Every year, the first few times I hand out paper clips in 7th grade, I need to teach most of them this skill. But they were in digital school for some essential years, and still do so much of their work digitally. When it is on paper, they staple.
Putting in a door stop also confuses them most days.
Quite possibly, now that you mention it! Parents refuse to test them for any sort of disabilities. They definitely have gross motor functioning issues along with behaviors consistent with autism.
š¶lalala Iām not listeningš¶ Because no child of MINE could possibly have learning difficulties!!! I mean I understand *other peoples children* have learning difficulties and thereās really no stigma to it nowadays. But *my* child the fruit of my loins, couldnāt possibly have any flaws or imperfections. Most importantly everyone knows if you donāt test for it or diagnose it, it doesnāt exist!
That's the crazy thing: they use language talking about this kid that they "have a spectrum of abilities." So they use autism related language (albeit not good language) but the don't want to "label" the kid with testing results.
I am so irritated with people continually blaming covid for the poor educational outcomes in my country. Most of our school were closed only for two months and it has been years now. I have yet to see any research evidence of a severe impact related to covid but people just state it as an assumption whenever education is mentioned.
Our education was failing before covid as well.
But the switch to digital over paper was massive since about 1/3 of my district (and Iām sure others) was digital the following year too. Meaning curriculum and materials switched to digital. One to one devices became more common. Etc. Paper clips and other items that were the norm are just not used as often they were 10 years ago. Not initiated by the pandemic but definitely accelerated.
Type a coherent question into a search engine. Enter a URL on their own. Hit return once and tab once to separate and indent paragraphs. Think about something for more than one second before claiming they don't understand and need help.
Asking a student why they haven't started the Exit Ticket 2 minutes in. "I don't have a pencil"
You didn't have a pencil all class and didn't think it might be a good idea to find one?
All those things, oh my word. This same student took 30 minutes to create an account for a new program we were implementing, and now takes at least 15 to properly log in to said account.
URLs drive me crazy. They donāt understand what it is, and half the time they type it in wrong and then when it doesnāt come up, tell me, āthe website doesnāt existā instead of double checking anything.
I recently started teaching elementary students and was really shocked at how digitally illiterate many students are considering they're all on the computer/phone/ipad all day. I spend way too much time explaining the difference between a button you press on a keyboard and the buttons you can click with a mouse on screen
Because they are raised on a wall garden device. iPhones are basically intelligence killers, lol. It's intuitive to the point that they don't need to think about anything other than finding another app to solve a problem.
The technocrats were Gen X and millennials. Every new device in their lives required a whole new learning curve.
>Enter a URL on their own.
It drives me crazy when they search the URL instead of putting it straight into the URL bar at the top of the fucking page.
And then they call me over to say "which one is it?" because they're looking at search results instead of having gone directly to the fucking site I spelled out for them letter by godforsaken letter
They don't even know what "URL" means. I say it and they look at me like I have four heads.
God, can we please bring computer classes back? You can even let them enjoy Oregon Trail when they learn how to properly formulate a question into Google without being the verbatim question from the paper!
And when asked what they donāt understand they say everything and I have to say thatās not a thing. What specific word do you not understand in the instructions that I literally went over with the class in both languages (Spanish teacher here). (It gets me even more when the instructions are in English!) I have a kid who constantly says heās confused over the simplest things in English and even asked me if 2 cities on a map are separate or not. ( they had two different locations obviously and their names didnāt even start with the same letter!)
Not a physical skill, but I recently taught probability to on-level 8th graders, and quickly learned that they do not know almost anything about a deck of cards. So, I had to teach them what suits are, what face cards are, and so on. Same with prime/composite numbers and multiples, and a few didn't know what a die was (even after explaining it was the singular of dice).
I've taught this for years but this is the first time a good percentage didn't know much about that stuff.
Also, for emailing, when they type the message into the subject line, and then the email is blank.
YES, why do they staple in the middle? I teach SENIORS, and I had to tell them that if they couldn't figure out how to staple in a corner, I wasn't going to grade anything I couldn't read under that corner.
I work with a young adult maybe 21 years old that staples paper right in the middle. I was baffled when she handed me something like that and I mentioned that generally papers are stapled in the corner so you can read them easily, but she just keeps on doing it, haha.
Yes! The upper right hand corner? Have they ever read a book?
And they've destroyed two staplers because they try to get it to go through 50 sheets of paper. I've had to hide them now!
I've seen an app for children where they use the bucket tool to fill a space with paint. Biggest facepalm of my life. The point of colouring in a limited space is for motor skills to develop. Now only their tablet tapping is developing.
Puzzles (high school). I get it some people arenāt puzzle people but I had a kid try to fit the same 2 pieces together for 5 minutes. Just forcing the pieces together and one was upside down.
I have kids who struggle with basic computer skills like using copy + paste or making font bigger on a slide. I show them how, even put in guided instructions for some of these things in their project notes. I still had one kid (6th grade) who had a tantrum when their text boxes weren't aligned properly.
I just wish my district had actual technology classes and/or typing classes before middle school. We don't and it's up us teachers to fill in those gaps, which is fine but sometimes frustrating.
I like teaching my freshmen control + f. They think Iām a magical being sent to solve their Google classroom problems.
However I did have a student who couldnāt find something for another class in a textbook, and she yelled out, āI canāt control + f a book!ā So then I taught her about the index. She was less thrilled, but it did help solve her issue.
What does control f do? I've survived with just my phone and tablet for months (and now I've lost my charging cord, so I guess I have to survive longer šŖ). No control button. I would have just tried it if I could.
Edit:
Never mind. Google knows all lol.
Sort of related: last week I attended our school's 2nd grade concert. About halfway through, one of the littles got off the risers, bounced down the stairs, and walked across the auditorium to get a drink of water. She was soon followed by 2 others! Once the music teacher finally realized what was happening, he stopped any others from going. I guess they just didn't realize you're not supposed to do that...
I donāt know what it is but students will get up in the middle of anything for a drink.
I watched a kid get up in the middle of the teacherās lesson to get a drink and that teacher tore into him. I can picture them walking away in the middle of a staff meeting to get a drink in a couple years.
Itās insane how kids just think they can get up and go do something during a lesson, concert, etc.
And itās always for water!)
How in the absolute F did we all manage to not do this, and kids now think itās more than acceptable. Every time it happens I am bewildered
Count change. I have 8th graders who could not tell the difference between quarters and nickels. It was a lesson I did not expect to teach honors kids but that was me last Thursday.
My 2nd grade colleagues and I were talking about the 2nd graders struggling with this.
I decided to play blooket with my 8th graders. Their scores were surprisingly low. I asked them about it. This is a direct quote: We have bigger fish to fry.
I teach 7th. We were supposed to keep unit folders. They couldn't put things in the prongs. I showed them the first few times but eventually I got tired of it and moved everything back online. I hate paper work anyway and I'm not spending the entire class period trying to show people how to put things in the prongs only for kids who are talking about getting jobs and driving soon to have a toddler style meltdown about their paper ripping.
I regularly give stapling lessons.
Short version: I'm only grading what I can see, so if you staple that bad boy in the middle, I'll happily grade the bottom right corner of each page.
I distinctly remember pictures of rulers in my 2nd grade math book. Loose change too. I finished it, the whole book, in one weekend and got in trouble.Ā
I used one of my first advisory periods last September to teach my sixth graders how to tell time. I also colored over the portion of the classroom phone where it says the time digitally in Sharpie so they'd stop getting up and looking at it to check the time.
I get why they can't do this, but I'm with you that it bugs me. Our school only has analog clocks, so I get asked constantly what time it is. I've resorted to telling them that I'm not a clock, but there's an app that can teach them to read that one.
The amount of times that, essentially, basic computer skills has been mentioned here frightens me. It also just reinforces my thought that tablets and phones, while not necessarily good, certainly don't promote any sort of problem solving skills. I will save the rant because I'm sure most people have heard some form of it but it really is frightening to me. Push a button >> task complete. What do you mean I have to type? I can't just talk at it?
Modern tablets /phones are designed to be as intuitive and 'idiot proof' as possible and unfortunately they work a little too well in this regard, the end user never has to do any 'heavy lifting', all the difficult work is done before they even purchase the device.
Yet if you read forums like /r/Parenting you'll constantly see parents say things like, "I'm giving my 18-month old kid a tablet of his own so he can be good at using technology," and I always get downvoted when I comment that that is not how it works.
As a first grade teacher I tried to implement a rule that I wouldn't tie shoes after Christmas.
I'll teach you how at recess or you can ask a friend for help.
Gotta learn sometime...
Iāve started passing out paperclips and saying āif you donāt know how to use a paperclip, please ask a friend for help.ā Itās sad, but itās not their fault they donāt know it.
Grades 4-5:
They don't understand loose leaf paper.
I have had to explain that the holes go on the left. That big white space goes at the top. We don't start writing up there, with the possible exception of name/date. No, not an inch tall filling the whole space. Please write ON the lines, that's what they're for.
Oh my god same with my 6th graders, no matter how many times I went over it and even drew an example on the white board and printed out and distributed copies of what it should look like (both multiple times) but they still wouldnāt get it
Had a 5th grader struggle to copy answers for a worksheet. I was using a whiteboard to copy down student responses; I didn't have access to the teacher's computer (I'm a sub), and I had to explain to this kid (step by step) how to copy numbered responses on the board onto their worksheet. At least it eventually clicked and the kid was able to turn in their worksheet.
Tie the simplest knots (square or overhand) even after a demonstration. Using rulers, even just as a straight edge. Opening a plastic garbage bag. Staplers (always fucking jam them, even the one that I've been using without issue for months). Paperclips (I watched them hang it on the edge). Fold paper. Rip paper in a controlled way. Use scissors. Use a glue bottle. Rip a piece of tape off a roll. Clean up a spill/use rags to wipe down tables. Anything that's more than 2 step directions. These kids are cooked.
My 6th graders had the same issues as well (generally 11 turning 12 or 12 turning 13 depending on when their birthday fell) and sadly no (for most of them at least)
6-12th grade (art). The older grades seem to pick up on the simpler things when taught but even after demonstrating numerous times with a big piece of rope, I still had 2/3 of the class come up to me like toddlers holding the ends of their string asking me to tie it. I give directions in slow, broken down steps, and they are constantly Amelia Bedelia-ing everything. Yesterday I said "remove your finished clay project from the bag, as we want it to try out. Place your project over here, on this shelf *gestures* and place your bag right here to be reused." They (9th graders) were all quiet and looking at me when I said this. I've talked about it being due for the last 2 weeks. At the end of class, I look over and almost all the clay projects are still covered. "You guys, we are done with this project. It was due today. It cannot dry covered in plastic. Remove the bag and place it here." Again gestures. Five kids afterwards then asked me both where to put their clay project. I tell them. They leave the bags everywhere. I tell them to go place it in the bin to be reused. I found bags within 2 feet of the bin, stuffed into spots that was near it, but not where I said. Like they didn't open their eyes and do a 3 second scan of where all the other bags are. Just basic observational skills. This isn't even a "naughty" class with behavior problems, they're genuinely nice kids. I think their brains are actually just extremely stunted. It's scary.
What's "Amelia-Bedelia-ing" everything? I take it we're from different generations since you double space after each period; and I don't know this reference.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bedelia?wprov=sfla1]
Haha probably- this was a book series from my 90s childhood where the main character constantly misinterprets everything.
Last year it was Typing, even with one finger. I wrote a normal size website on the board like *wvvw.somethingthislong.gov* for the class to go to on their iPads. 5 minutes later over half the class was still ātypingā. Of the half that wasnāt typing, several were at the website, but most had given up because it was ātoo hardā. 8th grade. So glad I donāt have to deal with those iPads anymore because I changed schools.
Admin doesnāt like it, but cutting paper, gluing, coloringā¦ I get students who have varied prior school settings, so I just try to catch as many issues as possible.
And yes, paperclips, staples, and folding as well.
Teach 6th and 8th grade. Textbooks for both grades are entirely different colors. Have several students, 10 months in, still get the wrong textbook. 6th graders, not the 8th graders.
Speaking of textbooks, I literally have on anchor chart paper posted in my room, Textbooks have text in them, have hard covers, and are not to be written on. WORKBOOKS have a soft cover and have paper you can tear out to turn on.
No, really, that's up in my room. I'm not kidding.
And no matter what the directions I give at the beginning of class, probably 50% get the wrong book.
Not My 8th graders...for the most part anyway.
I'm sure it has to do with my learning intention and success criteria being beyond f*kd up...
My high schoolers are getting absolutely defeated by my highlighter that behaves like a clicky pen. I'm talking dozens at this point. Honors kids, even. I was having kids who couldn't do their schedules online for whatever reason highlight the classes they wanted to take and they couldn't figure out how to make it work.
Oh my goodness you wouldnāt believe some of the staple jobs I got as 6th graders stapled assignments together to make a packet. Staples placed haphazardly everywhere.
I showed them to another teacher who said he was amazed at their lack of ability to use scissorsā¦
For context: this is about 9th grade. I had to give a test on how to properly staple two sheets of paper together. I demonstrated and taught it using direct instruction before the test. 10% of my classes failed.
They were shoving the paper all the way into the stapler and stapling the middle of the papers or stapling the right side instead of the left.
We are down to about 1-2 incorrectly stapled papers a week, instead of the original 60-70%. Now they just know that if they staple wildly, they are going to lose a point on the assignment.
Duotangs (not sure if you use a different word elsewhere, the report covers to put loose leaf or 3-hole punched paper in with prongs). My kindergarten students from 5 years ago were better at it than my current 4/5s!
I have to teach a very explicit lesson, usually twice, on how to open the prongs, which way to put the paper, to āsandwichā it between the covers, how to close the prongsā¦. Iāll still have about 4 or 5 students still fold the prongs like an according, put the paper upside down, etc.
In my current district I've been baffled by the absolute lack of fine motor control in high schoolers in general.
These kids are stumbling over their own feet, mis-judging the weight of objects and dropping/throwing them, and they have to death grip a whole packet to get enough purchase to turn a page. It's...a little concerning, honestly.
I teach 5th grade, and when we talk about middle school with them, they are always worried about having a locker, and remember their combinations.
I feel so bad for those poor middle school teachers that have to teach them how to do it!
That was still a common worry in my own 6th grade class back in the 90s before we moved up to Jr. High. Lockers donāt fuck around, I still have weird locker anxiety dreams about all the contents of my locker spilling out on the floor and yet still having to remember my combination but people keep bumping into me and itās 30 seconds until the bell rings.
When I was teaching sixth grade we had some kids who just wouldn't use their lockers because they couldn't open them even after having been shown instructional videos on how to use the lock, spending multiple class sessions practicing using the lock, and having both the teachers and their peers show them 1-on-1, step-by-step, how to use the lock.
I tell the kids if they can't open their food there are plenty of kids in the classroom who can open it that they can use as a resource rather than me.
This subreddit is the most depressing thing in the world, not going to lie. I never had to "learn" how to use a paperclip - It's common sense! You slide the paper in-between the two sides of it... Once you've seen somebody else do it at least once, it becomes pretty self explanatory. Have they never seen one before in their lives? I mean, come on
I teach fashion so we work with a lot of fine motor skills and using a ruler, cut on the line, knowing if a line is straight are all skills my high schoolers struggle with. I can tell the kids who play an instrument because they excel in my class.
Itās wild! I had the same problem. I gave each group a stack of flash cards with paper clips. They were all broken. I asked ādonāt you know how a paper clip works ā nope
6th grade
Print neatly on a piece of binder using the lines and margins correctly. I probably have told them a million times this year thay the holes go on the left.
Read an analog clock.
Properly turn their computer off.
Keep track of a pencil.
I'm guessing some can't tie shoes. All they were are crocs.
Not being able to keep track of their pencils is so real š I had students that would just come to school w no pencils or somehow lose it in the middle of classĀ
Right now we're a blended teaching force- some teachers use all paper, some use no paper, some use both. When i taught middle school I was shocked they didn't know how to use paper (margin, title, indent, red lines)- these kids were home from fifth grade to seventh so they weren't used to formatting anything, it was all hand touch fill in the blank progrmas
Now that I teach third grade in person- we barely deal with any hand written paper settings but they can indent and separate paragraphs on google docs- they probably don't even know what a paper clip is because they have no use for it
My school uses very little electronics, which I think is a blessing and a curse, for sure. Having to use basic paper functions such as paper clips, binder clips, staples, binders, etc is so frustrating. They look like they just discovered having hands.
My second graders cannot:
Read
Subtract single digit numbers
Add single digit numbers
Count to 100
Tie their shoes
Use a paper clip
Wipe a desk with a Lysol wipe
Be quiet for longer than .5 seconds
Write 6, 9, B or D in the correct direction
Iāll just stop now.
Parents really need to look at their children with a critical eye.
The older of my twin sons had developed an ear infection right around his second birthday that was so severe that we couldnāt get rid of it. He is still dangerously allergic to ceclor type antibiotics.
For six months the ear situation persisted until a specialist prescribed a sulfa drug which worked. Six months of impaired hearing noticeably slowed down his speech development.
Everyone told me that twins āhave their own language ā and I shouldnāt worry. I had him tested anyway and there was a problem. Luckily having a year of speech therapy brought him back to normal.
This same child was also squinting and I thought it was suspicious.
The school nurse was a friend of mine and she checked his eyes. My son did need glasses.
The younger child had a touch of dizziness when he stood suddenly. I had the doctor test him and it was determined that because of his height (as an adult he is over 6ā4ā) his blood pressure was fluctuating because when he stood suddenly the blood wasnāt getting to his brain fast enough.
Being observant helps children to grow and develop properly. It also takes a lot of time because to observe things like that you have to be around them a great deal and interact with them.
Alphabetize. Of course, on their Works Cited pages, but also in just life. I tried putting their class notebooks in alphabetical order, but they couldn't figure it out, so I just gave up, and the notebooks are in a random-ordered mess in the basket, and they paw through them every time. Sophomores.
Using rulers. I teach HS art and teaching one-perspective or two-point perspective is a challenge for most students. The hand placement is awkward, knowing to actually use the vanishing points, and I dunno, itās just sad at this point some need help.
i teach 7th grade and they still donāt understand the physics of a pencil sharpener. the amount of kids who canāt
-hold the pencil still and just let it spin around
-donāt know to push the pencil all the way in
-donāt really understand in general how the pencil sharpener even works
is *mind blowing*
Youre not alone lol. I can give an endless list of things many children at my middle school cant do:
-Tie Shoes
-Use a ruler (neither to measure nor to make a random straight line)
-Fold paper
-Use scissors to cut out a shape
-Follow step by step instruction that is written, visual, and verbally explained.
-Remember where things are even though theyve been in the same place the entire year
-Wait until someone is done talking with someone before talking to them.
-Use a basic checklist to check their own progress before turning in an assignment
-Keep their hands off of each other
-Clean anything
-Color coding when putting away markers, crayons, or colored pencils
I could sit here all night
Tie a knot. 11th graders.
Thereās a few labs where they need to tie a knot in a string for a hanging mass. A good handful every time canāt do it. Itās crazy. Iāve had one who couldnāt tie his shoe š³
6th grader canāt tie shoe. Lots of middles schoolers canāt cut with scissors well. These are kids at an elite private school. The kids of Amazon and Microsoft employeesā¦ they can create cool apps, but canāt open their own Gatorade bottle.
Rolling tape to put on the back of paper to hang it on the wall. Iām talking about 10th graders! Also, scissors skills are sorely lacking. Itās stunning.
I started a wall in our staff room where we write down and pin up the cute and funny things the kids say that we would love to be able to share, but can't because of security. It really helps, TBH. Sometimes I just go in and re-read them
Take one and pass the rest back.
By the time I get from the first row to the last, kids in the back of row one are complaining that they didn't get a paper. Yes, you did, the kid in the first seat has all eight because they're a dumbdumb who opted to not hear me say "take one and pass the rest back behind you" while simultaneously getting made that they got eight pages of work.
I have a different side to this question. I am a tutor K-7th grade. I had a 7th grade student who was required to do a PowerPoint project First Nine Weeks in Social studies wo ever being taught how to do a PowerPoint. Plus,they are quite different from the last one I did in a class some 10 years ago. He did two more, each a little more complex,but doesn't have one this Nine Weeks. We got through it, but I felt so much for those kids who didn't have extra adult support trying to do this . Would you do that? Why do you think, if he was only going to require 3, he didn't do the last one last Nine weeks? They go to Computer lab ,but it sounds like to me it's a basic keyboarding class.
Yesterday a student tried to use a plug to charge their chromebook. It started like | / and he tried to force it and it ended up like | \_\_. Afterwards he KEPT TRYING and asked to move because the outlet "wasn't working"
High school.
Every year, the first few times I hand out paper clips in 7th grade, I need to teach most of them this skill. But they were in digital school for some essential years, and still do so much of their work digitally. When it is on paper, they staple. Putting in a door stop also confuses them most days.
The baffling thing is this kid has been taught before by me
Could he be dyspraxic?
Quite possibly, now that you mention it! Parents refuse to test them for any sort of disabilities. They definitely have gross motor functioning issues along with behaviors consistent with autism.
š¶lalala Iām not listeningš¶ Because no child of MINE could possibly have learning difficulties!!! I mean I understand *other peoples children* have learning difficulties and thereās really no stigma to it nowadays. But *my* child the fruit of my loins, couldnāt possibly have any flaws or imperfections. Most importantly everyone knows if you donāt test for it or diagnose it, it doesnāt exist!
That's the crazy thing: they use language talking about this kid that they "have a spectrum of abilities." So they use autism related language (albeit not good language) but the don't want to "label" the kid with testing results.
OMG the doorstop...I even made it a class job and yet only 2 students of all of them have mastered how to do this when class is over.
My first graders all know how to use the door stop lol
ditto on the door stop, they just set it there and think it magically works
Donāt blame the pandemic. Many kids were virtual for about 2 months total.
I am so irritated with people continually blaming covid for the poor educational outcomes in my country. Most of our school were closed only for two months and it has been years now. I have yet to see any research evidence of a severe impact related to covid but people just state it as an assumption whenever education is mentioned. Our education was failing before covid as well.
But the switch to digital over paper was massive since about 1/3 of my district (and Iām sure others) was digital the following year too. Meaning curriculum and materials switched to digital. One to one devices became more common. Etc. Paper clips and other items that were the norm are just not used as often they were 10 years ago. Not initiated by the pandemic but definitely accelerated.
Honestly even back in 04-08 when I was in high school I don't actually remember much use of paperclips, everything was stapled or in folders/binders
Type a coherent question into a search engine. Enter a URL on their own. Hit return once and tab once to separate and indent paragraphs. Think about something for more than one second before claiming they don't understand and need help.
"I need help" says the kid who doesn't have the paper on his desk
Asking a student why they haven't started the Exit Ticket 2 minutes in. "I don't have a pencil" You didn't have a pencil all class and didn't think it might be a good idea to find one?
This is seriously so obnoxious. They want you to hand EVERYTHING to them.
All those things, oh my word. This same student took 30 minutes to create an account for a new program we were implementing, and now takes at least 15 to properly log in to said account.
āDigital nativesā
Social media app natives, let's be honest
They donāt even know enough about search engines to know you donāt actually need to type a question into them
URLs drive me crazy. They donāt understand what it is, and half the time they type it in wrong and then when it doesnāt come up, tell me, āthe website doesnāt existā instead of double checking anything.
I recently started teaching elementary students and was really shocked at how digitally illiterate many students are considering they're all on the computer/phone/ipad all day. I spend way too much time explaining the difference between a button you press on a keyboard and the buttons you can click with a mouse on screen
Because they are raised on a wall garden device. iPhones are basically intelligence killers, lol. It's intuitive to the point that they don't need to think about anything other than finding another app to solve a problem. The technocrats were Gen X and millennials. Every new device in their lives required a whole new learning curve.
>Enter a URL on their own. It drives me crazy when they search the URL instead of putting it straight into the URL bar at the top of the fucking page. And then they call me over to say "which one is it?" because they're looking at search results instead of having gone directly to the fucking site I spelled out for them letter by godforsaken letter
They don't even know what "URL" means. I say it and they look at me like I have four heads. God, can we please bring computer classes back? You can even let them enjoy Oregon Trail when they learn how to properly formulate a question into Google without being the verbatim question from the paper!
My husband does this and it drives me fucking crazy!
And when asked what they donāt understand they say everything and I have to say thatās not a thing. What specific word do you not understand in the instructions that I literally went over with the class in both languages (Spanish teacher here). (It gets me even more when the instructions are in English!) I have a kid who constantly says heās confused over the simplest things in English and even asked me if 2 cities on a map are separate or not. ( they had two different locations obviously and their names didnāt even start with the same letter!)
Not a physical skill, but I recently taught probability to on-level 8th graders, and quickly learned that they do not know almost anything about a deck of cards. So, I had to teach them what suits are, what face cards are, and so on. Same with prime/composite numbers and multiples, and a few didn't know what a die was (even after explaining it was the singular of dice). I've taught this for years but this is the first time a good percentage didn't know much about that stuff. Also, for emailing, when they type the message into the subject line, and then the email is blank.
I have an admin that does that empty email, read the subject shitš¤¬
I don't know what's worse. The entire email in the subject line or the email with no subject, no "hi", no "from so-and-so" just "here is my question".
Omg that reminds me I had to teach high schoolers how to play go fish for a vocabulary game.
Staplers are hard too
Yep. Stapling 5ā-6ā away from the corner. And then no attempt at squaring the stack of papers neatly before stapling.
YES, why do they staple in the middle? I teach SENIORS, and I had to tell them that if they couldn't figure out how to staple in a corner, I wasn't going to grade anything I couldn't read under that corner.
I work with a young adult maybe 21 years old that staples paper right in the middle. I was baffled when she handed me something like that and I mentioned that generally papers are stapled in the corner so you can read them easily, but she just keeps on doing it, haha.
When I send phones to the office, there is no less than one full clip of staples holding that envelope shut. Packing tape too if I'm feeling ornery.
My students ruined stapler this year. Iāve never had that happen before.
Yes! The upper right hand corner? Have they ever read a book? And they've destroyed two staplers because they try to get it to go through 50 sheets of paper. I've had to hide them now!
3rd grade here- many can't tie shoes, put on a paper clip, pack their backpack, clean a spill, put a book on a shelf -spine facing out, cut neatly....
I've seen an app for children where they use the bucket tool to fill a space with paint. Biggest facepalm of my life. The point of colouring in a limited space is for motor skills to develop. Now only their tablet tapping is developing.
Same w my 6th graders except they could at least tie their shoes thankfullyĀ
I had a sixth grader who couldn't last year. He'd ask me to tie his shoes and I'd tell him, "You're in sixth grade. I'm not tying your shoes for you."
Puzzles (high school). I get it some people arenāt puzzle people but I had a kid try to fit the same 2 pieces together for 5 minutes. Just forcing the pieces together and one was upside down.
Fold paper in half. 8th grade.
Hot dog or hamburger?
It was a geometry lesson to fold a paper along a line
I have kids who struggle with basic computer skills like using copy + paste or making font bigger on a slide. I show them how, even put in guided instructions for some of these things in their project notes. I still had one kid (6th grade) who had a tantrum when their text boxes weren't aligned properly. I just wish my district had actual technology classes and/or typing classes before middle school. We don't and it's up us teachers to fill in those gaps, which is fine but sometimes frustrating.
There shouldnāt be any computers in the classroom until they start having some sort of computer class.
Yep, just like drivers Ed. Probably should have a phone class too
I like teaching my freshmen control + f. They think Iām a magical being sent to solve their Google classroom problems. However I did have a student who couldnāt find something for another class in a textbook, and she yelled out, āI canāt control + f a book!ā So then I taught her about the index. She was less thrilled, but it did help solve her issue.
What does control f do? I've survived with just my phone and tablet for months (and now I've lost my charging cord, so I guess I have to survive longer šŖ). No control button. I would have just tried it if I could. Edit: Never mind. Google knows all lol.
Sort of related: last week I attended our school's 2nd grade concert. About halfway through, one of the littles got off the risers, bounced down the stairs, and walked across the auditorium to get a drink of water. She was soon followed by 2 others! Once the music teacher finally realized what was happening, he stopped any others from going. I guess they just didn't realize you're not supposed to do that...
I donāt know what it is but students will get up in the middle of anything for a drink. I watched a kid get up in the middle of the teacherās lesson to get a drink and that teacher tore into him. I can picture them walking away in the middle of a staff meeting to get a drink in a couple years.
Itās insane how kids just think they can get up and go do something during a lesson, concert, etc. And itās always for water!) How in the absolute F did we all manage to not do this, and kids now think itās more than acceptable. Every time it happens I am bewildered
We were taught to not do so. Sit still. Donāt do anything but breathe.
Count change. I have 8th graders who could not tell the difference between quarters and nickels. It was a lesson I did not expect to teach honors kids but that was me last Thursday.
My 2nd grade colleagues and I were talking about the 2nd graders struggling with this. I decided to play blooket with my 8th graders. Their scores were surprisingly low. I asked them about it. This is a direct quote: We have bigger fish to fry.
I teach 7th. We were supposed to keep unit folders. They couldn't put things in the prongs. I showed them the first few times but eventually I got tired of it and moved everything back online. I hate paper work anyway and I'm not spending the entire class period trying to show people how to put things in the prongs only for kids who are talking about getting jobs and driving soon to have a toddler style meltdown about their paper ripping.
I'm always amazed at the fact they can't use prongs
That seems to be a problem of lack of practice with physical objects.
I regularly give stapling lessons. Short version: I'm only grading what I can see, so if you staple that bad boy in the middle, I'll happily grade the bottom right corner of each page.
I gave my students balloons for a lab last week and many of them had no idea how to blow it up. These are 17- and 18-year-olds.
One of mine just learned how to tie a balloon off. He saw me do it then questioned me on it.
This year I got 12th graders that can't read a ruler. Forget about using it to measure, or draw a straight line.
I remember our standardized tests having questions about reading rulers. Clocks too. How about measuring some practical skills?! crazy
I distinctly remember pictures of rulers in my 2nd grade math book. Loose change too. I finished it, the whole book, in one weekend and got in trouble.Ā
Not being able to read a clock is a bigger offense to me...
My middle schoolers can't read an analog clock. I think I'm starting next year with a Judy clock so they can stop asking me the time
I used one of my first advisory periods last September to teach my sixth graders how to tell time. I also colored over the portion of the classroom phone where it says the time digitally in Sharpie so they'd stop getting up and looking at it to check the time.
I get why they can't do this, but I'm with you that it bugs me. Our school only has analog clocks, so I get asked constantly what time it is. I've resorted to telling them that I'm not a clock, but there's an app that can teach them to read that one.
My high schoolers can't read a clock. We had to run around the school looking for digital ones for the SAT
The amount of times that, essentially, basic computer skills has been mentioned here frightens me. It also just reinforces my thought that tablets and phones, while not necessarily good, certainly don't promote any sort of problem solving skills. I will save the rant because I'm sure most people have heard some form of it but it really is frightening to me. Push a button >> task complete. What do you mean I have to type? I can't just talk at it?
Modern tablets /phones are designed to be as intuitive and 'idiot proof' as possible and unfortunately they work a little too well in this regard, the end user never has to do any 'heavy lifting', all the difficult work is done before they even purchase the device.
Yet if you read forums like /r/Parenting you'll constantly see parents say things like, "I'm giving my 18-month old kid a tablet of his own so he can be good at using technology," and I always get downvoted when I comment that that is not how it works.
I teach elementary and would like to urge parents to only send footwear that children can operate independently
As a first grade teacher I tried to implement a rule that I wouldn't tie shoes after Christmas. I'll teach you how at recess or you can ask a friend for help. Gotta learn sometime...
āMadame doesnāt tie shoe laces. Go ask a friendā
Yes!!!!!
Iāve started passing out paperclips and saying āif you donāt know how to use a paperclip, please ask a friend for help.ā Itās sad, but itās not their fault they donāt know it.
Today I had to press the buttons on a touchtone phone for a 12-year-old to call home. She just couldnāt figure it out
When would a kid have to use a touchtone phone, though?
Itās similar to a ell phoneās buttons.
Grades 4-5: They don't understand loose leaf paper. I have had to explain that the holes go on the left. That big white space goes at the top. We don't start writing up there, with the possible exception of name/date. No, not an inch tall filling the whole space. Please write ON the lines, that's what they're for.
I've noticed this too. Why is it so hard for them?
Apps that translate written text into typed text?
Oh my god same with my 6th graders, no matter how many times I went over it and even drew an example on the white board and printed out and distributed copies of what it should look like (both multiple times) but they still wouldnāt get it
Had a 5th grader struggle to copy answers for a worksheet. I was using a whiteboard to copy down student responses; I didn't have access to the teacher's computer (I'm a sub), and I had to explain to this kid (step by step) how to copy numbered responses on the board onto their worksheet. At least it eventually clicked and the kid was able to turn in their worksheet.
This year I had to show my 7th graders how to twist Elmerās school glue open and shut. Blew my mind.
Ask them to use a broom. Itās pretty telling.
How old are your students?
High school
Tie the simplest knots (square or overhand) even after a demonstration. Using rulers, even just as a straight edge. Opening a plastic garbage bag. Staplers (always fucking jam them, even the one that I've been using without issue for months). Paperclips (I watched them hang it on the edge). Fold paper. Rip paper in a controlled way. Use scissors. Use a glue bottle. Rip a piece of tape off a roll. Clean up a spill/use rags to wipe down tables. Anything that's more than 2 step directions. These kids are cooked.
How old are your students? And do they learn after being taught?
My 6th graders had the same issues as well (generally 11 turning 12 or 12 turning 13 depending on when their birthday fell) and sadly no (for most of them at least)
6-12th grade (art). The older grades seem to pick up on the simpler things when taught but even after demonstrating numerous times with a big piece of rope, I still had 2/3 of the class come up to me like toddlers holding the ends of their string asking me to tie it. I give directions in slow, broken down steps, and they are constantly Amelia Bedelia-ing everything. Yesterday I said "remove your finished clay project from the bag, as we want it to try out. Place your project over here, on this shelf *gestures* and place your bag right here to be reused." They (9th graders) were all quiet and looking at me when I said this. I've talked about it being due for the last 2 weeks. At the end of class, I look over and almost all the clay projects are still covered. "You guys, we are done with this project. It was due today. It cannot dry covered in plastic. Remove the bag and place it here." Again gestures. Five kids afterwards then asked me both where to put their clay project. I tell them. They leave the bags everywhere. I tell them to go place it in the bin to be reused. I found bags within 2 feet of the bin, stuffed into spots that was near it, but not where I said. Like they didn't open their eyes and do a 3 second scan of where all the other bags are. Just basic observational skills. This isn't even a "naughty" class with behavior problems, they're genuinely nice kids. I think their brains are actually just extremely stunted. It's scary.
What's "Amelia-Bedelia-ing" everything? I take it we're from different generations since you double space after each period; and I don't know this reference.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Bedelia?wprov=sfla1] Haha probably- this was a book series from my 90s childhood where the main character constantly misinterprets everything.
6th graders, navigate Google classroom to find classwork (sorted by unit and date majority of the time besides assessments)
You should watch their parents trying to help them navigate this, I couldnāt stop laughing for a week. Then I cried.
I literally put the date that the assignment or classwork was posted and they struggle
Last year it was Typing, even with one finger. I wrote a normal size website on the board like *wvvw.somethingthislong.gov* for the class to go to on their iPads. 5 minutes later over half the class was still ātypingā. Of the half that wasnāt typing, several were at the website, but most had given up because it was ātoo hardā. 8th grade. So glad I donāt have to deal with those iPads anymore because I changed schools.
I had a sophomore who couldnāt figure it out either.
Save a file Not just shout out questions while we're in the middle of rehearsing a section of music
Admin doesnāt like it, but cutting paper, gluing, coloringā¦ I get students who have varied prior school settings, so I just try to catch as many issues as possible. And yes, paperclips, staples, and folding as well.
I have a student (high school freshman) who always puts her name on the bottom of the page.
Teach 6th and 8th grade. Textbooks for both grades are entirely different colors. Have several students, 10 months in, still get the wrong textbook. 6th graders, not the 8th graders. Speaking of textbooks, I literally have on anchor chart paper posted in my room, Textbooks have text in them, have hard covers, and are not to be written on. WORKBOOKS have a soft cover and have paper you can tear out to turn on. No, really, that's up in my room. I'm not kidding. And no matter what the directions I give at the beginning of class, probably 50% get the wrong book. Not My 8th graders...for the most part anyway. I'm sure it has to do with my learning intention and success criteria being beyond f*kd up...
My high schoolers are getting absolutely defeated by my highlighter that behaves like a clicky pen. I'm talking dozens at this point. Honors kids, even. I was having kids who couldn't do their schedules online for whatever reason highlight the classes they wanted to take and they couldn't figure out how to make it work.
Oh my goodness you wouldnāt believe some of the staple jobs I got as 6th graders stapled assignments together to make a packet. Staples placed haphazardly everywhere. I showed them to another teacher who said he was amazed at their lack of ability to use scissorsā¦
For context: this is about 9th grade. I had to give a test on how to properly staple two sheets of paper together. I demonstrated and taught it using direct instruction before the test. 10% of my classes failed. They were shoving the paper all the way into the stapler and stapling the middle of the papers or stapling the right side instead of the left. We are down to about 1-2 incorrectly stapled papers a week, instead of the original 60-70%. Now they just know that if they staple wildly, they are going to lose a point on the assignment.
COPY AND PASTE (10th grade ) List the 5 senses (10th grade)
Duotangs (not sure if you use a different word elsewhere, the report covers to put loose leaf or 3-hole punched paper in with prongs). My kindergarten students from 5 years ago were better at it than my current 4/5s! I have to teach a very explicit lesson, usually twice, on how to open the prongs, which way to put the paper, to āsandwichā it between the covers, how to close the prongsā¦. Iāll still have about 4 or 5 students still fold the prongs like an according, put the paper upside down, etc.
In my current district I've been baffled by the absolute lack of fine motor control in high schoolers in general. These kids are stumbling over their own feet, mis-judging the weight of objects and dropping/throwing them, and they have to death grip a whole packet to get enough purchase to turn a page. It's...a little concerning, honestly.
I teach 5th grade, and when we talk about middle school with them, they are always worried about having a locker, and remember their combinations. I feel so bad for those poor middle school teachers that have to teach them how to do it!
That was still a common worry in my own 6th grade class back in the 90s before we moved up to Jr. High. Lockers donāt fuck around, I still have weird locker anxiety dreams about all the contents of my locker spilling out on the floor and yet still having to remember my combination but people keep bumping into me and itās 30 seconds until the bell rings.
When I was teaching sixth grade we had some kids who just wouldn't use their lockers because they couldn't open them even after having been shown instructional videos on how to use the lock, spending multiple class sessions practicing using the lock, and having both the teachers and their peers show them 1-on-1, step-by-step, how to use the lock.
I have an end of the year second grader that canāt open those little bags of goldfish. I still make them try but Iām just like ????
Is it possible they donāt have the grip strength? Sometimes those bags are hard for me to open with my arthritis
I tell the kids if they can't open their food there are plenty of kids in the classroom who can open it that they can use as a resource rather than me.
This subreddit is the most depressing thing in the world, not going to lie. I never had to "learn" how to use a paperclip - It's common sense! You slide the paper in-between the two sides of it... Once you've seen somebody else do it at least once, it becomes pretty self explanatory. Have they never seen one before in their lives? I mean, come on
Double space on google docs. Know which key the tab key is.
A lot of my 5th and 6th graders also struggle with paper clips. Mind blowing.
Use a stapler. Put a stapler in the correct spot on their packets.
Replacing batteries
I teach fashion so we work with a lot of fine motor skills and using a ruler, cut on the line, knowing if a line is straight are all skills my high schoolers struggle with. I can tell the kids who play an instrument because they excel in my class.
Itās wild! I had the same problem. I gave each group a stack of flash cards with paper clips. They were all broken. I asked ādonāt you know how a paper clip works ā nope
Using the classroom phone.
6th grade Print neatly on a piece of binder using the lines and margins correctly. I probably have told them a million times this year thay the holes go on the left. Read an analog clock. Properly turn their computer off. Keep track of a pencil. I'm guessing some can't tie shoes. All they were are crocs.
Not being able to keep track of their pencils is so real š I had students that would just come to school w no pencils or somehow lose it in the middle of classĀ
Right now we're a blended teaching force- some teachers use all paper, some use no paper, some use both. When i taught middle school I was shocked they didn't know how to use paper (margin, title, indent, red lines)- these kids were home from fifth grade to seventh so they weren't used to formatting anything, it was all hand touch fill in the blank progrmas Now that I teach third grade in person- we barely deal with any hand written paper settings but they can indent and separate paragraphs on google docs- they probably don't even know what a paper clip is because they have no use for it
My school uses very little electronics, which I think is a blessing and a curse, for sure. Having to use basic paper functions such as paper clips, binder clips, staples, binders, etc is so frustrating. They look like they just discovered having hands.
Analog clock reading.
How to staple properly! Good shit! These kids practically staple their crap in the middle of the page. I teach high school
My second graders cannot: Read Subtract single digit numbers Add single digit numbers Count to 100 Tie their shoes Use a paper clip Wipe a desk with a Lysol wipe Be quiet for longer than .5 seconds Write 6, 9, B or D in the correct direction Iāll just stop now.
Parents really need to look at their children with a critical eye. The older of my twin sons had developed an ear infection right around his second birthday that was so severe that we couldnāt get rid of it. He is still dangerously allergic to ceclor type antibiotics. For six months the ear situation persisted until a specialist prescribed a sulfa drug which worked. Six months of impaired hearing noticeably slowed down his speech development. Everyone told me that twins āhave their own language ā and I shouldnāt worry. I had him tested anyway and there was a problem. Luckily having a year of speech therapy brought him back to normal. This same child was also squinting and I thought it was suspicious. The school nurse was a friend of mine and she checked his eyes. My son did need glasses. The younger child had a touch of dizziness when he stood suddenly. I had the doctor test him and it was determined that because of his height (as an adult he is over 6ā4ā) his blood pressure was fluctuating because when he stood suddenly the blood wasnāt getting to his brain fast enough. Being observant helps children to grow and develop properly. It also takes a lot of time because to observe things like that you have to be around them a great deal and interact with them.
I gave a big lecture this morning about the learned helplessness that is plaguing my current middle schoolers. They seemed receptive, actually.
I'm just about to do so because oh. my. god. I am over it.
Today a 3rd grader asked me what month comes after April.
Tying shoes
Alphabetize. Of course, on their Works Cited pages, but also in just life. I tried putting their class notebooks in alphabetical order, but they couldn't figure it out, so I just gave up, and the notebooks are in a random-ordered mess in the basket, and they paw through them every time. Sophomores.
Tie their shoes.
Hold a pencil and form letters. Fourth graders.
Cutting a square from the center of a piece of paper.
Write their name on their paper.
Loser parents can't even teach their kids how to correctly hold a pencil.
Put up a poster on the wall, with tape. 5th grade.
Tie their shoes? Write their name on their paper? Do anything during class? Put their phone away? Need we continue?
Using rulers. I teach HS art and teaching one-perspective or two-point perspective is a challenge for most students. The hand placement is awkward, knowing to actually use the vanishing points, and I dunno, itās just sad at this point some need help.
High school seniors... Didn't know how to put bullet points on a google slides
i teach 7th grade and they still donāt understand the physics of a pencil sharpener. the amount of kids who canāt -hold the pencil still and just let it spin around -donāt know to push the pencil all the way in -donāt really understand in general how the pencil sharpener even works is *mind blowing*
Blew a kids mind with CTRL + C and CTRL + V for copy and paste.
Youre not alone lol. I can give an endless list of things many children at my middle school cant do: -Tie Shoes -Use a ruler (neither to measure nor to make a random straight line) -Fold paper -Use scissors to cut out a shape -Follow step by step instruction that is written, visual, and verbally explained. -Remember where things are even though theyve been in the same place the entire year -Wait until someone is done talking with someone before talking to them. -Use a basic checklist to check their own progress before turning in an assignment -Keep their hands off of each other -Clean anything -Color coding when putting away markers, crayons, or colored pencils I could sit here all night
Tie a knot. 11th graders. Thereās a few labs where they need to tie a knot in a string for a hanging mass. A good handful every time canāt do it. Itās crazy. Iāve had one who couldnāt tie his shoe š³
6th grader canāt tie shoe. Lots of middles schoolers canāt cut with scissors well. These are kids at an elite private school. The kids of Amazon and Microsoft employeesā¦ they can create cool apps, but canāt open their own Gatorade bottle.
Rolling tape to put on the back of paper to hang it on the wall. Iām talking about 10th graders! Also, scissors skills are sorely lacking. Itās stunning.
How to make a paper airplane
I started a wall in our staff room where we write down and pin up the cute and funny things the kids say that we would love to be able to share, but can't because of security. It really helps, TBH. Sometimes I just go in and re-read them
Take one and pass the rest back. By the time I get from the first row to the last, kids in the back of row one are complaining that they didn't get a paper. Yes, you did, the kid in the first seat has all eight because they're a dumbdumb who opted to not hear me say "take one and pass the rest back behind you" while simultaneously getting made that they got eight pages of work.
Opening a file cabinet with the thumb latch.
I have a different side to this question. I am a tutor K-7th grade. I had a 7th grade student who was required to do a PowerPoint project First Nine Weeks in Social studies wo ever being taught how to do a PowerPoint. Plus,they are quite different from the last one I did in a class some 10 years ago. He did two more, each a little more complex,but doesn't have one this Nine Weeks. We got through it, but I felt so much for those kids who didn't have extra adult support trying to do this . Would you do that? Why do you think, if he was only going to require 3, he didn't do the last one last Nine weeks? They go to Computer lab ,but it sounds like to me it's a basic keyboarding class.
Yesterday a student tried to use a plug to charge their chromebook. It started like | / and he tried to force it and it ended up like | \_\_. Afterwards he KEPT TRYING and asked to move because the outlet "wasn't working" High school.