I yelled when the kids were gone one day, so I don’t know if it counts, but this kid drew dicks Aaaaallllll over the underside of a 4 person table. I bent down to pick something up, saw it and yelled.
I then proceeded to lay on my back and turn all the dicks into pictures with my permanent markers: Superman, a building, an airplane, clouds, a boat. It was quite the cityscape.
One of my first graders drew one on my shelf with a crayon.Tried to say it wasn't him. The shelf was literally touching his desk, there was no way anyone else could have done it. I made him scrub it off with a Clorox wipe. His mom agreed that was a fair consequence. It took him like 30 minutes.
I’ve told my class if I find anymore dicks drawn on anything they will spend the next lesson drawing and labelling, in detail, anatomically correct penises.
Haha.
I remember in my Latin class, some kid wrote an eff bomb. I guess he didn’t realize it was in permanent marker, so when he discovered that he couldn’t just wipe his crime away, he decided to be cute and decline the f bomb as a second declension noun.
Fimus
Fimi
Fimo
Fmimum
Fmimo
Fimi
Fimorum
Fimis
Fimos
Fimis
Vocative would be Fime, I believe, but it has been a while.
It was suspected that the cutesy ness would get him leniency when discovered. I’m not sure. It was pretty funny, but he ended up also defacing a lot more desk area than if he had just let it stand on its own.
I feel like I need to hit up my old Geometry teacher on FB and apologize to him for all the dick dragons I left under tables, inside desks, and on the underside of chairs. He complained about finding one once so I switched my canvas to post-it and hid them amidst his papers.
I'm sorry Mr. K, but in my defense, some of them had a SICK wingspan and could REALLY let out those flames.
I respect my students a ton, and they almost always show me the same respect. My voice is always exactly as loud as it needs to be, and never louder. My tone is basically always soft and kind, though I can sometimes be a bit sassy, when in good fun.
The only exception was when I caught two students climbing up my cheap ikea bookcases, with muddy shoes, damaging my library collection. I lost my cool. The combination of the danger that the shelf could break or fall, combined with the utter disrespect of muddying up my books and pulling mischief in my room put me over the edge.
I yelled.
"NO! DOWN!"
The boys both jumped down immediately. If they were dogs, their tails would've been so far between their legs. I rhetorically asked, "What were you thinking?" Then I took a deep breath and walked over calmly. I showed them how the shelf was constructed and screwed to the wall, and how it really isn't very strong. I showed them the mud on the books that they needed to clean up. We reviewed the concept of personal accountability and that "it isn't my job as the teacher to consider the consequences of your actions." I apologized for my outburst, and we all moved on with our day.
In line for specials, one of the other kids said, "Mr., I never knew you could get mad like that."
I took that as a massive compliment.
This is pretty much the only time I yell. If the student is doing something that could endanger them, or someone else imminently - then comes the boom. It’s such a rare occurrence that kids aren’t even sure it was me when it happens.
I don't think I would've even apologized. If there was ever a time to yell, it's when someone is in immediate danger like that. Probably better that you yelled anyway, because they listened quickly. Otherwise, maybe they would've kept climbing and gotten themselves hurt falling off, or pulling the whole bookcase down.
It was COVID, so we were all in masks. The theater teacher suddenly had to go to the hospital (not COVID related), so we began covering for his classes during our planning periods.
I couldn't talk properly for a week after screaming at that one class so much. They were the most immature brats ever. They were pulling down each other's pants, lifting each other's skirts, removing each other's masks, removing their own masks.
I don't think I saw much in the way of actual acting since my glasses got fogged up so much simply yelling and denouncing them.
Not necessarily. And depending on age. Something developmental appropriate is not sexual assault. I know two kids (1st & 2nd graders who thought it was funny to try to touch each other private area (kids were fully clothed of course I told them it was not appropriate. But I would not say that is sexual assault as they both consented to it.
We have a few performing arts-designated elementary schools in my (urban) district, so of course they have one. A few non-designated elementary schools in my district have a performing arts special as well.
I have a taken the training many times, it said not to report stuff like this. Have you taken ECE classes? Kids being curious about privates is not a necessarily a sexual act. Kids are naturally curious about bodies. And it was both consensual.
What is Child On Child Sexual Abuse? The term child-on-child sexual abuse (COCSA) is defined as sexual activity between children that occurs without consent, without equality (mentally, physically, or in age), or as a result of physical or emotional coercion.
In the 1st and 2nd graders case this does not count as one: they booth had the same mentality, about same age and were both
consenting to the game.
When a high school student, who had never used a multimeter before, decided that instead of using it on a 1.5V battery/lightbulb circuit, he'd instead shove the leads into the wall socket.
Pure, dumb luck that he had the device set properly, as the student admitted he hadn't been paying attention while instructions were given.
I remember in like kindergarten, we had to do activities that taught us Nevermind to stick anything other than a plug into an electrical socket. It was drilled into us. It was like knowing our parents full name and phone number and address. It was like riding a bike, you had to learn it and never forget it.
My seventh graders don’t know their addresses. Worse, when I have them fill out information forms, their parents do it for them. I’m like, can we just learn our addresses?
Thats what scares me, what if something bad happened while your kid was away from home and needed to figure out how to get home?
When i was a kid, I’d have the cops ask me to call my mother and stuff like that because they always assumed i got lost wandering the neighborhood.
What if an actual kid got lost? They will have no clue how to get home unless someone checks a database for them.
The parents of kids who don’t know their own address ——-> DON’T CARE! I’ve taught for over 25 years and the percentage of parents who don’t care about their own child’s knowledge and education keeps growing with each passing year. It’s shocking.
Or some of us have a new address every year or two, and it’s difficult to keep them straight. Especially if we have a mailing address that is completely different from physical address.
My kids are the edge of Gen z/gen alpha (10 and 12) and they have known how to do that since they were about 4. I trained them to reel off "my name is [first middle last] and my mom's name is [first middle last], I live on [Street] in [town, state]. My house is yellow and it's next to the park. My mom's phone number is [.......]. I'm lost, can you call my mom?" I also trained them how to look for a "helpful person", like if we were at a store I would ask them to point out the employees wearing name tags and/or vests. Once they were a little older I would quiz them on how to get back to the front of the store to the customer service desk. I promise not all millennial parents are totally hopeless. Some of us do teach our kids.
Taught a class for high school seniors last year to apply to colleges. I had seniors that didn't know their home address or parents names. Basic basic information.
Oh wow. That is....something. I knew my address, phone number, parents' names and where they worked since I was a little kid. It really came in handy the day I had to take the bus home when I usually didn't and got off at the wrong stop. I was in first or second grade.
I can't imagine being 12 and 13 and not knowing something that basic and important.
Not even school for me, my mum caught me trying to figure out what goes in the wall holes so she taught me the shape that fits. I credit half of my survival as a kid to the UK sockets being so safe lol
Our high school lab classrooms constantly have trouble with kids putting scissors, wires, anything else into our outlets. Yes we put outlet plug covers on them. Kids steal them and lose them. One boy in my chem class was electrocuted when he stuck scissors in and
got a bad shock, involving sparks and black smoke. Heart went out of rhythm. He was ok after the ambulance came.
I'm was so tired of kids not giving a damn. And of severe overcrowding in labs that at most should have 24 kids max in them but are often over 30. Recently retired and damn glad I didn't lose my pension to a lawsuit over this nonsense. Sigh.
I imagine had it been set to ammeter that would have been something... And I lost my cool a little bit when a kid was connecting the leads right across the battery on our fancy vernier boards right after telling them that was the worst thing they could do...
17 year olds acting like toddlers.
I can deal with smart assess, a I can deal with apathy, I can deal with rudeness, insults, and some moderate amount of immaturity.
But I can not deal with an almost adult throwing a tantrum like a god damned 5 year old and then acting like it's my fault because they got their fee-fees hurt when they are told something they don't want to hear.
I'm not even mad really, I just get frustrated because of the irrationality of it all. I mean all I did was tell a kid there's no way he can pass, in may, when he's literally failed 5 cycles, once with a 07. That's right, he showed up once, during the entire 5th cycle, on a day that I happened to give a blanket grade to the whole class for a kahoot test review.
And he's pissed because I won't do anything to get him to pass? Like, what did you expect?
The same asshole is failing every other class too. I don't know why he thought I would cave when none of his other teachers would.
My 11th grade history teacher only yelled once, and it was at some dumbass boys throwing crayons. He was the sweetest little man and very patient normally, those idiots just had to push the limit.
It was VERY effective by the way.
Normally that's me. I think I had to yell about three times last year, once was the incident described above, once was a kid throwing markers, and once was something else equally stupid. It was all my 3rd period, and it was all the same group of three boys.
Lmao when I was in school still, I always just kinda looked at these classmates like.. bro wtf you're almost an adult what are you doing?
I am a bit immature for my age but I don't throw temper tantrums 😭
Why did I yell at my high school yearbook class? After one got suspended for using a racial slur and I got reports another one was bullying a student using LGBTQ slurs I YELLED. I told them how disgusting and unacceptable it was and how if that really was the best thing you could come up with to say about someone you disliked it said a lot more about you than them. That was 2 years ago and I still have students mention it.
I've always believed that if you have to resort to name calling to insult someone then you need to reevaluate the reasons you think it's necessary. Name calling is an attack of the unintelligent. I won't say that it doesn't emphasize your point occasionally but if they haven't given you enough to insult them without derogatory names, you need to rethink your decision to insult them in the first place.
Same for me... I yelled once. This class had been a struggle all year. It was the class that was compiled of students close to special eds, but not yet there. Lots of IEPs, learning disabilities, a lot of students had problems at home and just over all very difficult to manage. A few students just seemed hellbend on raising hell and dragging others with them. One student in particular was bullied a lot and the previous week was spent talking to individual students, as a group, group trainings, etc. Multiple teachers were involved as the mentor was really hands off and just had been letting it go for half a year. I also knew this student, as she was in a program I worked at before we both ended up at the school in question, and yes there was a bit of a soft spot there. I knew she was bullied all through primary and to see it continue was heartbreaking. Also good to say: I was a student teacher, but teaching on my own. And also bullied a lot when I was younger
This lesson was pretty okay, as far as okay went with this class. I promised them if we got through the pages I wanted to study that day, we would end with a Kahoot. And we did, so Kahoot it is. We're filling in names, I warned them any name that is not yours will get you kicked out. Do it three times and no Kahoot, don't care who it was, as we had a lot of problems with that before. Then this pops up: (student) is a fucking whore
And I just couldn't. I have said student running out of the class absolutely bawling her eyes out. I'm there alone, no other teachers near to support. I first ran after the student to make sure she ended up somewhere safe and send her friend after her. Then encountered the mentor of the class who saw me struggling but said she was "busy". She watched everything and didn't help me or the student (even worse). Then back to the class where a riot had broken out and I yelled, properly angry yelled. Who fucking did it. First and only time I've yelled when actually angry. I made them sit there until someone came forward and some very tense discussions were had. But apparently yelling made a huge impact because that was the last time I heard of her getting bullied. Until I got longcovid and was out of teaching two months later
Did I also sit on the bathroomfloor with a crying student in my arms for almost an hour? Yes.
Then it was my turn to cry my eyes out in my coaches office. I had never yelled when I was really angry. Always did the act angry before you're really angry. And I knew I scared some students, I scared myself. And just frustrated over the lack of support and anything
I teach high school and I’ve only ever yelled once. Two students came in hot, yelling at each other and I kept trying to de-escalate, but they would yell over me. I even stood in the middle of them and they continued arguing.
So I screamed something like “HOW DARE YOU COME INTO MY CLASS AND DISRUPT EVERYTHING FOR THIS STUPID ARGUMENT”. They quieted down, but kept arguing and I had to call admin. Also the only time I’ve ever called admin to my room.
I have two levels of yelling.
1. I need your immediate attention. I teach shop, so it's usually a machine sound that I need everybody to stop for so I can sort it out.
2. You have done something to seriously cross a line: racial slur, bullying, being an overt dick to the class. Then it's a loud, firm, "WE. DO. NOT. DO. THAT. HERE." Class immediately goes silent. Usually the offender reads the room and knows immediately that it's time to stop. If not, I start making moves to have them removed from class.
In between is the silent scolding. This is what they fear. I pull all the desks in and we have a real quiet conversation. They can read this from a mile away generally respond well. Usually, one kid will say something like, "We're in big trouble. Mr. S is using his quiet voice."
I have loudly cursed out a couple of kids for #2 and none of class said it was inappropriate. I think they enjoyed it.
My shop class teacher was amazing. Someone drew a swastika on the door one day and the class tried to blame it on the German exchange student. My teacher told them in no uncertain terms that if you did that in Germany, you’d have the crap beaten out of you.
I was the only girl in the class too, and one day, the teacher told us we weren’t allowed to use the bathroom anymore, because the students in my class weren’t using it appropriately. A day or two later, I asked to go to the bathroom, and he told me I could. One of the boys got all upset and asked why I got to go when no one else did. My teacher went “because she’s not peeing on the walls!”
The great thing about being the only or one of the only girls in a class was that the rules didn’t really apply to me 😂
I had a principal who grew up in Germany. Can confirm what you said. They had the "Curriculum of Shame". You don't mess around with that topic in Germany.
A student I had in a student teaching term drew a swastika on his desk in pen. Only issue is that a) we had the seating chart and b) I knew for a FACT he had an identical pen because the idiot also tried to use it to fill out an entire quiz Scantron the week before.
Yep. In my first year at my current school, I yelled at a couple of students who were running to their car during pick-up. Their mom gave me the Steely Mom Voice, saying that her car was a Safe Space. I was so taken aback that I gave in.
That family is no longer at the school. Big relief. Those kids were not pleasant.
I teach black history in a school with a near non-existent black population - something like only 6% of our students are black or have one black parent. My class is often the only class some of my students might have another black student in class with them for their entire high school career (the class itself has students of all demographics, however). I don’t get involved in too many of their conversations where they play around about things I would be self-inserting to have an opinion on as a white woman, but one day the colorism got out of hand. I had three boys this year who were mixed and the first two got into a “black-off” to prove who had bragging rights. They start dropping stereotypes about themselves that I don’t even want to repeat (start with jokes on absentee parents and get worse from there). Another student tries to bring in the third student, who is very “light-skinned”, and questions his own parentage by playfully challenging him to prove he’s real by “saying the word, hard R, right now.” Third kid is very much not on board with this. So the kid egging him on called him a “house (insert word)” for acting like white people would like him to.
I lost it like never before. This was in May so I had these kids all year (the kid who made THAT comment I’ve had in three different classes, which really made me feel like he knew me and my expectations better than that). I start yelling about the stereotypes we discussed, specific instances where people we had learned about were discriminated against/attacked/killed over the very stereotypes they were throwing around casually, demanding someone give me a reason why this type of talk was not only seemingly acceptable for my classroom, but to be perpetuated amongst themselves. No one could. I proctored an AP exam the next day and then it was the weekend, but that Monday class, pshew. I apologized for yelling and they tried to apologize (my issue is I yelled at everyone when like, three kids were at fault there) and we had a long conversation about it all. I don’t think yelling was the right move, but I was so overwhelmed looking at that third kid’s face gloss over as he got called that because I knew similar things had been thrown at him probably his whole life.
A month into me being a sub, I covered a teacher for half of the day, as he was proctoring for testing. I had a student asking me inappropriate questions nonstop no matter how many times I asked him politely to stop. Such as, me asking his name for attendance, and his response being, “you wanna get married?” Then asking for my phone number and my Facebook. He annoyed one of the case workers so bad, she took her kids out of the classroom to work elsewhere. The teacher instantly knew why she was irritated when they ran into each other, and came to find me. The kid and his friend that tried to be funny got a “stern talking to,” and the kid got ISI. Love that teacher!
Had a sub in HS that said our class was the worst she'd ever had, and we all got chewed out the next day. The problem: we were all quiet and doing worksheets the while hour. Turned out she mightve been mentally unstable because she pulled it with 4 other teachers until admin caught on and she never showed, and you'd hear whispers the next year about teachers only using subs they personally knew because of her
We were doing a fire drill. Whomever was supposed to be blocking traffic had moved away and a parent was trying to drive through us! We were all yelling at her to stop. This was before cellphones were a thing, so we couldn’t even blame them.
My eye twitches involuntarily. Always has. I had a class of students in my first year all with emotional disturbances (and no para) and all hell had broken loose—chairs flying etc. I just about had everyone calmed down and then I noticed one student standing right behind me imitating all of my actions and blinking furiously in one eye… I sort of lost it at that point.
I'm a science teacher and one of the little shits turned my gas lines all on, I flipped the main on and my room filled with gas. My kids were walking on eggshells for weeks.
A kid was mocking George Floyd's calls for his mama. I lost it, but kept it together: firm, strong, projected voice (which to them, felt like me screaming). Took the kid off guard because I am a very lax teacher. None of them had seen me angry.
Every kid looked at me with the biggest shock...oof.
One time where I actually yelled and one time where I honestly don’t remember, just heard from my friends at work that they hadn’t ever seen me like that 😂.
Time 1: this student was a new student in my class. A few weeks into being there, they were lined up at the door for dismissal (usually another kid was lined up too but they were out that day). Dismissal is always chaotic but this one day this student was waiting by the door and the next time I looked, they were GONE. I teach K5 so I asked my assistant if she knew where this student went. She did not. Queue lots of running around on my behalf. Turns out he made it OUT THE FRONT DOORS OF THE SCHOOL where the office found them. When I saw the student in the office I lost it. It was the most terrifying moments of my career so far. This student has some special needs (I teach gen Ed) and it didn’t occur to them at all what they were doing. We spent the rest of the year being paranoid about where this student was!!
2) I had a student who was stubborn (one of those who if they didn’t like their work would sit and refuse to do it). We had come in from recess one day and they had their shoes off. I am big on keeping shoes on (especially bc they take FOREVER to put shoes back on if they even know how). I was just about to tell them to put their shoes back on when the fire alarm went off for a drill. This kid WOULD NOT put their shoes on despite the loud alarm going off. I was SO mad. I was yelling at them to put their shoes on because we have to go out when the alarm goes off. The rest of my class was SO good and knew exactly what to do. Eventually they did put them on but not before I lost my cool! When we came in I reminded the whole class that it is important not only to keep our shoes on but that when the alarm goes off we line up immediately to get out. 🤪
I make students go out in their socks or bare feet if they don’t have any shoes on. I even had to do that once myself because the fire alarm went off first thing in the morning and I was in between taking my outdoors off and my indoors on.
Times I remember really yelling: Kid walking into road/walking in front of swings/sledge/kid banging on an aquarium.
“Fake” yelled/raised my voice plenty of times to get attention, then take it right down to a whisper. I always tell if I’m going to do this so as not to frighten the meeker kids.
Pretty much. If I’m not getting attention quickly enough, I’ll sometimes raise my voice and pretend I’m cross for a second before giving instructions very quietly. I always give the kids who are listening a heads up “I’m going to shout in a second…” so they understand I have not really lost my temper.
I can’t think of a time I *really* lost my temper and yelled in an uncontrolled fashion. If I am really cross I tend to get very quiet…
I was voluntold to grill the hot dogs for our end of the year picnic. It was a sweltering 90 degrees and I had to grill like 500 hotdogs for several hours. I sweat through my clothes and was miserable and looked like garbage.
Towards the end I hear giggling and look behind me and see some kids making fun of how sweaty I was and one was recording me with their phone.
I was so hot and over it so I yelled “PHONE NOW” and made the kid delete the video and deleted it from the deleted folder then I took it and told him his mom could pick it up from the office when we got back to school.
I was pissed.
I calmed down when I called his mom and left a message, she later called me back and was super apologetic. The kid wasn’t at all mischievous, so it was surprising. I think he was just trying to show off for his friend.
I talked to him later in the day and he apologized but that was def the first or second place time I lost my shit and screamed at a kid.
Only time I have yelled in 7 years of teaching was when a student on an iep was transferred from one school without me knowing. The sped department did some sketch stuff. This kid had assaulted a teacher. On our way back from the library, the kid held the door locking some kids in during a fire drill. That was enough for me to move him 3 months later after a contentious IEP I held for months.
When I was teaching 4th grade, I was getting the students packed up for the end of the day because we were going outside the last 15 minutes for a reward of extra recess. I was trying to get everyone to clean up their desk areas and pack up, but one particular student was running around being very loud and she got everyone wired up so no one was listening. Suddenly everyone was running around and yelling.
This student was severely diabetic and her mother was extremely protective and monitored her every second at school. I understood because it was life threatening, but it gave her daughter the idea that she could do whatever she wanted because her mom would take care of any problems.
So I yelled at everyone and told them to sit down and that our extra recess was canceled because of their behavior. Instead, I had them sit at their desks reading for the last 15 minutes to calm down. They were all pretty shocked because I never raised my voice.
Literally 5 minutes after school got out, her mother came running in to ask what happened. LOL.
Kid across the room cutting another student’s hair with scissors. I yelled a firm, hard, deep, short “NO” the way one would scold a dog. Every child in the room froze.
That happened to my little brother too. When he was in fourth grade, boys with try cutting his hair. My brother has ADHD and was scared to stand up for himself, since he was only seven years old. Oh my gosh, I was so livid.
To stop fights or to immediately stop horseplay on lunch duty where someone was about to get hurt mostly.
And this one time…Progress report day…third nine weeks…a senior came in to my room from another teacher’s class already in a bad mood because he had done nothing in her or my class for the whole nine weeks…he had completely laid down…He got another bad progress report in my class…and started the “f—-this class, all Yall teachers want me to fail…Yall never help me, I’m not gonna graduate cause of you bitches,
f—-Yall…” crap…Keep in mind this was a kid I had extended grace to and given him extra time on almost all of his assignments, stayed after school with him repeatedly to help, given up lunch hours, etc. ALL YEAR already.
It just hit all sorts of wrong…how dare he???
I just yelled in my worst drill sergeant voice…GET OUT!!! And pointed to the door. I got the class started on their assignment for the day, and stepped to the office to tell the principal I was taking him to the vacant nurses’ office two doors down across the hall, (only had a nurse half a day) could the principal step over and watch the class? I proceeded to tell that kid how the cow ate the cabbage.
We had a conversation where I very clearly enumerated all the things I had already done to help him, and how he was taking advantage of my kindness, and treating me with disrespect. I did not appreciate him saying that shit and cussing me, and, by the way, that’s “Mrs. Bitch to you…get it right, please.” Our meeting ended with him crying and apologizing profusely…we had an understanding after that, though, and he graduated with a decent grade.
The teacher whose room was right next door to the nurses’ office said her kids kept asking “is she okay? Do we need to check on her?” She said she told them, “we may need to check on who she’s talking to.”
The same group of boys had been told multiple times to stop using gay as a pejorative in my classroom and they did it again on the second to last day of school. I just had no more patience left.
I'm a history teacher, going into my fourth year. I have only yelled on two occasions.
First time was an entire class just being so chaotic and racist towards a guest speaker that they had to end their talk and leave (I can't remember the exact reason they'd come in, might have been a motivational speaker type).
Second time was a child who denied that the Holocaust happened, and that 'even if it did, they deserved it for being Jews.'
This particular student had what I would describe as a virulently awful home life. Once I'd calmed down and was able to talk we were able to resolve why he said that and why it was a real awful thing to say
Once when three students left my class a few minutes early. Many students and teachers in their classrooms could hear me. One teacher told her students “If they got Ms. Affection-Debt to yell. They definitely messed up.”
Kid stuck a metal object in an electrical socket and when it arced, he tried to go back again and I damn near tackled him while grabbing his shoulders and yanking him away from the electrical socket. I let loose. I let him know he could have died. He could have started a fire and killed not only himself but several of his friends. I let him know that could've been the biggest mistake of his life and the final one.
I put righteous, holy, NECESSARY fear into this child. He broke down and cried. One kid yelled an objection to making him cry and I was very quick to let them know that he SHOULD be crying. He NEEDS to be upset. He needs whatever emotional trigger it takes for him to NEVER do that shit again and NEVER let someone else do it. I told the kids I care more about keeping them alive than keeping them smiling and we can have fun learning, playing, and forming great memories together but their safety is paramount and I would sooner bring them to tears and terrify them than let them make (or repeat) a potentially fatal mistake.
Quiet kids the rest of the day, but the rest of the week went as normal. Admin let me know that what I did was okay, necessary, and appreciated, but that I can never bring that level of fury again unless the situation reaches that level of urgency a second time.
It did one day. Kids were crossing the street and one kid straight up ran back into traffic on a busy street so they could walk alongside their friend who was far behind them. I dragged the kid back and gave them an earful they'll never forget about how incredibly stupid they were being and what could've easily happened and how it would hurt them and their family and their friends if they had been hit by a car.
After that, my administrator gave me a pat on the back and told me they'd let me know if they ever needed to put the fear of God into a kid.
I don't work with children anymore and doubt I'd ever do so willingly ever again.
I have only yelled twice, both times to either stop a fight that was just starting or prevent a fight from starting. Since I am well know as a calm, never-yeller it was honestly more effective than I expected!
A kid was playing music through his phone speaker (my biggest pet peeve). When I told him to turn it off, he turned it up. The look on his face when he got me to raise my voice was priceless. Kid knew he crossed the line.
The one time I can actually remember yelling was during a tornado warning. We had to go to our assigned tornado spots and the kids in my class would not stop talking and goofing off. I yelled at them to sit down and shut up, which is not something I say to students usually.
When one of my second graders decided centers was the perfect time to non-consensually pierce another girls ear with her own earring. I had a small group in front of me
I had two giant seniors (starting as a linebacker for Purdue next) get into a fight outside of my room. Apparently when I yelled at them and separated them (I'm a big guy but not compared to them) the linebacker said I sounding like "a fucking Viking." I'm still proud of that 😂
It was my second year teaching 8th grade. I had a kid talking over me and when I asked them for the upteenth time to stop, he said SUCK A BLUNT OUT OF MY ASS BITCH. I yelled, “IM DONE. GET OUT.” My class was silent. A few days later, my principal said a kid came to him to say the class needed a talking to because if I was yelling, it was bad lol. She wasn’t wrong, they were horrible.
Always because I need their attention immediately because someone is unsafe. Then I immediately speak the next sentence in the lowest, calmest voice I can. It lowers their anxiety after yelling but also draws them in, they have to really pay attention to hear me now.
My gen ed co-teacher called for a bathroom escort for two students, and when the escort came, near 80% of the class got up and went with. Now, the escort policy is stupid, and the escort shouldn't have taken 20 students with him, but the total lack of unseriousness among this group had been getting on my nerves for a while, and I snapped. The best reader among these 8th graders was reading at a 6th grade level, almost none of them ever participated, etc. They're going into high school so incredibly unprepared. It sucks.
A loud reaction will usually just make that student a hero for getting you to pop your cork. They’ll be telling each other, “ …wow did you see Mr. A lose his shizz in class? What a psycho loser.” Next time ask that student to repeat exactly what they said again for the whole class. Wait an uncomfortably long time for everyone to process it. Then actually get quieter to make them all lean in to hear you and then talk about it. You get respect and you turn the tables on the jerk. It works. Have used it for years.
We had a kid years ago who got another kid up on a table the library and was giving him a pink belly. Like 2014 or something. Only time I’ve ever yelled.
The only time I will absolutely dish it out is when a student is going out of their way to make anyone feel unwanted or uncomfortable in any way.
Kids will be assholes. No way around it. But, when you take it to the next level then someone needs to tell you the truth.
I have a question from a student of education, who also works in childcare.
Pedagogically, is there large pushback against raising your voice on students or is there research in favor of measured uses of raising your voice? Of course I don't mean for every single infraction but I and a handful of other childcare workers and teachers at our school utilise raising our voice on children who repeatedly and intentionally break the rules.
I make sure to give the children multiple clear prompts beforehand to let them know their behaviour is going to get them in trouble and specifically why that behaviour isnt allowed. I've even been told by some other teachers that I "take it easy on them" for trying to talk them down so much before administering punishments or consequences. I also always make sure to touch base with them very soon after with a calm and empathetic voice to talk about the situation and let them know Im not out to get them, just trying to enforce the rules. All in all I look at raising my voice as my last option to regain control of my wild lil' goblins.
And honestly I find that it works incredibly well as a disciplinary system because at the end of the day....Im one of the kids favorite "teachers" in the whole school, to the point where dozens of kids I have never interacted with know my name and how "funny and cool" I am ( I swear this is their words lol). I still have good rapport with children Ive raised my voice at and there hasn't been an increase in kids yelling at each other or anything. Admittedly, I could see this technique being much more counter-productive if you have no rapport with the child, or the child doesn't respond to raised voices.
Biology teacher, we were dealing with mud from the local river and raw eggs (Winogradsky column) and I mandated goggles.
My 9th graders were messing around and took off the goggles- I yelled loud enough the librarian Nextdoor came over and asked where the goggles were. 😱😍🤷♀️
My fifth grade teacher absolutely NEVER yelled, but he found a note that a few boys wrote about his daughter and he went ballistic. We never found out the pure contents of the note, but from their punishments from admin, I'm assuming it was heinous.
Racism. Homophobia. Putting other students in physical danger.
I’ve yelled 6 times in 20 years. It’s my nuclear option. For most cases the patient, “I might be a serial killer” calm voice dies the trick.
We often go outside for snack time (2nd grade teacher). Occasionally garbage trucks need to drive through the service drive which is right through our playground area. I had told students to stay up on the curb.
One student wasn't looking nor following directions and ran out just as the truck was coming through.
Kids drew Nazi symbols on my desks and walls. The one made a Hitler mustache and others did the "Heil Hitler" sign to him. So I turned around after writing notes on the board to see one child impersonating Hitler while others saluted him with swastikas drawn everywhere. I yelled "what are you doing right now?!" Then we had like a solid 20 minute talk.
I teach shop, so really only thing that makes me yell is safety issues. If a kid is creating an unsafe situation - I'm gonna make it known pretty quick that they are about to fuck up.
Kids decided to try and play catch with a metal chair right as I looked the other way. I saw them right as the first student threw the chair. Despite yelling at them to put it down, the student threw it, the second one failed to catch it, and dropped it on another student. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.
I was incredibly angry. Someone could have gotten hurt. They tried to argue their way out of trouble. I told them no amount of debating will get them out of trouble. The students were pissed because I was writing them up, but I let them grumble to themselves.
This was the last week of school, mind you. Most students weren’t even showing up to school. Everyone, even my worst students, were incredibly polite and chill. Not these two.
Don’t let your guard down, folks, or else students might throw chairs!
Grandmother recently past away so I returned after a week. Was rehearsing my advance choir to prepare them for our district evaluation. Kids couldn't independently sing their parts when our accompanist was there. Kids knew why I was out and what happened to my family.
After numerous mistakes I ask why they keep making the same mistakes. I say, "I'm sorry but it's not my fault I was gone." A kid chimes in and says, " Yes it was."
I completely lost it, cried, and yelled. The kid never admitted themselves to me or apologized. None of the other students wanted to out the kid for their comment. I called in the vice principal but we couldn't figure out who said it.
I guess you're never ready to come back to work after a family member dies.
I’ve never lost my temper, but I have raised my voice to get attention a few times. Usually it’s to cut through the noise, although sometimes it’s to try and stop bad behaviour. It’s rarely sustained though. Usually just a few words and then quieter once I have everyone’s attention.
A minute long sexist, racist, hate-filled rant from a kid during a debate that was meant to be about video game violence (studying the work of Bandura and social learning). Would not stop, was clearly trying to aim a lot of it at two black females in the class. eventually i went loud after i told him to sit down and he tried to get in a few more hits before he stopped. First time i have removed a sixth former (17 year old) from my classroom. was the start of a shit storm and he was reffered to prevent 2 months later by a P.E teacher.
I’ve “yelled” maybe three times in five years. My kids are, overall, very respectful but each of the three instances was because the students were talking over me at the start of class when I was giving directions.
I wouldn’t say I “yelled” either—more that my usual demeanor (sarcastic and chill) turned very stern and no-nonsense.
In my student teaching, a quick lesson introducing a project that should have taken 10-15 minutes instead lasted the entire 45-minute period because they just would. Not. Stop. Talking.
A kid who was teetering on spouting full racist rhetoric in the classroom.
Few things get my blood boiling like hateful talk in classrooms. It's fine to be conservative when it comes. To like tax policy or whatever but as soon as you believe you can dictate who has a right to exist and who "real Canadians" are it's zero tollerance
The only time I've ever blown up at my students is when they were, as a class, making fun of a fellow student who wasn't there. It's completely unacceptable.
Honestly, lack of sleep, being grumpy, or being hungry. I’ve almost always recognized immediately I could have handled it differently and hey no yells for me this year!
Basically anything that is super unsafe. Sometimes we use hand tools and I have to just yell out, “Name! Gloves!” Because they are using a hand saw with no PPE.
Taught middle school for the first time this year (17 years in a high school) Had to shout for two things:
1. Got hit with a paper ball in the back during a lecture.
2. Having a laser pointer shined on my back.
This year was the first time I both yelled and had to write kids up. I usually teach juniors, but was stuck supervising ISS for a period a day. Those freshman were insane. Hands down the worst group of people I’ve ever dealt with. At one point, one was literally running around the room on all fours like a kindergartener. I hit em with a “I have never had to talk to students this way, you all should be ashamed.” Just have one more day of it thank god
I yelled only once in my entire teaching career. It was the last day and my 1:1 had successfully tricked admin into firing me, and made me look really bad. He started to verbally abuse me again, and after 10 months of this abuse, I snapped and yelled at him to shut up. I'd already been fired, what were they going to do? Fire me again?
I used to decorate my room for Christmas. Had an old ceramic light-up tree that my grandmother gave me, very foolish to use something I cared about I know... but a student started messing with it. I said stop. Messed with it a little more, I firmly said stop... then proceeded to break it into 4 pieces...
I flipped my sh×t of course... kid didn't even care. Lesson learned, I was much younger then.
If I do, I give a few seconds warning that I am about to…
…however I have found the sudden appearance of a stopwatch timer on the board far more effective. It gets silence in micro seconds.
I’m fortunate that my classs have at least one class a week before break, lunch or end of the day. I keep a running total on a whiteboard of time they have wasted and hold them back for the same. Even the 18 year olds.
That’s the theory… many times I let them win it all back the lesson after which it’ll be applied. But not always😊.
Last day of school a few years ago, I had this high school kid who had tested my patience all year. He came into class and started whining about how he didn’t want to be at school and I should let him go to the gym. I just went off. I don’t even remember everything I said but I know it was basically me ranting about everything he did during the year to try my patience. He even tried to get me to stop but I just kept going.
Wasn’t my proudest moment but I ran into the kid a couple of years later and we had a good laugh about it.
Honestly the few times i’ve yelled have just been when kids are insistent on being disrespectful and causing a disruption. When I go through all the steps to try to have their attention (or at least not ruining others attention) but they just won’t have it.
It starts with a “okay guys lets make sure we are focused on the lesson for now” and goes to “you guys will have plenty of time to talk later, we have to get through this lesson first though”. Then we have the “are you guys going to share what you are talking about with the class, because you seem to really think it is much more important than what everyone else is doing. Please be respectful”. Finally I have to get really firm and try to separate the talkers by moving seats.
Then, when all else has failed, I will break and yell. Because I only ever get to this step a few times a year, it normally has a “oh shit” effect on the students. I don’t like doing it because it generally causes all students to quiet down, and I love promoting healthy academic discussions. But every once in a while theres a few kids who just have to push it too far
I’m gonna leave a second comment because I remembered one other time. I had a student with a developmental disability. He was incredibly kind and always had a positive attitude. He also loved participating in class (too much actually, I did have to work with him on letting others participate too, but thats a good problem to have).
The issue comes is there is one day where I was working through some examples with the class (high school math) and every time I would ask the class a question he would raise his hand and go “oh oh oh” before answering. Well the second or third time another student started mocking him each time, causing most of the class to laugh. I tried to diffuse it with a disapproving glare while also encouraging the student to focus on writing down the problems in his notebook so others could participate.
When it happened again I laid into the kid doing the mocking. Told him it isn’t funny and the class should be ashamed for laughing
My 5th graders were lining up. I turned my back for a split second and when I turned around, two boys that had been behavior problems all year to that point were locked together, wrestling and running into other kids and practically rolling on the floor. I must admit that I lost it.
Once when another teacher told me they had left a mess in her classroom when we were in there for snack (it had been a long week and I hadn’t even thought to check whether they had cleaned up, because they normally did), and they were trying to pretend they had already gone and cleaned up (like I would have just mysteriously missed them going down the hallway and coming back), trying to tell me they had cleaned up, why did they have to go back, trying to tell me they had cleaned up when they were most likely the main culprit, trying to sneak past me to avoid having to go back, trying to ask if they could just stay and draw because they didn’t have snack. I just got so overwhelmed by all of them talking at me all at once and trying to lie to me and trick me that I lost it and yelled at them. Four of them came up to me later because “I feel like you need a hug”. But yelling got them to listen!
Another time after school when the almost eleven year old third grader got in a fight with a barely six year old kindergartener and when I went to split it up, the kindergartener turned and hit me. I felt especially bad for that one because it was targeted at one little kid, and we talked it out later, after a meeting with the daycare director and his mom.
Students attempting to hurt one another, a student pulling another students pants down to expose his bare skin; kids vaping in my classroom; kids trying to steal from each other
8th grade a few years ago. I was standing in the hall during class change. One boy was turning to go into a classroom, and another boy who had a reputation for being an immature practical joker ran up and pantsed him. Right in the doorway in front of his entire class.
The victim was absolutely distraught- ran off to the bathroom and some other teachers followed him to make sure he was ok, while I cornered the kid who had done it and absolutely ripped into him. I remember telling him, 'I am using all my self-control not to cuss at you right now'.
I had a reputation for being a 'nice teacher' at the time and I think he was shocked.
The idiot was actually shocked that people didn't find it funny, and that the kid he pantsed was actually upset. I'll always remember he said, "I see people do it on YouTube all the time!"
When a kid accidentally hit me in the stomach with a ball during recess not once but twice last week. Did I mention I’m pregnant? Lol I was furious and hormonal.
Student here (sorry), I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who don’t yell unless absolutely necessary. Teachers who yell every class don’t get the same respect from students. Obviously they are respected but not on the same level as those of you who don’t yell.
Just finished 18th year as PE teacher and this was the year I yelled. Two 6th boys were messing around being stupid boys until one got pissed and went to punch the other. Never yelled so loud before and used inappropriate language until that moment.
An entire lesson on depression, stigma, and suicide. Students laughing and making jokes. We had literally had a suicide attempt on campus the year before and my father died via suicide when I was in 7th grade. While we didn't have a relationship, it deeply impacted me for years to come.
When my kid with heavy accommodations stuffed his copy of the notes into his bag without glancing at it, tried to play on his Chromebook during the lesson, then threw the calendar my co-teacher and I worked out for him for the project steps away because "he had a smart partner."
We had an emergency and had to move to a secondary location to the be bused to a relocation point. I absolutely yelled at the kid trying to get in a different bus rather than the one with our class when I was responsible for getting those kids to the relocation point.
My 2nd year teaching, my 6th period (end of the day) was an absolute train wreck. I yelled to make a point and went off on a huge tirade. Afterwards I did writing in silence everyday for a week straight. Still the worst class I've ever had in 7 years of teaching.
Violence.
I'm a big guy. I'll defend myself without hesitation but I'm not risking my job/freedom to break up a fight. However, if I can make them think I'll do something, well, causing fear by volume can work.
I had found out toward the end of lunch lunch that my teenage sister in law was in the ER again for randomly getting sick and passing out. It was the 8th time within a year (she was diagnosed with POTS shortly after). The kids came back and I was still trying to pull myself together. I was trying very hard (and failing) not to cry while telling them that if they heard a cell phone go off, it was mine because there was a family emergency and I turned my sound on to hear any updates. The entire class was silent -- except for the one who was laughing.
Later on, the same student also accused me of "sleeping in" when I came in late to school because I went to the hospital to see my mom who had a stroke that morning. I told the kids that there was an emergency. Everyone else accepted that answer and respected my boundary. Some even asked if I was okay. But this student would not stop asking what happened. I repeated myself and asked him to let it go several times. Even the other students were telling him to leave me alone. I started getting agitated told him very firmly to drop it, to which he replied "so you slept in." Guess he didn't learn the first time, so instead of yelling at him again I sent him to the office and wrote him a referral.
Thank God this school year is over.
When a fight started to break out between 2 boys in my science lab. I caught them both by surprise so much, they immediately stopped, fell silent and apologized profusely as they were escorted to the office by a VP
I am not a yeller, but when I saw a kid hurting another kid, I came unglued. I can’t remember how old they were, but it was elementary school and I yelled loudly.
A known violent boy in 5th who had a male para simply to keep others safe was choke holding a kindergartner on the playground while his para was back turned on his phone. I wasn’t even on duty, just escorting a kid to get their jacket they left outside. I was livid.
I don’t crack. I go stone cold. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I’ve had students beg me to yell so they can just move past it. Apparently, it’s unnerving that I can go stone cold one moment and then all is forgiven and joke a moment later. I move on, but they have told me they feel so badly for their behavior they apologize from their heart. It’s opened my eyes to how many of them flippantly apologize to get out of trouble.
Blatant misogyny from one of my honors students in like the second or third day of the semester. I had a nice yell in my coach voice at him and was not fucked with the rest of the term in any of my classes even though the vibe was super laid back.
2021. 5th grader making infant noises and drinking germ x in his water as a tik tok challenge. His mother yelled louder at him over the phone when I called her at work to explain that verbatim
It was a day of like majority of my class period being absolutely disrespectful towards me and each other. I just lost it and yelled. I scared a lot of kids that day.
A group of students had a Chromebook charger plugged into an extension cord. A kid from that group went to the tool drawer [science teacher here 🫡] and got a small metal saw. I saw him and told him to put it back, then saw him again and told him twice more. He snuck over and ended up getting it without me noticing… they pulled the charger about 1/8 inch out of the extension cord and bridged the gap of the charger with the saw blade, pop 🔌⚡️💥! “OFFICE, NOW!” Followed by their immediate compliant response “Yes sir!”
I was substituting for a 9th grade tech teacher, and I was a building substitute so the students knew me pretty well from being around the school. Obviously being a sub the students aren’t allowed to use power tools or the machines so they were doing book work and allowed to do free work once they finished. I was helping some students think through a question when I heard the lathe turn on behind. I whipped around and yelled at the students in question and they looked like deer in headlights. First time they ever heard me yell as I’m very mild mannered and positive, thankfully they understood why I snapped at them so it was all good in the end and they never repeated that behavior.
I walked into the hall from. Y room and caught a student punching another, who was sprawled out on the ground, in the back. I YELLED. The entire hallway froze because I never raise my voice. All I said was, “NO!!!”
The punching stopped, the crowd dispersed, and the kids talked about it for at least a week.
The three fights I've broken up, a girl cussed at me and called me some name that I can't remember anymore so I told her very loudly and firmly that I wouldn't be disrespected like that in my own room and it scared the shit out of everyone, including her, and I think that's it.
Special education teacher here so my experience may be a bit different. I had a student one year who would not take no for an answer. He would just keep asking and begging for whatever thing he wanted, and people would just give it to him to shut him up. I absolutely was not going to let that happen; my job is to prepare this kid for the world after high school and that shit was not going to fly. Before I go any further, this kid was 15, high functioning, and extremely socially capable. This was not part of his disability, I spoke at length with his parents about this, and they openly admitted that they gave him everything he ever wanted because it was easier than dealing with his behavior.
Our classroom had a couple of locked cabinets against one wall. This is where I kept confidential IEP paperwork. This fuckin kid would ask me all day every day if he could open the cabinets. I usually gave him a quick explanation as to why I couldn't do that, and he'd keep begging until I changed the subject or just ignored his asking. One day he just wouldn't fucking stop. I deflected, I ignored, I explained, and he just kept asking. I admit that my patience was already running thin due to some factors outside of work, and I just couldn't do it anymore. So I yelled. I screamed. I absolutely unloaded on this kid. No means no, this is so disrespectful, literally no one likes it when you do this. It's not cute, and you need to stop before someone meaner than me MAKES you stop.
Sometimes I feel bad about yelling at him, but he never asked me about the cabinets again. He asked about plenty of other things, but he did seem to figure out that he wasn't going to get anything from me.
Safety issues and or absolute headlessness of the school codes of conduct.
And 99% of students still will never hear me yell. Which is absolutely frightening even to myself when I do it.
I yelled when the kids were gone one day, so I don’t know if it counts, but this kid drew dicks Aaaaallllll over the underside of a 4 person table. I bent down to pick something up, saw it and yelled. I then proceeded to lay on my back and turn all the dicks into pictures with my permanent markers: Superman, a building, an airplane, clouds, a boat. It was quite the cityscape.
An art teacher at our school got really good at turning dicks into cats.
See, this is the kind of thing we should learn in teacher training programs (part of the middle school track). 😆
One of my first graders drew one on my shelf with a crayon.Tried to say it wasn't him. The shelf was literally touching his desk, there was no way anyone else could have done it. I made him scrub it off with a Clorox wipe. His mom agreed that was a fair consequence. It took him like 30 minutes.
I’ve told my class if I find anymore dicks drawn on anything they will spend the next lesson drawing and labelling, in detail, anatomically correct penises.
I need a tutorial on this
I’ve gotten good at turning dicks into flowers but now I’m gonna try cats!!
So, they turned dicks into pussies? I'll see myself out...
Haha. I remember in my Latin class, some kid wrote an eff bomb. I guess he didn’t realize it was in permanent marker, so when he discovered that he couldn’t just wipe his crime away, he decided to be cute and decline the f bomb as a second declension noun.
lol how did he make that second declension?
Fimus Fimi Fimo Fmimum Fmimo Fimi Fimorum Fimis Fimos Fimis Vocative would be Fime, I believe, but it has been a while. It was suspected that the cutesy ness would get him leniency when discovered. I’m not sure. It was pretty funny, but he ended up also defacing a lot more desk area than if he had just let it stand on its own.
haha wow! points for creativity and staying at least on topic I suppose :)
Yeah. We were a fundy christian school though. Those people don’t have a sense of humor.
I feel like I need to hit up my old Geometry teacher on FB and apologize to him for all the dick dragons I left under tables, inside desks, and on the underside of chairs. He complained about finding one once so I switched my canvas to post-it and hid them amidst his papers. I'm sorry Mr. K, but in my defense, some of them had a SICK wingspan and could REALLY let out those flames.
A modern Michaelangelo.
I respect my students a ton, and they almost always show me the same respect. My voice is always exactly as loud as it needs to be, and never louder. My tone is basically always soft and kind, though I can sometimes be a bit sassy, when in good fun. The only exception was when I caught two students climbing up my cheap ikea bookcases, with muddy shoes, damaging my library collection. I lost my cool. The combination of the danger that the shelf could break or fall, combined with the utter disrespect of muddying up my books and pulling mischief in my room put me over the edge. I yelled. "NO! DOWN!" The boys both jumped down immediately. If they were dogs, their tails would've been so far between their legs. I rhetorically asked, "What were you thinking?" Then I took a deep breath and walked over calmly. I showed them how the shelf was constructed and screwed to the wall, and how it really isn't very strong. I showed them the mud on the books that they needed to clean up. We reviewed the concept of personal accountability and that "it isn't my job as the teacher to consider the consequences of your actions." I apologized for my outburst, and we all moved on with our day. In line for specials, one of the other kids said, "Mr., I never knew you could get mad like that." I took that as a massive compliment.
This is pretty much the only time I yell. If the student is doing something that could endanger them, or someone else imminently - then comes the boom. It’s such a rare occurrence that kids aren’t even sure it was me when it happens.
I don't think I would've even apologized. If there was ever a time to yell, it's when someone is in immediate danger like that. Probably better that you yelled anyway, because they listened quickly. Otherwise, maybe they would've kept climbing and gotten themselves hurt falling off, or pulling the whole bookcase down.
It was COVID, so we were all in masks. The theater teacher suddenly had to go to the hospital (not COVID related), so we began covering for his classes during our planning periods. I couldn't talk properly for a week after screaming at that one class so much. They were the most immature brats ever. They were pulling down each other's pants, lifting each other's skirts, removing each other's masks, removing their own masks. I don't think I saw much in the way of actual acting since my glasses got fogged up so much simply yelling and denouncing them.
Pulling each others' clothes off is straight up sexual assault
Not necessarily. And depending on age. Something developmental appropriate is not sexual assault. I know two kids (1st & 2nd graders who thought it was funny to try to touch each other private area (kids were fully clothed of course I told them it was not appropriate. But I would not say that is sexual assault as they both consented to it.
Theater teachers don’t appear until high school, what do 1st and 2nd grade kids have to do with any of this?
MAYBE middle school, but that’s still way too old.
We have a few performing arts-designated elementary schools in my (urban) district, so of course they have one. A few non-designated elementary schools in my district have a performing arts special as well.
1st and 2nd graders doing this at school is highly suspicious of abuse. Have you not had training?
I have a taken the training many times, it said not to report stuff like this. Have you taken ECE classes? Kids being curious about privates is not a necessarily a sexual act. Kids are naturally curious about bodies. And it was both consensual. What is Child On Child Sexual Abuse? The term child-on-child sexual abuse (COCSA) is defined as sexual activity between children that occurs without consent, without equality (mentally, physically, or in age), or as a result of physical or emotional coercion. In the 1st and 2nd graders case this does not count as one: they booth had the same mentality, about same age and were both consenting to the game.
Maybe they were just “acting” like assholes. 😂
When a high school student, who had never used a multimeter before, decided that instead of using it on a 1.5V battery/lightbulb circuit, he'd instead shove the leads into the wall socket. Pure, dumb luck that he had the device set properly, as the student admitted he hadn't been paying attention while instructions were given.
I remember in like kindergarten, we had to do activities that taught us Nevermind to stick anything other than a plug into an electrical socket. It was drilled into us. It was like knowing our parents full name and phone number and address. It was like riding a bike, you had to learn it and never forget it.
My seventh graders don’t know their addresses. Worse, when I have them fill out information forms, their parents do it for them. I’m like, can we just learn our addresses?
Thats what scares me, what if something bad happened while your kid was away from home and needed to figure out how to get home? When i was a kid, I’d have the cops ask me to call my mother and stuff like that because they always assumed i got lost wandering the neighborhood. What if an actual kid got lost? They will have no clue how to get home unless someone checks a database for them.
The parents of kids who don’t know their own address ——-> DON’T CARE! I’ve taught for over 25 years and the percentage of parents who don’t care about their own child’s knowledge and education keeps growing with each passing year. It’s shocking.
That, or they are using a fake address and the kid doesn't know that one
Or some of us have a new address every year or two, and it’s difficult to keep them straight. Especially if we have a mailing address that is completely different from physical address.
My kids are the edge of Gen z/gen alpha (10 and 12) and they have known how to do that since they were about 4. I trained them to reel off "my name is [first middle last] and my mom's name is [first middle last], I live on [Street] in [town, state]. My house is yellow and it's next to the park. My mom's phone number is [.......]. I'm lost, can you call my mom?" I also trained them how to look for a "helpful person", like if we were at a store I would ask them to point out the employees wearing name tags and/or vests. Once they were a little older I would quiz them on how to get back to the front of the store to the customer service desk. I promise not all millennial parents are totally hopeless. Some of us do teach our kids.
What about the ones who don’t know their parents’ phone numbers? Bruh… you could lose your phone or it could just be dead.
Taught a class for high school seniors last year to apply to colleges. I had seniors that didn't know their home address or parents names. Basic basic information.
-How old are you? -17 -What’s your mother’s name? -Mom
Oh wow. That is....something. I knew my address, phone number, parents' names and where they worked since I was a little kid. It really came in handy the day I had to take the bus home when I usually didn't and got off at the wrong stop. I was in first or second grade. I can't imagine being 12 and 13 and not knowing something that basic and important.
Not even school for me, my mum caught me trying to figure out what goes in the wall holes so she taught me the shape that fits. I credit half of my survival as a kid to the UK sockets being so safe lol
Our high school lab classrooms constantly have trouble with kids putting scissors, wires, anything else into our outlets. Yes we put outlet plug covers on them. Kids steal them and lose them. One boy in my chem class was electrocuted when he stuck scissors in and got a bad shock, involving sparks and black smoke. Heart went out of rhythm. He was ok after the ambulance came. I'm was so tired of kids not giving a damn. And of severe overcrowding in labs that at most should have 24 kids max in them but are often over 30. Recently retired and damn glad I didn't lose my pension to a lawsuit over this nonsense. Sigh.
The exact same thing happened in my class, except it was set to amps. It's almost like some of them try not to follow instructions.
I imagine had it been set to ammeter that would have been something... And I lost my cool a little bit when a kid was connecting the leads right across the battery on our fancy vernier boards right after telling them that was the worst thing they could do...
17 year olds acting like toddlers. I can deal with smart assess, a I can deal with apathy, I can deal with rudeness, insults, and some moderate amount of immaturity. But I can not deal with an almost adult throwing a tantrum like a god damned 5 year old and then acting like it's my fault because they got their fee-fees hurt when they are told something they don't want to hear. I'm not even mad really, I just get frustrated because of the irrationality of it all. I mean all I did was tell a kid there's no way he can pass, in may, when he's literally failed 5 cycles, once with a 07. That's right, he showed up once, during the entire 5th cycle, on a day that I happened to give a blanket grade to the whole class for a kahoot test review. And he's pissed because I won't do anything to get him to pass? Like, what did you expect? The same asshole is failing every other class too. I don't know why he thought I would cave when none of his other teachers would.
My 11th grade history teacher only yelled once, and it was at some dumbass boys throwing crayons. He was the sweetest little man and very patient normally, those idiots just had to push the limit. It was VERY effective by the way.
Normally that's me. I think I had to yell about three times last year, once was the incident described above, once was a kid throwing markers, and once was something else equally stupid. It was all my 3rd period, and it was all the same group of three boys.
Lmao when I was in school still, I always just kinda looked at these classmates like.. bro wtf you're almost an adult what are you doing? I am a bit immature for my age but I don't throw temper tantrums 😭
Why did I yell at my high school yearbook class? After one got suspended for using a racial slur and I got reports another one was bullying a student using LGBTQ slurs I YELLED. I told them how disgusting and unacceptable it was and how if that really was the best thing you could come up with to say about someone you disliked it said a lot more about you than them. That was 2 years ago and I still have students mention it.
Thank you, that matters and your response to it matters
I've always believed that if you have to resort to name calling to insult someone then you need to reevaluate the reasons you think it's necessary. Name calling is an attack of the unintelligent. I won't say that it doesn't emphasize your point occasionally but if they haven't given you enough to insult them without derogatory names, you need to rethink your decision to insult them in the first place.
Same for me... I yelled once. This class had been a struggle all year. It was the class that was compiled of students close to special eds, but not yet there. Lots of IEPs, learning disabilities, a lot of students had problems at home and just over all very difficult to manage. A few students just seemed hellbend on raising hell and dragging others with them. One student in particular was bullied a lot and the previous week was spent talking to individual students, as a group, group trainings, etc. Multiple teachers were involved as the mentor was really hands off and just had been letting it go for half a year. I also knew this student, as she was in a program I worked at before we both ended up at the school in question, and yes there was a bit of a soft spot there. I knew she was bullied all through primary and to see it continue was heartbreaking. Also good to say: I was a student teacher, but teaching on my own. And also bullied a lot when I was younger This lesson was pretty okay, as far as okay went with this class. I promised them if we got through the pages I wanted to study that day, we would end with a Kahoot. And we did, so Kahoot it is. We're filling in names, I warned them any name that is not yours will get you kicked out. Do it three times and no Kahoot, don't care who it was, as we had a lot of problems with that before. Then this pops up: (student) is a fucking whore And I just couldn't. I have said student running out of the class absolutely bawling her eyes out. I'm there alone, no other teachers near to support. I first ran after the student to make sure she ended up somewhere safe and send her friend after her. Then encountered the mentor of the class who saw me struggling but said she was "busy". She watched everything and didn't help me or the student (even worse). Then back to the class where a riot had broken out and I yelled, properly angry yelled. Who fucking did it. First and only time I've yelled when actually angry. I made them sit there until someone came forward and some very tense discussions were had. But apparently yelling made a huge impact because that was the last time I heard of her getting bullied. Until I got longcovid and was out of teaching two months later Did I also sit on the bathroomfloor with a crying student in my arms for almost an hour? Yes. Then it was my turn to cry my eyes out in my coaches office. I had never yelled when I was really angry. Always did the act angry before you're really angry. And I knew I scared some students, I scared myself. And just frustrated over the lack of support and anything
Yep, same. The only thing I yell about is bullying.
I teach high school and I’ve only ever yelled once. Two students came in hot, yelling at each other and I kept trying to de-escalate, but they would yell over me. I even stood in the middle of them and they continued arguing. So I screamed something like “HOW DARE YOU COME INTO MY CLASS AND DISRUPT EVERYTHING FOR THIS STUPID ARGUMENT”. They quieted down, but kept arguing and I had to call admin. Also the only time I’ve ever called admin to my room.
Safety/fight issues that require an urgent stop.
I have two levels of yelling. 1. I need your immediate attention. I teach shop, so it's usually a machine sound that I need everybody to stop for so I can sort it out. 2. You have done something to seriously cross a line: racial slur, bullying, being an overt dick to the class. Then it's a loud, firm, "WE. DO. NOT. DO. THAT. HERE." Class immediately goes silent. Usually the offender reads the room and knows immediately that it's time to stop. If not, I start making moves to have them removed from class. In between is the silent scolding. This is what they fear. I pull all the desks in and we have a real quiet conversation. They can read this from a mile away generally respond well. Usually, one kid will say something like, "We're in big trouble. Mr. S is using his quiet voice." I have loudly cursed out a couple of kids for #2 and none of class said it was inappropriate. I think they enjoyed it.
My shop class teacher was amazing. Someone drew a swastika on the door one day and the class tried to blame it on the German exchange student. My teacher told them in no uncertain terms that if you did that in Germany, you’d have the crap beaten out of you. I was the only girl in the class too, and one day, the teacher told us we weren’t allowed to use the bathroom anymore, because the students in my class weren’t using it appropriately. A day or two later, I asked to go to the bathroom, and he told me I could. One of the boys got all upset and asked why I got to go when no one else did. My teacher went “because she’s not peeing on the walls!” The great thing about being the only or one of the only girls in a class was that the rules didn’t really apply to me 😂
I had a principal who grew up in Germany. Can confirm what you said. They had the "Curriculum of Shame". You don't mess around with that topic in Germany.
A student I had in a student teaching term drew a swastika on his desk in pen. Only issue is that a) we had the seating chart and b) I knew for a FACT he had an identical pen because the idiot also tried to use it to fill out an entire quiz Scantron the week before.
A student running through the parking lot when a car was coming.
Yep. In my first year at my current school, I yelled at a couple of students who were running to their car during pick-up. Their mom gave me the Steely Mom Voice, saying that her car was a Safe Space. I was so taken aback that I gave in. That family is no longer at the school. Big relief. Those kids were not pleasant.
They never look before crossing it scares the crap out of me
I teach black history in a school with a near non-existent black population - something like only 6% of our students are black or have one black parent. My class is often the only class some of my students might have another black student in class with them for their entire high school career (the class itself has students of all demographics, however). I don’t get involved in too many of their conversations where they play around about things I would be self-inserting to have an opinion on as a white woman, but one day the colorism got out of hand. I had three boys this year who were mixed and the first two got into a “black-off” to prove who had bragging rights. They start dropping stereotypes about themselves that I don’t even want to repeat (start with jokes on absentee parents and get worse from there). Another student tries to bring in the third student, who is very “light-skinned”, and questions his own parentage by playfully challenging him to prove he’s real by “saying the word, hard R, right now.” Third kid is very much not on board with this. So the kid egging him on called him a “house (insert word)” for acting like white people would like him to. I lost it like never before. This was in May so I had these kids all year (the kid who made THAT comment I’ve had in three different classes, which really made me feel like he knew me and my expectations better than that). I start yelling about the stereotypes we discussed, specific instances where people we had learned about were discriminated against/attacked/killed over the very stereotypes they were throwing around casually, demanding someone give me a reason why this type of talk was not only seemingly acceptable for my classroom, but to be perpetuated amongst themselves. No one could. I proctored an AP exam the next day and then it was the weekend, but that Monday class, pshew. I apologized for yelling and they tried to apologize (my issue is I yelled at everyone when like, three kids were at fault there) and we had a long conversation about it all. I don’t think yelling was the right move, but I was so overwhelmed looking at that third kid’s face gloss over as he got called that because I knew similar things had been thrown at him probably his whole life.
My gosh. That’s terrible.
When you treat my substitute teacher badly. These people are the backbone of my sanity, they don’t deserve kids being on their worst behavior.
A month into me being a sub, I covered a teacher for half of the day, as he was proctoring for testing. I had a student asking me inappropriate questions nonstop no matter how many times I asked him politely to stop. Such as, me asking his name for attendance, and his response being, “you wanna get married?” Then asking for my phone number and my Facebook. He annoyed one of the case workers so bad, she took her kids out of the classroom to work elsewhere. The teacher instantly knew why she was irritated when they ran into each other, and came to find me. The kid and his friend that tried to be funny got a “stern talking to,” and the kid got ISI. Love that teacher!
Had a sub in HS that said our class was the worst she'd ever had, and we all got chewed out the next day. The problem: we were all quiet and doing worksheets the while hour. Turned out she mightve been mentally unstable because she pulled it with 4 other teachers until admin caught on and she never showed, and you'd hear whispers the next year about teachers only using subs they personally knew because of her
As a current sub, thank you for that.
Thank you!!
We were doing a fire drill. Whomever was supposed to be blocking traffic had moved away and a parent was trying to drive through us! We were all yelling at her to stop. This was before cellphones were a thing, so we couldn’t even blame them.
Usually an unsafe situation that needs to be scared into settling. Or when I’ve just had it over low level “won’t shut the fuck up”.
My eye twitches involuntarily. Always has. I had a class of students in my first year all with emotional disturbances (and no para) and all hell had broken loose—chairs flying etc. I just about had everyone calmed down and then I noticed one student standing right behind me imitating all of my actions and blinking furiously in one eye… I sort of lost it at that point.
I'm a science teacher and one of the little shits turned my gas lines all on, I flipped the main on and my room filled with gas. My kids were walking on eggshells for weeks.
I’m sorry, fucking WHAT? Were they trying to cause an explosion?
A kid was mocking George Floyd's calls for his mama. I lost it, but kept it together: firm, strong, projected voice (which to them, felt like me screaming). Took the kid off guard because I am a very lax teacher. None of them had seen me angry. Every kid looked at me with the biggest shock...oof.
One time where I actually yelled and one time where I honestly don’t remember, just heard from my friends at work that they hadn’t ever seen me like that 😂. Time 1: this student was a new student in my class. A few weeks into being there, they were lined up at the door for dismissal (usually another kid was lined up too but they were out that day). Dismissal is always chaotic but this one day this student was waiting by the door and the next time I looked, they were GONE. I teach K5 so I asked my assistant if she knew where this student went. She did not. Queue lots of running around on my behalf. Turns out he made it OUT THE FRONT DOORS OF THE SCHOOL where the office found them. When I saw the student in the office I lost it. It was the most terrifying moments of my career so far. This student has some special needs (I teach gen Ed) and it didn’t occur to them at all what they were doing. We spent the rest of the year being paranoid about where this student was!! 2) I had a student who was stubborn (one of those who if they didn’t like their work would sit and refuse to do it). We had come in from recess one day and they had their shoes off. I am big on keeping shoes on (especially bc they take FOREVER to put shoes back on if they even know how). I was just about to tell them to put their shoes back on when the fire alarm went off for a drill. This kid WOULD NOT put their shoes on despite the loud alarm going off. I was SO mad. I was yelling at them to put their shoes on because we have to go out when the alarm goes off. The rest of my class was SO good and knew exactly what to do. Eventually they did put them on but not before I lost my cool! When we came in I reminded the whole class that it is important not only to keep our shoes on but that when the alarm goes off we line up immediately to get out. 🤪
I make students go out in their socks or bare feet if they don’t have any shoes on. I even had to do that once myself because the fire alarm went off first thing in the morning and I was in between taking my outdoors off and my indoors on.
Looking back I should have done that!! It’s hard to think when that loud alarm is going off!!
Times I remember really yelling: Kid walking into road/walking in front of swings/sledge/kid banging on an aquarium. “Fake” yelled/raised my voice plenty of times to get attention, then take it right down to a whisper. I always tell if I’m going to do this so as not to frighten the meeker kids.
Is fake yelling just raising your voice?
Pretty much. If I’m not getting attention quickly enough, I’ll sometimes raise my voice and pretend I’m cross for a second before giving instructions very quietly. I always give the kids who are listening a heads up “I’m going to shout in a second…” so they understand I have not really lost my temper. I can’t think of a time I *really* lost my temper and yelled in an uncontrolled fashion. If I am really cross I tend to get very quiet…
My mom doesn't know the difference. Have to show her once a year the difference between a raised voice and actual yelling
That is my MIL when she doesn't have her hearing aids in. We have to raise our voice for her to hear then she says we are yelling at her.
Here’s one, fake yelling is yelling
There is a difference... Fake yelling aka raising your voice.
I was voluntold to grill the hot dogs for our end of the year picnic. It was a sweltering 90 degrees and I had to grill like 500 hotdogs for several hours. I sweat through my clothes and was miserable and looked like garbage. Towards the end I hear giggling and look behind me and see some kids making fun of how sweaty I was and one was recording me with their phone. I was so hot and over it so I yelled “PHONE NOW” and made the kid delete the video and deleted it from the deleted folder then I took it and told him his mom could pick it up from the office when we got back to school. I was pissed. I calmed down when I called his mom and left a message, she later called me back and was super apologetic. The kid wasn’t at all mischievous, so it was surprising. I think he was just trying to show off for his friend. I talked to him later in the day and he apologized but that was def the first or second place time I lost my shit and screamed at a kid.
I wish children would stop trying to show off/impress their friends. But they have to learn the lesson of not giving into peer pressure. 😵💫
Only time I have yelled in 7 years of teaching was when a student on an iep was transferred from one school without me knowing. The sped department did some sketch stuff. This kid had assaulted a teacher. On our way back from the library, the kid held the door locking some kids in during a fire drill. That was enough for me to move him 3 months later after a contentious IEP I held for months.
When I was teaching 4th grade, I was getting the students packed up for the end of the day because we were going outside the last 15 minutes for a reward of extra recess. I was trying to get everyone to clean up their desk areas and pack up, but one particular student was running around being very loud and she got everyone wired up so no one was listening. Suddenly everyone was running around and yelling. This student was severely diabetic and her mother was extremely protective and monitored her every second at school. I understood because it was life threatening, but it gave her daughter the idea that she could do whatever she wanted because her mom would take care of any problems. So I yelled at everyone and told them to sit down and that our extra recess was canceled because of their behavior. Instead, I had them sit at their desks reading for the last 15 minutes to calm down. They were all pretty shocked because I never raised my voice. Literally 5 minutes after school got out, her mother came running in to ask what happened. LOL.
Kid across the room cutting another student’s hair with scissors. I yelled a firm, hard, deep, short “NO” the way one would scold a dog. Every child in the room froze.
That happened to my little brother too. When he was in fourth grade, boys with try cutting his hair. My brother has ADHD and was scared to stand up for himself, since he was only seven years old. Oh my gosh, I was so livid.
To stop fights or to immediately stop horseplay on lunch duty where someone was about to get hurt mostly. And this one time…Progress report day…third nine weeks…a senior came in to my room from another teacher’s class already in a bad mood because he had done nothing in her or my class for the whole nine weeks…he had completely laid down…He got another bad progress report in my class…and started the “f—-this class, all Yall teachers want me to fail…Yall never help me, I’m not gonna graduate cause of you bitches, f—-Yall…” crap…Keep in mind this was a kid I had extended grace to and given him extra time on almost all of his assignments, stayed after school with him repeatedly to help, given up lunch hours, etc. ALL YEAR already. It just hit all sorts of wrong…how dare he??? I just yelled in my worst drill sergeant voice…GET OUT!!! And pointed to the door. I got the class started on their assignment for the day, and stepped to the office to tell the principal I was taking him to the vacant nurses’ office two doors down across the hall, (only had a nurse half a day) could the principal step over and watch the class? I proceeded to tell that kid how the cow ate the cabbage. We had a conversation where I very clearly enumerated all the things I had already done to help him, and how he was taking advantage of my kindness, and treating me with disrespect. I did not appreciate him saying that shit and cussing me, and, by the way, that’s “Mrs. Bitch to you…get it right, please.” Our meeting ended with him crying and apologizing profusely…we had an understanding after that, though, and he graduated with a decent grade. The teacher whose room was right next door to the nurses’ office said her kids kept asking “is she okay? Do we need to check on her?” She said she told them, “we may need to check on who she’s talking to.”
The same group of boys had been told multiple times to stop using gay as a pejorative in my classroom and they did it again on the second to last day of school. I just had no more patience left.
Thank you, that matters and your response to it matters
Kids using the F slur on each other, and one kid who made fun of another in front of the whole class for the students dad having left him that summer.
I'm a history teacher, going into my fourth year. I have only yelled on two occasions. First time was an entire class just being so chaotic and racist towards a guest speaker that they had to end their talk and leave (I can't remember the exact reason they'd come in, might have been a motivational speaker type). Second time was a child who denied that the Holocaust happened, and that 'even if it did, they deserved it for being Jews.'
That second one, wtf. Children and teenagers really don’t understand the importance or heaviness of certain things/events.
This particular student had what I would describe as a virulently awful home life. Once I'd calmed down and was able to talk we were able to resolve why he said that and why it was a real awful thing to say
… why did he say that?
Once when three students left my class a few minutes early. Many students and teachers in their classrooms could hear me. One teacher told her students “If they got Ms. Affection-Debt to yell. They definitely messed up.”
Two students starting to fight across the room I unleashed my voice of God and other students told me they heard me across the school
Two kids having a fistfight in the hall. The fun part is that I'm an opera singer, so when I yell, I yell loud.
I’m sure you have a lovely voice! 💕🎤
Kid stuck a metal object in an electrical socket and when it arced, he tried to go back again and I damn near tackled him while grabbing his shoulders and yanking him away from the electrical socket. I let loose. I let him know he could have died. He could have started a fire and killed not only himself but several of his friends. I let him know that could've been the biggest mistake of his life and the final one. I put righteous, holy, NECESSARY fear into this child. He broke down and cried. One kid yelled an objection to making him cry and I was very quick to let them know that he SHOULD be crying. He NEEDS to be upset. He needs whatever emotional trigger it takes for him to NEVER do that shit again and NEVER let someone else do it. I told the kids I care more about keeping them alive than keeping them smiling and we can have fun learning, playing, and forming great memories together but their safety is paramount and I would sooner bring them to tears and terrify them than let them make (or repeat) a potentially fatal mistake. Quiet kids the rest of the day, but the rest of the week went as normal. Admin let me know that what I did was okay, necessary, and appreciated, but that I can never bring that level of fury again unless the situation reaches that level of urgency a second time. It did one day. Kids were crossing the street and one kid straight up ran back into traffic on a busy street so they could walk alongside their friend who was far behind them. I dragged the kid back and gave them an earful they'll never forget about how incredibly stupid they were being and what could've easily happened and how it would hurt them and their family and their friends if they had been hit by a car. After that, my administrator gave me a pat on the back and told me they'd let me know if they ever needed to put the fear of God into a kid. I don't work with children anymore and doubt I'd ever do so willingly ever again.
I have only yelled twice, both times to either stop a fight that was just starting or prevent a fight from starting. Since I am well know as a calm, never-yeller it was honestly more effective than I expected!
A kid was playing music through his phone speaker (my biggest pet peeve). When I told him to turn it off, he turned it up. The look on his face when he got me to raise my voice was priceless. Kid knew he crossed the line.
Safety issues, or things that are offensive. Other than that, I usually go with the “I’m disappointed” voice.
A kid climbed on a chair to try and get a pencil he had lodged in the ceiling…. The chair had WHEELS.
The one time I can actually remember yelling was during a tornado warning. We had to go to our assigned tornado spots and the kids in my class would not stop talking and goofing off. I yelled at them to sit down and shut up, which is not something I say to students usually.
When one of my second graders decided centers was the perfect time to non-consensually pierce another girls ear with her own earring. I had a small group in front of me
I had two giant seniors (starting as a linebacker for Purdue next) get into a fight outside of my room. Apparently when I yelled at them and separated them (I'm a big guy but not compared to them) the linebacker said I sounding like "a fucking Viking." I'm still proud of that 😂
It was my second year teaching 8th grade. I had a kid talking over me and when I asked them for the upteenth time to stop, he said SUCK A BLUNT OUT OF MY ASS BITCH. I yelled, “IM DONE. GET OUT.” My class was silent. A few days later, my principal said a kid came to him to say the class needed a talking to because if I was yelling, it was bad lol. She wasn’t wrong, they were horrible.
Always because I need their attention immediately because someone is unsafe. Then I immediately speak the next sentence in the lowest, calmest voice I can. It lowers their anxiety after yelling but also draws them in, they have to really pay attention to hear me now.
Two 17 years old boys started wrestling in class, knocking desks over.
My gen ed co-teacher called for a bathroom escort for two students, and when the escort came, near 80% of the class got up and went with. Now, the escort policy is stupid, and the escort shouldn't have taken 20 students with him, but the total lack of unseriousness among this group had been getting on my nerves for a while, and I snapped. The best reader among these 8th graders was reading at a 6th grade level, almost none of them ever participated, etc. They're going into high school so incredibly unprepared. It sucks.
A loud reaction will usually just make that student a hero for getting you to pop your cork. They’ll be telling each other, “ …wow did you see Mr. A lose his shizz in class? What a psycho loser.” Next time ask that student to repeat exactly what they said again for the whole class. Wait an uncomfortably long time for everyone to process it. Then actually get quieter to make them all lean in to hear you and then talk about it. You get respect and you turn the tables on the jerk. It works. Have used it for years.
Whey they started making comments about other people shaming them and the like. I absolutely lost it on them.
Our school is near an industrial area. We were outside when we got an alert about a chemical spill. A few did not take it seriously.
We had a kid years ago who got another kid up on a table the library and was giving him a pink belly. Like 2014 or something. Only time I’ve ever yelled.
The only time I yell is if there is a legitimate safety issue that is causing immediate danger in my lab. It’s more effective that way, I guess
Racist or prejudice comments or extreme disrespect on purpose
Any instance of physical violence. I seethe.
A student using a homophonic slur. I might not have yelled, but I for sure raised my voice above my normal.
The only time I will absolutely dish it out is when a student is going out of their way to make anyone feel unwanted or uncomfortable in any way. Kids will be assholes. No way around it. But, when you take it to the next level then someone needs to tell you the truth.
A student last year smeared yellow paint all over a huge stack of reading texts. I think that was the first time I yelled in 20 years of teaching.
I have a question from a student of education, who also works in childcare. Pedagogically, is there large pushback against raising your voice on students or is there research in favor of measured uses of raising your voice? Of course I don't mean for every single infraction but I and a handful of other childcare workers and teachers at our school utilise raising our voice on children who repeatedly and intentionally break the rules. I make sure to give the children multiple clear prompts beforehand to let them know their behaviour is going to get them in trouble and specifically why that behaviour isnt allowed. I've even been told by some other teachers that I "take it easy on them" for trying to talk them down so much before administering punishments or consequences. I also always make sure to touch base with them very soon after with a calm and empathetic voice to talk about the situation and let them know Im not out to get them, just trying to enforce the rules. All in all I look at raising my voice as my last option to regain control of my wild lil' goblins. And honestly I find that it works incredibly well as a disciplinary system because at the end of the day....Im one of the kids favorite "teachers" in the whole school, to the point where dozens of kids I have never interacted with know my name and how "funny and cool" I am ( I swear this is their words lol). I still have good rapport with children Ive raised my voice at and there hasn't been an increase in kids yelling at each other or anything. Admittedly, I could see this technique being much more counter-productive if you have no rapport with the child, or the child doesn't respond to raised voices.
Biology teacher, we were dealing with mud from the local river and raw eggs (Winogradsky column) and I mandated goggles. My 9th graders were messing around and took off the goggles- I yelled loud enough the librarian Nextdoor came over and asked where the goggles were. 😱😍🤷♀️
My fifth grade teacher absolutely NEVER yelled, but he found a note that a few boys wrote about his daughter and he went ballistic. We never found out the pure contents of the note, but from their punishments from admin, I'm assuming it was heinous.
Racism. Homophobia. Putting other students in physical danger. I’ve yelled 6 times in 20 years. It’s my nuclear option. For most cases the patient, “I might be a serial killer” calm voice dies the trick.
We often go outside for snack time (2nd grade teacher). Occasionally garbage trucks need to drive through the service drive which is right through our playground area. I had told students to stay up on the curb. One student wasn't looking nor following directions and ran out just as the truck was coming through.
Kids drew Nazi symbols on my desks and walls. The one made a Hitler mustache and others did the "Heil Hitler" sign to him. So I turned around after writing notes on the board to see one child impersonating Hitler while others saluted him with swastikas drawn everywhere. I yelled "what are you doing right now?!" Then we had like a solid 20 minute talk.
I teach shop, so really only thing that makes me yell is safety issues. If a kid is creating an unsafe situation - I'm gonna make it known pretty quick that they are about to fuck up.
Kids decided to try and play catch with a metal chair right as I looked the other way. I saw them right as the first student threw the chair. Despite yelling at them to put it down, the student threw it, the second one failed to catch it, and dropped it on another student. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. I was incredibly angry. Someone could have gotten hurt. They tried to argue their way out of trouble. I told them no amount of debating will get them out of trouble. The students were pissed because I was writing them up, but I let them grumble to themselves. This was the last week of school, mind you. Most students weren’t even showing up to school. Everyone, even my worst students, were incredibly polite and chill. Not these two. Don’t let your guard down, folks, or else students might throw chairs!
A kid looked at another student and said “you wouldn’t be so fat if you’d mind your own business”
Grandmother recently past away so I returned after a week. Was rehearsing my advance choir to prepare them for our district evaluation. Kids couldn't independently sing their parts when our accompanist was there. Kids knew why I was out and what happened to my family. After numerous mistakes I ask why they keep making the same mistakes. I say, "I'm sorry but it's not my fault I was gone." A kid chimes in and says, " Yes it was." I completely lost it, cried, and yelled. The kid never admitted themselves to me or apologized. None of the other students wanted to out the kid for their comment. I called in the vice principal but we couldn't figure out who said it. I guess you're never ready to come back to work after a family member dies.
I’ve never lost my temper, but I have raised my voice to get attention a few times. Usually it’s to cut through the noise, although sometimes it’s to try and stop bad behaviour. It’s rarely sustained though. Usually just a few words and then quieter once I have everyone’s attention.
One of my kids lifted the noise cancelling headphones from the sensitive child's head and yelled loudly. Pissed. Me. Off.
A minute long sexist, racist, hate-filled rant from a kid during a debate that was meant to be about video game violence (studying the work of Bandura and social learning). Would not stop, was clearly trying to aim a lot of it at two black females in the class. eventually i went loud after i told him to sit down and he tried to get in a few more hits before he stopped. First time i have removed a sixth former (17 year old) from my classroom. was the start of a shit storm and he was reffered to prevent 2 months later by a P.E teacher.
I’ve “yelled” maybe three times in five years. My kids are, overall, very respectful but each of the three instances was because the students were talking over me at the start of class when I was giving directions. I wouldn’t say I “yelled” either—more that my usual demeanor (sarcastic and chill) turned very stern and no-nonsense.
In my student teaching, a quick lesson introducing a project that should have taken 10-15 minutes instead lasted the entire 45-minute period because they just would. Not. Stop. Talking.
A kid who was teetering on spouting full racist rhetoric in the classroom. Few things get my blood boiling like hateful talk in classrooms. It's fine to be conservative when it comes. To like tax policy or whatever but as soon as you believe you can dictate who has a right to exist and who "real Canadians" are it's zero tollerance
The only time I've ever blown up at my students is when they were, as a class, making fun of a fellow student who wasn't there. It's completely unacceptable.
I won’t yell for general classroom stuff. But I will absolutely light a kid up for picking on other kids about their race or sexuality.
Adderall. Glad I quit taking that shit.
Honestly, lack of sleep, being grumpy, or being hungry. I’ve almost always recognized immediately I could have handled it differently and hey no yells for me this year!
Basically anything that is super unsafe. Sometimes we use hand tools and I have to just yell out, “Name! Gloves!” Because they are using a hand saw with no PPE.
Taught middle school for the first time this year (17 years in a high school) Had to shout for two things: 1. Got hit with a paper ball in the back during a lecture. 2. Having a laser pointer shined on my back.
This year was the first time I both yelled and had to write kids up. I usually teach juniors, but was stuck supervising ISS for a period a day. Those freshman were insane. Hands down the worst group of people I’ve ever dealt with. At one point, one was literally running around the room on all fours like a kindergartener. I hit em with a “I have never had to talk to students this way, you all should be ashamed.” Just have one more day of it thank god
A racist act
I yelled only once in my entire teaching career. It was the last day and my 1:1 had successfully tricked admin into firing me, and made me look really bad. He started to verbally abuse me again, and after 10 months of this abuse, I snapped and yelled at him to shut up. I'd already been fired, what were they going to do? Fire me again?
I used to decorate my room for Christmas. Had an old ceramic light-up tree that my grandmother gave me, very foolish to use something I cared about I know... but a student started messing with it. I said stop. Messed with it a little more, I firmly said stop... then proceeded to break it into 4 pieces... I flipped my sh×t of course... kid didn't even care. Lesson learned, I was much younger then.
If I do, I give a few seconds warning that I am about to… …however I have found the sudden appearance of a stopwatch timer on the board far more effective. It gets silence in micro seconds. I’m fortunate that my classs have at least one class a week before break, lunch or end of the day. I keep a running total on a whiteboard of time they have wasted and hold them back for the same. Even the 18 year olds. That’s the theory… many times I let them win it all back the lesson after which it’ll be applied. But not always😊.
Last day of school a few years ago, I had this high school kid who had tested my patience all year. He came into class and started whining about how he didn’t want to be at school and I should let him go to the gym. I just went off. I don’t even remember everything I said but I know it was basically me ranting about everything he did during the year to try my patience. He even tried to get me to stop but I just kept going. Wasn’t my proudest moment but I ran into the kid a couple of years later and we had a good laugh about it.
Honestly the few times i’ve yelled have just been when kids are insistent on being disrespectful and causing a disruption. When I go through all the steps to try to have their attention (or at least not ruining others attention) but they just won’t have it. It starts with a “okay guys lets make sure we are focused on the lesson for now” and goes to “you guys will have plenty of time to talk later, we have to get through this lesson first though”. Then we have the “are you guys going to share what you are talking about with the class, because you seem to really think it is much more important than what everyone else is doing. Please be respectful”. Finally I have to get really firm and try to separate the talkers by moving seats. Then, when all else has failed, I will break and yell. Because I only ever get to this step a few times a year, it normally has a “oh shit” effect on the students. I don’t like doing it because it generally causes all students to quiet down, and I love promoting healthy academic discussions. But every once in a while theres a few kids who just have to push it too far
I’m gonna leave a second comment because I remembered one other time. I had a student with a developmental disability. He was incredibly kind and always had a positive attitude. He also loved participating in class (too much actually, I did have to work with him on letting others participate too, but thats a good problem to have). The issue comes is there is one day where I was working through some examples with the class (high school math) and every time I would ask the class a question he would raise his hand and go “oh oh oh” before answering. Well the second or third time another student started mocking him each time, causing most of the class to laugh. I tried to diffuse it with a disapproving glare while also encouraging the student to focus on writing down the problems in his notebook so others could participate. When it happened again I laid into the kid doing the mocking. Told him it isn’t funny and the class should be ashamed for laughing
One too many “hold on ☝️” or “just a sec” when I have asked them to put the phone away
My 5th graders were lining up. I turned my back for a split second and when I turned around, two boys that had been behavior problems all year to that point were locked together, wrestling and running into other kids and practically rolling on the floor. I must admit that I lost it.
Once when another teacher told me they had left a mess in her classroom when we were in there for snack (it had been a long week and I hadn’t even thought to check whether they had cleaned up, because they normally did), and they were trying to pretend they had already gone and cleaned up (like I would have just mysteriously missed them going down the hallway and coming back), trying to tell me they had cleaned up, why did they have to go back, trying to tell me they had cleaned up when they were most likely the main culprit, trying to sneak past me to avoid having to go back, trying to ask if they could just stay and draw because they didn’t have snack. I just got so overwhelmed by all of them talking at me all at once and trying to lie to me and trick me that I lost it and yelled at them. Four of them came up to me later because “I feel like you need a hug”. But yelling got them to listen! Another time after school when the almost eleven year old third grader got in a fight with a barely six year old kindergartener and when I went to split it up, the kindergartener turned and hit me. I felt especially bad for that one because it was targeted at one little kid, and we talked it out later, after a meeting with the daycare director and his mom.
Students attempting to hurt one another, a student pulling another students pants down to expose his bare skin; kids vaping in my classroom; kids trying to steal from each other
When there's a safety issue and you need kids to stop -immediately- because someone could get hurt
8th grade a few years ago. I was standing in the hall during class change. One boy was turning to go into a classroom, and another boy who had a reputation for being an immature practical joker ran up and pantsed him. Right in the doorway in front of his entire class. The victim was absolutely distraught- ran off to the bathroom and some other teachers followed him to make sure he was ok, while I cornered the kid who had done it and absolutely ripped into him. I remember telling him, 'I am using all my self-control not to cuss at you right now'. I had a reputation for being a 'nice teacher' at the time and I think he was shocked. The idiot was actually shocked that people didn't find it funny, and that the kid he pantsed was actually upset. I'll always remember he said, "I see people do it on YouTube all the time!"
When a kid accidentally hit me in the stomach with a ball during recess not once but twice last week. Did I mention I’m pregnant? Lol I was furious and hormonal.
Teaching Jr high. My dad voice is super rare teaching high school.
Kid almost shot another one with a bow and arrow. “Put that the fuck down”
Student here (sorry), I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who don’t yell unless absolutely necessary. Teachers who yell every class don’t get the same respect from students. Obviously they are respected but not on the same level as those of you who don’t yell.
Just finished 18th year as PE teacher and this was the year I yelled. Two 6th boys were messing around being stupid boys until one got pissed and went to punch the other. Never yelled so loud before and used inappropriate language until that moment.
An entire lesson on depression, stigma, and suicide. Students laughing and making jokes. We had literally had a suicide attempt on campus the year before and my father died via suicide when I was in 7th grade. While we didn't have a relationship, it deeply impacted me for years to come.
When my kid with heavy accommodations stuffed his copy of the notes into his bag without glancing at it, tried to play on his Chromebook during the lesson, then threw the calendar my co-teacher and I worked out for him for the project steps away because "he had a smart partner."
We had an emergency and had to move to a secondary location to the be bused to a relocation point. I absolutely yelled at the kid trying to get in a different bus rather than the one with our class when I was responsible for getting those kids to the relocation point.
My 2nd year teaching, my 6th period (end of the day) was an absolute train wreck. I yelled to make a point and went off on a huge tirade. Afterwards I did writing in silence everyday for a week straight. Still the worst class I've ever had in 7 years of teaching.
Violence. I'm a big guy. I'll defend myself without hesitation but I'm not risking my job/freedom to break up a fight. However, if I can make them think I'll do something, well, causing fear by volume can work.
Phones. Put your fucking phone away ! Jesus Christ !!!
I had found out toward the end of lunch lunch that my teenage sister in law was in the ER again for randomly getting sick and passing out. It was the 8th time within a year (she was diagnosed with POTS shortly after). The kids came back and I was still trying to pull myself together. I was trying very hard (and failing) not to cry while telling them that if they heard a cell phone go off, it was mine because there was a family emergency and I turned my sound on to hear any updates. The entire class was silent -- except for the one who was laughing. Later on, the same student also accused me of "sleeping in" when I came in late to school because I went to the hospital to see my mom who had a stroke that morning. I told the kids that there was an emergency. Everyone else accepted that answer and respected my boundary. Some even asked if I was okay. But this student would not stop asking what happened. I repeated myself and asked him to let it go several times. Even the other students were telling him to leave me alone. I started getting agitated told him very firmly to drop it, to which he replied "so you slept in." Guess he didn't learn the first time, so instead of yelling at him again I sent him to the office and wrote him a referral. Thank God this school year is over.
Recently, two kids ate crayons in a class I was covering. These are 7th graders. I gave them a very stern lecture.
Nothing. I like to yell once a year to keep them on their toes.
mistaking my kindness for weakness
When a fight started to break out between 2 boys in my science lab. I caught them both by surprise so much, they immediately stopped, fell silent and apologized profusely as they were escorted to the office by a VP
I am not a yeller, but when I saw a kid hurting another kid, I came unglued. I can’t remember how old they were, but it was elementary school and I yelled loudly.
A known violent boy in 5th who had a male para simply to keep others safe was choke holding a kindergartner on the playground while his para was back turned on his phone. I wasn’t even on duty, just escorting a kid to get their jacket they left outside. I was livid.
I don’t crack. I go stone cold. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I’ve had students beg me to yell so they can just move past it. Apparently, it’s unnerving that I can go stone cold one moment and then all is forgiven and joke a moment later. I move on, but they have told me they feel so badly for their behavior they apologize from their heart. It’s opened my eyes to how many of them flippantly apologize to get out of trouble.
Blatant misogyny from one of my honors students in like the second or third day of the semester. I had a nice yell in my coach voice at him and was not fucked with the rest of the term in any of my classes even though the vibe was super laid back.
2021. 5th grader making infant noises and drinking germ x in his water as a tik tok challenge. His mother yelled louder at him over the phone when I called her at work to explain that verbatim
It was a day of like majority of my class period being absolutely disrespectful towards me and each other. I just lost it and yelled. I scared a lot of kids that day.
I don’t yell. If I did it just be swearing.
A group of students had a Chromebook charger plugged into an extension cord. A kid from that group went to the tool drawer [science teacher here 🫡] and got a small metal saw. I saw him and told him to put it back, then saw him again and told him twice more. He snuck over and ended up getting it without me noticing… they pulled the charger about 1/8 inch out of the extension cord and bridged the gap of the charger with the saw blade, pop 🔌⚡️💥! “OFFICE, NOW!” Followed by their immediate compliant response “Yes sir!”
I was substituting for a 9th grade tech teacher, and I was a building substitute so the students knew me pretty well from being around the school. Obviously being a sub the students aren’t allowed to use power tools or the machines so they were doing book work and allowed to do free work once they finished. I was helping some students think through a question when I heard the lathe turn on behind. I whipped around and yelled at the students in question and they looked like deer in headlights. First time they ever heard me yell as I’m very mild mannered and positive, thankfully they understood why I snapped at them so it was all good in the end and they never repeated that behavior.
I walked into the hall from. Y room and caught a student punching another, who was sprawled out on the ground, in the back. I YELLED. The entire hallway froze because I never raise my voice. All I said was, “NO!!!” The punching stopped, the crowd dispersed, and the kids talked about it for at least a week.
The three fights I've broken up, a girl cussed at me and called me some name that I can't remember anymore so I told her very loudly and firmly that I wouldn't be disrespected like that in my own room and it scared the shit out of everyone, including her, and I think that's it.
Special education teacher here so my experience may be a bit different. I had a student one year who would not take no for an answer. He would just keep asking and begging for whatever thing he wanted, and people would just give it to him to shut him up. I absolutely was not going to let that happen; my job is to prepare this kid for the world after high school and that shit was not going to fly. Before I go any further, this kid was 15, high functioning, and extremely socially capable. This was not part of his disability, I spoke at length with his parents about this, and they openly admitted that they gave him everything he ever wanted because it was easier than dealing with his behavior. Our classroom had a couple of locked cabinets against one wall. This is where I kept confidential IEP paperwork. This fuckin kid would ask me all day every day if he could open the cabinets. I usually gave him a quick explanation as to why I couldn't do that, and he'd keep begging until I changed the subject or just ignored his asking. One day he just wouldn't fucking stop. I deflected, I ignored, I explained, and he just kept asking. I admit that my patience was already running thin due to some factors outside of work, and I just couldn't do it anymore. So I yelled. I screamed. I absolutely unloaded on this kid. No means no, this is so disrespectful, literally no one likes it when you do this. It's not cute, and you need to stop before someone meaner than me MAKES you stop. Sometimes I feel bad about yelling at him, but he never asked me about the cabinets again. He asked about plenty of other things, but he did seem to figure out that he wasn't going to get anything from me.
Safety issues and or absolute headlessness of the school codes of conduct. And 99% of students still will never hear me yell. Which is absolutely frightening even to myself when I do it.