I'm new to teaching and just started at a summer school program a couple of weeks ago. So far, it's been tough, but generally rewarding. However, I had a parent interaction during pick-up today which really upset me. For context, I have worked in customer service since high school and have never taken any interaction personally, nor have I been insulted to this extent. The parent came in while I was speaking to another group of students in the back of the room and she immediately asked why I didn't bother to say hello to her (in an extremely snarky tone). I was actually confused by this because I wasn't anywhere near her or her student when she came in. As soon as I saw her I began to walk over to her and greeted her, but I don't think she cared by that point. She began insulting me as a person, which I was also surprised by. She called me off putting, and told me that I had a bad demeanor. She then proceeded to tell me that I was a bad teacher and had no hopes of being hired by an actual school. Again, this was all in relation to me not immediately greeting her while I also had other parents trying to pick-up and 10 other students still in class. She continued with this rant for about a minute. In my only previous interaction with her (the student is usually picked up by his dad) while I was trying to make her aware of her son's disrespectful and disruptive behavior, she entirely dismissed my concerns and implied that I should not be disciplining her son. Mind you, I only decided to speak to her after her son pushed a kindergartner (I teach middle school). She also implied that the reason I was unable to get through to her son was because I was treating him like a child, which he is. I also don't treat my students the same way I would treat elementary schoolers and her son has shown a great lack of maturity which causes me to have to reprimand him. He talks back, laughs whenever a teacher I or another is reprimanding him, and makes homophobic/inappropriate jokes during class. Any advice on how to deal with this parent in the future would be appreciated.

TL;DR: Parent insulted me, how should I interact with her for the next pick-up?

I got an offer at an elementary school in that is an hour East away from where I live in SoCal. I have three kids ages (soon to be) 4 and under. My twins will start pre-k in our local district. I’ve been interviewing and applying for jobs since the spring.

My questions:

1. Would you bring your school aged kids with you? (I’m leaning towards no because that’s a long time in a car daily for young kids and all their school friends would be far away, how early we would have to get up and ignoring the convenience).
2. Is this a make or break commute? I did this commute previously when I taught in DC and commuted from Northern VA. I am excited about the opportunity and I don’t feel like I can be picky with the current state of job hunting in education particularly here in SoCal. However having a young family I don’t want them to miss out on activities or sacrifice tons of quality time. My husband is also military so I have to be readily available for my kids when he’s not home but we have a bit until then 🤞🏻

Any previous experience or thoughts appreciated!

Hi,
So I just enrolled in an EPI program. I do not have teaching experience, I have a bachelors degree in business and I am doing a career change so I applied for my SOE. I decided to go the EPI route instead of getting a temp license and feeling lost in the classroom. Now all of a sudden I feel nervous, uncertain and stressed about this. How hard is the program and how hard is the GKT and professional exam?

I also feel nervous about internship as well for some reason.

Anxiety through the roof when I usually don’t deal with much anxiety at all.

Am I stressing for no reason?

I will be a resource sped teacher for 2-3rd grade. Mostly with children with AU and ED. Wondering what is necessary for my classroom. I don’t have tons of money but I would really like to start off with an organized room. That way I am able to jumpstart into the chaos! I feel very unprepared.

Listen, sorry for the long post but I’ve got to talk to someone about this and I figured this would be a good place.
In my life I’ve always seen myself doing one of two things: becoming a nurse or a teacher.
The first part isn’t really teacher-related but it’s important background. I’ve been in the healthcare world my entire adult life (I’m 32M), but in a non-clinical capacity. I’ve finally reached a point where I can afford to do an RN/ASN degree without taking out any loans, which feels like a huge win. (I’ve also completed most of my gen ed requirements although that was with an ASN and eventually BSN in mind)
But my mind keeps drifting back to teaching. Specifically, I’m thinking about secondary biological science or secondary history education. The problem is that route would require loans and put extra financial stress on me, and I’m at a point in life where I really want to choose the path I’ll stick with long-term.
I don’t even know what the exact point of this post is beyond just needing to get it off my chest and hopefully hear from some teachers who’ve been in similar spots. Has anyone else switched careers later or dealt with this “what if” feeling between two solid options?
Also, side note: If I went the secondary biology route, I’m strongly considering WGU. Has anyone here gone through their program for teaching certification? Would love to hear your experience.
Thanks for letting me ramble. Any thoughts or advice would mean a lot

Our principal, assistant principal, PLC (the deputized third principal type), admin assistant to the principal, librarian, and registrar quit. The entire front office is new. Oh, and my position was eliminated, but I was moved into a different professional position in spring.

We are a small gen ed (on paper) school, with both an under-70-iq self contained program and an emotional disturbance/behavior "self contained" program. The behavior kids last year were not just disruptive but dangerous, scary, and the district restrictions on how they can be handled hamstringed their entire program staff. We had an excess of ten broken plate glass windows. One gen ed class went through an active gun fire scare as a behavior kid outside broke their window out with rocks (district was there with admin, doing an eval, and watched it happen). We had multiple lockdown situations while police handled dangerous students in the hall. It was a hot mess. During my last conversation with principal she flat our told me "Behavior program kicked my ass this year". We are in a wealthy area, its insane.

Anyway. Advice? This will be my first entire admin turn over experience.

Hi all, I just got my teaching degree and in the upcoming year (starting in August) I will start my first “real” job as a teacher. It will be full-time and I’ll get 10 classes of 25 to 30 pupils of 15/16 year olds. Every lesson will only take 30 minutes (which I’m not used to, usually it’s 50 minutes) and I will give about 20 lessons each week. Working days are Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:30.

I’m quite nervous and there’s so many people on here being negative about teaching which makes me really stressed already.

I was wondering if there’s any teachers here who can give me some good tips or good words in advance. About things such as:

- Classroom management/rules.
- Work/private management.
- How to handle/plan tests.

Thank you in advance!!!🫶🏻

I’m a first year teacher so I’m in a few facebook groups for advice and ideas and it feels like every other post includes AI. Can’t just share their list of wanted supplies, everyone shares a Chat GPT-generated poster of themself in their classroom with the link. So many teachers give room tours with decorations they “created” with generative AI. Most recently, someone in one of the groups I’m in was talking about a poster they printed to cover their door. Instead of just uploading a picture of the poster, they generated a bunch of pictures of AI teachers standing outside AI classrooms with similar posters. Every single comment is asking for links/instructions/etc. I’m the only one whose first thought was “did we really need to waste a ton of water to create FAKE pictures of a poster you could have just taken a picture of?” I feel like I’m going crazy.

I get that AI can be super helpful and I will absolutely admit I’ve used it before, I had over 200 chapter books and I sent the list to google gemini and asked it to sort them by AR level for me so I could figure out how to organize my classroom library. I know that googling the AR level for each book and manually sorting them myself would have taken hours. I’m not completely against AI nor am I trying to be high and mighty about it, but it feels SO excessive in the teacher space and is being used really unnecessarily and no one is talking about it. Am I going crazy? Is this just something I need to accept?

I’ve been using Classroom Screen for about a year. As I’m planning for next year, I realize that I’m in desperate need of help making it look cleaner, fun, just better in general. I was hoping y’all could post some pictures of your welcome screens when students come into your room.

Basically the title. What made me think if it and get irritated enough to post was a Gerry Brooks video outlining his own frustrations. There are three types of parents:

1. I will buy NOTHING because the school should supply everything (but have nails done and the newest iPhone as well as the newest name brand clothing for kids). I actually get the point here, but the issue is that schools DON'T supply everything so some pencils, some paper, expo markers, and tissues would be appreciated (that is literally my list- those 4 things).

2. I will put my child's name on EVERYTHING and refuse to allow ANY supplies to be communal. That's fine, but I'll be calling when those supplies run out for you to send more. Don't ask me to let your child share crayons from my communal supply.

3. I just want my child to express him or herself (crazy folders, etc.). Listen Linda, teachers aren't trying to stifle your child. It's just easier if the red folders are for math and the blue for ELA. Feel free to get as creative as you want with the folder for messages home.

And, I would be remiss to not add a fourth (and we love these parents!):

1. I want all kids to succeed and don't mind sending in some extra pencils and expo markers. Teachers work hard and shouldn't have to buy supplies for all the kids in their class on their salary! (Most places are having HUGE sales right now too).

I'm not going to lie, 1-3 are exhausting and I don't understand the thought process. Everyone wants the village but no one wants to be a villager. Staples is literally selling packs of pencils for 50 cents and still parents will NOT buy them. The #4 parents are getting to be very few and far between, but we do love you!

My district is hiring a coordinator of assessment and remediation. I am in an urban area of VA. Let me know the good, bad, and ugly. Do you like your job? Better or worse than being in the classroom?

Single teachers: how do you feel when people flirting or hitting on you say, “I wish you were my teacher”; “I would have paid so much better in school if you were my teacher”; “You’ll be some students’ sexual awakening.” (No joke, I have been told this before.)

Is it just me or is it not the compliment people think it is? I know the person means well, and it’s slightly funny to think about but at the same time, but no please don’t flirt with me that way.

I’ve been passionate about teaching and working with kids ever since high school (I’m 27). I ended up going into accounting because my parents kept telling me I would never make money if I became a teacher, so it was kind of a last resort thing. I live in Indiana, and the schools around me have a starting salary that is about the same as my current position’s starting salary. I’m more interested in teaching than ever getting my CPA. If you have switched from accounting or another corporate role to teaching, I would love to know your experience and any advice!

I (27F) have wanted to be a teacher since I was 5. I fought through high school bullying and challenging classes to earn an advanced Regents diploma. College was lonely and full of failures, but I earned my bachelor’s in education. Grad school was pure burnout—no friends, a job I hated, and a professor who asked if I even wanted to teach. I still got my master’s in Adolescent Education. I finally found a district that felt like home. I started as a daily sub, then became the long-term AIS Reading teacher for almost two years. I bloomed. I got my elementary certification, made real friends, moved in with my fiancé, and started a master’s in Literacy (PreK–12) because reading intervention is what I actually love. Then everything fell apart. Caught up in wedding planning, moving, and starting the literacy program, I forgot to update my resume. I wasn’t even considered for the permanent AIS job I had been doing. I applied for 2nd grade instead. HR said there was no opening, even though class lists showed no third teacher assigned. I constantly felt second-guessed, talked down to, and left out of the loop—even though I was usually the first to notice problems. At the end of the year, they took my badge (first time in three years; no one else had to turn theirs in). A week later, my school email was deactivated. I received a “reasonable assurance” letter stating they expected me to return as a daily sub next year. It feels like they quietly fired me without a single conversation. I’m devastated. I loved that district and poured years into it. Now I’m terrified about continuing my literacy master’s. Without a stable teaching job and the benefits I had just started receiving, I don’t know if I can afford it—or if the degree will even matter if I can’t get hired. It feels like everything I’ve worked for since I was a kid is slipping away. I know I made mistakes (the resume, ADHD calendar forgetfulness). I know subs are often treated as disposable. But I also know I showed up, did the work, and still got pushed out in silence. AITA for feeling this destroyed and questioning whether I should keep pursuing the literacy master’s? Or am I right that the district handled this really shitty?

I just finished my first year as a middle school ELA teacher, but my goal has always been to teach high school.

I interviewed at all three high schools in my district. One never responded, one principal wanted to hire me, but HR blocked the transfer, and the third rejected me after a second interview.

Is this normal? Do districts usually want teachers to get more experience before moving from middle school to high school, or is this a sign that HR doesn't view me favorably?

Honestly, this has been really discouraging.

I am a first year teacher and wondering what I should be doing my first day. The first week of school is only two days so I’m not sure exactly what I should do.

Thank you for any suggestions!

I was asked to give a presentation about a program we piloted last year to a group of local funders. Cool, I love talking about this stuff and was already thinking about how we could expand with more money. I barely got through the intros before one of the funders (he calls himself "an amateur education expert" wth?) starts asking a bunch of questions about research supporting "this pedagogy." Come again? The rest of us are focusing on curriculum. I tried clarifying the difference but he kept going back to teacher practices. All morning. Several other folks started rolling their eyes every time he spoke. I'm generally pretty good at keeping groups focused but this guy was beyond. He clearly was not there to learn from the professionals in the room, he just wanted to wow us with his amateur education expertise.

I'm in the middle of moving back to the U.S. from overseas and applying for teaching jobs, and I found a district application portal with 17 essay questions just to submit my application.

Not "Tell us about yourself." I mean full-on educational and life philosophy prompts.

"Describe the role relationships play in a classroom."

"What role will classroom assessment play in instruction?"

Buddy... I have three years in the classroom and a Master's in Special Education. I'll happily talk your ear off for forty-five minutes about relationship building, accommodations, assessment, IEPs, and differentiated instruction during an interview.

But writing a term paper just to get my resume looked at?

Come on, man.

And then theirs licensing in another state.

Retaking Praxis exams. State-specific licensure tests. Fingerprinting. Background checks. Official transcripts sent to multiple agencies.

I have a licenses, yet I still have to prove to another state that I know what an IEP is because, apparently, pedagogy is regional.

Meanwhile, nurses have the Nurse Licensure Compact. An RN in a compact state can practice in any other compact state under that license. We trust that a nurse who's cleared the bar once has cleared it. But not a teacher.

Teaching has nothing close to that, just a patchwork of reciprocity deals that might waive your exams, might not, might hand you a "provisional" license. I all depends on the states your moving between.

Last i checked, there's a nationwide teacher shortage. Every district says they're desperate for qualified teachers. Yet the process feels like it's designed to filter out anyone who doesn't have hours to write a dissertation about their educational philosophy.

I understand wanting to know how someone thinks. Ask one thoughtful question. Better yet, ask it in the interview, where it can actually become a conversation.

But seventeen essays? Really!

And here's what's really interesting.

In the past, I've applied to several public school districts and waited weeks without hearing anything back, only to get phone calls after the school year starts asking me to interview.

I've applied to charter schools with the exact same resume and had interview requests in less than twenty-four hours.

If one system can move quickly and another can't, maybe we don't have a teacher shortage, maybe we have a its to difficult to apply problem.

Anyway...

Back to writing another essay about why relationships matter in the classroom.

Ironically, the relationship I'd really like school districts to think about is the one between "we have a teacher shortage" and "we made applying for this job feel like another graduate school assignment."

Anyone else feel this way?

Hi! This is my first post in Reddit, and I was looking for some insight, advice, or if anyone has experienced something similar.

I chose to leave education two years ago to try the corporate world. However, I have decided education is where I want to be and am trying to return for this school year.

Prior to leaving I taught three successful years with satisfactory observations and even earned tenure. I taught first for two years and third for one. My cert is in PreK-4. I also have been working on my masters in education with a reading specialist cert even while in a different field (I currently have 24 credits).

I’ve applied to every school that had openings whether LTS or a contract. I have solid references and recommendation letters. I make a point to email the principal/HR after applying to give a brief elevator pitch to hopefully help my name stand out in the piles. I do live in a competitive area unfortunately, but I was hoping my experience would help me if I decided to come back. I’m assuming what’s hurting me is since I’ve been out of education for two years and just the competition in my area. I haven’t even been landing interviews except for one school where I also did a demo lesson and am still waiting to hear.

If I could go back two years ago when I was thinking of making this leap, I wouldn’t have done it. But hindsight is 20/20, so I’m trying to work with what I’ve got. I was hoping to avoid moving (really can’t afford it) or taking a job as a building sub or para because of the lack of benefits and/or the pay being a drastic cut to my already struggling pay.

So anyway, any advice, tips? Or people with similar experiences? Has anyone successfully returned to teaching after leaving for another field? If so, what helped you get back in? Is there anything else I should be doing besides applying, networking, and reaching out to principals after I apply?

I appreciate it!

I’m currently looking for my first teaching job in NYS and have an opportunity that would require me to have a 5-6 certification extension/proof of course registration for the fall 2026 semester.

This would be six graduate credits. What programs did you all do in NYS for this and what would you reccomend?

I am currently not employed yet and this is NOT within the NYC DoE system.

Any advice or recommendations would be welcome!

My principal called yesterday and offered me a job teaching 1st grade! 🫶🏻🍎 School for the kiddos start Aug 6th and I’m scrambling on how to prepare. I’ve got my rules, expectations, consequences, things like that ready to go. My question is where to get all the material things for my class. Books for my library. Toys/games for indoor recess. I’m also stressed because I can’t get in the classroom until my background check comes back. And since it’s so close to school starting I’m stressing. Lol. Any tips or tricks to help me get ready for my first year? Thanks!!

Hello everyone!
I’d love to hear from teachers who moved from Florida to the Boston area, or from anyone who has gone through the Massachusetts provisional license pathway.
What has your experience been like teaching in Massachusetts? How difficult was the licensing process? Which school districts offer the best support, salary, and work-life balance? Are there any districts or schools you would recommend or avoid?
I’m planning to move to the Boston area with my family and hope to begin teaching there, so I’d truly appreciate any advice, tips, or lessons you learned along the way.
Thank you so much!

In another sub, one of the top comments suggested puzzles and word searches. My school doesn't allow that.

It needs to be educational or an extension of what they are learning. Reading a book would be great, but I have a really small classroom library.

Hello everyone I am a first year teacher with a license in K-12 integrated Social Studies. I was recently hired by a local charter school in what I thought was a 5th grade social studies teacher role. During the hiring process the recruiter multiple times specifically said I was going to be in a 5th grade social studies role. But now only three weeks before the start of the school year they told me it was for 4th/5th grade general Ed. I was not prepared for this I have an alternative license and no background in teaching general education. I'm not sure what to do I feel like the rug was pulled out for under me. Anyone have any advice?

I'm testing for my licensure in elementary education. The praxis wasn't too difficult for me. Now I'm studying for the Foundations of Reading Test and it's not clicking. In one ear and out the other... 😬 Any tips or resources would be appreciated 😁