Being a teacher in current times is considered to be the most stressful job there is. The workload is unreasonable, the behavior is unmanageable, and administration has ridiculous demands. Now imagine trying to handle all of that while you undergo aggressive treatment for cancer! I interviewed 6 teachers who are undergoing or have recently had …
Misery
Happy Kindergarten Teacher Needs Living Wage “Sally” happily worked for Detroit Public Schools as a kindergarten teacher for many years. Many schools in the district were closed or taken over by a state-appointed Emergency Manager (the same man responsible for the Flint water crisis), and eventually, the entire district was rebranded from DPS (Detroit Public …
Something is happening in our country. We are having an unprecedented amount of school shootings. In 2022, there were more school shootings than in any other school year. It has also become a bit of a fad to call in active shooter threats to school districts. The caller identifies the district they are going to …
I suppose every generation thinks the next one is moving too fast with their sexuality. When I was in middle school in the mid-’90s, we were just getting into making out, and the few kids who did more than that were anomalies (or heroes, to some). Sex was something you experimented with in your later …
Back in the good ol’ days of teaching (pretty much any time before the year 2000), parents and teachers were a team, united for kids’ success and against their nonsensical behavior. Parents blaming teachers seemed almost unheard of. If a teacher said a kid misbehaved, the parent usually believed them and did something to correct …
Teaching last year in 2022 was by far the hardest year in my entire teaching career. I’ve had difficult years in the past, but nothing compared to this previous year. It left me exhausted, frustrated, and completely broken down. Teaching is always a tough job, but the last year takes the cake in difficult years. …
If you haven’t figured it out already, teaching is a very difficult job. But the part that makes it almost impossible is the amount of teacher micromanaging that goes on. When supervisors feel the need to oversee even the smallest details, thus giving teachers extra busy work, they are sending a clear message that we …
When you decide to become a teacher you sign up to be constantly empathetic, understanding, patient and nurturing. But there is no disclaimer that when you sign up to be a teacher you might lose your right to be human yourself. I have been a high school English teacher for the past 7 years. For …
While there is a primary focus on students who bully in schools right now, there are few published studies on parents and students who bully teachers. Research shows that a fifth of teachers have been abused online by students or their parents. In most of these cases, absolutely nothing was done, even the incidents that …
It’s always a gamble come the holidays or the end of the year when it comes to what (if any) gifts admin will give the teachers. While many schools are generous during Teacher Appreciation Week with massages, delicious lunches, and more, some admin opt for crappy puns and useless junk. After polling other teachers on …
In my book More Teacher Misery, I focused a lot on the lack of consequences for deplorable behavior in schools across the country. However, there is a serious crisis that requires immediate attention. The sexual harassment of teachers by students. This atrocious and often dangerous behavior is mostly ignored by the administration because they are …
Teacher professional development is defined as “a variety of specialized training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to help teachers improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill, and effectiveness.” I honestly don’t think most teachers would have a problem going to these training sessions if we actually learned something from them. Rather, these awful professional …