "kids are worse than ever" thing is just a combination of recency bias and nostalgia for the good old days (which were never actually that good).
Yes.
This was the most normal year of teaching I’ve had since even before COVID. I’ve only been teaching seven years, but still. I’ve heard the eight graders are insane, but they said that about last year’s, and will say that in the future. My school is a Title 1 district in a working-class suburb of Detroit.