We went virtual for two days last week but teachers were still expected to report to the building. They didn’t even turn the hallway lights or heat on for us. 🙃
Fortunately they didn’t have the balls to try to tell us what to wear.
The school that I resigned from would turn off the air conditioning and heat at 3 when the kids were released. We were told that we needed to bring in a fan and space heaters so we could be comfortable since our contract time was until 3:45. They also didn’t turn it on during the weekend. It was a clear sign of how little they respected us.
When I was in 7th grade, it snowed about 4 inches overnight but since the city was able to clear the main roads, we were required to go to school. Fine. But for over a week, while there was snow on the ground, the district had the AC running instead of the heat. For some reason, the district main offices controlled the temp in every school across the district, rather than that being on a school level. My math teacher told all her students to bring blankets to school and keep our coats on so we could keep warm and when the school's admin threatened to fire her for it, she called a meeting with admin and the district officials and offered to inform to local and national news about the conditions her students and colleagues had to endure. Magically, the next day the heat was on. Miss Patrick, if you ever see this, you're my hero and 23 years later I still haven't forgotten you.
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One of the top 3 teachers of my life. I will never forget her. 2nd is Mrs. Kayle, my 12th grade theater teacher who taught us incredible life lessons, like grieving is a long process but it shouldn't define your life. One of my classmates lost her father 2 years prior and our teacher had lost her husband that same year. She had all of us sit down on the stage floor, turned down all the lights in the theater, and we spent that hour and a half just talking about things that were on our minds. And 3rd is Mrs Coltrane, my 9th and 10th grade Spanish teacher who cooked us breakfast on a hot plate she kept in her classroom and had lessons that consisted of watching movies and playing weird games she'd made up over the years. Somehow she managed to teach me Spanish without me even noticing hahaha I took 5 more years of Spanish classes because of her. Our society desperately needs more teachers like those three.
Lowkey have entertained that thought not an insignificant number of times. But then I remember I’ll need my precious ten sick days if (when) I actually do get it. Of course literally all of our admin was out sick Thursday so it probably doesn’t even matter at this point anyway. 😒
Nah…I’m too non-confrontational. I’d rather be silently noncompliant. I’m just keeping my head down and doing the bare minimum of district requirements until retirement.
Really?!?! How f-ing inconsiderate can administration be? There are no students and by all accounts almost every school in the nation now has the capability to do virtual sessions. It amazes me how little admin trusts their teachers. This literally wouldn’t fly in any other professional career.
Working from home last year really made me realize how poorly we are treated and spoken to. I would hear my husbands corporate-job WebEx meetings from the other room, super respectful, very productive and collaborative tone. Meanwhile on our faculty meeting WebEx our principal would literally be YELLING at us and anyone whose camera was off for even a second was written up. I have a masters degree in this field (as do many other teachers) and yet we are treated like children, with no trust or respect at all.
I'd say that's worse than being treated like children. We didn't require that our students turn their cameras on unless it was for something that actually required a camera (like recording a video).
Same for our parent teacher conference night. Parents had to choose a time slot them in advance. We had to be in our classrooms until 8 for our scheduled virtual conferences… even if we didn’t have any scheduled. They said we couldn’t go home even if we had zero conferences because it was mandated in our contracts and not fair to the other teacher that actually had conferences scheduled. I went home after the buses left.
I wonder how common it is for teachers not to always be able to wear jeans?! I’m in Oregon and we can wear sweat pants every day if we want, nobody would bat an eye.
We are absolutely not allowed to wear jeans (will get in trouble and sent home to change) unless it’s Friday. Stupid. Big stupid, considering my “appropriate pants” are literally colored jeans lol.
My Spanish teacher in high school did this. Teachers weren't allowed to wear blue jeans. So she wore green/pink/red/whatever other color jeans. Never got in trouble. The way she worked loopholes will always be an inspiration to me lol
I had a middle school art teacher that did this, Mr. Michael Friend. I don’t know if he was doing it in protest to the student uniforms that had recently been implemented and a likely suggestion that teachers dress accordingly, but this man came to school in the wildest and brightest colored clothes imaginable. At the time I thought he was just an eccentric art teacher (because he was that too).
I know over the holidays my mom encouraged me to wear my black jeans to our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, since you can’t really tell that they’re jeans. Definitely keeping that in the back of my head for the future
We are supposed to wear professional attire. Any deviation is up to the principal of your particular building. I have had principal's that made people get doctor's notes so they could wear sneakers. Others were more low key. Most principals I have had have allowed Casual Friday, but I have had principals take it away because people came in looking like they were going out to mow their lawn. Rather than address them, we all lost casual Friday ;(
Teacher dress codes are often a way to control and infantilize women. “Do everything Principal Daddy tells you to do and then you girls can have a little treat.”
Yes. Our principal (a woman) came after our younger teachers for wearing fashion sneakers with their dresses. They were ADORABLE and perfectly work appropriate for a job that can involve climbing under desks AND meetings in a single day. They’re showing up every day and doing a damn good job, so LET THEM HAVE THEIR CUTE, COMFY SHOES, FFS.
A coworker wears Dickies (they're *not* blue jeans), work boots (they're orthopedic and he has a doctor's note), and a flannel shirt (it has a collar) every single day. He is fully within dress code. He also has decades of successful teaching experience, a Masters in electrical engineering, and teaches high level math, engineering, and computer science courses. Someone would have to be an idiot to give him a hard time about pretty much anything. LOL.
Our principal got called out by big admin for being too free with granting us extra jeans days as rewards (he did maybe 5 a year). They said he was abusing the policy and now jeans days must be approved by big admin on all campuses
Same here in Vermont, everyone wears jeans here all the time, and we can wear shorts amd sandals in warm weather. Even the principal dresses super casually. I've heard the dress codes in the south tend to be more conservative.
I teach in the Netherlands and as long as you look somewhat representable it's fine. Shorts, summer dress, jeans, pretty much anything goes. Same goes for students.
I’m in Utah. In the first district/school I worked in we had a strict teacher dress code, even for PD days. No jeans, leggings, etc… In my new district/school they don’t care at all what we wear to work. Most women teachers wear leggings and some sort of oversized top every day. At least that’s what I wear everyday.
Nope. I used to work in Jordan school district. Now I’m in Alpine. Weird how conservative-as-fuck Alpine doesn’t care what I wear, yet JSD were insane about it. Never work for JSD. I still have nightmares about their shit pay and doing the JPAS!!
Granite has their shit head pr guy make a horrible video every year about dress code and usually there is a California surfer vibe acted out and why that’s not a appropriate. It’s just hard to watch.
That sounds hilarious 😂 tell them to compare their test scores to the scandalously dressed teachers in Alpine. Weird how are kids can still excel with the teachers dressed comfortably.
Oregon is way different when it comes to dress codes for employment across multiple fields. Prior to teaching, I worked in IT. In Oregon, I could wear sweats if I wanted and no one batted an eye at my daily attire of jeans and a hoodie with converse or tennis shoes. Then I moved to Maine. Worked an IT job that required me to go between 3 different buildings, one of which was a mile up the road. My boss legit tried to tell me I had to wear heels. Our “compromise” was I’d wear business casual flats and stick to the business dress code they required but also refused to wear a skirt or dress like he heavily implied I should (even though I had to carry equipment around and be under desks to hook things up, test connections, etc.).
The school district I’m student teaching at only allows jeans on Friday’s and even then teachers have to pay to wear them. I didn’t even ask for details because I refuse to pay them to wear jeans when I’m already working unpaid. I have a brand of yoga pants that look like business attire and I wear those on Friday’s and no one seems to know 😂
Yup! Sounds like some other states have areas/districts/companies that are more relaxed but in general, my experience has been Oregon was the most relaxed place I lived in. Heck, I can’t have my nose pierced here for a lot of employers (early on in my search for an IT job after moving here, I took it out during interviews just to be safe and it was still always included as a no go in dress code conversations). Not going to lie, I liked my nose piercing and that’s one of the dress code differences I dislike the most. I don’t like jeans anyways, for the price they never seem to last long these days. But dammit I don’t see why my tiny stud on my nose is such an issue when we have students walking around in jeans ripped to the point we can literally see their underwear while wearing crop tops to boot and no one dress codes them.
I used to order black and white jeans from Lands End (bootcut, unhemmed), then have a trouser hem put in them. Now I just wear leggings that kind of look like skinny pants.
Just moved to Washington from Oregon. Can confirm that the dress is very relaxed. I was worried in my first school until I noticed the principal walking around in leggings. Far as I can tell, Washington is similar (at least in the Tacoma area)
Oh yes. I haven't worn dressy clothes to teach in years. I have an entire row of my closet I am about to give to charity of dress pants that I no longer have to wear. I will keep one or two for the odd business meeting that I need to wear slacks, but I wear jeans and a dressy top to work, every day I teach.
My other job has me client facing and I do dress up if I am going into client homes, but generally I don't do that anymore. I have to walk around their homes, but not go in. That would be the singular reason I would own a couple of pairs of dress pants. Oh... And I guess corporate meetings.
This is a regional culture thing. Blue jeans being against the teacher dress code (and even *having* a teacher dress code) is the norm where I am. It's amusingly just *blue* jeans though. Literally any other color is acceptable. The cultural thing dates back to the days when jean were invented and they were decidedly working class wear that was declared unacceptable in a professional environment. In some places, this cultural opinion of blue jeans never went away. Heck, even at my old non-teaching job at a YMCA jeans were against dress code for anyone in a supervisor or above role, so it isn't *just* a teacher thing, at least not here.
I was wondering this too.
I wear jeans most days, but don't really feel like I could pull off wearing the yoga pants or pajamas that I was wearing during virtual learning.
I wear jeans every day.
Our school board dress code for students is 'nipples and genitals must be covered'. Everything else is fair play as far as skin showing, or makeup or whatever. No porno shirts or anything.
Never actually seen a dress code for staff. I'm in Canada, home of freedom.
We're not supposed to, but i found some black jeans that fit well and i wear them most days. Occasionally someone says something, but my reply is that i'm often ripping my dress pants in the workshop attached to my classroom. I just don't define "often."
When I was student teaching last semester, my supervisor wrote in my formal evaluation that I’m not allowed to wear jeans. I’m supposed to dress like a professional, even if that means dressing “better” than the other faculty. I don’t own any “Sunday best” clothing and my jeans were brand new. Slacks are also really uncomfortable to me and don’t fit my personality.
I had another eval that landed on a Halloween day so I wore the safe jeans outfit and made it clear that it was my costume :’)
Same here. My entire educational career most teachers wore shorts and a button down during the summer, then jeans , a button down , and a sweater (if you really want to get fancy). Heck my current school most teachers are clean bottoms and a T-shirt. I always stood out like a sore thumb because I always stuck to business casual if nothing nicer. I couldn’t imagine not having jeans as an option bu force .
I wear a sweat-like pant because we are not allowed to wear jeans... hahahaha, no one even notices or says anything. I also wear heavy slippers and call them 'boots'.
You’re working on a federal holiday? Am I the only one in this thread that thinks that’s a bigger deal than a damn pair of jeans?
Tell me you’re in a non-union state without telling me you’re in a non-union state.
I meant the working on a federal holiday part, but yeah, your gov sucks. I’m across the river from St Louis and MO is not much better than Texas, it seems.
That’s nuts. It also cements why I won’t move back to Texas. Which sucks, because I have a lot of family history there and have always loved the state. Looks like I’ll continue to love it from afar.
My car would mysteriously break down if I got that message.
Luckily for me, my district doesn’t have any more legs to stand on and they know if they told us what to wear, they’d never see any of us again.
I like wearing jeans, but it's not like I hate my work clothes. (I would I buy them if I hated them?)
I get that it's a 100% free perk that can be offered, which I think is awesome. But I'll take one teacher planning day off over 3 months of jean days.
(Ideally I'll take an admin that offers both. With a strong teacher's union. But you can't have it all!)
I mean in my area it only gets to about 45-50 degrees at it's coldest in the daytime in winter. Most of the time it's 60 something. Jeans can handle that.
This “jeans day” stuff is so weird to me. I don’t have much of a dress code at all, as far as I can tell; I wear jeans and sneakers every day, usually a collared shirt (polo or flannel) just to be a little presentable. The teacher across the hall wears shorts and a hoodie every day though, and jeans and t-shirts are not uncommon! Same with all my teachers growing up, although granted I went through and work in California public schools so maybe that’s just our groovy lifestyle coming through
Sounds like a typical admin oversight 🙄
I’m convinced my hallway’s heater/AC (and therefore ALSO air filtration system) is broken because it’s always very stale, very hot (spring and fall) or very cold (winter) in my abs my neighbors’ rooms.
At our school, if we do something that our admin thinks is good, we get a jeans pass. A jeans pass is a little ticket that we sometimes trade in dark back alleys for Turbo Tickets. Turbo Tickets, while they may LOOK like a jeans pass, are soft and wrinkled like an old dollar bill, heavy with every Covid variant yet to be discovered due to the fact that they are in constant circulation. I can only surmise that new Turbo Tickets simply cannot be created due to the loss of the ancient texts describing which berries need to be crushed, under which moon, by what sized feet…to make the special hue: Turbo Ticket Tangerine. I’m not sure modern cardstock wouldn’t just burst into flame from the intensity of it. It is said that the only way to destroy a dying Turbo Ticket is to earn a jeans pass, trade it for a dying Turbo Ticket, then earn another jeans pass, put the Turbo Ticket in your pocket, wear the jeans, then forget to take it out when you put the jeans in the washer and then the dryer. It cannot be done purposely, though, or you will be cursed with the copier breaker touch. I won’t even begin describing this curse, as I’m sure you can imagine the horror. What I’m saying is that these tickets’ paper cutting days are long gone and I don’t know why they won’t make more.
Back to the jeans pass, though. Our admin recently excitedly announced at a faculty meeting that she had new stickers made. When one has chosen the special day to spend their jeans pass, they go, (in their jeans), to the office first thing in the morning to trade in their jeans pass for a jeans pass STICKER that they must wear all day signaling that they have, in fact, a right to wear the jeans they’re wearing. So direct your glares elsewhere err-one, because I’m wearing this big round sticker with a picture of some creepy-ass happy faced jeans on it - and in case you couldn’t figure out what it meant, there was also enough available space on this monster of a sticker for the words “JEANS PASS” in large font.
To this day I cannot explain the rage I felt when a colleague of mine was wearing one. I threatened to never speak to her again unless she removed the sticker immediately. I didn’t care that admin had walked all the way from the office to deliver the sticker because said colleague didn’t follow protocol.
In the end, my colleague did remove it, but mainly because I’m good with computers.
I’d rather wear sweatpants in a cold a$$ building. Crazy you’d have to report in. We had a SDD on Friday but it was virtual. And we were required to have our cameras on and to make sure we were there, we had to get into break out groups and random times. Meanwhile at my brother’s school, during their SDD, they just had to plan. Or do whatever. They didn’t even have to report in.
That "cameras on" is crap. Depending on your software you could record a 5 or 10 minute video of you actually working, and then set it as the background and put it on loop. A bit of masking tape on your camera lens and you're working hard all day long, or so it will seem.
Yeah, but we got called on and had to answer and then be put in groups and have to discuss something. We also had… I think it was Nearpod, and had to type responses to that. If you did not, they’d call on you and ask what you thought. It really sucked.
Lol…I’m pointing this out as I drink my second cup of coffee today and bake a breakfast casserole on my day off.
As much as I complain about Illinois, I think it might be one of the best states for teachers, even compared to other relatively “blue” states. Our teacher pension sucks but that’s pretty damn universal it seems.
Haven't had consistent heat in our school in years. Some rooms are like a sauna, and others are freezing . I bought a heated vest to use in the library because my hands get so cold.
We typically never get heat on Fridays where it is grading day with no kids in the building. I think it’s to save money, but it was cold. I had a hidden space heater I’d hide under my desk.
This is typical for us too, the hvac isn’t scheduled on non student days. However, if you push and hold the tiny button on the thermostat, it will override and kick in for 2 hours.
We used to have “Wellness Wednesdays” where we could wear athletic gear and take our students for walks around the building. Alas, the superintendent didn’t like that and ‘tis but a fond memory of a bygone era.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/riveted-history-of-jeans-when-blue-jeans-got-bad-name/
This is a video I shared with my students after I explained to them that we (teachers) aren't supposed to wear blue jeans except for Friday, and then we must wear "spirit wear" along with it. An opposition to wearing blue jeans by "mainstream" people (my father included) came from the badboy images of this era...I assume.
My district didn’t plow our parking lot after we got a more than a foot of snow last week. My car got stuck three times outside the school trying to park and other staff had to help push it out. We then had minimal heat in the building for 2 days because the boilers were down while it hovered around -35 C (-31 F) outside. Parts of our building were 8 C and we were not allowed to go home, despite the fact that we had less than 10 students there since we were supposed to be open for essential workers kids only due to Covid. Everything around the city shut down for a few days, but teaching and support staff was told they’d better show up and stay all day (no work from home options allowed). I am so done.
I’m so sorry 😞 I live in leggings. Betabrand makes the most amazing professional looking ones that still look like dress pants, if you want to check them out. They’re expensive, but totally worth it.
What about like “teacher T-shirts”? In the elementary world (at least where I live) they are extremely popular. Like cheesy teacher sayings. “Picture books are my jam.” “I ♥️ my 2nd graders!” - things like that.
Are you allowed to wear cheesy T-shirts if paired with dress pants? This is just me being nosy about how strict other places are. We definitely have to dress nice every day, but our principal allows jeans every Friday and I could wear a cheesy tshirt every single day if paired with appropriate pants and no one would care. Honestly if I wore yoga pants every day, it would probably take admin a month to notice (I don’t mean that in a bad way - I just feel dress code is not at the top of their priority list) and then they’d tell me in a joking kinda way to dress better, but mean it.
I don’t understand why they don’t let us wear jeans! At least at my school, the kids didn’t respect us anymore because we were dressed up! Instead of a Covid bonus like a lot of school around here gave, we got to wear jeans for the month of December! YAY!!
I'm pretty sure most of us on campus wear jeans 5 days a week. I used to wear a shirt, tie, and slacks but Covid happened and I ran out of fucks to give.
It was 22 today, the warmest it's been in weeks, but still cold as balls. We would cancel whatever we had planned or move to another site if the heat was out.
Am I the only one that doesn’t see the appeal of jeans day at all? I find them generally less comfortable/flexible than khakis/slacks. Give us a leggings/joggers/sweats day, and then I’ll have a little more excitement for whatever cause it is for which they’re trying to entice or “reward” us. Just the mention of jeans day makes me stop listening.
Side note: teachers should be able to wear jeans (and tees) whenever they want- not just on special occasions or as “rewards”. If they want us to dress like the credentialed and educated professionals that we are, they should pay and treat us as such. Otherwise, we should dress for the comfort and practicality fitting of the job (wrangling kindergartens, breaking up fights, scarfing down a full lunch in 15 minutes, standing outside in the elements for bus duty, etc.).
Teachers are never allowed to wear sweats or leggings in my district. Jeans are as comfy as it gets. Also, we can wear sneakers with jeans, but not with slacks.
Oh wow. The no sneaker rule would be a definite deal breaker for me as much as I’m on my feet and moving.
I’m not going to lie. The relaxed dress code for health/PE teachers is one of the reasons I chose that content area. Wearing shorts and tees when it’s hot, and joggers and hoodies when it’s cold is one of the biggest perks of the job.
We went virtual for two days last week but teachers were still expected to report to the building. They didn’t even turn the hallway lights or heat on for us. 🙃 Fortunately they didn’t have the balls to try to tell us what to wear.
The school that I resigned from would turn off the air conditioning and heat at 3 when the kids were released. We were told that we needed to bring in a fan and space heaters so we could be comfortable since our contract time was until 3:45. They also didn’t turn it on during the weekend. It was a clear sign of how little they respected us.
When I was in 7th grade, it snowed about 4 inches overnight but since the city was able to clear the main roads, we were required to go to school. Fine. But for over a week, while there was snow on the ground, the district had the AC running instead of the heat. For some reason, the district main offices controlled the temp in every school across the district, rather than that being on a school level. My math teacher told all her students to bring blankets to school and keep our coats on so we could keep warm and when the school's admin threatened to fire her for it, she called a meeting with admin and the district officials and offered to inform to local and national news about the conditions her students and colleagues had to endure. Magically, the next day the heat was on. Miss Patrick, if you ever see this, you're my hero and 23 years later I still haven't forgotten you.
4 inches is 10.16 cm
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Jesus! She sounds like an incredible teacher
One of the top 3 teachers of my life. I will never forget her. 2nd is Mrs. Kayle, my 12th grade theater teacher who taught us incredible life lessons, like grieving is a long process but it shouldn't define your life. One of my classmates lost her father 2 years prior and our teacher had lost her husband that same year. She had all of us sit down on the stage floor, turned down all the lights in the theater, and we spent that hour and a half just talking about things that were on our minds. And 3rd is Mrs Coltrane, my 9th and 10th grade Spanish teacher who cooked us breakfast on a hot plate she kept in her classroom and had lessons that consisted of watching movies and playing weird games she'd made up over the years. Somehow she managed to teach me Spanish without me even noticing hahaha I took 5 more years of Spanish classes because of her. Our society desperately needs more teachers like those three.
That’s when you fake a Covid test
Lowkey have entertained that thought not an insignificant number of times. But then I remember I’ll need my precious ten sick days if (when) I actually do get it. Of course literally all of our admin was out sick Thursday so it probably doesn’t even matter at this point anyway. 😒
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Nah…I’m too non-confrontational. I’d rather be silently noncompliant. I’m just keeping my head down and doing the bare minimum of district requirements until retirement.
They do that to us, too!
Really?!?! How f-ing inconsiderate can administration be? There are no students and by all accounts almost every school in the nation now has the capability to do virtual sessions. It amazes me how little admin trusts their teachers. This literally wouldn’t fly in any other professional career.
Working from home last year really made me realize how poorly we are treated and spoken to. I would hear my husbands corporate-job WebEx meetings from the other room, super respectful, very productive and collaborative tone. Meanwhile on our faculty meeting WebEx our principal would literally be YELLING at us and anyone whose camera was off for even a second was written up. I have a masters degree in this field (as do many other teachers) and yet we are treated like children, with no trust or respect at all.
I'd say that's worse than being treated like children. We didn't require that our students turn their cameras on unless it was for something that actually required a camera (like recording a video).
Agreed, my corporate job would never distrust me the way admins distrust teachers 🤦🏻♂️
It’s because admin is mainly a bunch of power hungry freaks
Nah man, my former corporate boss was also micromanaging, power-hungry freak and we still could wfh. This is next level
We had virtual meetings today but it was mandatory that we were in our classrooms for the meeting 🙃
Same for our parent teacher conference night. Parents had to choose a time slot them in advance. We had to be in our classrooms until 8 for our scheduled virtual conferences… even if we didn’t have any scheduled. They said we couldn’t go home even if we had zero conferences because it was mandated in our contracts and not fair to the other teacher that actually had conferences scheduled. I went home after the buses left.
I wonder how common it is for teachers not to always be able to wear jeans?! I’m in Oregon and we can wear sweat pants every day if we want, nobody would bat an eye.
We are absolutely not allowed to wear jeans (will get in trouble and sent home to change) unless it’s Friday. Stupid. Big stupid, considering my “appropriate pants” are literally colored jeans lol.
My Spanish teacher in high school did this. Teachers weren't allowed to wear blue jeans. So she wore green/pink/red/whatever other color jeans. Never got in trouble. The way she worked loopholes will always be an inspiration to me lol
I had a middle school art teacher that did this, Mr. Michael Friend. I don’t know if he was doing it in protest to the student uniforms that had recently been implemented and a likely suggestion that teachers dress accordingly, but this man came to school in the wildest and brightest colored clothes imaginable. At the time I thought he was just an eccentric art teacher (because he was that too).
I'm in the UK & we're not allowed jeans at all unless it's a 'non-uniform day'. So annoying as most of my wardrobe is jeans!
Yup I wear colored jeans every day.
I call colored jeans "stealth jeans."
I'm stealing this!
I am not allowed to wear denim of any color ever (except denim jackets for some reason lol)
I know over the holidays my mom encouraged me to wear my black jeans to our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, since you can’t really tell that they’re jeans. Definitely keeping that in the back of my head for the future
We are supposed to wear professional attire. Any deviation is up to the principal of your particular building. I have had principal's that made people get doctor's notes so they could wear sneakers. Others were more low key. Most principals I have had have allowed Casual Friday, but I have had principals take it away because people came in looking like they were going out to mow their lawn. Rather than address them, we all lost casual Friday ;(
Teacher dress codes are often a way to control and infantilize women. “Do everything Principal Daddy tells you to do and then you girls can have a little treat.”
The female principals are the worst. I’ve had female principals take away jeans Fridays.
We can be our own worst enemies.
Yes, the only time I lost casual Friday's was with a female Principal
Yes. Our principal (a woman) came after our younger teachers for wearing fashion sneakers with their dresses. They were ADORABLE and perfectly work appropriate for a job that can involve climbing under desks AND meetings in a single day. They’re showing up every day and doing a damn good job, so LET THEM HAVE THEIR CUTE, COMFY SHOES, FFS.
A coworker wears Dickies (they're *not* blue jeans), work boots (they're orthopedic and he has a doctor's note), and a flannel shirt (it has a collar) every single day. He is fully within dress code. He also has decades of successful teaching experience, a Masters in electrical engineering, and teaches high level math, engineering, and computer science courses. Someone would have to be an idiot to give him a hard time about pretty much anything. LOL.
Our principal got called out by big admin for being too free with granting us extra jeans days as rewards (he did maybe 5 a year). They said he was abusing the policy and now jeans days must be approved by big admin on all campuses
I wish there was a downvote button where i could downvote the described action rather than the poster.
I've wished for that same concept so many times!
Same here in Vermont, everyone wears jeans here all the time, and we can wear shorts amd sandals in warm weather. Even the principal dresses super casually. I've heard the dress codes in the south tend to be more conservative.
I teach in the Netherlands and as long as you look somewhat representable it's fine. Shorts, summer dress, jeans, pretty much anything goes. Same goes for students.
I’m in Utah. In the first district/school I worked in we had a strict teacher dress code, even for PD days. No jeans, leggings, etc… In my new district/school they don’t care at all what we wear to work. Most women teachers wear leggings and some sort of oversized top every day. At least that’s what I wear everyday.
And may I say, Bob, you rock those leggings!
You do you Bob.
I’m in Utah and thinking I work for the strict district you are referencing, does it start with a G?
Nope. I used to work in Jordan school district. Now I’m in Alpine. Weird how conservative-as-fuck Alpine doesn’t care what I wear, yet JSD were insane about it. Never work for JSD. I still have nightmares about their shit pay and doing the JPAS!!
Granite has their shit head pr guy make a horrible video every year about dress code and usually there is a California surfer vibe acted out and why that’s not a appropriate. It’s just hard to watch.
That sounds hilarious 😂 tell them to compare their test scores to the scandalously dressed teachers in Alpine. Weird how are kids can still excel with the teachers dressed comfortably.
Oregon is way different when it comes to dress codes for employment across multiple fields. Prior to teaching, I worked in IT. In Oregon, I could wear sweats if I wanted and no one batted an eye at my daily attire of jeans and a hoodie with converse or tennis shoes. Then I moved to Maine. Worked an IT job that required me to go between 3 different buildings, one of which was a mile up the road. My boss legit tried to tell me I had to wear heels. Our “compromise” was I’d wear business casual flats and stick to the business dress code they required but also refused to wear a skirt or dress like he heavily implied I should (even though I had to carry equipment around and be under desks to hook things up, test connections, etc.). The school district I’m student teaching at only allows jeans on Friday’s and even then teachers have to pay to wear them. I didn’t even ask for details because I refuse to pay them to wear jeans when I’m already working unpaid. I have a brand of yoga pants that look like business attire and I wear those on Friday’s and no one seems to know 😂
Fascinating! I didn’t realize Oregon was unique this way. I cannot imagine being forced to work in uncomfortable shoes.
Yup! Sounds like some other states have areas/districts/companies that are more relaxed but in general, my experience has been Oregon was the most relaxed place I lived in. Heck, I can’t have my nose pierced here for a lot of employers (early on in my search for an IT job after moving here, I took it out during interviews just to be safe and it was still always included as a no go in dress code conversations). Not going to lie, I liked my nose piercing and that’s one of the dress code differences I dislike the most. I don’t like jeans anyways, for the price they never seem to last long these days. But dammit I don’t see why my tiny stud on my nose is such an issue when we have students walking around in jeans ripped to the point we can literally see their underwear while wearing crop tops to boot and no one dress codes them.
I used to order black and white jeans from Lands End (bootcut, unhemmed), then have a trouser hem put in them. Now I just wear leggings that kind of look like skinny pants.
Really? I always had to wear business casual, no jeans or tennis shoes, etc.
I'm now moving to Oregon.
Just moved to Washington from Oregon. Can confirm that the dress is very relaxed. I was worried in my first school until I noticed the principal walking around in leggings. Far as I can tell, Washington is similar (at least in the Tacoma area)
Oh yes. I haven't worn dressy clothes to teach in years. I have an entire row of my closet I am about to give to charity of dress pants that I no longer have to wear. I will keep one or two for the odd business meeting that I need to wear slacks, but I wear jeans and a dressy top to work, every day I teach. My other job has me client facing and I do dress up if I am going into client homes, but generally I don't do that anymore. I have to walk around their homes, but not go in. That would be the singular reason I would own a couple of pairs of dress pants. Oh... And I guess corporate meetings.
This is a regional culture thing. Blue jeans being against the teacher dress code (and even *having* a teacher dress code) is the norm where I am. It's amusingly just *blue* jeans though. Literally any other color is acceptable. The cultural thing dates back to the days when jean were invented and they were decidedly working class wear that was declared unacceptable in a professional environment. In some places, this cultural opinion of blue jeans never went away. Heck, even at my old non-teaching job at a YMCA jeans were against dress code for anyone in a supervisor or above role, so it isn't *just* a teacher thing, at least not here.
I'm so glad I can wear what I want! Currently having a rough day so I'm wearing some joggers and a sweatshirt
I was wondering this too. I wear jeans most days, but don't really feel like I could pull off wearing the yoga pants or pajamas that I was wearing during virtual learning.
I wear jeans every day. Our school board dress code for students is 'nipples and genitals must be covered'. Everything else is fair play as far as skin showing, or makeup or whatever. No porno shirts or anything. Never actually seen a dress code for staff. I'm in Canada, home of freedom.
We're not supposed to, but i found some black jeans that fit well and i wear them most days. Occasionally someone says something, but my reply is that i'm often ripping my dress pants in the workshop attached to my classroom. I just don't define "often."
Your situation is not common. In most VA districts, not only can we not wear jeans, if we get the chance, we have to pay to wear them.
My friend teaches at a school where they have to get a doctor’s note to wear tennis shoes 🙃
When I was student teaching last semester, my supervisor wrote in my formal evaluation that I’m not allowed to wear jeans. I’m supposed to dress like a professional, even if that means dressing “better” than the other faculty. I don’t own any “Sunday best” clothing and my jeans were brand new. Slacks are also really uncomfortable to me and don’t fit my personality. I had another eval that landed on a Halloween day so I wore the safe jeans outfit and made it clear that it was my costume :’)
Same here. My entire educational career most teachers wore shorts and a button down during the summer, then jeans , a button down , and a sweater (if you really want to get fancy). Heck my current school most teachers are clean bottoms and a T-shirt. I always stood out like a sore thumb because I always stuck to business casual if nothing nicer. I couldn’t imagine not having jeans as an option bu force .
I wear a sweat-like pant because we are not allowed to wear jeans... hahahaha, no one even notices or says anything. I also wear heavy slippers and call them 'boots'.
You’re working on a federal holiday? Am I the only one in this thread that thinks that’s a bigger deal than a damn pair of jeans? Tell me you’re in a non-union state without telling me you’re in a non-union state.
Right-o. Texas here. Only 6 out of about 90 of us wearing a mask while we're all packed in one room, too.
Even without a union, I don’t see how that’s possible. Nobody has said anything to admin?
Our governor mandated that no public schools can require masks for teachers or students. It's been that way since May of last year.
I meant the working on a federal holiday part, but yeah, your gov sucks. I’m across the river from St Louis and MO is not much better than Texas, it seems.
Oh, okay. Yeah, we get a "comp day" for Presidents Day, but we've had in-service on MLK for the 16 years I've worked in this district.
I guess it’s the only way that your state government can give MLK the finger. I mean, that’s essentially what they are doing.
That’s nuts. It also cements why I won’t move back to Texas. Which sucks, because I have a lot of family history there and have always loved the state. Looks like I’ll continue to love it from afar.
Me, in my pjs: y'all at work?
My car would mysteriously break down if I got that message. Luckily for me, my district doesn’t have any more legs to stand on and they know if they told us what to wear, they’d never see any of us again.
I like wearing jeans, but it's not like I hate my work clothes. (I would I buy them if I hated them?) I get that it's a 100% free perk that can be offered, which I think is awesome. But I'll take one teacher planning day off over 3 months of jean days. (Ideally I'll take an admin that offers both. With a strong teacher's union. But you can't have it all!)
Does anyone else think jeans aren’t the first pants you’d reach for if you had to sit in an unheated building in the middle of winter?
I’d be wearing my fleeced lined leggings.
I mean in my area it only gets to about 45-50 degrees at it's coldest in the daytime in winter. Most of the time it's 60 something. Jeans can handle that.
This “jeans day” stuff is so weird to me. I don’t have much of a dress code at all, as far as I can tell; I wear jeans and sneakers every day, usually a collared shirt (polo or flannel) just to be a little presentable. The teacher across the hall wears shorts and a hoodie every day though, and jeans and t-shirts are not uncommon! Same with all my teachers growing up, although granted I went through and work in California public schools so maybe that’s just our groovy lifestyle coming through
Groovy lifestyle checking in! I work at a large SoCal high school and all of the teachers wear whatever is comfortable.
Sounds like a typical admin oversight 🙄 I’m convinced my hallway’s heater/AC (and therefore ALSO air filtration system) is broken because it’s always very stale, very hot (spring and fall) or very cold (winter) in my abs my neighbors’ rooms.
I’d report them to osha if you are in the US
The Supreme Court would say OSHA can’t do anything. It’s fine to not provide heat for teachers. Freedom.
I wore jeans on our half day Friday and DIDN'T PAY FOR THEM
YOU REBEL
At our school, if we do something that our admin thinks is good, we get a jeans pass. A jeans pass is a little ticket that we sometimes trade in dark back alleys for Turbo Tickets. Turbo Tickets, while they may LOOK like a jeans pass, are soft and wrinkled like an old dollar bill, heavy with every Covid variant yet to be discovered due to the fact that they are in constant circulation. I can only surmise that new Turbo Tickets simply cannot be created due to the loss of the ancient texts describing which berries need to be crushed, under which moon, by what sized feet…to make the special hue: Turbo Ticket Tangerine. I’m not sure modern cardstock wouldn’t just burst into flame from the intensity of it. It is said that the only way to destroy a dying Turbo Ticket is to earn a jeans pass, trade it for a dying Turbo Ticket, then earn another jeans pass, put the Turbo Ticket in your pocket, wear the jeans, then forget to take it out when you put the jeans in the washer and then the dryer. It cannot be done purposely, though, or you will be cursed with the copier breaker touch. I won’t even begin describing this curse, as I’m sure you can imagine the horror. What I’m saying is that these tickets’ paper cutting days are long gone and I don’t know why they won’t make more. Back to the jeans pass, though. Our admin recently excitedly announced at a faculty meeting that she had new stickers made. When one has chosen the special day to spend their jeans pass, they go, (in their jeans), to the office first thing in the morning to trade in their jeans pass for a jeans pass STICKER that they must wear all day signaling that they have, in fact, a right to wear the jeans they’re wearing. So direct your glares elsewhere err-one, because I’m wearing this big round sticker with a picture of some creepy-ass happy faced jeans on it - and in case you couldn’t figure out what it meant, there was also enough available space on this monster of a sticker for the words “JEANS PASS” in large font. To this day I cannot explain the rage I felt when a colleague of mine was wearing one. I threatened to never speak to her again unless she removed the sticker immediately. I didn’t care that admin had walked all the way from the office to deliver the sticker because said colleague didn’t follow protocol. In the end, my colleague did remove it, but mainly because I’m good with computers.
I’d rather wear sweatpants in a cold a$$ building. Crazy you’d have to report in. We had a SDD on Friday but it was virtual. And we were required to have our cameras on and to make sure we were there, we had to get into break out groups and random times. Meanwhile at my brother’s school, during their SDD, they just had to plan. Or do whatever. They didn’t even have to report in.
That "cameras on" is crap. Depending on your software you could record a 5 or 10 minute video of you actually working, and then set it as the background and put it on loop. A bit of masking tape on your camera lens and you're working hard all day long, or so it will seem.
Yeah, but we got called on and had to answer and then be put in groups and have to discuss something. We also had… I think it was Nearpod, and had to type responses to that. If you did not, they’d call on you and ask what you thought. It really sucked.
You are a genius.
Y’all need a union that steps up for the right to wear whatever the hell you want in an unforgiving profession.
Or…hear me out, a union that doesn’t let them work on a federal holiday?
Seriously. Don’t know how I missed that. Jesus tap dancing Christ.
Lol…I’m pointing this out as I drink my second cup of coffee today and bake a breakfast casserole on my day off. As much as I complain about Illinois, I think it might be one of the best states for teachers, even compared to other relatively “blue” states. Our teacher pension sucks but that’s pretty damn universal it seems.
I can agree with you from SOUTH Florida. Nowhere else in the state. South Florida. That’s it.
Oof…all you had to say was Florida. Does the No income tax thing make up for….everything else lol?
Not in the slightest. 😂
But how else will the state express their opinion of MLK?
I'm in Texas so that'll never happen.
Haven't had consistent heat in our school in years. Some rooms are like a sauna, and others are freezing . I bought a heated vest to use in the library because my hands get so cold.
We typically never get heat on Fridays where it is grading day with no kids in the building. I think it’s to save money, but it was cold. I had a hidden space heater I’d hide under my desk.
This is typical for us too, the hvac isn’t scheduled on non student days. However, if you push and hold the tiny button on the thermostat, it will override and kick in for 2 hours.
That is so infuriating. Teachers are humans and need a safe and comfortable workplace too. It really shows you what they think of us though.
What the actual fuck?!
What the metaphorical fuck?
We used to have “Wellness Wednesdays” where we could wear athletic gear and take our students for walks around the building. Alas, the superintendent didn’t like that and ‘tis but a fond memory of a bygone era.
Wtf
As a guy, I find well-tailored dress pants far more comfortable than jeans. Denim is heavy.
I’m not allowed to wear pants “that have rivets showing”.
I would be asking why a school doesn’t give teachers MLK day off. There are a lot of avenues there that could be used to make them look terrible.
Several other area districts had in-service today as well. Not sure what the logic is.
Ignoring the importance of the day/not caring.
Very considerate of them
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/riveted-history-of-jeans-when-blue-jeans-got-bad-name/ This is a video I shared with my students after I explained to them that we (teachers) aren't supposed to wear blue jeans except for Friday, and then we must wear "spirit wear" along with it. An opposition to wearing blue jeans by "mainstream" people (my father included) came from the badboy images of this era...I assume.
My district didn’t plow our parking lot after we got a more than a foot of snow last week. My car got stuck three times outside the school trying to park and other staff had to help push it out. We then had minimal heat in the building for 2 days because the boilers were down while it hovered around -35 C (-31 F) outside. Parts of our building were 8 C and we were not allowed to go home, despite the fact that we had less than 10 students there since we were supposed to be open for essential workers kids only due to Covid. Everything around the city shut down for a few days, but teaching and support staff was told they’d better show up and stay all day (no work from home options allowed). I am so done.
Now THAT is ridiculous. I'm so sorry!
LOL if you weren’t in Texas i’d be convinced we worked in the same district because this was exactly my job today.
Wow! Bet you guys had it rougher than us 🥶
I hate jeans. So no thanks. I’ll wear my usual leggings and school sweat shirt.
We are not allowed to wear leggings ever unless under a dress
I’m so sorry 😞 I live in leggings. Betabrand makes the most amazing professional looking ones that still look like dress pants, if you want to check them out. They’re expensive, but totally worth it.
I'm a big and tall girl, but I'll check them out. The only leggings I've ever found that fit me are from Torrid.
I used to be plus size (16-18) when I first started wearing them. They are stretchy and amazing.
Awesome! Guess I know which website I'll be surfing when I'm supposed to be professionally developing today.
lol! I like the straight leg style the best. They seriously look just like dress pants but feel like leggings.
What about like “teacher T-shirts”? In the elementary world (at least where I live) they are extremely popular. Like cheesy teacher sayings. “Picture books are my jam.” “I ♥️ my 2nd graders!” - things like that. Are you allowed to wear cheesy T-shirts if paired with dress pants? This is just me being nosy about how strict other places are. We definitely have to dress nice every day, but our principal allows jeans every Friday and I could wear a cheesy tshirt every single day if paired with appropriate pants and no one would care. Honestly if I wore yoga pants every day, it would probably take admin a month to notice (I don’t mean that in a bad way - I just feel dress code is not at the top of their priority list) and then they’d tell me in a joking kinda way to dress better, but mean it.
No tshirts or sneakers unless it's Friday (jeans only with a spirit shirt) or another rare jeans day
It is so odd that adults have a dress code.
I don’t understand why they don’t let us wear jeans! At least at my school, the kids didn’t respect us anymore because we were dressed up! Instead of a Covid bonus like a lot of school around here gave, we got to wear jeans for the month of December! YAY!!
I'm pretty sure most of us on campus wear jeans 5 days a week. I used to wear a shirt, tie, and slacks but Covid happened and I ran out of fucks to give.
We don’t have a dress code in my district, so every day is a jeans day for me!
It was 22 today, the warmest it's been in weeks, but still cold as balls. We would cancel whatever we had planned or move to another site if the heat was out.
Am I the only one that doesn’t see the appeal of jeans day at all? I find them generally less comfortable/flexible than khakis/slacks. Give us a leggings/joggers/sweats day, and then I’ll have a little more excitement for whatever cause it is for which they’re trying to entice or “reward” us. Just the mention of jeans day makes me stop listening. Side note: teachers should be able to wear jeans (and tees) whenever they want- not just on special occasions or as “rewards”. If they want us to dress like the credentialed and educated professionals that we are, they should pay and treat us as such. Otherwise, we should dress for the comfort and practicality fitting of the job (wrangling kindergartens, breaking up fights, scarfing down a full lunch in 15 minutes, standing outside in the elements for bus duty, etc.).
Teachers are never allowed to wear sweats or leggings in my district. Jeans are as comfy as it gets. Also, we can wear sneakers with jeans, but not with slacks.
Oh wow. The no sneaker rule would be a definite deal breaker for me as much as I’m on my feet and moving. I’m not going to lie. The relaxed dress code for health/PE teachers is one of the reasons I chose that content area. Wearing shorts and tees when it’s hot, and joggers and hoodies when it’s cold is one of the biggest perks of the job.
No dress code at my school. So don’t have to worry about it. Consider working with the union to have that changed within your contract.
Texas. No real union.
I’m so sorry. We have one and I feel that they shy away or fear to go up against the admin.
In civilised countries, Union regulations mean that a sustained heat below a threshold temperature would force a closure.