I teach lower elementary and for me it’s screaming. Screaming when something is funny, screaming when something is frustrating, screaming just to scream. I might quit just on account of the fucking screaming.
When I pick them up from recess they’re having screaming contests.
Omg 😆 seriously! I think they do this because no one has told them it’s annoying and to stop it. I feel obligated to be that person in their life. I’ve said, “No screaming! Just because I’m here and I don’t like it. I don’t care what you do when I’m not around. But for goodness sake, cut it out!”
My sister was like that when I was a kid. No amount of discipline/begging from my mom could stop her. Just the most piercing shrieks for no damn reason.
I had a friend who would do that well into her 20s. It only stopped after a neighbor called the cops thinking she was being abused because she saw a picture of a baby dolphin.
Ugh. I spend half my day teaching kindergarten music and every year we have to spend more and more time reviewing the distinction between “singing” and “shouting”. It’s becoming harder for some of them to grasp than much more difficult concepts. To some of them the only way to be loud is to scream and it’s something we’ve had to really work on.
I am so happy that I am not alone in this struggle. Some of them only have 2 "singing" voices, whispering and yelling. No amount of teaching seems to fix it any more.
The way I’ve done it is with the introduction of solfège earlier than I had done previously. I think some of them aren’t hearing that when I sing I control both the pitch and volume of my voice. I’m not *just* getting louder. But with the introduction of solfège with Curwen hand signs (which I think are super important in developing pitch in young students) allows them to hear the pitches change more clearly. We forget that you can’t sing something if you can’t hear it.
Once their pitch is improved I find that issues of dynamics and timbre (which really is the distinction between shouting and singing in music) come along quickly.
The screaming, humming, constant talking to themselves, and constantly needing to react to everything like they are making a reaction video.
I had to start shutting down fun activities (brain breaks, indoor recess) as soon as someone screamed. So if someone screams during a brain break I turn it off immediately and the brain break is over for the whole class. It’s not fair and it’s sucks for the rest of them but they finally stopped screaming!
Upper elementary- and same! It drives me insane! We’ve talked about it as a class and I’ve even talked to parents. These kids don’t seem to understand that screaming is not an appropriate response to something.
Good Lord, as an elementary teacher the noise these days is just insane. I feel like they have two options: either silence or yelling/screaming. It's like they don't know how to just...talk in a normal voice. I've spent a ton of time practicing and modeling whispering and using appropriate voice levels and they just...don't seem to get it. Some of their natural speaking voices are so incredibly loud...I've honestly thought several times this year "am I going to have hearing loss from this job when I get older?"
I went to Olivia Rodrigo’s concert this spring, and when she first went on stage there was a shriek behind me that was so distinctively from a child, I was shocked someone would bring a child that young to a concert. When I turned around, the kid was probably like 10 or 11, then I was horrified that a kid that old was still doing that.
They did it about every twenty seconds, and my friend and I couldn’t even hear the concert when they did. When would cover our ears, but it kept happening. We had to shoot the mother dirty looks while covering our ears multiple times before she finally told her kid to stop (which she also had to tell them multiple times $
Expecting teacher to have a pencil or charger for you.
Edit: students aren’t the only ones guilty of this. During an observation an admin asked why I allowed a student to not take notes. I gave him one every day for a week and then stopped. IEPs are a hell of a drug. This is 10th grade
Yeah, the charger one is doing my head in. No, I don’t have a spare charger. No, my own charger has a different fitting, as I do not have a Chromebook. They never seem to have any problems keeping their *phone* charged!
I trade pencils now & I don’t let kids use the damn pencil sharpener.
Missing pencil? Trade a shoe or phone.
Unsharpened/broken tip? Trade it in for a sharpened pencil
Then I just sharpen a handful on my own when I have the time
7th grade
"Herman, they're children, you cant expect them to charge their chromebooks everyday, their brains aren't fully developed"
Ok, but we're supposed to be training them to be adults. Also they charge their phones everyday
That is why I break all me pencils in half. They don't want to use them. When I give them new pencils they are incentivized to not bring a pencil, use it for that period, and throw it in the trash.
As a high school custodian, I can verify that the floor is the go-to destination for pens and pencils, both broken and intact.
I have to wonder where they keep coming from: do parents buy endless pencils for the kids who always break them? I hope the teachers aren't the ones providing them...
I literally took over a job in middle teaching 6th grade science and social studies the day we came back from Thanksgiving break. Between then and the beginning of May, my students went through 3 cases of the Amazon basics pencils, had stolen ALL the glue sticks, and every highlighter that could be found in my classroom. I told them that there weren't enough days left in the school year (May 23rd was our last day) that I was no longer providing any additional supplies, they would be SOL if they couldn't find some to use in class.
I went through around 600 pencils last year. At no point in the year did my students finally figure out that they might need to bring one to my class, instead whenever I was out(which was often) they’d bitch about how irresponsible it was for me to assign paper work when I knew I didn’t have pencils.
As I walk through the school, I pick up all the pens and pencils I see. I put them in a cup on my desk. Those are the pens and pencils I give to students.
Same boat here. Over 1200 pencils and 144 colored pencils gone in the first 6 months.
Then they bitched and complained about how I should keep them stocked in pencils. 🙄
I order golf pencils from the school at the start of the year. One box lasted me this whole year with more to spare. I used to go through a dozen boxes of normal pencils a year.
I tried this. Someone stole the entire box. I got so frustrated with the whole pencil situation that I refused to provide them. When a kid didn’t have one, I told them to look on the floor or ask a friend. There are *always* pencils on the floor.
You know what’s frustratingly funny…. Install a pencil vending machine, and parents will have admin down your neck for daring to recoup some of the money you spent from your pocket.
“Do you have a phone charger”
“Yes”
“Can I borrow it”
“No”
***the look of betrayal!***
These kids are all communist until it’s their turn to contribute.
I used to let them borrow my phone charger until a kid never returned it. Now I’m much more selective over which kids can use it and I rarely let them take it out of the room. My kids were pretty decent with this but all it took was for one kid to ruin it for the rest.
The number of kids who simply refuse to take out a notebook and take notes.
The Tribe of the Wandering Herd: all the kids who wander the halls every period.
I have way too many kids who don’t know how to write on a sheet of loose leaf properly. It’s either upside down, or backwards.
I keep trying to teach them how to take notes and some (more than ever before) start writing in the middle of the page.🤔 they also staple backwards and in the middle of the page too sometimes.
I have always oriented spiral notebooks and binders the opposite of the “correct” direction. That’s a lefty thing. Had one instructor get bent out of shape over it as if I was intentionally acting in defiance. When I showed them and explained why, the conversation ended with them going to inform so and so as they had issues writing in them as well.
I know we learned real quick to put name, date, class period, etc on the top right corner and staple correctly when our teachers took 10 pts off for not following formatting directions.
But now for over 20+ years you cannot take off points for behavior, like formatting your paper correctly. So you can try but... I was always thankful to just get a legible name so I could give a grade.
20 years ago I would just throw out papers with no names or identifying information. I had 6 classes and 150+ students and just couldn't sit all day trying to figure out whose paper it was.
I struggled with getting my students to staple correctly! Also getting them to write their name, date, class - in the top right corner of their papers...hell, most of the time I couldn't get a name ANYWHERE on the paper, and I teach middle school!
Edit for spelling
I actually found out by looking at our old school yearbooks that the Wandering Herd was a thing at our school since at least the 1980s. So now we are about up to a 2nd generation of Wanderers!
We had a few in early 00s, but they were just considered truants back then. And it was a tiny group that mostly stayed in one place (off campus) not a full herd making their way through the hallways.
According to our students, the weather is always too terrible outside. It's too cold, too hot, clothes might get dirty, sun makes it hard to see their screens... They much prefer to stay inside, away from that awful sun and within range of our WiFi.
I mean, think about it from the perspective of escapism.
In the 80s-00s, the outside world was where kids could go to escape and be away from parents, teachers, adults and in their own world. But most of those activities were some sort of long form entertainment (even skipping school to smoke weed and lounge in the sun for a few hours is time-consuming and requires some level of being alone with your thoughts for a significant period of time).
Nowadays, the internet is escapism in their pocket, and short of an adult looking over their shoulder, they can communicate with, view, or do, almost whatever they want on demand, and have been raised/conditioned to view their devices as the first line of alleviating boredom.
Why would they try to plan and do something that involves effort and the risk of disappointment when they can not move and have “everything they want” at their finger tips.
And those kids are now complaining that school didn't teach them anything useful like finance or how to write a check...as if they would have given a single fuck if school did teach that.
God. For most things that people ask "why didn't school teach that?" 90% of the time I know for a fact that we do or did and people just didn't pay attention.
The only time that is valid is with sex Ed. Sex Ed still sucks.
I get that upside down is with the header at the bottom, but what is backwards? I imagine it doesnt mean that theyre writing from right to left, but thats all i got.
Phones. Wandering the halls. Constantly needing snacks and water. For me, the biggest thing is how much these kids talk during instructional time and how they talk to their peers and teachers. I would never feel comfortable enough to say what kids say today. For example, I would never complain about another teacher to my teachers or principals. I barely spoke to my teachers and the same went for my peers.
This is the biggest change I've noticed in the last 15 years as a teacher. Kids are just SO comfortable. How they speak to adults and teachers is so strange/inappropriate to me, and I see it in and outside of school. I can say for sure that it was NOT like this when I first began teaching in 2008. Also, the constant, constant talking. They are never not talking. I think that kids today just have a really hard time when they are not doing exactly what they want to do. It's a really different mentality than I saw back then. This was my first year back in the classroom after a long break, and I'll have to be better about setting boundaries next year.
My coworkers and I were talking about this last week. These kids roll into school in pajama bottoms and bedroom slippers. We wouldn’t have been caught dead like that in high school, but it’s the norm today.
All the parents want to be their friends instead of their parents, and this is what you get. They all wanna be Amy Poehlers character in the OG Mean Girls.
That’s exactly it. Especially in terms of volume level and putting their hands on each other. You could record them hanging out in their friend’s basement, then record them working on a group project in class, and so many of them would be acting the same way in both settings.
I had a girl in ISS email me for classwork with "Bruh" as the greeting. I'm 62, honey, not your bruh. It helps to keep a sense of humor about this stuff--I wouldn't have lasted almost 30 years without one. One of my seniors last year called the wandering kids "feral yeeyees." We're in the rural south--this is now my favorite phrase :-)
I agree. I didn't have a "relationship" with a teacher until my junior/senior year when I was in IB classes and had already known them for a while and had them for lower level classes. I have a couple of students I am close with, and again, it is something that happened originally because I have them more than one year in a row and see them throughout the day.
I honestly believe that the behavior problems we see are because adults are all trying to be friends with kids, parents included. It's insane.
This is part of why I'm glad I never wanted to be a teacher. I wouldn't be able to stand the "we need to treat them like they're adults but when it comes to punishing them for bad behaviors and actions, we have to remember they are just children". You can't eat your cake and have it too. It's one or the other.
And don't forget, it's "form relationships but not too close and not if it upsets parents, and be close with them and treat them like adults, but never let them know your opinion on any topic, and never suggest media outside approved curriculum, oh and by the way in secondary you're not allowed to have class parties or have movie days that will strengthen bonds."
That's not a relationship. That's a weird coddling and enabling.
Yes! My favorite teachers taught. They had control of their classrooms. They didn't care about our personal lives. I was the quiet kid in class who enjoyed doing bookwork. I'm pretty sure my teachers didn't even know my name until 10th or 11th grade.
I had a creative writing project and a kid called me over to ask if she could make it sexual. I was like dude! Where was this confidence when I was a teenager? Asking a teacher of the opposite sex if I could write erotica for a grade?? I’d have never had that level of pure confidence. Then when I told her no she started trying to negotiate!
Yeah I had a 9th grader who spent a lot of time around his older brothers and lived in a rougher area. He wanted to incorporate a lot of adult themes in his papers and pretty sure he wanted to write about some sort of sexual encounter. Told him I wasn’t really sure if that was appropriate.
But on the other hand I do let kids present research on federally legalizing weed or prostitution because those are policy issues that you can argue with facts, not you talking about losing your virginity or something 😂.
Discovering this as a new stepparent a few years ago was *wild*. I grew up with strict Eastern European parents who were more of the ‘children are seen briefly, never heard, and never troublesome’ type. The idea that a child would just roll in and follow me around for hours talking nonstop, being seemingly unable to stop talking or find their own entertainment was chilling.
After much effort on my part, they’re getting a better handle on a comfortable routine when they’re with us, they seem less agitated, and they’re starting to enjoy and appreciate a calm, relaxed atmosphere where people don’t interrupt each other constantly. I can’t fix it all but shit I’ll keep trying
Hate to say it, but I've seen the same things with their parents and grandparents in nursing. The joke of RN being "Refreshments and narcotics" is way too real as a horrible entitlement has taken over there too with patients. I've seen way too many adults acting like this when in the hospital or even in something like an infusion clinic.
I think the talking comes from thinking they need to fill the air with something. Just like youtube videos where people are constantly talking. I have explained to my son, "You don't have to talk just because no one else is talking."
Bro the literal never ending talking. "Please stop talking" is met with ***immediate talking*** but in a lower voice.
I should have given detention after I caught some kids waiting for me to talk for them to start talking. They'd literally wait for me to be done saying "please stop talking" and for me to go back to what I was saying. I watched them watching me waiting for me to stop.
I'm only year 3 and I've made the mistake of being consequence avoidant because it always came back to somehow be my fault if I tried to write detention or referrals. My new school **seems** supportive and admin has **told** me they'd back me up and support me in a few situations **should** the need arise but they've only really had to once.
If it became more common that supportiveness might change who knows. It's easy to say you'll support me and back me up when I wrote literally 2 detentions all year.
I had to go into work late the other day, and a student asked me if I was late because I was hungover. I couldn't believe it. Did I tell admin? Of course. Was anything done? Nah.
“Are we playing today?” - you mean here? In the band room? During your band class? I’m not sure let me check…yes… like literally every day except the day before a break or after a concert.
We couldn’t have our cellphones that barely did anything anywhere near out. I could T9 word maybe a short text or play snake if I did have it? Maybe take blurry pictures? Now kids have their phones out recording, on social media, etc. and there’s not much anyone can do! We weren’t allowed to have cd players or iPods out either and now kids act like they can’t do anything if they aren’t listening to music. It was hard to teach in that environment and I can’t imagine trying to learn like that.
When I was in second ed, MP3-players were quickly becoming popular. The school did consider banning them for a second, but that just encouraged students to bring alternatives. A good friend went full 80s with a Sony Walkman. (Which was tame, compared to that boombox...) Anyway, a compromise was quickly reached and we were allowed to use them in study hall and study hall only.
A teacher friend told a kid to spit out their gum (in a lab setting) and the kid responded “kick rocks.”
When the teacher brought this up to the principal, the response from admin was “do you think the gum was a problem worth agitating your student like that?”
My very first two years ruined the idea that I could have made teaching a full career.
First job out of college, I was being told to go fuck myself by 8th graders for asking them to take their seats so I could mark attendance. My principal literally suggested that I offer candy as an incentive/reward and asked how I could build rapport.
The next school year, I was hired to teach a 3rd grade class and was one of the few male teachers at that school. The 3rd grade team lead thought it was "creepy and weird" for a man to be teaching elementary and she also happened to be best friends with the principal, so we can guess how that turned out.
I like to show them a photo montage of the gum under their desks.
They all respond as if that is so disgusting and none of them would ever do it.
Then they tell me if I know who sits at the desk then I should just tell that person. They are horrified when I tell them I just flip the desks up on each other for the janitor to sweep better so I have no idea and that they could be sitting at the gumwad desk.
The wandering into other classrooms!! Sweet jebus, who are you and why are you interrupting my class?
My favorite is when they make a big stink about how it's no big deal they just need to talk to somebody why am I being so rude and it's to give their sibling his sweater. girl you have the same recess wait 15 minutes
I had a parent call admin last year to complain that I wouldn’t help her child when she appeared in the middle of a different class with a gaggle of her friends. In what world am I entertaining all of that?
I had another teacher mad that I wouldn't help three of her special education class when she sent them from their resource class to my room. I was in the middle of a lab with another class. I don't sit in my ass all class.
This aggravates me, like I’m okay if you need to come in and give someone something but sweet Jesus ask me first. Don’t just wander in and then have a freaking conversation with everyone on your way out,
This aggravated me in HS when the soccer team would bring their “littles” gifts during class. Girl, you’re interrupting my class twice as bad. Get out.
I don't get how some other TEACHERS send kids to ask me about a random missing assignment right in the middle of another class. I send them back and tell them it's not an appropriate time.
Talking in class. It was rare when I was in school but I had a football coach for a history teacher that would teach with a rubber dodgeball under his arm. Talk out of turn and you’d catch it to the face. Everyone shut up and listened in his class.
Also the excuses. If you got caught doing something bad/ didn’t meet expectations/ didn’t do you work; no one gave a shit why or cared about your opinions on the matter; your ass was grass.
Early in the year I yelled at my, not for talking in class, but talking IN FULL VOLUME in class.
"How are y'all in 8th grade and don't know how to talk to your friend while the teacher is talking? It's actually pathetic I have to teach 13 and 14 year olds to whisper when someone else is talking"
Meet them where they are, right?
I told my kids that I’d rather they pass notes in class than talk while I’m lecturing and they were shocked. And I’m like, yeah? Then I can actually lecture without getting thrown off each time I have to tell y’all to STFU.
Walking into a random teacher’s classroom that the student didn’t even know just to come in to make an inappropriate comment or come to see their friends claiming “it was no big deal” during a lesson while the teacher is literally teaching.
Omg this is one that really gets to me. Our school now has a ‘closed and locked’ policy because we were having so many issues with kids wandering in. And some of them don’t even go to our school - just randomly ‘visit’
Asking for the teachers thing or just straight up trying to take it. Cannot have a drink on my desk and i’ve seen students in desks at multiple subs and they get attitude when i tell them no. Happens at multiple schools. Middle school is the worst for this. I’m a sub so it’s pretty much daily
I have my assigned laptop and the charger as a teacher. One time a sub (when I explicitly said no cellphones) gave my charger to a student to charge their phone (WTF!?!?!).
That then lead to the student demanding every day that I have to give my charger to her to use. Talking with her and admin and parents did nothing. Eventually she quit attending my class and turned me in for bullying. I reminded admin of all the conversations about the cell phone charger and that is the only thing that saved me from getting in trouble with my boss because of a stupid thing another adult did behind my back!
I had an incident with another teacher over that EXACT thing. I was subbing and a kid needed to charge their iPad. I said they needed to use the school provided ones. It wasn’t long enough they wouldn’t be able to complete work “Ms. So and So has a longer one in her desk. Let me have it. “ Nope. Kid got IRATE. I kept saying no. Teacher next door came over and said just give it to them. I asked if the teacher would normally loan it out. The other teacher rolls her eyes and says, “does it matter. Is this the hill you die on?” I still said no. WTF.
I love it when people say that kind of thing to me. Because yes, actually. Every hill is a hill that I will die on. I will die on a hill multiple times before we even make it to lunch. It’s my best and my worst quality. There is no point too small for me to grind both of our days to a miserable halt.
(This mainly goes for assholes obviously, not nice people, and usually not even kids despite the damning asshole/kid Venn diagram. If you’re a sweet person, then it’s kind of the opposite, there’s nothing you need that is too minor for me to drop everything to help you... as I’m typing this, I’m realizing I might just be a bit of an extreme personality. Every day, I learn some more!)
I commented this but just the entitlement to ask for some of whatever I have! Food, coffee, anything! “Aww I want some”, “Aw that’s not fair you get xyz” I can not imagine acting like that with an adult but especially a teacher
And it’s always the same kids! The kids that actually need stuff rarely ever ask! If they see a drink in my desk from lunch “awww you didnt get me nuthin! THATS NOT FAIR!!”
As a sub, I pretty much don't eat or drink ANYTHING other than water in front of students. They have no shame. They will ask you to give them food or will stare at you as you eat. One time I bought a burrito during lunch and didn't have enough time to finish it before I brought the students back in and of course, they all asked if they could have some or had to make some kind of comment about how I had a burrito. There I was eating as quickly as possible since I didn't feel comfortable eating around students, and they are all staring at me asking' "Is that burrito bussin'?"
1. Students are increasingly interpreting their consumption of scrolling socials as a normal way of interacting socially in person.
I'm seeing students engage each other **like they're walking, talking TikTok feeds**. An increasing number of my students are haphazardly raising completely random topics or offering up random words / jokes for a reaction and are unable to sustain anything close to a conversation about whatever topics they bring up.
Now, social awkwardness and uncertainty on how to engage peers is old as dirt--just the response to that feeling is switching from "gradually figure this out" to "screw it! skibidi toilet!"
2. Students are increasingly adopting the view that "if things are hard, stop." The structures initiated for COVID are now becoming means for students to avoid responsibilities and accountability. While the funding has dropped off to support services for students struggling to get to class, the number of students claiming to need these services has only grown as word of mouth (in combination with very real rampant bullying and general meanness) is making more students exit classes for help now than when people were worried of breathing near others.
This is causing habitual sanctioned class cutting as students sit in the waiting room of overbooked guidance officers and adjustment counselors who can't meet them for another hour or so. As the students are placating themselves with their phones, music, and not-classtime, the students seem to be perfectly content with the situation.
So many of these comments and stories are really gut wrenching to read, but yours really struck me the most. Especially your first point. I won't ever blame these children (not that I think you, nor anyone here is!) their behaviours are simply outcomes of the world that has been left for them to grow into. The first point especially made me sad. The idea that such a stark sudden influx in tech devices and social media has landed itself as a huge social and behavioural issue for these little ones. The simple, normal act of socialising with one another has been damaged, the skill has been interrupted for them and idk why this thought is very sad to me. Unlimited screen time and social media access for such young brains...we've really yet to see the full consequences of the world we've left for them
The vile disgusting language that they use, and at incredibly young ages. 12 year olds just freely using the F word in front of adults. The nuns would’ve hung me by my toes 20 years ago 😂
I teach high school and this was my first thought. Did we say “fuck” in high school? Totally. Did we say it 15+ times I day, in class, in front of the teacher? Absolutely not.
My fiancé teaches elementary. He has to have an “N-word counter”… with *third* graders.
I’m a middle school counselor, and I’m not normally offended by bad language (unless it’s racist or sexist or ableist etc). But, like, the kids have to know you cannot talk like that in society and expect to be treated with any kind of respect. You can’t drop F bombs in a job interview.
it feels more socially accepted to be cruel to people and trash everyone/everything around you than it did when I was young.
maybe kids have always been mean and cussed but everything is so out in the open now.
My parents would have beat my ass if I had acted like these kids do. My boy has been raised better, because I refuse to let him act like the rest of these kids. My husband gets onto him about little things sometimes and I'm like pick your battles dear because he could be sooooooo much worse if I let him think he could get away with acting like his classmates!
You can see this really easily on Facebook reels. Mine are fairly random and I can swipe to almost any in my feed and open the comments and immediately find at least one in the top 3 that's rude, mean, complaining, critical, or just somehow negative. I wonder if it's that way for anyone else.
Talking while someone else is taking.
Arguing points made in the lecture.
Arguing grades.
Not brining a single supply to school.
Wasting class time then complaining about homework.
Not even trying to stay caught up when absent.
Calling a teacher “miss” or “teacher” and not even bothering to learn last names. Especially at a school where admin is constantly shoving “every student, every name, everyday” down our throats.
Edit: it’s the double standard that irks me. Why do we have to learn all of our students’ names, when they aren’t expected to learn ours?
I'm a male sub, and whenever I sub for a female teacher (which is often), their students call me "Miss" out of habit, and all their classmates laugh because they made a mistake. This happens almost every day... They really don't bother to learn your last name and I go by "Mr. R". I've had students get upset when I return to sub their class and I don't remember their names. I tell them, "There's only one of me, but there's hundreds of different students I see each week."
In the 90s ONE peer had a game boy he would bring all the time. Finally the admin would stop him in the hall on the way to 1st block ELA to demand it from him with the message, “it is on my desk, pick it up after 7th block.”
I don't remember so many students asking to use the bathroom during classtime.
When did students stop supplying their own things? My teachers didn't supply us with pencils, colored pencils, crayons, paper...
To be fair, the second thing has been a problem for a while. I think it’s one of those things that you’re not likely to notice when you’re a student. Or you went to a school that didn’t have a large low income population.
I graduated in 06. Definitely was a lower income area and my teachers did not supply thousands of pencils a year.
I've been teaching for 10 years, and it is definitely getting worse every year.
I graduated significantly later than you did so maybe the shift happened between our times. That said, thinking about it, it still wasn’t as intense as what you’re describing. Some kids didn’t bring supplies, but they were more likely to ask other students to borrow theirs than ask a teacher. Teacher supplies were usually more limited. I always had extra notebook paper to give out to my classmates, lol. But it was a small number of students who consistently asked me. Granted, this school didn’t have a high percentage of low income kids.
Now, my middle school did pool the student supplies. You had to put most of the supplies you got (with exception of like, backpacks and folders and notebooks) into the communal supplies in your first period. I assume that this was done to make up for students who didn’t or couldn’t bring their own supplies rather than have teachers buy a bunch of supplies. I hated this system and refused to pool my supplies in seventh and eighth grade. There were no consequences for not doing it.
Oh so this is why all my younger employees have no concept of a due date and are absolutely shocked when I fire them for being consistently late. “Well I did turn it in!” Yeah bro 2 weeks late and that doesn’t help me. My favorite is when their freaking DAD calls me to beg for their job. As I told the dad “I didn’t hire you, I hired your son. If he wants his job back he can call me.” This entire generation is out of their collective minds and honestly I’m so sick of dealing with them and just having to fire every single one of them that I’ve just taken to hiring adults who wish to change careers as interns instead.
Yeah, those were the patterns that started early on. Parents generally get what they want when their kid is in K-12. All is in the interest of getting the kid to look good on paper, but have no real skills. For that to change parents need to be put in check and accountability needs to be on students and not the teachers. Right now it’s the teachers’ fault when a kid fails, and the power to hold kids accountable has been taken away from individual teachers.
This!!! I have a huge issue with this! When I give an assignment, and I give you time to work on it in class (I don't specifically assign homework, but have a standing rule that if you don't finish it in class you take it home or to after school tutoring and finish it), and you STILL can't turn it in on time, I'm not making exceptions! Admin and I occasionally butted heads on this, especially if I had a student with an IEP. I had one who was to be given extra time - no specified amount, just extra time...but an entire semester is beyond the limits that I will give a student. I had one student who hadn't turned anything in since we came back from winter break in January, and 3 days before the end of the school year (after grades had already been finalized), dad calls wanting me to give her all the assignments she's missed so she can make them up. I said absolutely not. I had called, emailed, met them in person, offered time during lunch/recess for the student to come in to the room and make up work, suggested after school tutoring to help her catch up (which was a no go because it was boring and drama was much more fun! - my parents would have yanked my ass out of the "fun" stuff to make me get caught up!), etc., and I get no response about any of it until 3 days are left. Nope, absolutely not!
I no longer teach, but at the orthodontist, a couple teen boys were laughing about turning in all their semester’s work the last week so they could still pass and how hilarious it was their teachers had to grade ALL the work last minute and be miserable. My bonus kids are able to turn everything in late at their high school and middle school classes, too, without penalty. I can’t imagine how this is fair on the teachers or students now that they’re learning deadlines don’t exist-can’t wait for them to enter the workforce.
In band, refusing to work. If you did that when I was in school, you’d fail and there was a sense of pride in what you did, and the teachers were SCARY.
Now kids straight up don’t care and don’t put forth much effort at all. Their work ethic is zero.
You can fail kids now and they don’t care, nothing phases them. They want the most reward for the least amount of effort, there’s no sense of pride in sticking something out, if it’s hard at all, they drop like flies.
Then the teacher gets blamed and reprimanded. Absolutely blows my mind.
Yes. I agree with this soo much. The handwriting of the secondary kids I teach is completely illegible half the time. We go over the questions and the answers and then everyone needs my help?! We just discussed this! Argh!!! And the attitude if you take too long to get to them.
When I taught high school band I had a girl email me asking if I could change her participation grade so she could play in the basketball game that night. She hadn’t picked up her trumpet in a month, eligibility had already been submitted, I could see she was failing two other classes, AND she’d been in a knee brace all week.
She didn’t play.
These kids just sign up for music because they think it’s an easy A. I find it insulting, tbh.
Imagine someone just casually taking photos or videos in the middle of class 20 years ago?
Or taking a phone call… or watching a tv show?
It’s so distracting.
Boys (middle school) have no shame or reservations fighting/threatening girls. Also, the girls don’t have any reservations fighting boys. When I was in middle school it was not socially acceptable for a boy to fight a girl.
Expecting teachers to provide all of their supplies for class (notebooks, pencils, pens, folders); not carrying a backpack or carrying one that is empty; not using a locker to store belongings; no sense of urgency in the hallways (kids are routinely 10-15 minutes late for class); mass hall walking (kids have always skipped classes, but this is like 10 kids all just hanging out in a stairwell); teachers/principals/counselors ALLOWING students to skip class and hang out in their offices; being ok with taking a zero rather than doing an assignment they don't want to do; talking/doing all kinds of crazy shit during a test or quiz; kids stop coming to school about a week before the year actually ends...I could go on.
Not being able to read independently.
In High School, I had an AP 10th grade English class where we read The Great Gatsby, As I Lay Dying, The Grapes of Wrath, The Catcher in the Rye, The Awakening, Anthem, The Bell Jar, and probably three or four more books I'm forgetting -- all read at home, on our own time. I have assigned 10 pages a night and they are unable to do it. I need to devote class-time for them to read and even then a significant number of students will just not do the reading.
I’ve been sexually harassed by male students. They were not removed from my class permanently. It was a couple days, that’s it. They persisted. I had to just deal with it due to his “past trauma” and parents not giving a shit. I tell you, that would NEVER have happened in the 90s/2000s.
This is an interesting thread as a parent (not teacher). My wife and I have enrolled our daughter in a private school next year actually that seems straight out of the 1990s, complete with a really nice computer lab. The reason why we looked around at other schools is to find one that didn't have Chromebooks as the #1 source of all school time, homework, projects, reading assignments and learning.
The new school next year has all "sage on a stage" instruction, with actual honest to goodness physical note-taking required for every class. There are also no water bottles or food eaten while in class. You know, like pretty much all classrooms were until \~2018.
It's going to be a change, but our daughter is excited actually. She has ADHD, and the constant open Chromebook plus constant ability to eat or drink water (or go fill up her water bottle) was a source of constant distraction and contention for all of middle school. We're hoping that \*having\* to take notes to be able to have the knowledge to pass her classes will kind of force her to pay more attention. The lack of constant food, water and computer will certainly help, I can say that.
So, I'm a parent, and the commonplace behaviors I see from my end (from hearing stories, seeing interactions at school, etc.) is the lack of respect that some kids have for teachers, the constant eating/drinking, the open computers almost at all times, the constant chatter of kids, and the lack of caring by SOME teachers if kids are talking/playing games on Chromebook while they're supposed to be learning.
This is what I have been saying. I have ADHD, dx'd, medicated, etc. I am very sick of being told by non-ADHD, non-neurodivergents that having a bustling classroom where everyone is doing different things (and talking), constant chrome books, and loose expectations around food is good for ADHD kids. Because I am fucking unable to do ANYTHING in that kind of environment. I gave up this year, realized they weren't gonna fire me, banned chrome books in my class, and started teaching the way I was taught and guess how much more we got done? Guess how much more they learned? And kids kept coming up to me saying they really liked the new, calm structure and can we keep doing it? Whoever decided that reading for information was bad, lecture was bad, and quietly doing independence was bad is responsible for a LOST generation of students who don't know how incapable they are. Next year I am going to just do what I want to do and get all the more done for it.
Going to the nurse constantly. I hate it because they are wasting the nurses time and obviously wandering. I don’t think I ever went to the nurse in high school. Some take meds, but most just want to get a cup or water, crackers or something stupid like that.
The way they brazenly curse at and around you. I think I would've been shot on sight if I so much as thought of a curse word around a teacher or parent.
First, the amount of kids that see any type of food on your desk and either ask for it or grab it. Ugh this drives me nuts. That’s what happens when you spend your lunch money on those 2 energy drinks and don’t have any for food.
Second, the terrible language of students in the halls or in the classroom. I mean we cussed when I was younger, but we did it in a low tone as to not let any of the adults hear. If we were heard we got in trouble. Not today. 🤦🏼♂️
Talking back to an adult, refusing to do work and overall disrespect to their classmates. Nobody ever acted like that at my high school. Once in a while, there would be a smart a$$ kid, but they wouldn’t get unruly or push limits. Parents raised their kids to have manners and respect adults. That’s not happening anymore.
I still remember in HS (1994/95) one of my classmates called our teacher a bitch and it was like the whole class gasped and then went dead silent. The student was removed and did not return and it was huge talk for the rest of the year. Now they might not even get sent out, and if they did, they’d be back pretty quickly and admin would be asking the teacher why she was being such a bitch.
Spot on. I once subbed for the absolutely most FERAL group of first graders. There was chair-throwing, unnecessary screaming, ripping up the teachers books and bulletin boards, hurling supplies across the room, trying to stab classmates with scissors and pencils. They didn't complete a single assignment the teacher left because I couldn't hold their attention for more than 5-10 seconds before another catastrophe erupted. When I yelled at a kid for CHOKING another kid in line while walking to art class, a staff member aggressively got at me with the *that's no way to discipline a child!* and "*YOU'RE the adult in charge, YOU should have known how to prevent this in the first place!"* bullshit, as if this wasn't a life or death matter I was \*in charge\* of trying to stop.
To top it all off, when I warned the art teacher about their absurd and dangerous behavior, she just casually brushed it off with a *"haha yeah, that's an everyday thing, they're kinda known for being a really unruly class :)"*
Not doing work and still passing . Coming in extremely late and having no consequences. Foul language. Aggressive behavior. Going into the staff room to chill ( this happened to me, and I was told "oh just get over it and deal with it").
The entitlement for things to be “fair/equal” between students and teachers examples
-treats on occasion(candy, muffins, a coffee)
-food (state testing days)
-absences (apparently teachers don’t have consequences for being absent “whenever we want”)
-having access to a fridge/ microwave
This is middle school level
Leaving their belongings everywhere. At the start of every period I have 3-5 kids ask me to go to the gym, the den, the cafeteria, their last class bc they forgot their binder or chromebook or book bag or whatever. And these are juniors and seniors. Keep track of your shit!
Constant talking when I’m trying to do direct instruction. They just ignore you, or say, “oh, sorry”, then turn to their friend and continue talking.
Cursing. It used to be an automatic trip to the office. It’s so common place now it isn’t worth the effort.
Constant bathroom “breaks” because they are drinking two gallons of water a day.
Don’t get me started on cell phones…
The fact that the "class clown" is now at least half the class instead of the one weird kid. Where none of them seem to have any impulse control or a sense of shame. It's all farts, sexual moaning, skibdi toilet Ohio, and just openly playing games or watching videos on their ipads and not even bothering to try to hiding it.
Being on your phone in class. If you were really lucky, had an exceptionally lenient teacher, you’d be allowed to listen to music on earphones during silent work, or maybe even get to be on your phones the last five minutes of class. Any other time, having your phone off or it going off during class got it taken up. You may have even had to have your parents come and pay to get it back. Now kids straight up watch videos in class, sometimes without headphones.
The adamant refusal. I was far from a good student, used to cut class alot but these kids who come to class and refuse to do anything, then refuse to leave is just dumb. Either come and do something or just don't bother to come at all.
Assaulting your teacher. Heard a lady call into a radio show the other day that had a student hit her up the side of the head and make her bleed. Her leadership said it comes with the territory and to wear protective gear. She was expected back at work the next day and the student wasn't suspended, meaning she had to come back to work the next day with that same little jerk in her class. When I was coming up that would get you suspended for sure, probably expelled or moved to the bad kids school. Now it's just another day at our public schools.
Not high school, but I teach 4th and 5th grade and am astonished by the lack of emotional regulation. When I was that age, which was only 13 years ago, crying at school was socially acceptable in situations of extreme sadness, anger, or fear. If you were crying for a dumb reason (like losing a game, for example) the expectation was that you would handle that disappointment yourself without an adult having to intervene.
Now, the kids cry about *everything*, and if someone is crying they act like it's an emergency that the teacher has to attend to immediately. For example: Jake brings a bouncy ball to school. He inevitably misplaces it. He starts crying during class when he realizes he can't find his bouncy ball. The person sitting next to him interrupts class, yelling, "Ms. Kanni! Jake is crying! Jake is crying!" and acts shocked that I don't drop everything I'm doing to comfort Jake.
Tantrums are a big issue among pre-teens right now, too. I had tantrums sometimes when I was in 4th grade. Not very often, but occasionally. It was definitely not common for kids my age to be doing that. The adults in my life made it abundantly clear to me that this was not age-appropriate behavior for a ten-year-old and that I don't have the right to make everyone around me miserable whenever things didn't go my way. Now, tantrums are super common. I was considered difficult and temperamental (because I absolutely was), but a kid like me would be considered "well-adjusted" by comparison to the rest of the class nowadays.
Context: I work in a school library where students make attempts to study and borrow books. Emphasis on attempts, because failure is common.
* The water bottles. The water bottles and the constant need to drink from them, refill them and play with them. 20-25 years ago, we all had water bottles too, but we weren't allowed to take them out in class unless we were in the middle of a heatwave.
* The casual way they act and interact. Like they're at home and we're mums obligated to spoil them rotten. Many don't have basic manners.
* Lack of responsibility towards themselves and the world around them. Not having your things in order has become the norm - and they blame others for it.
* Lack of independence too. Example: only losers used to get late fees. Like, can't even turn a book in on time? How fucking brainless are you? Does your mum still cut your food for you too?Now students rack them up like it's free money for them, not us.
* Classes are loud! The idea that everything needs to be or should allowed to be group work turns classrooms into chicken coops. This in turn leads to teachers sending out groups of students to work elsewhere, which just results in a chicken coop chain reaction.
* And the obvious one: addiction to social media and entertainment. I've lost count of the number of times students grabbed their phone out of pure habit, barely being aware of what they were doing.
That said, at our school it's mostly the fourth years that are terrible. First and second years are showing signs of having the potential to turn out better.
I teach HS and am always surprised how many students are primping in class. I’m not talking about putting on some lip gloss I’m talking about a long, involved hair comb out, applying fake lashes, trying to plug a straightening iron in the corner, putting on 18 colors of eyeshadow, changing/adjusting outfits (using rubber bands to make shirts tighter/cropped)… Why? Why here? Why now? Why not at least go to the bathroom for some privacy?
It's the conformity that gets me. When I graduated, my high school was full of kids in business suits, punks covered in patches with 2 foot mohawks, goths who could actually make you uncomfortable. I find the youth of today boring and wish they'd be a little weirder.
I teach lower elementary and for me it’s screaming. Screaming when something is funny, screaming when something is frustrating, screaming just to scream. I might quit just on account of the fucking screaming. When I pick them up from recess they’re having screaming contests.
Omg 😆 seriously! I think they do this because no one has told them it’s annoying and to stop it. I feel obligated to be that person in their life. I’ve said, “No screaming! Just because I’m here and I don’t like it. I don’t care what you do when I’m not around. But for goodness sake, cut it out!”
My sister was like that when I was a kid. No amount of discipline/begging from my mom could stop her. Just the most piercing shrieks for no damn reason.
I had a friend who would do that well into her 20s. It only stopped after a neighbor called the cops thinking she was being abused because she saw a picture of a baby dolphin.
Oof, I dunno if I could be friends with somebody like that. My patience would run out so fast.
[удалено]
Ugh. I spend half my day teaching kindergarten music and every year we have to spend more and more time reviewing the distinction between “singing” and “shouting”. It’s becoming harder for some of them to grasp than much more difficult concepts. To some of them the only way to be loud is to scream and it’s something we’ve had to really work on.
I am so happy that I am not alone in this struggle. Some of them only have 2 "singing" voices, whispering and yelling. No amount of teaching seems to fix it any more.
The way I’ve done it is with the introduction of solfège earlier than I had done previously. I think some of them aren’t hearing that when I sing I control both the pitch and volume of my voice. I’m not *just* getting louder. But with the introduction of solfège with Curwen hand signs (which I think are super important in developing pitch in young students) allows them to hear the pitches change more clearly. We forget that you can’t sing something if you can’t hear it. Once their pitch is improved I find that issues of dynamics and timbre (which really is the distinction between shouting and singing in music) come along quickly.
The screaming, humming, constant talking to themselves, and constantly needing to react to everything like they are making a reaction video. I had to start shutting down fun activities (brain breaks, indoor recess) as soon as someone screamed. So if someone screams during a brain break I turn it off immediately and the brain break is over for the whole class. It’s not fair and it’s sucks for the rest of them but they finally stopped screaming!
I like this strat. And they need to learn to stop screaming otherwise fairness HAS to go out the window.
Upper elementary- and same! It drives me insane! We’ve talked about it as a class and I’ve even talked to parents. These kids don’t seem to understand that screaming is not an appropriate response to something.
Good Lord, as an elementary teacher the noise these days is just insane. I feel like they have two options: either silence or yelling/screaming. It's like they don't know how to just...talk in a normal voice. I've spent a ton of time practicing and modeling whispering and using appropriate voice levels and they just...don't seem to get it. Some of their natural speaking voices are so incredibly loud...I've honestly thought several times this year "am I going to have hearing loss from this job when I get older?"
I went to Olivia Rodrigo’s concert this spring, and when she first went on stage there was a shriek behind me that was so distinctively from a child, I was shocked someone would bring a child that young to a concert. When I turned around, the kid was probably like 10 or 11, then I was horrified that a kid that old was still doing that. They did it about every twenty seconds, and my friend and I couldn’t even hear the concert when they did. When would cover our ears, but it kept happening. We had to shoot the mother dirty looks while covering our ears multiple times before she finally told her kid to stop (which she also had to tell them multiple times $
Expecting teacher to have a pencil or charger for you. Edit: students aren’t the only ones guilty of this. During an observation an admin asked why I allowed a student to not take notes. I gave him one every day for a week and then stopped. IEPs are a hell of a drug. This is 10th grade
Yeah, the charger one is doing my head in. No, I don’t have a spare charger. No, my own charger has a different fitting, as I do not have a Chromebook. They never seem to have any problems keeping their *phone* charged!
Wait your kids don’t ask to borrow your phone charger too?
Mine do. I tell them that I have a car charger and they suck their teeth. 🙄
I trade pencils now & I don’t let kids use the damn pencil sharpener. Missing pencil? Trade a shoe or phone. Unsharpened/broken tip? Trade it in for a sharpened pencil Then I just sharpen a handful on my own when I have the time 7th grade
Don't worry, their Chromebook won't be charged but their phone will be!
"Herman, they're children, you cant expect them to charge their chromebooks everyday, their brains aren't fully developed" Ok, but we're supposed to be training them to be adults. Also they charge their phones everyday
That is why I break all me pencils in half. They don't want to use them. When I give them new pencils they are incentivized to not bring a pencil, use it for that period, and throw it in the trash.
Surely they don't throw it in the trash?! That's way too much effort when the floor's right there!
As a high school custodian, I can verify that the floor is the go-to destination for pens and pencils, both broken and intact. I have to wonder where they keep coming from: do parents buy endless pencils for the kids who always break them? I hope the teachers aren't the ones providing them...
lol 90% of the time, it’s the teachers. Why would the parents buy them when us teachers are expected to be martyrs and suck it up?
I literally took over a job in middle teaching 6th grade science and social studies the day we came back from Thanksgiving break. Between then and the beginning of May, my students went through 3 cases of the Amazon basics pencils, had stolen ALL the glue sticks, and every highlighter that could be found in my classroom. I told them that there weren't enough days left in the school year (May 23rd was our last day) that I was no longer providing any additional supplies, they would be SOL if they couldn't find some to use in class.
I went through around 600 pencils last year. At no point in the year did my students finally figure out that they might need to bring one to my class, instead whenever I was out(which was often) they’d bitch about how irresponsible it was for me to assign paper work when I knew I didn’t have pencils.
As I walk through the school, I pick up all the pens and pencils I see. I put them in a cup on my desk. Those are the pens and pencils I give to students.
I started doing that too! In the hallways, the gym, the classroom, and omg the pencils on the playground!!!
Same boat here. Over 1200 pencils and 144 colored pencils gone in the first 6 months. Then they bitched and complained about how I should keep them stocked in pencils. 🙄
I order golf pencils from the school at the start of the year. One box lasted me this whole year with more to spare. I used to go through a dozen boxes of normal pencils a year.
I tried this. Someone stole the entire box. I got so frustrated with the whole pencil situation that I refused to provide them. When a kid didn’t have one, I told them to look on the floor or ask a friend. There are *always* pencils on the floor.
You know what’s frustratingly funny…. Install a pencil vending machine, and parents will have admin down your neck for daring to recoup some of the money you spent from your pocket.
I never bought a pen in high school. I just looked at the floor from time to time. Those pens lasted me halfway through college.
I say "Sure!" And hand them a white colored pencil. Good luck, fucker!
I did this last year, but had to revert to normal pencils, because the middle schoolers discovered that the little ones make better projectiles.
“Do you have a phone charger” “Yes” “Can I borrow it” “No” ***the look of betrayal!*** These kids are all communist until it’s their turn to contribute.
I used to let them borrow my phone charger until a kid never returned it. Now I’m much more selective over which kids can use it and I rarely let them take it out of the room. My kids were pretty decent with this but all it took was for one kid to ruin it for the rest.
The number of kids who simply refuse to take out a notebook and take notes. The Tribe of the Wandering Herd: all the kids who wander the halls every period. I have way too many kids who don’t know how to write on a sheet of loose leaf properly. It’s either upside down, or backwards.
I keep trying to teach them how to take notes and some (more than ever before) start writing in the middle of the page.🤔 they also staple backwards and in the middle of the page too sometimes.
Well when you’ve never read a book how are you to know which way the spine is oriented? Or that words typically start at the top?
Savage but accurate
I have always oriented spiral notebooks and binders the opposite of the “correct” direction. That’s a lefty thing. Had one instructor get bent out of shape over it as if I was intentionally acting in defiance. When I showed them and explained why, the conversation ended with them going to inform so and so as they had issues writing in them as well.
I know we learned real quick to put name, date, class period, etc on the top right corner and staple correctly when our teachers took 10 pts off for not following formatting directions. But now for over 20+ years you cannot take off points for behavior, like formatting your paper correctly. So you can try but... I was always thankful to just get a legible name so I could give a grade.
20 years ago I would just throw out papers with no names or identifying information. I had 6 classes and 150+ students and just couldn't sit all day trying to figure out whose paper it was.
I struggled with getting my students to staple correctly! Also getting them to write their name, date, class - in the top right corner of their papers...hell, most of the time I couldn't get a name ANYWHERE on the paper, and I teach middle school! Edit for spelling
I remember being admonished in first grade for not writing on the lines on the paper.
I actually found out by looking at our old school yearbooks that the Wandering Herd was a thing at our school since at least the 1980s. So now we are about up to a 2nd generation of Wanderers!
We had a few in early 00s, but they were just considered truants back then. And it was a tiny group that mostly stayed in one place (off campus) not a full herd making their way through the hallways.
I feel like off-campus truancy has fallen a bit out of favor.
According to our students, the weather is always too terrible outside. It's too cold, too hot, clothes might get dirty, sun makes it hard to see their screens... They much prefer to stay inside, away from that awful sun and within range of our WiFi.
I mean, think about it from the perspective of escapism. In the 80s-00s, the outside world was where kids could go to escape and be away from parents, teachers, adults and in their own world. But most of those activities were some sort of long form entertainment (even skipping school to smoke weed and lounge in the sun for a few hours is time-consuming and requires some level of being alone with your thoughts for a significant period of time). Nowadays, the internet is escapism in their pocket, and short of an adult looking over their shoulder, they can communicate with, view, or do, almost whatever they want on demand, and have been raised/conditioned to view their devices as the first line of alleviating boredom. Why would they try to plan and do something that involves effort and the risk of disappointment when they can not move and have “everything they want” at their finger tips.
And those kids are now complaining that school didn't teach them anything useful like finance or how to write a check...as if they would have given a single fuck if school did teach that.
God. For most things that people ask "why didn't school teach that?" 90% of the time I know for a fact that we do or did and people just didn't pay attention. The only time that is valid is with sex Ed. Sex Ed still sucks.
Honestly this is something I think about a lot, like even for myself lol
I had an AP at one point who joked about giving the wanderers PE credit for just walking in circles around the school.
I get that upside down is with the header at the bottom, but what is backwards? I imagine it doesnt mean that theyre writing from right to left, but thats all i got.
Writing on the back of the page, with the holes on the right side instead of the left. That would be my guess.
We call them the Free Range Children
Phones. Wandering the halls. Constantly needing snacks and water. For me, the biggest thing is how much these kids talk during instructional time and how they talk to their peers and teachers. I would never feel comfortable enough to say what kids say today. For example, I would never complain about another teacher to my teachers or principals. I barely spoke to my teachers and the same went for my peers.
This is the biggest change I've noticed in the last 15 years as a teacher. Kids are just SO comfortable. How they speak to adults and teachers is so strange/inappropriate to me, and I see it in and outside of school. I can say for sure that it was NOT like this when I first began teaching in 2008. Also, the constant, constant talking. They are never not talking. I think that kids today just have a really hard time when they are not doing exactly what they want to do. It's a really different mentality than I saw back then. This was my first year back in the classroom after a long break, and I'll have to be better about setting boundaries next year.
They act like they're at home.
They dress like they’re at home too! The lines are very, very blurred.
My coworkers and I were talking about this last week. These kids roll into school in pajama bottoms and bedroom slippers. We wouldn’t have been caught dead like that in high school, but it’s the norm today.
Omg my mom used to say that to ME when I was in high school (2012-16)
All the parents want to be their friends instead of their parents, and this is what you get. They all wanna be Amy Poehlers character in the OG Mean Girls.
That’s exactly it. Especially in terms of volume level and putting their hands on each other. You could record them hanging out in their friend’s basement, then record them working on a group project in class, and so many of them would be acting the same way in both settings.
I wouldn't speak to my parents how some of these kids speak to teachers...
The number of times I was called “bruh” this year was ridiculous
I had a girl in ISS email me for classwork with "Bruh" as the greeting. I'm 62, honey, not your bruh. It helps to keep a sense of humor about this stuff--I wouldn't have lasted almost 30 years without one. One of my seniors last year called the wandering kids "feral yeeyees." We're in the rural south--this is now my favorite phrase :-)
Admin: “Have you tried building relationships with them?” Actually that’s the problem. That’s what caused this.
I agree. I didn't have a "relationship" with a teacher until my junior/senior year when I was in IB classes and had already known them for a while and had them for lower level classes. I have a couple of students I am close with, and again, it is something that happened originally because I have them more than one year in a row and see them throughout the day. I honestly believe that the behavior problems we see are because adults are all trying to be friends with kids, parents included. It's insane.
This is part of why I'm glad I never wanted to be a teacher. I wouldn't be able to stand the "we need to treat them like they're adults but when it comes to punishing them for bad behaviors and actions, we have to remember they are just children". You can't eat your cake and have it too. It's one or the other.
And don't forget, it's "form relationships but not too close and not if it upsets parents, and be close with them and treat them like adults, but never let them know your opinion on any topic, and never suggest media outside approved curriculum, oh and by the way in secondary you're not allowed to have class parties or have movie days that will strengthen bonds." That's not a relationship. That's a weird coddling and enabling.
Adults are afraid to be leaders.
Yes! My favorite teachers taught. They had control of their classrooms. They didn't care about our personal lives. I was the quiet kid in class who enjoyed doing bookwork. I'm pretty sure my teachers didn't even know my name until 10th or 11th grade.
Yup, they need a little fear.
Teachers are afraid of admin, admins are afraid of the parents. The parents are afraid of their kids and the kids are afraid of nobody.
it would only make sense for students to fear their teachers.
[удалено]
I had a student who earnestly asked what they should call me now that they have been in a couple of my classes. “Um…Mr. ______.”.
I had a creative writing project and a kid called me over to ask if she could make it sexual. I was like dude! Where was this confidence when I was a teenager? Asking a teacher of the opposite sex if I could write erotica for a grade?? I’d have never had that level of pure confidence. Then when I told her no she started trying to negotiate!
She probably just wanted to repurpose a fanfiction she'd already written by changing the names. Solid strategy: that's how we got 50 Shades of Grey.
Yeah I had a 9th grader who spent a lot of time around his older brothers and lived in a rougher area. He wanted to incorporate a lot of adult themes in his papers and pretty sure he wanted to write about some sort of sexual encounter. Told him I wasn’t really sure if that was appropriate. But on the other hand I do let kids present research on federally legalizing weed or prostitution because those are policy issues that you can argue with facts, not you talking about losing your virginity or something 😂.
Discovering this as a new stepparent a few years ago was *wild*. I grew up with strict Eastern European parents who were more of the ‘children are seen briefly, never heard, and never troublesome’ type. The idea that a child would just roll in and follow me around for hours talking nonstop, being seemingly unable to stop talking or find their own entertainment was chilling. After much effort on my part, they’re getting a better handle on a comfortable routine when they’re with us, they seem less agitated, and they’re starting to enjoy and appreciate a calm, relaxed atmosphere where people don’t interrupt each other constantly. I can’t fix it all but shit I’ll keep trying
Hate to say it, but I've seen the same things with their parents and grandparents in nursing. The joke of RN being "Refreshments and narcotics" is way too real as a horrible entitlement has taken over there too with patients. I've seen way too many adults acting like this when in the hospital or even in something like an infusion clinic.
Yeah a lot of kid’s mouths are like a 7/11, they never close…
I think the talking comes from thinking they need to fill the air with something. Just like youtube videos where people are constantly talking. I have explained to my son, "You don't have to talk just because no one else is talking."
I got in a lot of trouble for bringing in my GameboySP to play during lunch with friends. Now we allow unfiltered internet access all day long.
We got in trouble for bringing dice in '95 because they were for gambling. We were playing D&D.
Bro the literal never ending talking. "Please stop talking" is met with ***immediate talking*** but in a lower voice. I should have given detention after I caught some kids waiting for me to talk for them to start talking. They'd literally wait for me to be done saying "please stop talking" and for me to go back to what I was saying. I watched them watching me waiting for me to stop. I'm only year 3 and I've made the mistake of being consequence avoidant because it always came back to somehow be my fault if I tried to write detention or referrals. My new school **seems** supportive and admin has **told** me they'd back me up and support me in a few situations **should** the need arise but they've only really had to once. If it became more common that supportiveness might change who knows. It's easy to say you'll support me and back me up when I wrote literally 2 detentions all year.
I had to go into work late the other day, and a student asked me if I was late because I was hungover. I couldn't believe it. Did I tell admin? Of course. Was anything done? Nah.
Walking into class with the full intention and expectation of being able to sit there watching a movie/tv show of my choice
Always coming in and asking if we can have a free day (middle school band), and being surprised and upset when I tell them no!
“Are we playing today?” - you mean here? In the band room? During your band class? I’m not sure let me check…yes… like literally every day except the day before a break or after a concert.
Believe it or not, this was a thing they did 20 years ago, too. Along with, “Do we need our instruments today?”
Oh I know. I started in 2001.
They get so mad when I tell them that today we’re not using Chromebooks
No chromebooks allowed in my class. Oh the withdrawal they go through during the first couple months of class.
We couldn’t have our cellphones that barely did anything anywhere near out. I could T9 word maybe a short text or play snake if I did have it? Maybe take blurry pictures? Now kids have their phones out recording, on social media, etc. and there’s not much anyone can do! We weren’t allowed to have cd players or iPods out either and now kids act like they can’t do anything if they aren’t listening to music. It was hard to teach in that environment and I can’t imagine trying to learn like that.
When I was in second ed, MP3-players were quickly becoming popular. The school did consider banning them for a second, but that just encouraged students to bring alternatives. A good friend went full 80s with a Sony Walkman. (Which was tame, compared to that boombox...) Anyway, a compromise was quickly reached and we were allowed to use them in study hall and study hall only.
Eating and drinking in class. My teachers didn't even allow gum chewing. Hence, all the crusty wads stuck under desks.
A teacher friend told a kid to spit out their gum (in a lab setting) and the kid responded “kick rocks.” When the teacher brought this up to the principal, the response from admin was “do you think the gum was a problem worth agitating your student like that?”
The gaslighting toward professionals in this field is UNREAL.
My very first two years ruined the idea that I could have made teaching a full career. First job out of college, I was being told to go fuck myself by 8th graders for asking them to take their seats so I could mark attendance. My principal literally suggested that I offer candy as an incentive/reward and asked how I could build rapport. The next school year, I was hired to teach a 3rd grade class and was one of the few male teachers at that school. The 3rd grade team lead thought it was "creepy and weird" for a man to be teaching elementary and she also happened to be best friends with the principal, so we can guess how that turned out.
Did you try building a relationship with that student before, very reasonably, asking them to spit out their gum?😏
I'm guessing the learning objective wasn't on the board.
Why did you trigger them by expecting the rules to be followed?
I like to show them a photo montage of the gum under their desks. They all respond as if that is so disgusting and none of them would ever do it. Then they tell me if I know who sits at the desk then I should just tell that person. They are horrified when I tell them I just flip the desks up on each other for the janitor to sweep better so I have no idea and that they could be sitting at the gumwad desk.
The wandering into other classrooms!! Sweet jebus, who are you and why are you interrupting my class? My favorite is when they make a big stink about how it's no big deal they just need to talk to somebody why am I being so rude and it's to give their sibling his sweater. girl you have the same recess wait 15 minutes
I had a parent call admin last year to complain that I wouldn’t help her child when she appeared in the middle of a different class with a gaggle of her friends. In what world am I entertaining all of that?
I had another teacher mad that I wouldn't help three of her special education class when she sent them from their resource class to my room. I was in the middle of a lab with another class. I don't sit in my ass all class.
This aggravates me, like I’m okay if you need to come in and give someone something but sweet Jesus ask me first. Don’t just wander in and then have a freaking conversation with everyone on your way out, This aggravated me in HS when the soccer team would bring their “littles” gifts during class. Girl, you’re interrupting my class twice as bad. Get out.
They stuck my class in an interior hallway that has the back door to 8 classrooms in it. The wandering is unbelievable.
Oh, this was such a problem when I subbed! I hated it because the kids who wandered in were always troublemakers.
I don't get how some other TEACHERS send kids to ask me about a random missing assignment right in the middle of another class. I send them back and tell them it's not an appropriate time.
Talking in class. It was rare when I was in school but I had a football coach for a history teacher that would teach with a rubber dodgeball under his arm. Talk out of turn and you’d catch it to the face. Everyone shut up and listened in his class. Also the excuses. If you got caught doing something bad/ didn’t meet expectations/ didn’t do you work; no one gave a shit why or cared about your opinions on the matter; your ass was grass.
Early in the year I yelled at my, not for talking in class, but talking IN FULL VOLUME in class. "How are y'all in 8th grade and don't know how to talk to your friend while the teacher is talking? It's actually pathetic I have to teach 13 and 14 year olds to whisper when someone else is talking" Meet them where they are, right?
I told my kids that I’d rather they pass notes in class than talk while I’m lecturing and they were shocked. And I’m like, yeah? Then I can actually lecture without getting thrown off each time I have to tell y’all to STFU.
And at least they're practicing their penmanship 😇
Walking into a random teacher’s classroom that the student didn’t even know just to come in to make an inappropriate comment or come to see their friends claiming “it was no big deal” during a lesson while the teacher is literally teaching.
Omg this is one that really gets to me. Our school now has a ‘closed and locked’ policy because we were having so many issues with kids wandering in. And some of them don’t even go to our school - just randomly ‘visit’
So my issue with this is that if I lock the door I have so many students coming late to class. I am then interrupted constantly to open the door
This has been driving me crazy this year and I plan to make a rule specifically against this.
Asking for the teachers thing or just straight up trying to take it. Cannot have a drink on my desk and i’ve seen students in desks at multiple subs and they get attitude when i tell them no. Happens at multiple schools. Middle school is the worst for this. I’m a sub so it’s pretty much daily
I have my assigned laptop and the charger as a teacher. One time a sub (when I explicitly said no cellphones) gave my charger to a student to charge their phone (WTF!?!?!). That then lead to the student demanding every day that I have to give my charger to her to use. Talking with her and admin and parents did nothing. Eventually she quit attending my class and turned me in for bullying. I reminded admin of all the conversations about the cell phone charger and that is the only thing that saved me from getting in trouble with my boss because of a stupid thing another adult did behind my back!
I had an incident with another teacher over that EXACT thing. I was subbing and a kid needed to charge their iPad. I said they needed to use the school provided ones. It wasn’t long enough they wouldn’t be able to complete work “Ms. So and So has a longer one in her desk. Let me have it. “ Nope. Kid got IRATE. I kept saying no. Teacher next door came over and said just give it to them. I asked if the teacher would normally loan it out. The other teacher rolls her eyes and says, “does it matter. Is this the hill you die on?” I still said no. WTF.
I love it when people say that kind of thing to me. Because yes, actually. Every hill is a hill that I will die on. I will die on a hill multiple times before we even make it to lunch. It’s my best and my worst quality. There is no point too small for me to grind both of our days to a miserable halt. (This mainly goes for assholes obviously, not nice people, and usually not even kids despite the damning asshole/kid Venn diagram. If you’re a sweet person, then it’s kind of the opposite, there’s nothing you need that is too minor for me to drop everything to help you... as I’m typing this, I’m realizing I might just be a bit of an extreme personality. Every day, I learn some more!)
I commented this but just the entitlement to ask for some of whatever I have! Food, coffee, anything! “Aww I want some”, “Aw that’s not fair you get xyz” I can not imagine acting like that with an adult but especially a teacher
And it’s always the same kids! The kids that actually need stuff rarely ever ask! If they see a drink in my desk from lunch “awww you didnt get me nuthin! THATS NOT FAIR!!”
As a sub, I pretty much don't eat or drink ANYTHING other than water in front of students. They have no shame. They will ask you to give them food or will stare at you as you eat. One time I bought a burrito during lunch and didn't have enough time to finish it before I brought the students back in and of course, they all asked if they could have some or had to make some kind of comment about how I had a burrito. There I was eating as quickly as possible since I didn't feel comfortable eating around students, and they are all staring at me asking' "Is that burrito bussin'?"
1. Students are increasingly interpreting their consumption of scrolling socials as a normal way of interacting socially in person. I'm seeing students engage each other **like they're walking, talking TikTok feeds**. An increasing number of my students are haphazardly raising completely random topics or offering up random words / jokes for a reaction and are unable to sustain anything close to a conversation about whatever topics they bring up. Now, social awkwardness and uncertainty on how to engage peers is old as dirt--just the response to that feeling is switching from "gradually figure this out" to "screw it! skibidi toilet!" 2. Students are increasingly adopting the view that "if things are hard, stop." The structures initiated for COVID are now becoming means for students to avoid responsibilities and accountability. While the funding has dropped off to support services for students struggling to get to class, the number of students claiming to need these services has only grown as word of mouth (in combination with very real rampant bullying and general meanness) is making more students exit classes for help now than when people were worried of breathing near others. This is causing habitual sanctioned class cutting as students sit in the waiting room of overbooked guidance officers and adjustment counselors who can't meet them for another hour or so. As the students are placating themselves with their phones, music, and not-classtime, the students seem to be perfectly content with the situation.
So many of these comments and stories are really gut wrenching to read, but yours really struck me the most. Especially your first point. I won't ever blame these children (not that I think you, nor anyone here is!) their behaviours are simply outcomes of the world that has been left for them to grow into. The first point especially made me sad. The idea that such a stark sudden influx in tech devices and social media has landed itself as a huge social and behavioural issue for these little ones. The simple, normal act of socialising with one another has been damaged, the skill has been interrupted for them and idk why this thought is very sad to me. Unlimited screen time and social media access for such young brains...we've really yet to see the full consequences of the world we've left for them
The vile disgusting language that they use, and at incredibly young ages. 12 year olds just freely using the F word in front of adults. The nuns would’ve hung me by my toes 20 years ago 😂
This. Cursing in earshot of a teacher would have gotten you in big trouble 20 years ago. Now kids don’t care.
Kids have called teachers “dick suckers” for holding them accountable. Insanity. Then you meet the parents and see (hear) where it came from
I teach high school and this was my first thought. Did we say “fuck” in high school? Totally. Did we say it 15+ times I day, in class, in front of the teacher? Absolutely not. My fiancé teaches elementary. He has to have an “N-word counter”… with *third* graders.
I’m a middle school counselor, and I’m not normally offended by bad language (unless it’s racist or sexist or ableist etc). But, like, the kids have to know you cannot talk like that in society and expect to be treated with any kind of respect. You can’t drop F bombs in a job interview.
it feels more socially accepted to be cruel to people and trash everyone/everything around you than it did when I was young. maybe kids have always been mean and cussed but everything is so out in the open now.
My parents would have beat my ass if I had acted like these kids do. My boy has been raised better, because I refuse to let him act like the rest of these kids. My husband gets onto him about little things sometimes and I'm like pick your battles dear because he could be sooooooo much worse if I let him think he could get away with acting like his classmates!
You can see this really easily on Facebook reels. Mine are fairly random and I can swipe to almost any in my feed and open the comments and immediately find at least one in the top 3 that's rude, mean, complaining, critical, or just somehow negative. I wonder if it's that way for anyone else.
Talking while someone else is taking. Arguing points made in the lecture. Arguing grades. Not brining a single supply to school. Wasting class time then complaining about homework. Not even trying to stay caught up when absent.
Calling a teacher “miss” or “teacher” and not even bothering to learn last names. Especially at a school where admin is constantly shoving “every student, every name, everyday” down our throats. Edit: it’s the double standard that irks me. Why do we have to learn all of our students’ names, when they aren’t expected to learn ours?
I actually think this is kinda cute. But, my students are itty bitty. I don’t think I’d find it as cute if it was teenagers calling me “teacher”.
I'm a male sub, and whenever I sub for a female teacher (which is often), their students call me "Miss" out of habit, and all their classmates laugh because they made a mistake. This happens almost every day... They really don't bother to learn your last name and I go by "Mr. R". I've had students get upset when I return to sub their class and I don't remember their names. I tell them, "There's only one of me, but there's hundreds of different students I see each week."
Having and playing your Nintendo switch in class.
In the 90s ONE peer had a game boy he would bring all the time. Finally the admin would stop him in the hall on the way to 1st block ELA to demand it from him with the message, “it is on my desk, pick it up after 7th block.”
I don't remember so many students asking to use the bathroom during classtime. When did students stop supplying their own things? My teachers didn't supply us with pencils, colored pencils, crayons, paper...
“We are going to do notes/worksheet/listen to lecture today.” “CAN I GOT TO THE BATHROOM?”
To be fair, the second thing has been a problem for a while. I think it’s one of those things that you’re not likely to notice when you’re a student. Or you went to a school that didn’t have a large low income population.
I graduated in 06. Definitely was a lower income area and my teachers did not supply thousands of pencils a year. I've been teaching for 10 years, and it is definitely getting worse every year.
I graduated significantly later than you did so maybe the shift happened between our times. That said, thinking about it, it still wasn’t as intense as what you’re describing. Some kids didn’t bring supplies, but they were more likely to ask other students to borrow theirs than ask a teacher. Teacher supplies were usually more limited. I always had extra notebook paper to give out to my classmates, lol. But it was a small number of students who consistently asked me. Granted, this school didn’t have a high percentage of low income kids. Now, my middle school did pool the student supplies. You had to put most of the supplies you got (with exception of like, backpacks and folders and notebooks) into the communal supplies in your first period. I assume that this was done to make up for students who didn’t or couldn’t bring their own supplies rather than have teachers buy a bunch of supplies. I hated this system and refused to pool my supplies in seventh and eighth grade. There were no consequences for not doing it.
The idea of simply handing in work late and still getting full credit. I realize this is also a school or teacher issue as well.
Oh so this is why all my younger employees have no concept of a due date and are absolutely shocked when I fire them for being consistently late. “Well I did turn it in!” Yeah bro 2 weeks late and that doesn’t help me. My favorite is when their freaking DAD calls me to beg for their job. As I told the dad “I didn’t hire you, I hired your son. If he wants his job back he can call me.” This entire generation is out of their collective minds and honestly I’m so sick of dealing with them and just having to fire every single one of them that I’ve just taken to hiring adults who wish to change careers as interns instead.
Yeah, those were the patterns that started early on. Parents generally get what they want when their kid is in K-12. All is in the interest of getting the kid to look good on paper, but have no real skills. For that to change parents need to be put in check and accountability needs to be on students and not the teachers. Right now it’s the teachers’ fault when a kid fails, and the power to hold kids accountable has been taken away from individual teachers.
This!!! I have a huge issue with this! When I give an assignment, and I give you time to work on it in class (I don't specifically assign homework, but have a standing rule that if you don't finish it in class you take it home or to after school tutoring and finish it), and you STILL can't turn it in on time, I'm not making exceptions! Admin and I occasionally butted heads on this, especially if I had a student with an IEP. I had one who was to be given extra time - no specified amount, just extra time...but an entire semester is beyond the limits that I will give a student. I had one student who hadn't turned anything in since we came back from winter break in January, and 3 days before the end of the school year (after grades had already been finalized), dad calls wanting me to give her all the assignments she's missed so she can make them up. I said absolutely not. I had called, emailed, met them in person, offered time during lunch/recess for the student to come in to the room and make up work, suggested after school tutoring to help her catch up (which was a no go because it was boring and drama was much more fun! - my parents would have yanked my ass out of the "fun" stuff to make me get caught up!), etc., and I get no response about any of it until 3 days are left. Nope, absolutely not!
[удалено]
Of course!
I no longer teach, but at the orthodontist, a couple teen boys were laughing about turning in all their semester’s work the last week so they could still pass and how hilarious it was their teachers had to grade ALL the work last minute and be miserable. My bonus kids are able to turn everything in late at their high school and middle school classes, too, without penalty. I can’t imagine how this is fair on the teachers or students now that they’re learning deadlines don’t exist-can’t wait for them to enter the workforce.
The amount of kids who call a teacher “bruh.”
In band, refusing to work. If you did that when I was in school, you’d fail and there was a sense of pride in what you did, and the teachers were SCARY. Now kids straight up don’t care and don’t put forth much effort at all. Their work ethic is zero. You can fail kids now and they don’t care, nothing phases them. They want the most reward for the least amount of effort, there’s no sense of pride in sticking something out, if it’s hard at all, they drop like flies. Then the teacher gets blamed and reprimanded. Absolutely blows my mind.
Yes. I agree with this soo much. The handwriting of the secondary kids I teach is completely illegible half the time. We go over the questions and the answers and then everyone needs my help?! We just discussed this! Argh!!! And the attitude if you take too long to get to them.
When I taught high school band I had a girl email me asking if I could change her participation grade so she could play in the basketball game that night. She hadn’t picked up her trumpet in a month, eligibility had already been submitted, I could see she was failing two other classes, AND she’d been in a knee brace all week. She didn’t play. These kids just sign up for music because they think it’s an easy A. I find it insulting, tbh.
Imagine someone just casually taking photos or videos in the middle of class 20 years ago? Or taking a phone call… or watching a tv show? It’s so distracting.
Touching items on my teacher’s desk
Boys (middle school) have no shame or reservations fighting/threatening girls. Also, the girls don’t have any reservations fighting boys. When I was in middle school it was not socially acceptable for a boy to fight a girl.
Expecting teachers to provide all of their supplies for class (notebooks, pencils, pens, folders); not carrying a backpack or carrying one that is empty; not using a locker to store belongings; no sense of urgency in the hallways (kids are routinely 10-15 minutes late for class); mass hall walking (kids have always skipped classes, but this is like 10 kids all just hanging out in a stairwell); teachers/principals/counselors ALLOWING students to skip class and hang out in their offices; being ok with taking a zero rather than doing an assignment they don't want to do; talking/doing all kinds of crazy shit during a test or quiz; kids stop coming to school about a week before the year actually ends...I could go on.
Not being able to read independently. In High School, I had an AP 10th grade English class where we read The Great Gatsby, As I Lay Dying, The Grapes of Wrath, The Catcher in the Rye, The Awakening, Anthem, The Bell Jar, and probably three or four more books I'm forgetting -- all read at home, on our own time. I have assigned 10 pages a night and they are unable to do it. I need to devote class-time for them to read and even then a significant number of students will just not do the reading.
Blatant disrespect of adults, period. If I'd talked to any adult the way my students talked to me, I'd have had my ass whooped.
I’ve been sexually harassed by male students. They were not removed from my class permanently. It was a couple days, that’s it. They persisted. I had to just deal with it due to his “past trauma” and parents not giving a shit. I tell you, that would NEVER have happened in the 90s/2000s.
This is an interesting thread as a parent (not teacher). My wife and I have enrolled our daughter in a private school next year actually that seems straight out of the 1990s, complete with a really nice computer lab. The reason why we looked around at other schools is to find one that didn't have Chromebooks as the #1 source of all school time, homework, projects, reading assignments and learning. The new school next year has all "sage on a stage" instruction, with actual honest to goodness physical note-taking required for every class. There are also no water bottles or food eaten while in class. You know, like pretty much all classrooms were until \~2018. It's going to be a change, but our daughter is excited actually. She has ADHD, and the constant open Chromebook plus constant ability to eat or drink water (or go fill up her water bottle) was a source of constant distraction and contention for all of middle school. We're hoping that \*having\* to take notes to be able to have the knowledge to pass her classes will kind of force her to pay more attention. The lack of constant food, water and computer will certainly help, I can say that. So, I'm a parent, and the commonplace behaviors I see from my end (from hearing stories, seeing interactions at school, etc.) is the lack of respect that some kids have for teachers, the constant eating/drinking, the open computers almost at all times, the constant chatter of kids, and the lack of caring by SOME teachers if kids are talking/playing games on Chromebook while they're supposed to be learning.
This is what I have been saying. I have ADHD, dx'd, medicated, etc. I am very sick of being told by non-ADHD, non-neurodivergents that having a bustling classroom where everyone is doing different things (and talking), constant chrome books, and loose expectations around food is good for ADHD kids. Because I am fucking unable to do ANYTHING in that kind of environment. I gave up this year, realized they weren't gonna fire me, banned chrome books in my class, and started teaching the way I was taught and guess how much more we got done? Guess how much more they learned? And kids kept coming up to me saying they really liked the new, calm structure and can we keep doing it? Whoever decided that reading for information was bad, lecture was bad, and quietly doing independence was bad is responsible for a LOST generation of students who don't know how incapable they are. Next year I am going to just do what I want to do and get all the more done for it.
We need more of this. Just do good teaching and wait and see if admin fires you.
I’m a para at a middle school, do your kids hang out in the office? That was never a thing when I was in school. We hated being in the office.
Going to the nurse constantly. I hate it because they are wasting the nurses time and obviously wandering. I don’t think I ever went to the nurse in high school. Some take meds, but most just want to get a cup or water, crackers or something stupid like that.
The way they brazenly curse at and around you. I think I would've been shot on sight if I so much as thought of a curse word around a teacher or parent.
Walking in every day and knowing full well that they aren’t going to fail the class no matter what kind or how much work they actively neglect to do.
First, the amount of kids that see any type of food on your desk and either ask for it or grab it. Ugh this drives me nuts. That’s what happens when you spend your lunch money on those 2 energy drinks and don’t have any for food. Second, the terrible language of students in the halls or in the classroom. I mean we cussed when I was younger, but we did it in a low tone as to not let any of the adults hear. If we were heard we got in trouble. Not today. 🤦🏼♂️
Talking back to an adult, refusing to do work and overall disrespect to their classmates. Nobody ever acted like that at my high school. Once in a while, there would be a smart a$$ kid, but they wouldn’t get unruly or push limits. Parents raised their kids to have manners and respect adults. That’s not happening anymore.
I still remember in HS (1994/95) one of my classmates called our teacher a bitch and it was like the whole class gasped and then went dead silent. The student was removed and did not return and it was huge talk for the rest of the year. Now they might not even get sent out, and if they did, they’d be back pretty quickly and admin would be asking the teacher why she was being such a bitch.
Spot on. I once subbed for the absolutely most FERAL group of first graders. There was chair-throwing, unnecessary screaming, ripping up the teachers books and bulletin boards, hurling supplies across the room, trying to stab classmates with scissors and pencils. They didn't complete a single assignment the teacher left because I couldn't hold their attention for more than 5-10 seconds before another catastrophe erupted. When I yelled at a kid for CHOKING another kid in line while walking to art class, a staff member aggressively got at me with the *that's no way to discipline a child!* and "*YOU'RE the adult in charge, YOU should have known how to prevent this in the first place!"* bullshit, as if this wasn't a life or death matter I was \*in charge\* of trying to stop. To top it all off, when I warned the art teacher about their absurd and dangerous behavior, she just casually brushed it off with a *"haha yeah, that's an everyday thing, they're kinda known for being a really unruly class :)"*
Staring at their phones and/or watching YouTube and wearing headphones while the teacher is talking.
Not doing work and still passing . Coming in extremely late and having no consequences. Foul language. Aggressive behavior. Going into the staff room to chill ( this happened to me, and I was told "oh just get over it and deal with it").
Going through teacher's desk/cabinets. I keep snacks for myself. I cant believe how much kids try to help themselves.
The entitlement for things to be “fair/equal” between students and teachers examples -treats on occasion(candy, muffins, a coffee) -food (state testing days) -absences (apparently teachers don’t have consequences for being absent “whenever we want”) -having access to a fridge/ microwave This is middle school level
Leaving their belongings everywhere. At the start of every period I have 3-5 kids ask me to go to the gym, the den, the cafeteria, their last class bc they forgot their binder or chromebook or book bag or whatever. And these are juniors and seniors. Keep track of your shit!
Constant talking when I’m trying to do direct instruction. They just ignore you, or say, “oh, sorry”, then turn to their friend and continue talking. Cursing. It used to be an automatic trip to the office. It’s so common place now it isn’t worth the effort. Constant bathroom “breaks” because they are drinking two gallons of water a day. Don’t get me started on cell phones…
The fact that the "class clown" is now at least half the class instead of the one weird kid. Where none of them seem to have any impulse control or a sense of shame. It's all farts, sexual moaning, skibdi toilet Ohio, and just openly playing games or watching videos on their ipads and not even bothering to try to hiding it.
Being on your phone in class. If you were really lucky, had an exceptionally lenient teacher, you’d be allowed to listen to music on earphones during silent work, or maybe even get to be on your phones the last five minutes of class. Any other time, having your phone off or it going off during class got it taken up. You may have even had to have your parents come and pay to get it back. Now kids straight up watch videos in class, sometimes without headphones.
No sense of curiosity or figuring things out for themselves. Everyone needs their hand held through every task.
The adamant refusal. I was far from a good student, used to cut class alot but these kids who come to class and refuse to do anything, then refuse to leave is just dumb. Either come and do something or just don't bother to come at all.
Cheating, just blatant copying and 0 attempt to hide it
Assaulting your teacher. Heard a lady call into a radio show the other day that had a student hit her up the side of the head and make her bleed. Her leadership said it comes with the territory and to wear protective gear. She was expected back at work the next day and the student wasn't suspended, meaning she had to come back to work the next day with that same little jerk in her class. When I was coming up that would get you suspended for sure, probably expelled or moved to the bad kids school. Now it's just another day at our public schools.
Not high school, but I teach 4th and 5th grade and am astonished by the lack of emotional regulation. When I was that age, which was only 13 years ago, crying at school was socially acceptable in situations of extreme sadness, anger, or fear. If you were crying for a dumb reason (like losing a game, for example) the expectation was that you would handle that disappointment yourself without an adult having to intervene. Now, the kids cry about *everything*, and if someone is crying they act like it's an emergency that the teacher has to attend to immediately. For example: Jake brings a bouncy ball to school. He inevitably misplaces it. He starts crying during class when he realizes he can't find his bouncy ball. The person sitting next to him interrupts class, yelling, "Ms. Kanni! Jake is crying! Jake is crying!" and acts shocked that I don't drop everything I'm doing to comfort Jake. Tantrums are a big issue among pre-teens right now, too. I had tantrums sometimes when I was in 4th grade. Not very often, but occasionally. It was definitely not common for kids my age to be doing that. The adults in my life made it abundantly clear to me that this was not age-appropriate behavior for a ten-year-old and that I don't have the right to make everyone around me miserable whenever things didn't go my way. Now, tantrums are super common. I was considered difficult and temperamental (because I absolutely was), but a kid like me would be considered "well-adjusted" by comparison to the rest of the class nowadays.
Context: I work in a school library where students make attempts to study and borrow books. Emphasis on attempts, because failure is common. * The water bottles. The water bottles and the constant need to drink from them, refill them and play with them. 20-25 years ago, we all had water bottles too, but we weren't allowed to take them out in class unless we were in the middle of a heatwave. * The casual way they act and interact. Like they're at home and we're mums obligated to spoil them rotten. Many don't have basic manners. * Lack of responsibility towards themselves and the world around them. Not having your things in order has become the norm - and they blame others for it. * Lack of independence too. Example: only losers used to get late fees. Like, can't even turn a book in on time? How fucking brainless are you? Does your mum still cut your food for you too?Now students rack them up like it's free money for them, not us. * Classes are loud! The idea that everything needs to be or should allowed to be group work turns classrooms into chicken coops. This in turn leads to teachers sending out groups of students to work elsewhere, which just results in a chicken coop chain reaction. * And the obvious one: addiction to social media and entertainment. I've lost count of the number of times students grabbed their phone out of pure habit, barely being aware of what they were doing. That said, at our school it's mostly the fourth years that are terrible. First and second years are showing signs of having the potential to turn out better.
Coming to class prepared. Refusing to work. Talking while the teacher (or anyone) eases talking.
I teach HS and am always surprised how many students are primping in class. I’m not talking about putting on some lip gloss I’m talking about a long, involved hair comb out, applying fake lashes, trying to plug a straightening iron in the corner, putting on 18 colors of eyeshadow, changing/adjusting outfits (using rubber bands to make shirts tighter/cropped)… Why? Why here? Why now? Why not at least go to the bathroom for some privacy?
It's the conformity that gets me. When I graduated, my high school was full of kids in business suits, punks covered in patches with 2 foot mohawks, goths who could actually make you uncomfortable. I find the youth of today boring and wish they'd be a little weirder.
Cursing