#how do you teach something to a teacher

[lexosaurus]

Hello! Very random and no worries if that's not your intention for the blog, but I love reading about your teacher experience and insights! Take this ask more so as encouragement to write more about it if you feel like it, because I'm going to start teaching soon (and yes, many people I've met have warned me about both its miracles and horrors lol) and it's really helpful to hear others' experiences :)

Thanks for the ask! Honestly I'm just a first year, so I don't have a tonnnn of advice to give. But here's a few general first year tips from one to a future another:

1 — No matter what, having a good department team is ESSENTIAL. You're going to be relying on them a lot your first year for help, advice, curriculum stuff, behavioral management stuff, etc. Talk to them, get to know them, have lunch with them, share issues/seek advice from them. You're going to encounter situations that your degree did not prepare you for (likely, in the first week lol. For me, it was Day 1) and having people around to help you judgement free is going to be crucial. I was super lucky that my department team and all the teachers from other departments that I work closely with are really amazing, easy to work with, etc.

2 — You're also going to want a good relationship with the "other" departments. The library staff, tech staff, sped department, guidance, janitors, etc. They're all lovely people, so don't be afraid to pop in to introduce yourself on the first week!

3 — Crazy things are going to happen. Like....all the time. Don't bring them home with you. As soon as you exit the doors, shake it off. All your students made it on the bus to their parents alive, so it's fine. Your job is done for the day. I've been going to the gym a lot right from school, and it's been really helpful to prevent myself from taking anything home with me so to speak.

4 — Document, document, document. Did something happen? Document it, email a copy to whoever's applicable: admin, guidance, sped, BCBA, etc. "Hello, just emailing a summary of what happened today" is not an uncommon email for me to send out. If an IEP isn't working, well at the next IEP meeting it shows they have 10 emails in the last month from you about little Timmy's hourly verbal threats and attempted physical violence to his classmates, so maybe the BCBA needs to do some data collection to adjust his BIP, or they need to give him a 1-1, or give him more resource intervention, etc.

5 — This isn't so much of advice, more like reassurance. The small moments when it clicks for a student and they get something, and then the confidence and excitement shows, it's really the best. That's probably why I've fallen so in love with working where I did. The other day, after weeks of struggling to help this student with Downs with his math, I tried a totally different approach based off a few example problems I saw in a math intervention workbook and hOLY HELL IT WORKED. It totally clicked for him, and the kid was so excited to do a problem out on the board for the class. It was amazing. Another student with an LD who I've been helping heavily school aced a quiz in one of her classes and legit ran into the room to show me. Cue me literally jumping out of my chair to high-five her, and her calling her parents to deliver the good news. Like, little things like that are really really special, and they're going to mean so much to you. And I hope you get to experience LOTS of them too!

#ask #not dp related #teaching #it's a great career but it can be stressful if you don't have other outlets #having lots of hobbies outside of school has helped prevent burnout significantly #i also do gig work in my other career outside of school #which has been another great outlet! #i have ppl i work with who i can see are reaching burnout now #and being in a place where you dread going to work every day is both not good for your mental health #and also isn't good for the kids you're working with #so preventing that is honestly key #i'd like to think that it's because i haven't been afraid to rely on those around me for help when i need it has been a huge factor #if something happened i have a few veteran teachers who have kinda taken the mentor role on me that i can go to #and when they need a judgement-free listening ear im open to be that person for them as well #i've also gotten to know some ppl in other departments pretty well #which is helpful when i'm struggling with a specific student #i can go to one of their other teachers and see how it's going in their classes #compare notes and whatnot

[itspileofgoodthings]

Well, I actually have the most mundane of questions, but it’s been so long since I’ve been in an English class that I feel like I’ve completely forgotten (and I’m curious how you do it): how do you go about reading a book as a class? Do you assign them the chapters to read at home and most of them actually do it? Or do you give them class time to read? Do you have the kids who try to spoil the rest of the book for the class? Basically, how does one teach a book in the year 2024?  😀

And do you have your students annotate inside their books? (I know the English teachers in my school require the students to do that, and I get why, but I inwardly shudder every time I see a student marking up a page.) 

Haha I love this question because I too am always asking myself how DOES one each a book in 2024?

It’s sort of a combination. I absolutely assign reading every night (almost) unless it’s Shakespeare or any play in which case we read it all in class. But for a novel there’s a couple chapters a night. I read aloud to them a lot too. Sometjmes I make them read aloud to the whole class, rotating kids who read. Sometimes I assign a chapter to be read in class silently with questions or quotes due at the end of the reading. Sometimes I put them in groups and make them read aloud to each other. There’s no one way that works for sure and of course ultimately I have no control over how much they read and I’m not naive enough to think that most of the reading assigned for homework doesn’t get skipped most of the time buuuuuut.

My bottom line is that I believe it’s my job to get excited about the actual text itself (easier for me in some cases than others but overall pretty easy because it does fill me with excitement) and then commit to taking them on the journey of the story with me. And my goal—that I’m sure I often don’t reach—is to make that experience so much more fun if you have actually read. And the way that I teach is pretty text heavy which is why I always make sure I’ve read the chapters for the day and am not just relying on my memory because the way I do it is just sort of absorbing it all up like a vacuum-cleaner, schwooooop, and then either pulling stuff out of the reading to look at directly or directing them to do the same thing. So the big thing that I have going for me, if any, is buy-in. Is getting kids excited about actually reading the actual text. I also speak often and passionately about the evils of sparknotes etc. not because they help kids get better grades or whatever but because they present you with the husk and shell of a story, stripped of all that makes it interesting, and that by reading that alone they’re reading something so dry and dull and are not achieving what I always want them to achieve —which is, have an Experience with the Literature.

Again, it never works perfectly by any stretch and there are so many ways I want to explore in my quest to get better at it but overall I think, at my very best, I can create this wave of energy and excitement in the story itself which is the most organic and ultimately most helpful way to get them to want to read.

Also no haha. I don’t let them annotate! Though occasionally kids DO of course. But sometimes they bring in their own copies in order to do that. The spoilers absolutely happen and are annoying but I sort of get by it by moving on very quickly and/or talking about how it’s often not the ending but how you get there that makes it interesting. Because that’s just true!

#gosh does this answer make sense #I am so passionate about doing it well and there are huge gaps in my teaching in terms of concrete stuff #but I am doing ….. Something in terms of bringing literature closer to them #and that’s what I want to do! #also love love love the bonus of getting to reread great works over and over until they start sinking into my brain #and I think (well I usually don’t think about it) but I think that the experience for them of watching me read it again #(and sometimes literally I won’t have time to read I need 10 minutes to finish this chapter and tell them to shut up) #(while I sit there and read it) #reminds them that I AM committed to doing the work with them. that I am actually doing it and that I want to! #and idk I think that is both a rarer experience and one that’s kind of underrated in terms of how much warmth it can create #because I have nothing in common with 16 year olds we couldn’t be friends in real life without it being very weird/possibly inappropriate #but in class we have a Thing to be friends about #we have a shared goal! and not just an arbitrary one but a deeply beautiful one #idk. there’s still a lot of boredom a lot of pushback a lot of disinterest #but I’m always amazed at how often kids do want to …. idk sink their teeth into something real #it’s REAL food for their minds. and the hunger for it is there even if they decide they’re too lazy to join the group #my goal is to —merely by the situation itself—make you feel left out of the fun if you refuse to do the work #so you can CHOOSE that but it’s less fun. it’s cold. it’s boring and it’s isolating #because refusing to do the work and insisting on being a little toad SHOULD come with natural social punishments in the form of exclusion #from the best kind of fun. it often does NOT. but yeah. I think I’m also getting better at shutting down toad behavior from adolescent male #this is where teaching co-Ed helps because there are some girls who are like ‘if you stop my learning I will kill you’ #not ENOUGH girls but some #ooooof this is a long answer but literally always on my mind #thank you for asking!!! also haha I assumed you were an English teacher yourself!

[lucyvsky]

love hate relationship. with sociology. this quarter. on one hadn sociology. the subject. very cool very interesting. enjoying. on the other hand. my teacher is on some bullshit sometimes

#while she is generally well intentioned. with placing emphasis on corporate influence to our consumption of products. she then goes and puts #the pressure on individual people to reduce carbon footprints. which you can and should do but i feel like she does not address the scale #at which these actions are meaningless in the face of larger corporations. while we should all aspire to be better. about our consumption #it is not the individuals fault. unless you are a billionare. in my opinionnnnnn. #also shes lowkey fatphobic. ive been trying to figure out if this is a result of phd in sociology. or consuming fatphobic documentaries. or #personal bias. regardless it is weird and off putting and it makes me uncomfortable.......... and she also . not fully blames but does blam #people for being fat. which like. please youre literally a sociologist teaching about social problems. i feel like you have other prioritie #also the afformentioned. bothsidsing it of israel's genocide. most likely a result . of how proud she is that she does not consume american #news coverage. ONLY BRITISH. i feel as though this may be worse. that she only gets news from the bbc. famously. supporters of israel. #she has not explicitly talked about palestine in class but she did mention it basically exactly the same way as that question did. earlier #this quarter. which is such a bullshit cop out for talking about genocide. #sorry for conducting a profile of beliefs of my sociology teacher shes just been on my mind. need to explode her or something

[tittyinfinity]

I don't think that kids should be exclusively homeschooled, but I also don't think that kids should be going to a building with hundreds of people 5 days a week during a pandemic. It's one of the main reasons why it keeps spreading so rapidly and won't go away. They don't take any preventative measures at schools anymore (at least not around here). You got kids? You're getting sick. Your coworker has kids? You're getting sick.

Schools are back to counting attendance. You can't even keep your kid home long enough to recover from covid before sending them back. They literally send a "truancy" (police) officer to your house if you keep them home too often.

I feel like we could be doing something better. I'm not entirely sure what the solution is. But this isn't it.

#.bdo #I tried homeschooling 3 kids at the beginning of the pandemic my ADHD is way too bad for that #this doesn't even touch on how I think the modern public school system needs to be abolished and rebuilt #the kids don't get enough breaks bullying isn't properly addressed the history they teach them is biased and/or outdated #attendance policies are ableist and classist and a fuck #PE shouldn't be something you're graded on and exercises should be given based on the individual child's abilities and needs #there should be more counselors and actual child psychologists in the building #school breakfast and lunches should always be free for every kid (thankfully they started doing that here in my town a year ago) #there should be different times of the day you can drop your kid off instead of one set starting time and one ending time #to work with different people's work and sleeping schedules #kids should not be required to be at school before 9 am but we have schools starting between 6:50am-7:20am now #my school years would have been 10000% easier if I could have started at 11am instead #kids need to be met at their level instead of forcing the same curriculum on everyone #MORE TEACHERS! More than one per classroom! Why are we making one person watch 30 kids at once! #this needs to be a whole separate post but I needed to get this rant out now

[cassmouse]

Getting an absolutely perfect two minutes of playing a piano piece on a recording and then fucking it up so royally that you have to scrap the whole recording

#fucking hate piano sometimes #all this work and what did it get me... #CLASSICAL TOO because I now have to formally apologise to chopin #(sorry chopin my dude) #(not my fault your style is so weird) #I mean how do you get the piece to MEAN SOMETHING when you keep fucking it uppp #and don't even get me started on emotional playing how the fuck do people manage that properly throughout #I cannot #am I just really emotionally immature or what #playing with emotion is hard as hell #and worse because that's not something someone can teach you yk?? #I got to a point in piano lessons where my teacher stopped giving me specific notes and just started like #telling me to play it with specific technique?? #or with more emotion?? #HOW?? #I'm kinda getting there lmao #considering I'm playing the piece chopin literally composed for his dead/dying wife it shouldn't be hard but it is lmao #cass thinks ab stuff

[atheocracy]

if i’ve learned anything this year, it’s that the true weakness of super-passionate dead poets society type literature teachers are not the apathetic kids that don’t care about literature, but the kids that bastardize literature, because those kids ARE very passionate about literature, but for none of the right reasons (in terms of being constructive to the class’ understanding of the material). there is no impassioned rant of memorized poetry that can possibly combat the honest to god bitchslap that is “rodion raskolnikov is the bisexual 1800s russian au version of scott pilgrim” or “vladimir and estragon are gay married but perpetually on the brink of divorce”

#literature #crime and punishment #waiting for godot #i’m also into literature for more boring reasons i just have had so much fun in class this year #while i usually would never bring this directly up in class myself i am always thrilled to join the discussion when it starts #shoutout to the girl in ap lit who has interpreted every piece we have covered exclusively as a gay love story and nothing else #my teacher is great and you can tell he’s very passionate and knowledgeable about what he teaches #but he’s just so bamboozled by the way things have gone it cracks me up #you know there’s something to be said about how even though it’s actually getting people into reading #the fandomification of classic literature can actually detract from understanding the thematic depth of the book and hurts critical thinkin #but on the flip side #these takes can be good and should be considered/discused seriously as long as they don’t overtake the core meaning of the material #esp when they can (and often do!) add to the thematic elements of the piece

[bare1ythere]

Doing some Japanese listening comprehension practice and can someone tell me how to not despair over the fact that very simple listening comprehension is still extremely challenging when I'm able to do listening comprehension in spanish with relative ease*

*ignore the fact that I studied spanish formally for 12 years, including AP, and hear it at home and that I've been only studying japanese for a year. not relevant

#shut up me #sweating with exertion clutching my pencil so hard its about to snap listening to someone say like “the watch costs 4500 yen :D” #I get it eventually but im so slow I have to repeat what they said to myself and by the time it clicks theyve moved on #and even then... i dont catch all of it #and i know thats okay. my spanish teacher always said that its fine if you cant understand all the words when listening/reading #just try your best to get the overall meaning #but sometimes I struggle to fully internalize that.. #I just worry Im missing something or doing something wrong since im entirely alone teaching myself here #(I know im behind on kanji but you must understand how scary kanji is)

[taxes-and-laundry]

College is great because every so often on a random Friday night a professor will pull some shit that leaves you fucking fuming at them

#he's a great guy it's a shame he cant teach #ive said that before about him and it was supposed to be an exaggeration #no he's literally the dumbest motherfucking professor alive. this is basic shit. basic consideration. #how do you fail this badly at something any elementary school teacher could've tild you #expect him to go missing in the next few days

[itspileofgoodthings]

slowly, slowly, slowly learning how to bridge the gap in my teaching between overexplaining and underexplaining so I hit that exact sweet spot of getting the kids to the place where they’re interacting with a text that is absolutely over their heads and out of their leagues but their excitement, generated by me but sustained by them, and the right amount of scaffolding and explanation lifts them up to be able to meet it, enjoy it, learn from it, be affected by it. 

#teaching tag #it is MAGIC when that happens #anyway i've been showing them macbeth this year instead of reading it because we don't have time to read it #and i've been severely in my head about the uselessness of it #and how it's not doing anything #but i had a good talk with another teacher about it and she was like 'no no! keep going!' #and then today we watched the malcolm and macduff scene and i could feel the room listening to the language #not quite understanding it but reaching out towards it #and it was SO. GOOD. #it helps that the guy who plays malcolm is young and cute #tbh i would never underestimate the importance of that #me choosing my shakespeare adaptations carefully so they get to look at someone young and beautiful enough for a period of time #anyway teaching has been just the absolute doldrums for a couple months now and this feels like a nice break and streak of light #like i just can't ever rule out the possibility that their hearts can be caught by something that we're reading #despite my common sense telling me not to put too much stock into their emotional reactions #because doing so would lead to my burnout and bitterness #because you can't force anyone to fall in love #but you can set the stage and clear the rubbish and lay the fire for lighting #and just wait for a spark to catch #anyway this tension between the orderliness and peace and box checking that i WANT to be a part of my room ..... #and the moment of a student just suddenly being illuminated. inspired. in love !!!!!!! #i love it. i love it a lot!

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

i want ike to be in three houses

for science

#DCB RD Run #y'all know what i'm talking abt if u follow me lmao #ike rly does say all the most perfect shit but most ppl don't even get to see it these days #bc intsys won't make the games accessible and they cost hundreds of dollars for a used copy jfhsagjdg #BUT ALSO this line? REALLY fuckin wish they said to zelgius too with someone anyone even if it wasn't ike #would've been really awesome tho for it to be ike who said it so that zelgius couldn't uwu my teacher his way out of being a villain #what is it with them making ppl be like uwu my teacher and that suddenly make them not a villain fhajgdgsj #like WHERE WAS THIS LINE WHEN IN REBIRTH 2 #we had tibarn with us! ranulf! shinon! oscar! SOMEONE could've said it!!! #hecky schemcky if OSCAR said it? that would be like DAMN u fucked UP tho #if OSCAR couldn't forgive you for something? d a m n sonny that one would cut d e e p #but also?! shinon! being calm about it! and just telling him outright! look! nah! you did all that shit! and now you want to uwu us to death #nah! what you did was unforgiveable and you kept doing unforgiveable things! #i mean come on there's a line out the door of ppl who wanted to get or deserved to get revenge on that guy #YES I HAD TO LET IT OUT AGAIN I'M STILL MAD THAT SEPH GOT THE WHOLE NO U DID BAD #BUT ZELGIUS DID ARGUABLY WORSE BC HE DIDN'T DO IT AFTER LOSING HIS ENTIRE FUCKING MIND #AND HAVING HIS ENTIRE FAMILY SLAIN AND HIS FOREST HOME BURNT TO DEATH #LIKE. COME ON. SEPH AT LEAST HAS A LEGIT REASON TO HAVE LOST HIS MIND BUT ZELG? #siiiiiiiiigh. anyway put ike in three houses so he can teach all the dumb stans how to be a proper mc #yeah that's right i said it A PROPER MC #blorbo is in the corner hiding bc he doesn't like these tags. see his bow? see it? it's poking into the pic #ALSO HOW COME REYSON DOESN'T GET ANY LINES WITH SEPH ABOUT WHAT'S HAPPENED POST BATTLE #this post has gone in three entirely different directions in the tags good for me good for me

[dandelionstep-moved]

i need smth other than duolingo to make me do spanish exercises daily TBH because 1. i know way more than this i just haven’t gotten very far because the ads piss me off insanely 2. if i’m immediately punished for getting something wrong with an explanation being paywalled and an encouragement on being fast i’m not going to learn very well from my mistakes. duolingo is honestly super annoying it’s just nice on account of being accessible esp. from my phone

#you know what i’d really love to practice is verb tenses but duolingo in their infinite genius #doesnt teach grammar first. as if thats not like the most important thing in an unfamiliar language #because spanish words especially as an english speaker aren’t usually difficult but remembering how to use them #in a coherent sentence can be -__- #txt #i’ll probably just find like a textbook or something i can work through IDK. i wish i could take a class but my college has one (1) #spanish teacher and i have heard people do not like him… and like. there’s nothing worse than a mean language teacher

[piratadelamor]

self isolation as a form of self preservation is going to end up killing me someday

#im already a fucking adult if i dont do something about this shit im gonna be lonely as hell #i just wish i had made friends at college like everyone else #instead of the poor choices of friends i made when i got in for the wrong ideas i had about the type of person i wanted to be #i simply ended up with no friends at the worst place to make friends #imagine me having 8 different classes each semester. each class had about 60 different students #each subject had at least 4 different teachers teaching that so you could choose when and who to take that class with #850 new students each year it was rare to end up on the same class as someone twice #unless you were already friends before and decide to take the classes together #most of my classes didnt have group projects either. no dynamic stuff just reading and reading and reading #it. was. HELL #i actually had like 3 people i could call my friends there but our classes never matched #and im not an easily approachable person i wanted to DIE when i made a friend there that told me she was scared to talk to me before #how many possible friendships i lose all the time for seeming unnaproachable?? for my fucking face bro i cant do shit about it #today my best friend from work also told me that when she first met me she thought i was cold and arrogant #but that i also seemed cool so she was like ok lets give her a chance #i keep fucking hearing it all the fucking time i have MANY friendships that started just like this. people judging me at first #this is so sad and lonely to me i dont wanna be this person #one time a friend also said something like im glad im already your friend id be scared of you if i didnt know you #like????? scared of WHAT. i never treat people badly. i dont fight i dont do gossip i dont do anything to hurt anyone #im always trying to get people together and have fun i always talk to everyone im always nice to everyone #im always trying #so why the hell people still think im unnaproachable #i dont get it i've been hearing this from FRIENDS my whole life. not from people who dont like me its people who LIKE me that say this #what the hell am i doing wrong besides being born with my fucking face #and then. above all. to make it all worse. i self isolate bc im scared of rejection. man i fucking hate being me #i really dont wanna be lonely

[hairenya]

I do think it’s really funny that I’ve tried quitting to 3 people at this point, all of whom have insisted I finish out this year, even after I repeatedly swore at the last AP I tried to quit to today, and literally no one will fire me or let me quit like damn y’all

#I don’t want to be a teacher anymore #I’m off tomorrow as a mental health day #I’m deadass just trying to get fired at this point and it has not been working out #so I’ve basically just decided that I’m henceforth going to do and say whatever tf I want #because they either fire me and I never have to see another bastard child again (win) #or I find out that I can actually in fact do whatever pleases me #which would also be a win #jlktalks. #YoU sIgNeD a 1 YeAr CoNtRaCt DoN’t YoU wAnT tO hOnOr ThAt CoMmItMeNt #bitch no #also like I love how principals will say that you shouldn’t work at a school if you hate kids #and that summers aren’t a good reason to teach and that this isn’t the job to sit down on #but then when you try to actually fucking quit they won’t let you?? #like sis I am trying to take your advice #I don’t even need a job lmao my dad pays my bills #or whenever you complain about something they say it’s part of the job #yeah which is why I don’t want to do this job anymore please just let me leave? #why is it so hard to get fired? #watch my dumbass still sign on next year too tho #adventures in teaching #am I secretly in prison?

[xhatake]

anyways kakashi has a bad track record when it comes to how he treats his friends in this essay, i will ---

#ooc. #no but for real i am going to pick this apart but i think it very largely comes from him getting so wrapped up in his own feelings #tht he does not consider where others are at #(often) #i ALSO don't think he had the emotional capacity to care for team 7 in the beginning of naruto & tho they inspire him to be better #he should not have been entrusted with kids #he can barely brush his teeth in the morning how is he going to teach others how to thrive #like yes he is endlessly loyal ( sometimes to a fault ) but that doesn't mean that he always knows how to treat others or consider #what they need #i feel like a lot of people dismiss his general closed off-ness as ' that's just how kakashi is ' knowing that it's taking baby steps #a little bit at a time for him to heal #and yes the hiruzen was right team 7 gave him something to focus on that wasn't just him wallowing in his own feels #but he was still in a place where he thought ' u will grow up or you are die its what shinobi do ' & ' trauma=growth ' #like he would do anything to ensure their survival that was in his capacity to but he was very much a trial by fire kind of teacher #OK OK OK ill stop in the tags i have to make an actual post abt this there are a lot of thoughts #like he tries his best but his best is not always healthy which is important to acknowledge

[zhivchik]

#just so you know: i suck at crocheting more than at sewing #and i hate the latter since the teacher shouted at me in 3rd grade after i started crying #crochet is something i have a negative first memory about #grandma teaching and being unsatisfied with how i was doing #as a left-handed i worked with right and probably hardly took in any advice (still) #but i wanted #well the relatives said what an owl! #that hurt!)) #but kinda not a surprise)

[thormanick]

what time of day it is ah yes it is time of day to hypothesize about kaveh's fighting animation-

#the grip this character has on me is quite unmatched #i am. waiting. patiently. #and here i was existing thinking nobody after zhongli would ever impress me quite as much BUT here we are #although to be honest in terms of purely fighting animation i most of all adore kaeya #his style just. feels so right. i have zero experience in swordfighting (just a tiny bit at fencing) but hear me out i would love try #and fight him #i just personally think that would be a great experience #because his animations to me just scream that he is experienced and thus would probably make a good teacher #which is something i think that is lore-proven because he teaches bennet i think? #somebody: how do you express your endearment for the character? me: well you see i want to fight them- #genshin impact #genshin impact thoughts #afinna explores teyvat #genshin impact kaveh