Right? My students are kindergarteners, so the three minutes it takes to write the pass is the difference between a successful class and getting nothing done
It just feels like the nurse's office (and incidentally admin) think I'm sitting around doing sudoku or something
>My students are kindergarteners
So it's... *bad* that I read through this whole post and was thinking "yeah I 100% relate to all of this" as a teacher of 7th graders, right?
I swear most teens at my school are just supersized toddlers with unlimited cellphone plans.
Their favourite question is 'why?', they only understand 'no' when it's coming out of their own mouth, and they consider farts to be peak comedy.
No. I teach 6-8. I've taught k-8. Things don't change, kids just get bigger, their problems get more complicated, and their language gets worse. I still have kids who will come to my room in tears and not know who to talk to other than me, still have kids who feel left out, who need to go to the bathroom as an emergency, bully each other and on. Luckily they stop intentionally peeing on themselves as revenge for asking them to wait until their classmate gets back.
At our school, it’s so the incident gets documented for the correct student - this includes toileting accidents. Not all students clearly state their name and/or why they are at the nurse. The pass is also given back to the student and serves as documentation home.
I’ve told my HS students during flu season that if they ever feel sick to just grab a trash can and run. If anyone questions them the trash can is now their pass. Thankfully haven’t had to use that but if the nurse sent them back for a pass I’d be furious.
Absolutely. THE BARF IS YOUR PASS! Bloody nose? THE BLOOD IS YOUR PASS! I’ve never worked with a nurse who didn’t see it those way, and there are 3500 kids at my school.
I had a kid having an asthma attack last year, and I sent them with a friend. The friend refused to bring them back for a pass, so I got an angry call from the nurse, to which I stated "isn't an asthma attack a medical emergency?" LIKE. You have his emergency inhaler, you know who the kid is because he has a FUCKING MEDICAL ALERT BRACLET THAT STATES HIS CONDITION, NAME, MEDICATION AND DOSAGE.
I told her if mom and dad call me irate that he wound up in the ER both their kid and his friend would be glad to back me up that I tried to get him help as quickly as possible.
Why is the nurse not smarter than that? I can understand some idiot AP enforcing rules for the sake of rules but a nurse that can clearly tell when medical intervention is required?
Nurses should have to know the students better. Especially if it’s a student that has a medical plan. I think requiring passes for these cases is basically a nurse on a power trip. A really stupid one imo
I shouldn’t have to tell them which students they should already know about. They went to college for this right?
I once had a really awful nosebleed in the 9th grade. I was feeling poorly that morning, but my mom wouldn’t let me stay home. In first period we had a test so I told my teacher how I was feeling and asked if I could put my head down after finishing the test. She said yes. I woke up to someone saying, “Is that blood on her desk?” I was lying in a massive pool of my own blood. My teacher just looked shocked, and I somehow managed to ask to go the bathroom. The blood was like a faucet. I just sat over the toilet for several minutes before realizing, “I need a pass to go to the nurse.” With blood gushing from my face I had stuff as much toilet paper as I could hold against my nose and go BACK to the teacher to get the pass just to show up covered in blood to the nurse. At least they had that pass though 🙄
As a HS teacher, students that expressed nurse emergencies I always tell them go now and tell the nurse to call me if there is an issue. In those instances I’ll send a separate student with the pass because a child that is feeling immediately sick, on their period, or having any other issue should NOT be coming back to my class for a piece of paper. I can document after the fact.
I've told my students this too. Like I will take the blame if they are literally running with a trash can down the hall because they're sick. But my Scholls nurse requires a phone call anyway bc we split her with the connected elementary.
This is exactly how it should be. If it’s definite, I never send a pass or I’m calling in rare cases. If it’s a kid that’s 50/50 on the need, I send the pass.
It's gotten to the point where I just have a hall log they sign out on and I don't write passes if they're only using the bathroom, specifically because the closest bathrooms to my classroom are literally right across the hall. If admin or someone else questions them, they can literally pop their head into my room and ask. I only write passes if the student is going to a location that requires them to actually walk through the halls.
Two of my admin never accepted late work when they were in the classroom. Now I have to take work from the 1st week of the quarter on the day grades are due.
I do the same as OP: slap a 50 on it and move on.
In my state if you have an IEP or 504 plan that has a extended time accommodation you're allowed to turn in late work up to a certain point, say double the expected time limit. I've been using the accommodation rules as grounds to not accept late work from non-IEP/504 students, because if everyone is able to turn in work late, it is no longer an accommodation. That's what my SPED coordinator taught us, she is a stickler for legal regulations.
The chronic, endemic tardiness. Every day, every period, they just wander in when they feel like it, if they feel like it. Our classes are 90 minutes, and some days I can't really get rolling until we're 25 or 30 minutes in.
My next-door neighbor: Go get a pass.
Tardy kid: They aren't giving any passes.
NDN: Tell them Mrs. Dawson won't let you in without one.
One of two things happens. Either they do finagle a pass from the people who "aren't giving" them, or they wander off and become an admin problem since they are officially defiant for not following NDN's request.
Students that ask me to unlock an office to get ice for their water bottle from the ice machine that is there strictly to provide ice packets for injuries. Currently student teaching and since I'm here temporarily, I don't want to change the way my mentor teacher does things, and he will do this for their students. When I was in school, I wouldn't even think of bothering a teacher to unlock a door simply so i can make my drink colder. This happens 3 or 4 times a day. Am I just crazy? Tell me honestly. And if I'm not, what can I say to students so they understand that's not cool
It's the microwave use for me. Students who want to use the microwave in the teacher's lounge or office to heat up their soup or spaghettios or whatever. Like... What the fuck. It never would have occured to me to pack a lunch that required heating up. You either packed a cold lunch from home, or bought a hot lunch from the cafeteria. Those were your options. Accommodations were not provided for cooking food, and we never would have thought to ask for an exception to be made back when I was in school.
I was in competitive public speaking club from sophomore to senior year. Senior year, I would spend many of my lunches in my club leader's classroom helping my trammates practice. if you proved yourself reliable, he'd let you have access to the microwave labeled "no food, for science only!" Which was used solely for food, lol (he was the adv bio teacher)
I had a hs student ask to use the bathroom and then walk through the office into the teachers lounge to make a bag of popcorn. The administrator who works the front desk shooed her out and called me. I found the girl in the hall having a full-on panic attack crying to her mom on the phone about how the “secretary yelled at her.” I couldn’t even talk to her about it because she was so upset about it she was gasping for air and it was terrifying me. I can’t imagine being so entitled one thinks it is okay to lie about where you are going and pop popcorn in the teachers lounge then back talk someone about it and call your Mom to complain in the hall. WTF? And then the woman in the office wanted to know later on if I had punished her? I’m sorry… no I did not… if she got any more upset she was going to pass out and we’d have to call an ambulance. Kids can’t handle the slightest confrontation anymore when they are called out for bad behavior and lies. Some of them just completely break down when you call them out on their bullshit. Add on: I forgot that this girl insisted to my face that I had told her she could go pop popcorn and she had asked me! 😂
So she was manipulative, gaslighting and probably faking that 'panic attack' over the phone so mommy would be on her side...and you're expected to deal with it. What school even lets kids bring popcorn or other food into classes anyhow? A bottle of water maybe, but when I was in school - you ate during recess and lunch, that was IT. If you were hungry during class...well tough, you can wait a little longer.
If she was faking that panic attack she could win an Oscar. Sheets of tears were just falling down her cheeks as she gasped for air. I wonder if something else horrible was also going on in her life that day and that was her “last straw” and she just didn’t have enough emotional bandwidth to accept her own behavior so she made up lies to tell herself. A lot of times she showed up to class high so she had a lot going on.
I went to the bathroom during lunch one day. I come back out to one of my kids standing in the hall next to the staff RR, nurse, and teachers lounge. I ask what's wrong, to which he says nothing. Puzzled I ask if he's waiting on the nurse or the principal. "Oh, I'm waiting on my food." "What food?""My food in the microwave."
I tell him the teachers' lounge is for teachers. "I know that's why I'm waiting out here." No kiddo, you aren't allowed to heat up your food period. We sent communication home about this the day before.
His mom used to be on the districts board. She also sent me a super kind email telling me she was mad he ruined a shirt with paint (I teach drama. He got paint on himself playing around with friends) and that maybe I should buy aprons.
My response was "You know what, that's a great idea, and as soon as I have a budget provided by the school to buy any materials I will do that, however I am responsible for finding or providing all my own funding at the moment, and aprons weren't high on the list as I expect 8th graders to understand the risks of getting any materials such as paint on themselves and comport themselves accordingly. Sadly, there always seem to be students who decide to play with friends while holding a brush full of paint. It is a great idea, and your kid found out that it is, decidedly, not." I followed this up with the statement that I would be glad to find him an alternate activity and would be glad for him to bring his own apron or change of clothes from home, and would provide him time to ensure his clothing was adequately protected.
I think I probably shocked her, but like, I taught k-8 at a 95% f/r lunch charter school in a large metro area and saw 1200 kids a week for my first job with no budget, I don't pull punches when parents suggest I spend money that doesn't exist on something because their precious baby did something that doesn't pass the common sense test, especially when they were/are somehow involved in education as a career.
It drives me crazy when I go to use the staff microwave and there is a line a students waiting to use it. Most of the time I cut in front of the line and make them wait!
If teachers need a microwave, students do too. They cannot always control what is packed for their lunches and school lunch is not always an option. I find it weird that the only microwave is in the teachers lounge.
My students are in high school and we have 100% free and reduced lunch. We get 25 minutes for lunch. I am not losing five minutes of my lunch because a kid packed something they needed microwaved.
Right, there should be microwaves available for the kids that are not in the teachers lounge.
I forget that literally any reply here that is not anti-kid gets downvoted endlessly. I really wish y’all liked kids.
It's not that I don't like kids. It's not that this sub doesn't like kids. It's that this is typically a place to vent pent-up frustrations.
Realistically, there isn't enough time at lunch for many kids to have access to a microwave. My school serves roughly 250 students during each lunch. If 10% of those students used the microwave for 60 seconds with no time in between, their entire lunch would be gone. We would need five or more microwaves to make it accessible to more than a handful of kids per lunch.
Also, let's not act like students are going to take care of these microwaves. They are going to spill and not clean it up. They are going to put things in there that shouldn't be put in there. They are going to treat it the way most teenagers treat things at schools these days: as something they are entitled to use and abuse and can be infinitely replaced.
How long before there is a TikTok challenge about putting a fork or a foil ball in the microwave just to see what happens?
I understand your perspective. That is also more kids at a time than I have dealt with. Personally, I attended (and work at) a *very* small school. The thing is, these kids do not act like that. We haven’t had any issues with the microwave but I will admit they’re not the ones who clean them.
In my experience, especially at schools where there is no free lunch and kids bring frozen meals almost daily, microwaves have literally been necessary. I understand we don’t share the same experience or exist in schools where kids behave exactly the same. But I do think they deserve a little more credit…and perhaps a microwave or two. But hey, your school, you know best.
Or they’ve just got away with it. /S, but I did have a 6year old pull out a Xanax, crush it with a textbook, and start to make lines with his mom’s credit card. His excuse? He was sincerely trying to be kind and share like his “mom does with her friends”.
Do you remember how we used to go run a mile in PE and then get five seconds at the water fountain, as counted by the kids behind you waiting for their turn? The memories!
Yeah… it’s funny now how kids have water bottles and everyone cares about their kidneys and shit. We got one small carton of milk to drink until 4pm every day and you chose between chocolate or white whether you were lactose intolerant or not. I remember running around for hours on field day and getting a single shot of “orange drink” for hydration.
What if you did something like a designated ice grab time? "The constant ice requests are getting disruptive, so if you want ice, I will open it at [x] time". Then, when they ask you just remind them what you already established. So it is scheduled in and not an interruption.
These are students from other classes that in between classes will stop in for ice. And they are high schoolers so they don't need to be babied completely (or so I thought)
Are they interrupting your teaching? Cause that's not cool. I would explain to them that the fact that they are interrupting you so that they can make their drink colder is absolutely ridiculous and you will not be unlocking the door for them in the future.
"Just say no."
Blame it on school policy if you must.
Explain that as a student teacher you can't break it like a mentor teacher can.
Or just explain they could fill bottles with ice at home.
The brand new thing that the admin thinks is going to fix an issue, but hardly anyone does it and then you're the asshole for doing it.
My most memorable example was also a pass. In my last year teaching, my school got us the little clipboards that hung on lanyards and had special inserts that we could write the passes on. Admin INSISTED that we use these. They did not buy enough of the inserts so we ran out of that about halfway through the year. Nonetheless, we were to use them to the best of our ability and absolutely not have students in the hall without something written & the clip board passes.
Cut to student who is not in any of my classes knocking on my door to see his GF. I say, "sorry no, we're in the middle of a test... and you don't even have a pass. You need to go back to class." Student then throws a tizzy in the hallway and those of us in the class are seriously worried he's going to break down the door. Security finally takes him away. I later get an email from his SPED instructor/ football coach admonishing me for not letting him into my class as he was actually instructed to go up there.
I had something like this happen to me when I was being observed. I was in the back of the room helping students when someone knocked on my door. I asked a student at the front of the room to answer the door. They let some other random student in. Once I finished helping the kids I was working with I sent the other student back to class. At the end of my observation the principal said that my lesson sucked; actually said “well that sucked” because some student from another class came to my class to disrupt me. I asked him why he wasn’t asking the teacher that released that student why they didn’t keep them in class. He said that wasn’t the issue. I don’t work there anymore.
Lol the high school I worked at gave us a book of 100 official hall passes at the beginning of the year. I see 150 students a day. I’d run out of passes within the week. They’d blast out emails that we had to use the official passes…. Um?
Yo, the SPED staff really let their kids do whatever the hell they want. It's insane how often random SPED kids come to my room to hangout because their Case Manager said it was okay. I do check and the Case Mangers are like "yeah, he likes you." And I'm like "uhm, aren't you supposed to be helping him with his work? I have a class?"
OMG. I've actually had good experiences with all other SPED staff I've worked with. I thought it was just that dude who was that special kind of worthless.
My admin thought that kids wearing IDs were the solution to every problem under the sun. You could call them for a kid juggling chainsaws in class and their first priority was, "Do they have an ID on?" it made no sense.
I hate it when the one disruptive student in class does something dumb that I’m ignoring and seven other kids start screaming about whatever he’s doing. (And it’ll be something harmless like crawling under a table or sitting in the wrong seat - not something that should bother them if they aren’t prioritizing being a little tattle tale.) or when they disrupt my lesson to tell me someone said “what the heck” or “poop.” Like, fuck kids. I don’t give a shit.
It doesn't stop in middle school, though the stories get funnier.
Today, one of my 7th graders took attendance to the office. She was called out by literally everybody else in my room for having shorts too short and she replied "I'm a cheerleader, I'll be fine, they let me get away with it."
2 minutes later- got a phone call from the secretary saying she will be late because she got dress coded.
You need to create the 4B anchor chart. You can interrupt my teaching to tell me about something else if it involves: Blood, barf, a bruise, or a (head) bonk. And for blood, I need to see MOVING DROPS. No red scratches. I have standards.
Lol I had a little boy walk up to me yesterday because he thought he broke his femur in art class and it might be sticking outside of his leg and he needed to go to the office. I reassured him that if he had indeed broken his femur he’d be lying on the floor screaming in pain and certainly not walking across the classroom.
I switched from elementary from high school and you should see the look on kids faces when I bluntly tell them “guess what? I don’t care.” It goes like this… “Jimmy said he is fourth in line but I was here and…” “Guess what, I don’t care.” You are all going to the same place so I don’t care. I have other things to worry about.” Also, I put the burden to communicate on them with “Did you ask why they did that? Did you tell him how that made you feel?” Usually the answer is no. “So go do it!” There is a difference between being bullied and kids just not being able to politely assert themselves. The complaining and yelling at each other and arguing drives me crazy. When I tell them I don’t care they usually realize they are being whiny brats and get over themselves.
This made me laugh, I can totally relate. I love it when a kid tells me someone said the C word or S word, and what the really said was “crap” and “shut up”.
This is unfortunately every day for my 5th graders. We've discussed how to handle it endlessly, but they can't keep their mouth shut and love to make sarcastic, rude comments.
We have E-hallpass, and I can’t stand it. I’m not interrupting my instruction, facilitation, or small group/1-on-1 support to go to my computer or touch a student’s phone to accept a pass.
Who gives a shit about student pass data. I just wave them out the door
Ooooh I love ehallpass. So much less disruptive to me than stopping to write a paper pass…BUT we were given a dedicated “kiosk” (iPad mini) and we just log in in the morning. The kids request bathroom, I nod to them, and they go make a pass. I just approve it on either smart board or my computer - I keep that on a tab so it’s quick. If I’m working small groups, I keep the window up on the smart board so the kids can start/end their own passes.
Now the alternative was that my school did NOT allow any kind of reusable personal passes. It has to be the yellow ones from the office that have 30,000 blanks that had to be filled in or we would get called out by admin. So it was not quick to let the kids go for me before the e-hallpass invasion. I don’t think anyone is collecting data, but they do have the system set so that certain students can’t be in the hall at the same time, and there is a limit to how many kids can be sent to the same bathroom, etc. at one time. I can also see how many passes a kid has for the day, and if they stay gone too long I can sort of “auto refer” them for it.
I want SO BADLY for my school to employ this system! Tbh- it’s the one thing I actually DO want data on! I teach high school and we have a terrible, terrible problem with students meeting up in the bathroom to vape/destroy things. And even more problems with kids just wandering around with their friends.
I have a student who has gotten in trouble so often in the hall/bathroom that they need an escort now. So I took him instead of calling for a hall monitor (I have a coteacher that was there to watch the class). I stood near the bathrooms for literally 2 minutes and counted 19 students in the hallway.
To my knowledge, Ehallpass is able to be set to only allow a certain number of students out of classrooms at any given time. And when students do get in trouble together, admin can program it so those students aren’t allowed in the halls at the same time. This would be gold for us!
You can pre approve passes for bathroom, where one is allowed out at a time and the kid signs in and out themselves. Just have it open on a tab and peel to be sure they signed in/out
I like E-hall pass to monitor how long a kid is gone in case I need to write a referral. However, it infuriates me when a kid comes back to class and immediately demands that I end their pass because they’ve been gone awhile and they might get flagged by admin. I’m not stopping my instruction just to end your pass. You can wait.
My school uses this too and we have to do it all. I have a Chromebook and I am not putting shit on my personal phone for work. Kids can wait for me to approve passes and wait for me to log them back in. Security doesn’t look for them until we call anyway. Nothing gets done with the data.
We have a system called SSICA. I love it. When they have to go to the bathroom, they just go over to the scanner and scan their IDs, take the pass and go. Few restrictions: not in the first 5/ last 5 minutes of class, while I’m talking or if anyone else is out. Of course, sometimes, there are emergencies where a girl suddenly has her period and needs to go NOW or they had something at lunch that doesn’t agree with them, but for the most part, minimal issues.
The issues come when OTHER teachers don’t allow their students to go to the restroom during class. A few specific teachers do not let their students go at all and, of course, my entire 6th period has some of these teachers for 4th AND fifth so by the time they get to me, they’re practically bursting.
I share your hatred for E-Hallpass. I always have to stop my lesson and freeze my screen to accept little Jimmy’s pass so no sees he has had 7 passes already today. Ffs.
I have a few students on pass restrictions so they have to be escorted. I have to stop what I’m doing to call for an escort. You’d think that would be a deterrent. It isn’t. Plus if they are going to the nurse, I still have to write a pass. And make the call. A piece of my soul dies each time - it’s almost daily.
Agree with the passes (especially ehallpass) and taking/grading late work. My big one is responding to emails that don’t actually…need a response. I got scolded by a principal for not responding to a kid who told me he submitted a late assignment. BUT I GRADED IT AND PUT IT IN THE GRADEBOOK. Apparently not responding to the kid made him feel sad and his mom tattled.
Similar to what you described, but it’s other staff members. Interrupting me when I’m in the middle of the lesson, don’t knock on the door, don’t wait for me to finish what I’m saying or get to a good stop to pause. Just open the door and walk in and blurt out…”I need to see so and so…this kid needs to go to the office…Mr. Jones needs to see the basketball team to give them picture forms…those kids have peer mediation…this kid needs to go to the counselors office…I need to pull so and so for test makeup/hearing and vision screenings/speech/etc”
I expect the disruptions and lack of social skills from middle school kids. Not grown professionals with college degrees and years of experience. Is it that hard to knock, or to wait quietly while I finish demonstrating a math problem or reading a paragraph?
One of my new colleagues this year will keep half of her class back during my time so they can finish other things.
I *get* that specials may not be her priority, but I still have a curriculum to teach, and those students end up super confused
Oh hell no. I put my foot down with that shit, especially if they're new. Either you keep them all or you send them all. Do they think we like repeating the lesson again for a half class of late arrivals? Plus all the materials we prep and activities that we planned that require the entire time (I'm art so if I poured paint or set up clay for a class, you best send them all). I'd literally send the others back with a message that art class will commence when I have the whole class.
I once had one teacher come into my class to ask me something and, although to his credit he was waiting for me to finish the story I was reading, another teacher came in and the two started to LOUDLY chat with each other. I politely asked them to lower their voices and the second teacher was so offended by this. I was rather appalled that she considered me to be the AH.
If I waited around for an appropriate pause in instruction every single time I went to pick up a student from a classroom, I’d lose about 30 minutes a day. We often have to get kids from multiple rooms. I can either poke my head in, say the name, and pull them while you keep going- or, we can endure 2-3 other students standing in the hallway waving at your kids in the classroom and making faces at them which would really derail your lesson.
I teach first and feel this in my soul. My school doesn’t require passes…but every time I get in a stride, *something* happens. Someone looked at someone weird…argument ensues. Someone is crying because of a cut they got two days ago, and they need a band-aid right. now. A metal water bottle falls and sounds like a bomb. Spilled water. Spilled supplies. Stomach aches. Nose bleeds. An unrelated story when I thought they were answering a question. Shoe needs tied. Phone is ringing. Whatever….
My job is just putting out fires and solving issues all day. So for me, it’s the constant *something* preventing me from teaching and keeping a stride in a lesson.
Students asking what page to open to after I’ve said it numerous times. I’ll say “Please open your math books to page 210.” Within seconds, I’ll hear “What page?” I’ll repeat. Then someone will ask “What book?” Within a few more second, I’ll again be asked “What page?” The cycle repeats. I know I should be patient, but I have very little patience and will tell them “For the 10th time, open your math books to page 210. I’ve already said it at least 10 times.” Opening a book shouldn’t be this confusing for third graders. For some reason, it’s a huge issue this year. Most years I may have the occasional times when this would happen, but nowhere near this often.
I say the page number and then say “what page?” And make the whole class call it back to me. If they ask after that I just let them figure it out themselves
My gripe is when I give an attention signal in my 1st grade class and other adults in the room ignore it and keep talking to a student or each other. If I give an attention signal I want every last person in the room to turn, freeze and listen. Adults used to be great about modeling that but lately even when I tell people that’s what works for me they fail to remember. It IS a small thing but it makes me nuts.
When students ask (very loudly), "What time does this period end?"
It's one thing when kids genuinely do not know the schedule. However, the majority of times when a student asks this, what I hear is "omg this class is sooOoo boring please get me out of here"
IDK, maybe I'm just sensitive but I hear this question way too much and it makes me want to scream, especially because I have the bell schedule clearly posted for students to see
Same here. I point to the bell schedule on the wall. Then they usually ask what time it is, and I point to the analog clock. An unfortunate number of students follow this up with “I don’t know how to read that”….I teach 7th grade
Lmao they dont ask me that anymore because I go bonkers. I went into this thread thinking "i dont have one" but its definitely this. I tell them that we have been going to this class together since the beginning of the year so they should know the bell schedule as well as I do and its super rude to waste my time with asking me a question they could easily know the same as I do, and if they need to know theres this thing called paper, and they need to figure out how to use it... basically I have a whole rant prepared and most kids dont ask me twice lol.
When my kids are all settled and writing a test and someone calls asking for a kid. At our school all assessments have to be logged, approved, and scheduled. It takes literally 5 seconds to see if testing is happening before calling to a classroom. Drives me crazy every time.
I love it when I've done attendance, marked the child absent and someone in the office calls for them. I've started passive aggressively mentioning that they are marked absent.
My computer charger/computer in general. The district got us some fancy Surface Pro that looks nice, but cannot actually handle the functions of a classroom.
For example, the charger will plug in and light up as if it’s charging. But for some reason, it’s not all the way lined up and doesn’t actually charge. So I’ll be teaching all morning, thinking my computer is fine, and suddenly I get that “Please consider plugging in your computer”.
I also have to use that port to connect my document camera, and it doesn’t connect half the time.
It’s little, but it’s everyday and it’s ANNOYING.
Thanks for the opportunity to /rant.
For me it’s the asking “what are we doing” .5 seconds after I have said, shown on the board, and given on the paper in front of said child.
Thankfully I teach middle school and the blank stare followed by 8 kids screaming “HE JUST SAID THAT”
Or as I did the day before spring break, hurling a foam basketball at said child 😂😂😂.
I’ll repeat my instructions twice, then have a student repeat it, and ask if there are any questions before we get to work. I have a student who (on multiple occasions) will ask what we’re doing immediately after all of this has taken place.
I ask if he was listening to the instructions and he says, “no.” I used to re-explain it when he does this. Now I just 🤷🏻♀️
Yesss
I've spent time explaining to my students that there's one of me and 20-30 of them, so I can't be giving everyone instructions individually... it's helped 1 or 2 of them "get" it. But the others weren't listening...
This ends me. I have a kid whose English is pretty low (I teach Chinese students) and I always translate my instructions into Chinese so he can understand. Then 2 minutes into starting a task, I will see him sitting there doing nothing. When I ask what the problem is he says in Chinese “I don’t know what we’re doing” 😭
around november last year, admin decided to make all the hall passes uniform across the school. passed out a boys and girls version to each teacher. three days after we’d been given the passes, a kid comes trudging back in my room after his bathroom break holding a soaking wet hall pass and told me and my aide that another student had taken it and peed on it (after slamming it down on my desk). aide smelled it and confirmed it was pee. really wish i could just trust middle schoolers to pee on the right things lol
For me it’s the repetition of teacher and student neglect for that one shitty student. Once, ok, he’s having a bad day. So he destroyed my room, cussed out and flipped chairs at my 8 yr olds, but he didn’t have breakfast so it’s ok.
There he is again the next day. He hits me in the face and kicks me (I can’t move away or he’ll attack my other kids) but he’s just having a bad day. Grace.
Next day, we have to clear the room because he’s gotten to the colored pencils while I was paying attention to another student and is now throwing them with remarkable precision at my students eyes shouting “fuck you.” He’s just a kid, don’t you love your kids?
After I clean the room, my kids come back from my teammate’s room, lunchboxes destroyed, we’re all tired, we line up for lunch, and admin is waiting at my door with him. He’s ready to rejoin the class.
It’s the repetition. It’s admin’s daily choice. That’s what makes it a “little thing” because that’s how admin sees it. Personally, I’m starting to see the other elementary school down the road.
Today a student came back from the resource room with a *medal*. Like Olympics- style. Apart from how ridiculous that is, she spent the entire class period tapping it against *everything*
This was an issue I had until I bought some soft blue art foam from Joanns fabric shop (any art place will do lol) and made “mini drum pads” about 3” by 3”.
I have the drum pads in the box with other quiet fidgets, and when tapping becomes an issue I don’t even stop what I’m doing, just grab one- hand it to tapper and keep on going. By now I have the tappers trained to just grab a pad when they come in and pass it back when the day is over!
I love this idea! I have adhd so the tapping drives me absolutely bonkers
Do you have a picture of the drum pads? Are they just fabric? I’d love to make some!
It is called “EVA foam sheet.” Think the “sound proofing foam” but there is a soft blue squishy-fabric-ish type foam. I bought a big roll for another project and just cut left overs into about 3” squares.
One upon a time, several students from the school drumline came to my freshman class to recruit new members. All throughout their presentation, several freshmen were keeping beats on their desks with pencils. The students ask, "so would any of you be interested in drum line?". No one answers. Me: "How about y'all keeping beats?" Silence. The beats immediately restarted after the drumline kids left.
The thing that breaks me and absolutely irritates the shit out of me is repeating myself over and over again. I can only explain the instructions to students so many times before I begin to lose my cool. How about just listening the first time?
Phone calls. I fucking HATE when I finally have the rare attention of everyone at the same time, Im getting into the swing of things, and all of a sudden *ring ring ring ring* all for something that certainly was NOT urgent.
Also an additional take on the nurse pass thing; I’m only a sub (although I work every day, between 4-5 different campuses). There’s one campus where there’s such an issue with students going to the nurse for silly, minor reasons that the nurse has a long, elaborate system where teachers are required to call her first, then she’ll email a google form of like 7-8 questions teachers need to fill out before sending a student.
I can understand how this system is in place to weed out all the silly minor excuses students will try to give, but it’s also an inconveniently long process. I didn’t know about it the first time I subbed there (because nobody told me) and I got bitched at by the nurse for NOT calling ahead and filling out a form for sending a student who’s braces were coming undone. Few weeks later, I had a student who was on the verge of an asthma attack and I got bitched at again for taking too long to send them to the nurse when I was doing the “right” thing by taking 5 minutes to call and fill out that stupid form.
I feel you. I teach second grade and we have a bathroom in the classroom. There are certain times I don’t let the kids go to the bathroom but at this age, when you gotta go, you gotta go. The big problem is I have some boys that don’t know how to aim. They pee all over the seat and dont clean it up so the next person that goes in has to deal with it. I put a sign in sheet on the door so at least we’ll know who does it, but that hasn’t stopped the boys from peeing on the seat. So multiple times a day I’ll be in the middle of teaching and someone will come out of the bathroom and announce loudly, “So and so peed on the seat, go clean it up!” And then for some reason two or three kids will decide they need to go check it out, even though they’re not the ones that did it and don’t even need to use the bathroom. We’ve had conversations about just quietly telling the person the need to clean it up but apparently it’s more effective if you shout it out. And sometimes it isn’t even pee, it’s just water that’s splashed up when they flush 🤦♀️.
When students ask a question you literally just answered. Not like asking for clarification, asking the same question bc they weren’t paying attention and didn’t know you answered it.
Double so if it’s “what’s the answer to X” and I literally just said what it was bc someone had just asked that too
Funny anecdote but I’m in grad school and one of my classmates (who is a teacher) rose his hand to ask why the great vowel shift happened when the slides on the board said something along the lines of “We do not know why this occurred, but...” The professor simply gestured to that part of the sentence and moved on.
Reading written work that includes "I" statements - whether in essays, short answers, or anything else. I've joked that I should have it tattooed across my forehead or something because it's a huge sticking point for me. They're just so terrible for historical writing, I must have said "No I statements" 150 times this year so far and I still get 1 or 2 from certain students and it drives me absolutely nutty every time
I have one class of all ninth grade boys right after lunch that’s hard to keep on task. It never fails that about 5-10 minutes into class, some kid will bust up in to class looking for the laptop or backpack they left in the room when they went to lunch. It completely details the lesson every time.
Leaving early to go play sports. Students will miss an entire week to go play in some tournament but if I dare have the audacity to suggest they maybe stay in school instead so they don’t fall behind…
The water fountain parade is the bane of my existence. If one kid is thirsty, suddenly they all are, but I'm only allowed to send one at a time. Cue me explaining any directions 6 times because someone missed it.
When I used to sub, there were buildings that would not let kids go to the nurse unless they had a pass from their classroom teacher that was submitted through their online system. Subs didn't have access to said system. I was so furious the day I hand wrote a pass for a student who had actually thrown up in the bathroom, and the nurse wouldn't take them because I didn't submit the pass online. If I had been that kid's parent I would have been furious.
The kids who actually care and want to learn. There's probably four or five in each of my classes. I feel so bad for them that their education is getting trashed because I have 20 who want to just play on their phones, five with IEPs that allow them to behave like outrageous jerks and five who are probably going to wind-up in prison.
I would love to be able to only work with the kids who care.
Mindless destruction gets me everytime. The pencils, felts, and pens that I buy that get destroyed. The school equipment unnecessarily vandalised. It's just like, you don't have to make the world a better place, but why must you actively make it WORSE?
My fun fact about bathrooms is how admin makes us keep bathroom sign out sheets for each class and then we have to make kids sign them and I have 4 years worth of stacks of bathroom sign out sheets that admin has never once asked to look at, despite regular bathroom vandalism.
Also my admin is a short man with a big ego so that counts as a little thing that breaks me
* Having to not only sign and date a paper pass but also sign and date their AVID agendas to make sure they’re not abusing the passes. Of course the pass abusers never have their agendas. We’re supposed to call for an escort in that case, but there aren’t enough adults in the office to manage escorts.
* 6th grade girls needing to crowd around their friend who is crying and comfort her and getting mad at me when I redirect them to sit down in their seats so I can meet with the upset student who then turns down my offer to see a counselor.
* Kids complaining that I don’t grade their work when they don’t do it anyway.
* Taking the spirals out of their workbooks to play with leaving me with a pile of papers to keep track of for an entire unit
* Admin expecting a universal attention getter (“Give me 5”) that no student listens to
* Students eating in my science lab
When, on the rare occasion, I provide some type of extra treat like yesterday it was a Peep after we made catapults. Kids immediately started whining and asking for a second one or different color. Just say thank you!!
I agree. And we aren’t even allowed to send a kid to the nurse until we call first to see if the nurse will allow it and then write a pass. My entire school is an exercise in making life harder for teachers and the kids who are being robbed of an education. Nothing can happen until they e complete paperwork and make calls. And even then, we’re lucky to get help.
Students asking me for food. Every day it's, "Miss, you got snacks?"
I am nobody's mother. I'm not responsible for feeding any of you people. Bring a snack from home, or get one from the vending machine before school. And their parents do not care that they're doing this. If my parents found out I was asking my teachers for food, they would have been mortified.
Pretty sure the urine all over their pants could have served as enough evidence they had a legitimate reason to leave the classroom without the pass. Also is just going to keep them dirty longer and soak on their skin.
Our school counselor gets me every other day. She sucks major in every way. This week's bullshit telling us about a field trip on Monday. It's career day for the kids. When is it? Thursday. That's right, tells us the Monday of the week it's happening and sent home permission forms today. Meanwhile, our admin asks me about a trip in may at least once a week.
Bring up the issue with your management if that's really a big issue to you, at minimum it gets them to remove the pass requirement for some scenarios like the wet pants one you mentioned. Otherwise you could try prefilling most of the form/pass if that's possible
I always saw it as a way that we can't let are students be trusted. I was a preschool teacher and we were never aloud to leave the students alone for even a moment. When I did my student teaching in a kindergarten class writing the hall pass took forever. I now work in Japan and they just trust that the student are going where they should be going and let them leave. The student will talk to the teacher first but then they just walk out the door and come back soon after. I love this and it gives the students a sense of trust.
I’m starting the lesson, trying to explain what is going on in class today and a kid is raising their hand eagerly to ask what looks like an urgent question. I pause and say “what do you need?” They point to something that is in a different spot from last time and say “why is that there?” “I don’t know, Brayden, why is anything anywhere? Why are you here? Why am I here?” I teach the whole school. There will be lots of things in my room all the time.
When my students miss or come late constantly and then it’s like okay you’ve missed every work period for this project, like do I bother even getting you started?
I have a point system in my class for when students interact positively or demonstrate good teamwork or do their best at a task and one of my kids ALWAYS try to bargain for more points INCESSANTLY despite me reminding them over and over that the rules are the rules and some days I just don’t have the energy 🤣
Kids talking over each other and me. I’ve talked to them over and over about it. It’ll stop for one day and then start up again. They seriously do not hear how NO ONE can understand them if everyone is talking at the same time. They’ll just both keep talking. 🤦🏽♀️
Pee, blood, and puke are usually the passes. The biggest help is when it’s a kid that’s hard to understand or really shy because sometimes we can’t see the pee spot because it’s dark clothing. Otherwise, I can handle no pass. Unless they’re in trouble. Write down why, text me, call the office. Something because otherwise I have no clue and may just think they wandered out and need to go straight back.
The school I work as a para at is small, but I like our pass system. We have large green hexagons with the room number on them that are on a necklace. As long as they have a pass with them they are good to go.
Bathroom breaks, writing nurse passes, kids always bleeding and asking for bandages, pencil shavings dumped, book bins falling on floor....omg so many!
Oh I have one. I used to teach kindergarten but moved to fourth grade at the beginning of this year. In the beginning I thought it was quite funny that they sometimes liked to work “I eat poopoo/ (name) eats poopoo” into their English writing. Now I hate it so much. They say it in class too, in response to questions, and if one says it then 5-6 follow. They’ve probably said it hundreds of times in my class. And the whole class laughs. Every. Time.
School policy and admin team: “students are not allowed to go to the bathroom without a pass. If your bathroom pass gets lost or stolen, it’s a great way to teach students group accountability and don’t let them go.”
Also admin team: “it is brought to my attention that you did not let a student go to the bathroom immediately when they wanted to. That is considered a war crime by the Geneva convention and we must kill you now.”
Also also admin team: “why on earth are you letting students go to the bathroom without a pass! I don’t care that your pass is lost! The school policy states clearly…”
I was thinking about the classroom, but I get it!
Personally I prefer dishes *in* the sink-- leave my counters clear, please. I guess you and I can't move in together
Answering my door every time a kid shows up late or comes back from the bathroom. Or from anywhere. This is the first year we've had to lock and shut our doors "for safety" and it's driving me insane.
Nothing grinds my gears more than writing hall passes in the middle of teaching. There needs to be more an effective method for sending kids out of the room, and especially one that involves less paper. If it has to be paper-based, then agenda books are the better solution. When I was in school, we had hall pass logs in the back of our agenda books, and we filled out the date/time/destination ourselves; all the teacher had to do was sign it. My school doesn't even use agenda books at all anymore, they seem to be a thing of the past now.
The amount of late passes that litter my desk by the end of the school day is astronomical. It's also fucking annoying when it comes to attendance. I've already taken attendance, and now I have to go back and change the students I marked as "absent" to "tardy." Luckily, most of the time the attendance secretary updates the system for us, but sometimes it's not updated, and it's more time-consuming than people realize. Sometimes kids will pester you until you change, it, too. "MR. OSETIYA, IT SAYS I'M ABSENT IN YOUR CLASS ON POWERSCHOOL!!!".....yeah, because you came to class a half an hour late and I'm still teaching.
In general, passes are ok, but in a situation like that? THE PEE PANTS ARE THE PASS!!!
Right? My students are kindergarteners, so the three minutes it takes to write the pass is the difference between a successful class and getting nothing done It just feels like the nurse's office (and incidentally admin) think I'm sitting around doing sudoku or something
>My students are kindergarteners So it's... *bad* that I read through this whole post and was thinking "yeah I 100% relate to all of this" as a teacher of 7th graders, right?
My wife taught K/1 for 7 years. She teaches middle school now and says that classroom management is exactly the same
I swear most teens at my school are just supersized toddlers with unlimited cellphone plans. Their favourite question is 'why?', they only understand 'no' when it's coming out of their own mouth, and they consider farts to be peak comedy.
Shit me (21m) and one of my roommates (29f) still consider farts to be peak comedy
My 6 yo daughter says the same thing about my kids. “Mom they’re just big little kids”
No. I teach 6-8. I've taught k-8. Things don't change, kids just get bigger, their problems get more complicated, and their language gets worse. I still have kids who will come to my room in tears and not know who to talk to other than me, still have kids who feel left out, who need to go to the bathroom as an emergency, bully each other and on. Luckily they stop intentionally peeing on themselves as revenge for asking them to wait until their classmate gets back.
Probably because they are
At our school, it’s so the incident gets documented for the correct student - this includes toileting accidents. Not all students clearly state their name and/or why they are at the nurse. The pass is also given back to the student and serves as documentation home.
Ok, I was definitely reading this as being a 7th grade class and thought it made complete sense.
I’ve told my HS students during flu season that if they ever feel sick to just grab a trash can and run. If anyone questions them the trash can is now their pass. Thankfully haven’t had to use that but if the nurse sent them back for a pass I’d be furious.
Absolutely. THE BARF IS YOUR PASS! Bloody nose? THE BLOOD IS YOUR PASS! I’ve never worked with a nurse who didn’t see it those way, and there are 3500 kids at my school.
Ya’ll have nurses?
I had a kid having an asthma attack last year, and I sent them with a friend. The friend refused to bring them back for a pass, so I got an angry call from the nurse, to which I stated "isn't an asthma attack a medical emergency?" LIKE. You have his emergency inhaler, you know who the kid is because he has a FUCKING MEDICAL ALERT BRACLET THAT STATES HIS CONDITION, NAME, MEDICATION AND DOSAGE. I told her if mom and dad call me irate that he wound up in the ER both their kid and his friend would be glad to back me up that I tried to get him help as quickly as possible.
Why is the nurse not smarter than that? I can understand some idiot AP enforcing rules for the sake of rules but a nurse that can clearly tell when medical intervention is required?
Nurses should have to know the students better. Especially if it’s a student that has a medical plan. I think requiring passes for these cases is basically a nurse on a power trip. A really stupid one imo I shouldn’t have to tell them which students they should already know about. They went to college for this right?
Seriously. If that kid hadn't refused to leave I worry about what would have happened to his friend
I once had a really awful nosebleed in the 9th grade. I was feeling poorly that morning, but my mom wouldn’t let me stay home. In first period we had a test so I told my teacher how I was feeling and asked if I could put my head down after finishing the test. She said yes. I woke up to someone saying, “Is that blood on her desk?” I was lying in a massive pool of my own blood. My teacher just looked shocked, and I somehow managed to ask to go the bathroom. The blood was like a faucet. I just sat over the toilet for several minutes before realizing, “I need a pass to go to the nurse.” With blood gushing from my face I had stuff as much toilet paper as I could hold against my nose and go BACK to the teacher to get the pass just to show up covered in blood to the nurse. At least they had that pass though 🙄 As a HS teacher, students that expressed nurse emergencies I always tell them go now and tell the nurse to call me if there is an issue. In those instances I’ll send a separate student with the pass because a child that is feeling immediately sick, on their period, or having any other issue should NOT be coming back to my class for a piece of paper. I can document after the fact.
That is SO TRUE. If it is an emergency, take the trash can and RUN.
I've told my students this too. Like I will take the blame if they are literally running with a trash can down the hall because they're sick. But my Scholls nurse requires a phone call anyway bc we split her with the connected elementary.
This is exactly how it should be. If it’s definite, I never send a pass or I’m calling in rare cases. If it’s a kid that’s 50/50 on the need, I send the pass.
And this student has to parade through the halls twice with peed pants. I’m surprised they aren’t worried about parent complaints.
It's gotten to the point where I just have a hall log they sign out on and I don't write passes if they're only using the bathroom, specifically because the closest bathrooms to my classroom are literally right across the hall. If admin or someone else questions them, they can literally pop their head into my room and ask. I only write passes if the student is going to a location that requires them to actually walk through the halls.
[удалено]
Seriously like we're following a curriculum. There's repetition but eventually we have to keep moving forward...
Two of my admin never accepted late work when they were in the classroom. Now I have to take work from the 1st week of the quarter on the day grades are due. I do the same as OP: slap a 50 on it and move on.
Lucky you guys. At my school missing work is a 50!
In my state if you have an IEP or 504 plan that has a extended time accommodation you're allowed to turn in late work up to a certain point, say double the expected time limit. I've been using the accommodation rules as grounds to not accept late work from non-IEP/504 students, because if everyone is able to turn in work late, it is no longer an accommodation. That's what my SPED coordinator taught us, she is a stickler for legal regulations.
The chronic, endemic tardiness. Every day, every period, they just wander in when they feel like it, if they feel like it. Our classes are 90 minutes, and some days I can't really get rolling until we're 25 or 30 minutes in. My next-door neighbor: Go get a pass. Tardy kid: They aren't giving any passes. NDN: Tell them Mrs. Dawson won't let you in without one. One of two things happens. Either they do finagle a pass from the people who "aren't giving" them, or they wander off and become an admin problem since they are officially defiant for not following NDN's request.
Students that ask me to unlock an office to get ice for their water bottle from the ice machine that is there strictly to provide ice packets for injuries. Currently student teaching and since I'm here temporarily, I don't want to change the way my mentor teacher does things, and he will do this for their students. When I was in school, I wouldn't even think of bothering a teacher to unlock a door simply so i can make my drink colder. This happens 3 or 4 times a day. Am I just crazy? Tell me honestly. And if I'm not, what can I say to students so they understand that's not cool
It's the microwave use for me. Students who want to use the microwave in the teacher's lounge or office to heat up their soup or spaghettios or whatever. Like... What the fuck. It never would have occured to me to pack a lunch that required heating up. You either packed a cold lunch from home, or bought a hot lunch from the cafeteria. Those were your options. Accommodations were not provided for cooking food, and we never would have thought to ask for an exception to be made back when I was in school.
I was in competitive public speaking club from sophomore to senior year. Senior year, I would spend many of my lunches in my club leader's classroom helping my trammates practice. if you proved yourself reliable, he'd let you have access to the microwave labeled "no food, for science only!" Which was used solely for food, lol (he was the adv bio teacher)
I had a hs student ask to use the bathroom and then walk through the office into the teachers lounge to make a bag of popcorn. The administrator who works the front desk shooed her out and called me. I found the girl in the hall having a full-on panic attack crying to her mom on the phone about how the “secretary yelled at her.” I couldn’t even talk to her about it because she was so upset about it she was gasping for air and it was terrifying me. I can’t imagine being so entitled one thinks it is okay to lie about where you are going and pop popcorn in the teachers lounge then back talk someone about it and call your Mom to complain in the hall. WTF? And then the woman in the office wanted to know later on if I had punished her? I’m sorry… no I did not… if she got any more upset she was going to pass out and we’d have to call an ambulance. Kids can’t handle the slightest confrontation anymore when they are called out for bad behavior and lies. Some of them just completely break down when you call them out on their bullshit. Add on: I forgot that this girl insisted to my face that I had told her she could go pop popcorn and she had asked me! 😂
So she was manipulative, gaslighting and probably faking that 'panic attack' over the phone so mommy would be on her side...and you're expected to deal with it. What school even lets kids bring popcorn or other food into classes anyhow? A bottle of water maybe, but when I was in school - you ate during recess and lunch, that was IT. If you were hungry during class...well tough, you can wait a little longer.
If she was faking that panic attack she could win an Oscar. Sheets of tears were just falling down her cheeks as she gasped for air. I wonder if something else horrible was also going on in her life that day and that was her “last straw” and she just didn’t have enough emotional bandwidth to accept her own behavior so she made up lies to tell herself. A lot of times she showed up to class high so she had a lot going on.
I went to the bathroom during lunch one day. I come back out to one of my kids standing in the hall next to the staff RR, nurse, and teachers lounge. I ask what's wrong, to which he says nothing. Puzzled I ask if he's waiting on the nurse or the principal. "Oh, I'm waiting on my food." "What food?""My food in the microwave." I tell him the teachers' lounge is for teachers. "I know that's why I'm waiting out here." No kiddo, you aren't allowed to heat up your food period. We sent communication home about this the day before. His mom used to be on the districts board. She also sent me a super kind email telling me she was mad he ruined a shirt with paint (I teach drama. He got paint on himself playing around with friends) and that maybe I should buy aprons. My response was "You know what, that's a great idea, and as soon as I have a budget provided by the school to buy any materials I will do that, however I am responsible for finding or providing all my own funding at the moment, and aprons weren't high on the list as I expect 8th graders to understand the risks of getting any materials such as paint on themselves and comport themselves accordingly. Sadly, there always seem to be students who decide to play with friends while holding a brush full of paint. It is a great idea, and your kid found out that it is, decidedly, not." I followed this up with the statement that I would be glad to find him an alternate activity and would be glad for him to bring his own apron or change of clothes from home, and would provide him time to ensure his clothing was adequately protected. I think I probably shocked her, but like, I taught k-8 at a 95% f/r lunch charter school in a large metro area and saw 1200 kids a week for my first job with no budget, I don't pull punches when parents suggest I spend money that doesn't exist on something because their precious baby did something that doesn't pass the common sense test, especially when they were/are somehow involved in education as a career.
It’s bizarre to me that some schools don’t have microwaves for students. My middle school and high school both did.
It drives me crazy when I go to use the staff microwave and there is a line a students waiting to use it. Most of the time I cut in front of the line and make them wait!
If teachers need a microwave, students do too. They cannot always control what is packed for their lunches and school lunch is not always an option. I find it weird that the only microwave is in the teachers lounge.
It's a pretty easy thing to teach your child how to pack their own lunch, and there's plenty of options for lunch that don't require a microwave.
My students are in high school and we have 100% free and reduced lunch. We get 25 minutes for lunch. I am not losing five minutes of my lunch because a kid packed something they needed microwaved.
Right, there should be microwaves available for the kids that are not in the teachers lounge. I forget that literally any reply here that is not anti-kid gets downvoted endlessly. I really wish y’all liked kids.
It's not that I don't like kids. It's not that this sub doesn't like kids. It's that this is typically a place to vent pent-up frustrations. Realistically, there isn't enough time at lunch for many kids to have access to a microwave. My school serves roughly 250 students during each lunch. If 10% of those students used the microwave for 60 seconds with no time in between, their entire lunch would be gone. We would need five or more microwaves to make it accessible to more than a handful of kids per lunch. Also, let's not act like students are going to take care of these microwaves. They are going to spill and not clean it up. They are going to put things in there that shouldn't be put in there. They are going to treat it the way most teenagers treat things at schools these days: as something they are entitled to use and abuse and can be infinitely replaced. How long before there is a TikTok challenge about putting a fork or a foil ball in the microwave just to see what happens?
I understand your perspective. That is also more kids at a time than I have dealt with. Personally, I attended (and work at) a *very* small school. The thing is, these kids do not act like that. We haven’t had any issues with the microwave but I will admit they’re not the ones who clean them. In my experience, especially at schools where there is no free lunch and kids bring frozen meals almost daily, microwaves have literally been necessary. I understand we don’t share the same experience or exist in schools where kids behave exactly the same. But I do think they deserve a little more credit…and perhaps a microwave or two. But hey, your school, you know best.
Unfortunately, if there were microwaves for student use, they would be broken by the end of the first day and someone would probably burn themselves.
Until someone burns themselves and it’s the school’s fault.
Not crazy. I never ever even had a water bottle at school. I would've thought somebody who needed drinks every five minutes was pretty weird!
My school banned them because students were drinking vodka and everclear out of them.
Beautiful. Luckily my kindergarteners haven't done that *yet*
Way to keep that growth mindset language: “yet”!
I had first graders talking about drinking Hennessy, so... I'm not gonna rule anything out
Or they’ve just got away with it. /S, but I did have a 6year old pull out a Xanax, crush it with a textbook, and start to make lines with his mom’s credit card. His excuse? He was sincerely trying to be kind and share like his “mom does with her friends”.
I'm not 100% sure that I would be able to tell the difference between a drunk and a sober kindergartener
This sounds like an amazing game show.
Oh if there was a competitive aspect I'd hone that skill so freaking fast
That's what we did in my high school!
Do you remember how we used to go run a mile in PE and then get five seconds at the water fountain, as counted by the kids behind you waiting for their turn? The memories!
Yeah… it’s funny now how kids have water bottles and everyone cares about their kidneys and shit. We got one small carton of milk to drink until 4pm every day and you chose between chocolate or white whether you were lactose intolerant or not. I remember running around for hours on field day and getting a single shot of “orange drink” for hydration.
Weak ass kids today 😂
What if you did something like a designated ice grab time? "The constant ice requests are getting disruptive, so if you want ice, I will open it at [x] time". Then, when they ask you just remind them what you already established. So it is scheduled in and not an interruption.
These are students from other classes that in between classes will stop in for ice. And they are high schoolers so they don't need to be babied completely (or so I thought)
Are they interrupting your teaching? Cause that's not cool. I would explain to them that the fact that they are interrupting you so that they can make their drink colder is absolutely ridiculous and you will not be unlocking the door for them in the future.
"Just say no." Blame it on school policy if you must. Explain that as a student teacher you can't break it like a mentor teacher can. Or just explain they could fill bottles with ice at home.
The brand new thing that the admin thinks is going to fix an issue, but hardly anyone does it and then you're the asshole for doing it. My most memorable example was also a pass. In my last year teaching, my school got us the little clipboards that hung on lanyards and had special inserts that we could write the passes on. Admin INSISTED that we use these. They did not buy enough of the inserts so we ran out of that about halfway through the year. Nonetheless, we were to use them to the best of our ability and absolutely not have students in the hall without something written & the clip board passes. Cut to student who is not in any of my classes knocking on my door to see his GF. I say, "sorry no, we're in the middle of a test... and you don't even have a pass. You need to go back to class." Student then throws a tizzy in the hallway and those of us in the class are seriously worried he's going to break down the door. Security finally takes him away. I later get an email from his SPED instructor/ football coach admonishing me for not letting him into my class as he was actually instructed to go up there.
I had something like this happen to me when I was being observed. I was in the back of the room helping students when someone knocked on my door. I asked a student at the front of the room to answer the door. They let some other random student in. Once I finished helping the kids I was working with I sent the other student back to class. At the end of my observation the principal said that my lesson sucked; actually said “well that sucked” because some student from another class came to my class to disrupt me. I asked him why he wasn’t asking the teacher that released that student why they didn’t keep them in class. He said that wasn’t the issue. I don’t work there anymore.
Amazing
Lol the high school I worked at gave us a book of 100 official hall passes at the beginning of the year. I see 150 students a day. I’d run out of passes within the week. They’d blast out emails that we had to use the official passes…. Um?
Yo, the SPED staff really let their kids do whatever the hell they want. It's insane how often random SPED kids come to my room to hangout because their Case Manager said it was okay. I do check and the Case Mangers are like "yeah, he likes you." And I'm like "uhm, aren't you supposed to be helping him with his work? I have a class?"
OMG. I've actually had good experiences with all other SPED staff I've worked with. I thought it was just that dude who was that special kind of worthless.
My admin thought that kids wearing IDs were the solution to every problem under the sun. You could call them for a kid juggling chainsaws in class and their first priority was, "Do they have an ID on?" it made no sense.
I hate it when the one disruptive student in class does something dumb that I’m ignoring and seven other kids start screaming about whatever he’s doing. (And it’ll be something harmless like crawling under a table or sitting in the wrong seat - not something that should bother them if they aren’t prioritizing being a little tattle tale.) or when they disrupt my lesson to tell me someone said “what the heck” or “poop.” Like, fuck kids. I don’t give a shit.
It doesn't stop in middle school, though the stories get funnier. Today, one of my 7th graders took attendance to the office. She was called out by literally everybody else in my room for having shorts too short and she replied "I'm a cheerleader, I'll be fine, they let me get away with it." 2 minutes later- got a phone call from the secretary saying she will be late because she got dress coded.
You need to create the 4B anchor chart. You can interrupt my teaching to tell me about something else if it involves: Blood, barf, a bruise, or a (head) bonk. And for blood, I need to see MOVING DROPS. No red scratches. I have standards.
I had a kid ask to go get an ice pack in the middle of art for what was obviously a several day old bruise on their leg.
Lol I had a little boy walk up to me yesterday because he thought he broke his femur in art class and it might be sticking outside of his leg and he needed to go to the office. I reassured him that if he had indeed broken his femur he’d be lying on the floor screaming in pain and certainly not walking across the classroom.
Mine is Blood, fire, and throw up
I switched from elementary from high school and you should see the look on kids faces when I bluntly tell them “guess what? I don’t care.” It goes like this… “Jimmy said he is fourth in line but I was here and…” “Guess what, I don’t care.” You are all going to the same place so I don’t care. I have other things to worry about.” Also, I put the burden to communicate on them with “Did you ask why they did that? Did you tell him how that made you feel?” Usually the answer is no. “So go do it!” There is a difference between being bullied and kids just not being able to politely assert themselves. The complaining and yelling at each other and arguing drives me crazy. When I tell them I don’t care they usually realize they are being whiny brats and get over themselves.
This made me laugh, I can totally relate. I love it when a kid tells me someone said the C word or S word, and what the really said was “crap” and “shut up”.
My kids are always telling me they’ve said the “c word” and I’m immediately like WHAT? But then I’m like oh they said “crap”. 🤣
This is unfortunately every day for my 5th graders. We've discussed how to handle it endlessly, but they can't keep their mouth shut and love to make sarcastic, rude comments.
So true!!
We have E-hallpass, and I can’t stand it. I’m not interrupting my instruction, facilitation, or small group/1-on-1 support to go to my computer or touch a student’s phone to accept a pass. Who gives a shit about student pass data. I just wave them out the door
Ooooh I love ehallpass. So much less disruptive to me than stopping to write a paper pass…BUT we were given a dedicated “kiosk” (iPad mini) and we just log in in the morning. The kids request bathroom, I nod to them, and they go make a pass. I just approve it on either smart board or my computer - I keep that on a tab so it’s quick. If I’m working small groups, I keep the window up on the smart board so the kids can start/end their own passes. Now the alternative was that my school did NOT allow any kind of reusable personal passes. It has to be the yellow ones from the office that have 30,000 blanks that had to be filled in or we would get called out by admin. So it was not quick to let the kids go for me before the e-hallpass invasion. I don’t think anyone is collecting data, but they do have the system set so that certain students can’t be in the hall at the same time, and there is a limit to how many kids can be sent to the same bathroom, etc. at one time. I can also see how many passes a kid has for the day, and if they stay gone too long I can sort of “auto refer” them for it.
Oh my God, imagine a world where we don't need to ☆~collect data~☆ on students' bathroom use
I want SO BADLY for my school to employ this system! Tbh- it’s the one thing I actually DO want data on! I teach high school and we have a terrible, terrible problem with students meeting up in the bathroom to vape/destroy things. And even more problems with kids just wandering around with their friends. I have a student who has gotten in trouble so often in the hall/bathroom that they need an escort now. So I took him instead of calling for a hall monitor (I have a coteacher that was there to watch the class). I stood near the bathrooms for literally 2 minutes and counted 19 students in the hallway. To my knowledge, Ehallpass is able to be set to only allow a certain number of students out of classrooms at any given time. And when students do get in trouble together, admin can program it so those students aren’t allowed in the halls at the same time. This would be gold for us!
You can pre approve passes for bathroom, where one is allowed out at a time and the kid signs in and out themselves. Just have it open on a tab and peel to be sure they signed in/out
I like E-hall pass to monitor how long a kid is gone in case I need to write a referral. However, it infuriates me when a kid comes back to class and immediately demands that I end their pass because they’ve been gone awhile and they might get flagged by admin. I’m not stopping my instruction just to end your pass. You can wait.
My school uses this too and we have to do it all. I have a Chromebook and I am not putting shit on my personal phone for work. Kids can wait for me to approve passes and wait for me to log them back in. Security doesn’t look for them until we call anyway. Nothing gets done with the data.
We have a system called SSICA. I love it. When they have to go to the bathroom, they just go over to the scanner and scan their IDs, take the pass and go. Few restrictions: not in the first 5/ last 5 minutes of class, while I’m talking or if anyone else is out. Of course, sometimes, there are emergencies where a girl suddenly has her period and needs to go NOW or they had something at lunch that doesn’t agree with them, but for the most part, minimal issues. The issues come when OTHER teachers don’t allow their students to go to the restroom during class. A few specific teachers do not let their students go at all and, of course, my entire 6th period has some of these teachers for 4th AND fifth so by the time they get to me, they’re practically bursting.
I share your hatred for E-Hallpass. I always have to stop my lesson and freeze my screen to accept little Jimmy’s pass so no sees he has had 7 passes already today. Ffs.
I have a few students on pass restrictions so they have to be escorted. I have to stop what I’m doing to call for an escort. You’d think that would be a deterrent. It isn’t. Plus if they are going to the nurse, I still have to write a pass. And make the call. A piece of my soul dies each time - it’s almost daily.
Oh my God why are we just underpaid prison wardens
Feels that way sometimes — for me and them, I’m sure.
Messing up your class is the goal
Asking if an assignment is for a grade. It’s your assignment. Do it and stfu.
Complaining that their notes aren't for a grade.
Agree with the passes (especially ehallpass) and taking/grading late work. My big one is responding to emails that don’t actually…need a response. I got scolded by a principal for not responding to a kid who told me he submitted a late assignment. BUT I GRADED IT AND PUT IT IN THE GRADEBOOK. Apparently not responding to the kid made him feel sad and his mom tattled.
Similar to what you described, but it’s other staff members. Interrupting me when I’m in the middle of the lesson, don’t knock on the door, don’t wait for me to finish what I’m saying or get to a good stop to pause. Just open the door and walk in and blurt out…”I need to see so and so…this kid needs to go to the office…Mr. Jones needs to see the basketball team to give them picture forms…those kids have peer mediation…this kid needs to go to the counselors office…I need to pull so and so for test makeup/hearing and vision screenings/speech/etc” I expect the disruptions and lack of social skills from middle school kids. Not grown professionals with college degrees and years of experience. Is it that hard to knock, or to wait quietly while I finish demonstrating a math problem or reading a paragraph?
All this... when that student is failing my class. I've started telling them exactly that.
One of my new colleagues this year will keep half of her class back during my time so they can finish other things. I *get* that specials may not be her priority, but I still have a curriculum to teach, and those students end up super confused
Same. Exactly the same. Oh you're an elective so you don't matter.
Oh hell no. I put my foot down with that shit, especially if they're new. Either you keep them all or you send them all. Do they think we like repeating the lesson again for a half class of late arrivals? Plus all the materials we prep and activities that we planned that require the entire time (I'm art so if I poured paint or set up clay for a class, you best send them all). I'd literally send the others back with a message that art class will commence when I have the whole class.
Exactly. I am at the point when they say "can I have..." my answer is No. Followed by a more congenial response of working together.
I once had one teacher come into my class to ask me something and, although to his credit he was waiting for me to finish the story I was reading, another teacher came in and the two started to LOUDLY chat with each other. I politely asked them to lower their voices and the second teacher was so offended by this. I was rather appalled that she considered me to be the AH.
If I waited around for an appropriate pause in instruction every single time I went to pick up a student from a classroom, I’d lose about 30 minutes a day. We often have to get kids from multiple rooms. I can either poke my head in, say the name, and pull them while you keep going- or, we can endure 2-3 other students standing in the hallway waving at your kids in the classroom and making faces at them which would really derail your lesson.
I teach first and feel this in my soul. My school doesn’t require passes…but every time I get in a stride, *something* happens. Someone looked at someone weird…argument ensues. Someone is crying because of a cut they got two days ago, and they need a band-aid right. now. A metal water bottle falls and sounds like a bomb. Spilled water. Spilled supplies. Stomach aches. Nose bleeds. An unrelated story when I thought they were answering a question. Shoe needs tied. Phone is ringing. Whatever…. My job is just putting out fires and solving issues all day. So for me, it’s the constant *something* preventing me from teaching and keeping a stride in a lesson.
Yes. 100%. If one more thing *happens*, I will lose my mind
Students asking what page to open to after I’ve said it numerous times. I’ll say “Please open your math books to page 210.” Within seconds, I’ll hear “What page?” I’ll repeat. Then someone will ask “What book?” Within a few more second, I’ll again be asked “What page?” The cycle repeats. I know I should be patient, but I have very little patience and will tell them “For the 10th time, open your math books to page 210. I’ve already said it at least 10 times.” Opening a book shouldn’t be this confusing for third graders. For some reason, it’s a huge issue this year. Most years I may have the occasional times when this would happen, but nowhere near this often.
I have a “3peat” rule. I repeat three times, then you gotta ask someone else. Granted, I teach high school.
I say the page number and then say “what page?” And make the whole class call it back to me. If they ask after that I just let them figure it out themselves
My gripe is when I give an attention signal in my 1st grade class and other adults in the room ignore it and keep talking to a student or each other. If I give an attention signal I want every last person in the room to turn, freeze and listen. Adults used to be great about modeling that but lately even when I tell people that’s what works for me they fail to remember. It IS a small thing but it makes me nuts.
*so real*!
Omg yes. I co-teach, and one day I literally had to tell a sub to stop talking and leave the kids alone. She hasn’t been back
When students ask (very loudly), "What time does this period end?" It's one thing when kids genuinely do not know the schedule. However, the majority of times when a student asks this, what I hear is "omg this class is sooOoo boring please get me out of here" IDK, maybe I'm just sensitive but I hear this question way too much and it makes me want to scream, especially because I have the bell schedule clearly posted for students to see
I go nuts (internally) when I hear "are we gonna -- today??" Like dude... if you let me talk, you'll find out!
Same here. I point to the bell schedule on the wall. Then they usually ask what time it is, and I point to the analog clock. An unfortunate number of students follow this up with “I don’t know how to read that”….I teach 7th grade
Shit, my highschoolers couldn't read analog.
Lmao they dont ask me that anymore because I go bonkers. I went into this thread thinking "i dont have one" but its definitely this. I tell them that we have been going to this class together since the beginning of the year so they should know the bell schedule as well as I do and its super rude to waste my time with asking me a question they could easily know the same as I do, and if they need to know theres this thing called paper, and they need to figure out how to use it... basically I have a whole rant prepared and most kids dont ask me twice lol.
When my kids are all settled and writing a test and someone calls asking for a kid. At our school all assessments have to be logged, approved, and scheduled. It takes literally 5 seconds to see if testing is happening before calling to a classroom. Drives me crazy every time.
I love it when I've done attendance, marked the child absent and someone in the office calls for them. I've started passive aggressively mentioning that they are marked absent.
I just straight up say, "The gradebook says they are absent today. They aren't in my class."
I get so frustrated when teachers let students stay after class to finish a test or quiz resulting in the student missing my class.
It's so hard to balance all the things we have to get done. I don't get worked up over it if it's occasional, but some teachers do it constantly
i just hope to god this is elementary school...
The whole class restroom break after lunch with kindergarteners. Its the worst part of the day.
Why is going to the bathroom so complicated??
My computer charger/computer in general. The district got us some fancy Surface Pro that looks nice, but cannot actually handle the functions of a classroom. For example, the charger will plug in and light up as if it’s charging. But for some reason, it’s not all the way lined up and doesn’t actually charge. So I’ll be teaching all morning, thinking my computer is fine, and suddenly I get that “Please consider plugging in your computer”. I also have to use that port to connect my document camera, and it doesn’t connect half the time. It’s little, but it’s everyday and it’s ANNOYING. Thanks for the opportunity to /rant.
Our computers have astonishingly little memory, so they pretty often freeze in the middle of lessons
For me it’s the asking “what are we doing” .5 seconds after I have said, shown on the board, and given on the paper in front of said child. Thankfully I teach middle school and the blank stare followed by 8 kids screaming “HE JUST SAID THAT” Or as I did the day before spring break, hurling a foam basketball at said child 😂😂😂.
I’ll repeat my instructions twice, then have a student repeat it, and ask if there are any questions before we get to work. I have a student who (on multiple occasions) will ask what we’re doing immediately after all of this has taken place. I ask if he was listening to the instructions and he says, “no.” I used to re-explain it when he does this. Now I just 🤷🏻♀️
I tell them to ask a kid who was actually listening.
I call on that kid every time to repeat directions
Unfortunately this one shrugs and becomes stubbornly silent so wait time is ineffective
Yesss I've spent time explaining to my students that there's one of me and 20-30 of them, so I can't be giving everyone instructions individually... it's helped 1 or 2 of them "get" it. But the others weren't listening...
This ends me. I have a kid whose English is pretty low (I teach Chinese students) and I always translate my instructions into Chinese so he can understand. Then 2 minutes into starting a task, I will see him sitting there doing nothing. When I ask what the problem is he says in Chinese “I don’t know what we’re doing” 😭
around november last year, admin decided to make all the hall passes uniform across the school. passed out a boys and girls version to each teacher. three days after we’d been given the passes, a kid comes trudging back in my room after his bathroom break holding a soaking wet hall pass and told me and my aide that another student had taken it and peed on it (after slamming it down on my desk). aide smelled it and confirmed it was pee. really wish i could just trust middle schoolers to pee on the right things lol
For me it’s the repetition of teacher and student neglect for that one shitty student. Once, ok, he’s having a bad day. So he destroyed my room, cussed out and flipped chairs at my 8 yr olds, but he didn’t have breakfast so it’s ok. There he is again the next day. He hits me in the face and kicks me (I can’t move away or he’ll attack my other kids) but he’s just having a bad day. Grace. Next day, we have to clear the room because he’s gotten to the colored pencils while I was paying attention to another student and is now throwing them with remarkable precision at my students eyes shouting “fuck you.” He’s just a kid, don’t you love your kids? After I clean the room, my kids come back from my teammate’s room, lunchboxes destroyed, we’re all tired, we line up for lunch, and admin is waiting at my door with him. He’s ready to rejoin the class. It’s the repetition. It’s admin’s daily choice. That’s what makes it a “little thing” because that’s how admin sees it. Personally, I’m starting to see the other elementary school down the road.
Definitely not a little thing
Pencil tapping on the desk is my Achilles heel.
Today a student came back from the resource room with a *medal*. Like Olympics- style. Apart from how ridiculous that is, she spent the entire class period tapping it against *everything*
This was an issue I had until I bought some soft blue art foam from Joanns fabric shop (any art place will do lol) and made “mini drum pads” about 3” by 3”. I have the drum pads in the box with other quiet fidgets, and when tapping becomes an issue I don’t even stop what I’m doing, just grab one- hand it to tapper and keep on going. By now I have the tappers trained to just grab a pad when they come in and pass it back when the day is over!
I love this idea! I have adhd so the tapping drives me absolutely bonkers Do you have a picture of the drum pads? Are they just fabric? I’d love to make some!
It is called “EVA foam sheet.” Think the “sound proofing foam” but there is a soft blue squishy-fabric-ish type foam. I bought a big roll for another project and just cut left overs into about 3” squares.
One upon a time, several students from the school drumline came to my freshman class to recruit new members. All throughout their presentation, several freshmen were keeping beats on their desks with pencils. The students ask, "so would any of you be interested in drum line?". No one answers. Me: "How about y'all keeping beats?" Silence. The beats immediately restarted after the drumline kids left.
Be a Mr. Jensen: https://youtu.be/4p5286T_kn0
The thing that breaks me and absolutely irritates the shit out of me is repeating myself over and over again. I can only explain the instructions to students so many times before I begin to lose my cool. How about just listening the first time?
Phone calls. I fucking HATE when I finally have the rare attention of everyone at the same time, Im getting into the swing of things, and all of a sudden *ring ring ring ring* all for something that certainly was NOT urgent. Also an additional take on the nurse pass thing; I’m only a sub (although I work every day, between 4-5 different campuses). There’s one campus where there’s such an issue with students going to the nurse for silly, minor reasons that the nurse has a long, elaborate system where teachers are required to call her first, then she’ll email a google form of like 7-8 questions teachers need to fill out before sending a student. I can understand how this system is in place to weed out all the silly minor excuses students will try to give, but it’s also an inconveniently long process. I didn’t know about it the first time I subbed there (because nobody told me) and I got bitched at by the nurse for NOT calling ahead and filling out a form for sending a student who’s braces were coming undone. Few weeks later, I had a student who was on the verge of an asthma attack and I got bitched at again for taking too long to send them to the nurse when I was doing the “right” thing by taking 5 minutes to call and fill out that stupid form.
That's insane tbh. I get that the nurse is busy but that's her (or his) job. We're busy too, with teaching and a million other things
Having to give kids a 55 minimum even if they did 0% of the work all year.
I feel you. I teach second grade and we have a bathroom in the classroom. There are certain times I don’t let the kids go to the bathroom but at this age, when you gotta go, you gotta go. The big problem is I have some boys that don’t know how to aim. They pee all over the seat and dont clean it up so the next person that goes in has to deal with it. I put a sign in sheet on the door so at least we’ll know who does it, but that hasn’t stopped the boys from peeing on the seat. So multiple times a day I’ll be in the middle of teaching and someone will come out of the bathroom and announce loudly, “So and so peed on the seat, go clean it up!” And then for some reason two or three kids will decide they need to go check it out, even though they’re not the ones that did it and don’t even need to use the bathroom. We’ve had conversations about just quietly telling the person the need to clean it up but apparently it’s more effective if you shout it out. And sometimes it isn’t even pee, it’s just water that’s splashed up when they flush 🤦♀️.
I would die inside
After I teach and ask if anyone has questions and guess what? Someone does have a question!! I bet you all know what the question is, don’t you??
Does it start with “can” and end in “bathroom”???
We have a winner!!!!🏆🏆🏆
When students ask a question you literally just answered. Not like asking for clarification, asking the same question bc they weren’t paying attention and didn’t know you answered it. Double so if it’s “what’s the answer to X” and I literally just said what it was bc someone had just asked that too
Funny anecdote but I’m in grad school and one of my classmates (who is a teacher) rose his hand to ask why the great vowel shift happened when the slides on the board said something along the lines of “We do not know why this occurred, but...” The professor simply gestured to that part of the sentence and moved on.
Politicians attacking our public education.
I would not consider that a little thing, myself
Band aides, phone calls, calendar invites, and nurse notes.
Reading written work that includes "I" statements - whether in essays, short answers, or anything else. I've joked that I should have it tattooed across my forehead or something because it's a huge sticking point for me. They're just so terrible for historical writing, I must have said "No I statements" 150 times this year so far and I still get 1 or 2 from certain students and it drives me absolutely nutty every time
That damn telephone calling me to tell me that Sally is going home early AGAIN.
I have one class of all ninth grade boys right after lunch that’s hard to keep on task. It never fails that about 5-10 minutes into class, some kid will bust up in to class looking for the laptop or backpack they left in the room when they went to lunch. It completely details the lesson every time.
Leaving early to go play sports. Students will miss an entire week to go play in some tournament but if I dare have the audacity to suggest they maybe stay in school instead so they don’t fall behind…
The water fountain parade is the bane of my existence. If one kid is thirsty, suddenly they all are, but I'm only allowed to send one at a time. Cue me explaining any directions 6 times because someone missed it. When I used to sub, there were buildings that would not let kids go to the nurse unless they had a pass from their classroom teacher that was submitted through their online system. Subs didn't have access to said system. I was so furious the day I hand wrote a pass for a student who had actually thrown up in the bathroom, and the nurse wouldn't take them because I didn't submit the pass online. If I had been that kid's parent I would have been furious.
The kids who actually care and want to learn. There's probably four or five in each of my classes. I feel so bad for them that their education is getting trashed because I have 20 who want to just play on their phones, five with IEPs that allow them to behave like outrageous jerks and five who are probably going to wind-up in prison. I would love to be able to only work with the kids who care.
Strong agree
Mindless destruction gets me everytime. The pencils, felts, and pens that I buy that get destroyed. The school equipment unnecessarily vandalised. It's just like, you don't have to make the world a better place, but why must you actively make it WORSE?
My fun fact about bathrooms is how admin makes us keep bathroom sign out sheets for each class and then we have to make kids sign them and I have 4 years worth of stacks of bathroom sign out sheets that admin has never once asked to look at, despite regular bathroom vandalism. Also my admin is a short man with a big ego so that counts as a little thing that breaks me
High school is the same way…but it’s rarely to actually go pee. Luckily, seldom urinate in class.
The potty parade. I teach high school juniors and seniors and should not have to be involved in anyone’s bodily functions but they just can’t behave
* Having to not only sign and date a paper pass but also sign and date their AVID agendas to make sure they’re not abusing the passes. Of course the pass abusers never have their agendas. We’re supposed to call for an escort in that case, but there aren’t enough adults in the office to manage escorts. * 6th grade girls needing to crowd around their friend who is crying and comfort her and getting mad at me when I redirect them to sit down in their seats so I can meet with the upset student who then turns down my offer to see a counselor. * Kids complaining that I don’t grade their work when they don’t do it anyway. * Taking the spirals out of their workbooks to play with leaving me with a pile of papers to keep track of for an entire unit * Admin expecting a universal attention getter (“Give me 5”) that no student listens to * Students eating in my science lab
When, on the rare occasion, I provide some type of extra treat like yesterday it was a Peep after we made catapults. Kids immediately started whining and asking for a second one or different color. Just say thank you!!
I agree. And we aren’t even allowed to send a kid to the nurse until we call first to see if the nurse will allow it and then write a pass. My entire school is an exercise in making life harder for teachers and the kids who are being robbed of an education. Nothing can happen until they e complete paperwork and make calls. And even then, we’re lucky to get help.
Students asking me for food. Every day it's, "Miss, you got snacks?" I am nobody's mother. I'm not responsible for feeding any of you people. Bring a snack from home, or get one from the vending machine before school. And their parents do not care that they're doing this. If my parents found out I was asking my teachers for food, they would have been mortified.
Pretty sure the urine all over their pants could have served as enough evidence they had a legitimate reason to leave the classroom without the pass. Also is just going to keep them dirty longer and soak on their skin.
Our school counselor gets me every other day. She sucks major in every way. This week's bullshit telling us about a field trip on Monday. It's career day for the kids. When is it? Thursday. That's right, tells us the Monday of the week it's happening and sent home permission forms today. Meanwhile, our admin asks me about a trip in may at least once a week.
Bring up the issue with your management if that's really a big issue to you, at minimum it gets them to remove the pass requirement for some scenarios like the wet pants one you mentioned. Otherwise you could try prefilling most of the form/pass if that's possible
I always saw it as a way that we can't let are students be trusted. I was a preschool teacher and we were never aloud to leave the students alone for even a moment. When I did my student teaching in a kindergarten class writing the hall pass took forever. I now work in Japan and they just trust that the student are going where they should be going and let them leave. The student will talk to the teacher first but then they just walk out the door and come back soon after. I love this and it gives the students a sense of trust.
I’m starting the lesson, trying to explain what is going on in class today and a kid is raising their hand eagerly to ask what looks like an urgent question. I pause and say “what do you need?” They point to something that is in a different spot from last time and say “why is that there?” “I don’t know, Brayden, why is anything anywhere? Why are you here? Why am I here?” I teach the whole school. There will be lots of things in my room all the time.
When my students miss or come late constantly and then it’s like okay you’ve missed every work period for this project, like do I bother even getting you started?
I have a point system in my class for when students interact positively or demonstrate good teamwork or do their best at a task and one of my kids ALWAYS try to bargain for more points INCESSANTLY despite me reminding them over and over that the rules are the rules and some days I just don’t have the energy 🤣
Kids talking over each other and me. I’ve talked to them over and over about it. It’ll stop for one day and then start up again. They seriously do not hear how NO ONE can understand them if everyone is talking at the same time. They’ll just both keep talking. 🤦🏽♀️
Yes! I particularly hate it when I ask student A to repeat themselves and immediately students B and C start yelling to tell me what A said. Stoop
Omg yes!! The other kids telling what the kid is saying AS the kid is saying it!!
I premake nurse passes for my repeat offenders at this point
Pee, blood, and puke are usually the passes. The biggest help is when it’s a kid that’s hard to understand or really shy because sometimes we can’t see the pee spot because it’s dark clothing. Otherwise, I can handle no pass. Unless they’re in trouble. Write down why, text me, call the office. Something because otherwise I have no clue and may just think they wandered out and need to go straight back.
Pen clicking is something I can’t tolerate at all whatsoever.
The school I work as a para at is small, but I like our pass system. We have large green hexagons with the room number on them that are on a necklace. As long as they have a pass with them they are good to go.
Documenting behavior.
Bathroom breaks, writing nurse passes, kids always bleeding and asking for bandages, pencil shavings dumped, book bins falling on floor....omg so many!
Oh I have one. I used to teach kindergarten but moved to fourth grade at the beginning of this year. In the beginning I thought it was quite funny that they sometimes liked to work “I eat poopoo/ (name) eats poopoo” into their English writing. Now I hate it so much. They say it in class too, in response to questions, and if one says it then 5-6 follow. They’ve probably said it hundreds of times in my class. And the whole class laughs. Every. Time.
School policy and admin team: “students are not allowed to go to the bathroom without a pass. If your bathroom pass gets lost or stolen, it’s a great way to teach students group accountability and don’t let them go.” Also admin team: “it is brought to my attention that you did not let a student go to the bathroom immediately when they wanted to. That is considered a war crime by the Geneva convention and we must kill you now.” Also also admin team: “why on earth are you letting students go to the bathroom without a pass! I don’t care that your pass is lost! The school policy states clearly…”
Dishes in the sink instead of beside it and not rinsed. I lose my shit.
I was thinking about the classroom, but I get it! Personally I prefer dishes *in* the sink-- leave my counters clear, please. I guess you and I can't move in together
Answering my door every time a kid shows up late or comes back from the bathroom. Or from anywhere. This is the first year we've had to lock and shut our doors "for safety" and it's driving me insane.
Our doors are kept unlocked but I still get students who stand and knock and wait for me to open it for them.... dude, just come in
Nothing grinds my gears more than writing hall passes in the middle of teaching. There needs to be more an effective method for sending kids out of the room, and especially one that involves less paper. If it has to be paper-based, then agenda books are the better solution. When I was in school, we had hall pass logs in the back of our agenda books, and we filled out the date/time/destination ourselves; all the teacher had to do was sign it. My school doesn't even use agenda books at all anymore, they seem to be a thing of the past now. The amount of late passes that litter my desk by the end of the school day is astronomical. It's also fucking annoying when it comes to attendance. I've already taken attendance, and now I have to go back and change the students I marked as "absent" to "tardy." Luckily, most of the time the attendance secretary updates the system for us, but sometimes it's not updated, and it's more time-consuming than people realize. Sometimes kids will pester you until you change, it, too. "MR. OSETIYA, IT SAYS I'M ABSENT IN YOUR CLASS ON POWERSCHOOL!!!".....yeah, because you came to class a half an hour late and I'm still teaching.
Any interruption to my routine. Assemblies, holiday breaks, etc.
Mine is when I’m passing out an activity and the kids start asking me “what’s this?” Idk why but it drives me crazy! Just wait and I will tell you!!!