“What Is A Secret You Don’t Want Your Students To Know?”: 79 Teachers Get Honest

I have done this myself. One particular kid I had last year was lovely, he had a good heart, but his ADHD and ASD meant he had a lot of triggers that he responded badly to. Since I work on my own, it was pretty challenging at times.

Made me remember that lil racist gremlin I tutored last year 😅

The problem in the US is that there's more focus on getting good grades than actually learning. The standards have been lowered in order to produce those results and now we have too many undereducated people. A good student is someone who actively learns from all parts of school. It takes effort. You didn't lie to those kids.

Telling them that they could all be top students is a lie. Telling them they can all live up to their potential is an important truth.

Teachers are some of the most micromanaged people in the U.S. And they get zero support for all the administrative tasks they have to do to fulfill all the unfunded mandates handed down from on high. My husband has 150+ students. 20-25% have Individualized Education Plans that he has to fill out weekly reports on. Though he technically has two planning periods, he frequently has to give them up for meetings or to sub in for absent teachers. The whole system is in a shambles.

My last principal knew he didn't know how to do his own job (no degrees in education, no teacher or principal license), so he never presumed to tell me how to do mine.

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I do not having?

The parents I didn't need to see always came to parent conferences. The ones I did, didn't.

33 years of age, I see more and more mannerisms of my Dad in myself.

Thankfully I'm not.

Straight up looks like OctoMom

It's a kindness to the kids too though. Those with difficulty sitting still etc need to feel valued and engaged and if this is what does it, that might mean everything to them. I was a "good kid". I did well in all my subjects, put my hand up constantly, tried to engage the teachers, really tried to be the model student (abused at home, typical) but because I was SO good, I never got picked to clean the chalk brushes. A few moments outside away from the chaos would have been such a gift to overwhelmed me, but I was so good at acting like a good student, I never got picked. I felt unimportant at school, just like at home.

My teacher used to just flat tell that one kid to run around the field, as punishment for acting up in class. The theory was that he would run out his excess energy and settle down. It didn't fix his adhd, but he did join the track team in high school.

you don't know what a BIG HELP that is for everyone involved!

What people miss with the "but we'll never use this" is that is not so much the content, but the METHOD! The HOW and WHY of learning to learn and learning to think. You're not going to remember the formula for the conservation of momentum unless you end up in physics, but that whole scientific process and backing up ideas with research and testing ideas with questions and finding possible causes of error - that is really f*****g useful!! Also, certain things are taught because they are foundational to the culture. Like, you might not particularly care that the Battle of Hastings was in 1066 and think it has no bearing on your life, but if you speak ENGLISH this is one of the foundational events that turned out language into the grammatical grab-bag that it is and it might be good to recognise that so that when you're on vacation in another country, instead of getting angry at the person for not "speaking American" in Namibia, remember your language - not theirs - is a dumpster fire.

But what will comprise that half of unused learning will be different for each student. And they may not use it precisely because learning about it told them that it was of little interest to them. I really don't use what I was taught in chemistry because I learned in that class that chemistry didn't interest me as a career.

Especially ones that show you haven't been listening.

One day in my university 101 class, I had four students ask the same question about am assignment's due date and where to find the instructions. The question was almost asked back-to-.back. I answered slower and even pulled up the instructions online. The third student asked and I pointed at the screen. When the 4th asked, the class made that "are you serious" noise and one student went off on him. Glad the student did n/c I was close to getting fired or severely reprimanded.

I find improv excruciating to watch. Give me something well-written and lovingly crafted every time.

Very true. One thing about teaching younger kids is there are more things we can think of as consequences that the children don't realise are unlikely. Like when I say a child won't get to go outside if they aren't helping clean up. I work on my own, so I can't legally leave a child inside unsupervised, but it does usually work to get them to clean up (except I have to know which kids don't want to go outside in the first place).

Principal, write-ups.

I might have mentioned my political views to my students if only I could have found a way to connect them with, say, the Law of Cosines or the Second Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.

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This is sad.

They often mean well and have a desire to understand... But yeah, shut the f up, you're not the only person in the room!

I was taught by nuns. You talked when you were called on and you didn't when you weren't. You also soon realized that they weren't calling on people just at random.

I got used to number 4 before I was even fully qualified. I was a nanny to a family with three kids, the youngest had severe ADHD & ASD. There were times he yelled that he hated me, because I made him get dressed for school or clean up before watching tv etc and even times he hit me. Then after he cooled down (which sometimes wasn't until the next day) he would often make a comment about how much he liked me or something, which he didn't connect with the previous day, because when he was that heightened he couldn't remember everything that happened, so I knew it was genuine, and it made it worth it. Now I have similar experiences with kids I teach and I know that when they say they don't like me it's just that they don't like the rules and are testing the boundaries.

I had one student say about me to a colleague "I really like him, but he scares the c**p out of me" When dealing with teenagers, that's about as close to a perfect balance as you can get.

Differently, yes. Better, it depends.

A pile of essays is a burden that is hard to imagine if you've never tackled one. I've never graded them drunk, and don't see why that would be any easier.

Grading makes me want to weep half the time.

Who doesn't have favorite students? My current one is a heavily tattooed / pierced alternative girl with five cats and LOTS of opinions.

I told my students at the beginning of the year "If I call you by the wrong name or mispronounce it, don't say to yourself 'Oh, I must be nothing and nobody to him.' Instead, say 'He's old and stupid' and keep correcting me." Seemed to work.

Some of my best lessons ended up being the spontaneous ones I thought of on my way to school!

Definitely more nervous. If things go wrong, they have a good story and you have the shame of letting it happen.

Littlemiss

Littlemiss

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I had this recently, one child made a really nasty threat. I have told my team to not be anywhere near this child without support close by.

It.may be very wrong but I always identify the ones who would possibly shoot up our classroom.The best part of teaching at yellow ribbon universities is the number of current, retired, honorably discharged military members enrolled. School shooters come up almost every semester. These students often tell me I can make plans for our class but that they'll have me on the floor and out of the way before anything can happen. God d@mn I have never felt such validation as a professor and almost cry each time. I have a plan for every classroom I teach in and it's probably best to follow my instructions but I can't fight these students when I'm tackled immediately.

Ah, that you're a real, normal person then.

🤣

Like my second grade teacher who never read my file and hated me because of my ADHD. She did that to a lot of students. If you didn't fit into her box of perfection, you simply did not matter.

I taught at a religious high school. We were all required to have degrees in education and professional licenses. Except the Theology Department. They were hired strictly on doctrinal rigidity. The result was about what you might expect.

Switch it around. Say "my mum lives with me". It will seem like mum needs a bit of help and you are the dutiful offspring. No embarrassment at all.

Must be the USA, probably the only country where people are shamed for living at home after turning 18.

I think if you let the students know that, they might be a little easier on you about it. They would know it isn’t your fault

In Australia we have a saying 'Ps (passes) get degrees'. It doesn't matter what your grades are for your uni degree subjects, as long as you get enough to pass. I got mostly Credits or Passes for the units in my teaching degree. It never impacted me getting teaching jobs because all they want to see is your degree. Actually my current job did ask for my transcript but I still got the job, the only one who commented on my marks was a coworker who was studying for her teaching degree at the time and getting higher marks.

GCSE?

I've been teaching for 20 years. This is perhaps true for this particular individual, but it has never been true in my experience. Most teachers interact with other teachers only occasionally (the whole "break room gossip" thing that shows up in movies and TV is wildly rare...teachers often have no more than one free period in a day). When it comes to talking about students, I'd say that 70% of it is job-related, and 29% of it is venting. The other 1% is gossip, I guess, though again I don't have anything to do with that. I don't even know what we would gossip about.

Better to be honest about it and what you learned.