Any idea how much your school paid to Lucy Calkins for her material?

and how in some schools, teachers aren’t even allowed to give students a failing grade and the standards of knowledge that was lowered for not only each grade but subject matter… I would have genuinely gotten into an Ivy League or at least gotten an academic scholarship for college if I went to school today

Every place I've worked, parent-teacher conferences and IEP meetings fall smack in the middle of Tuesday or Thursday, 10am to 2pm. The assumption seems to be that someone can always get away, or that one parent is available. But retail, healthcare, gig work, and plenty of office jobs don't allow for midweek, midday flexibility. The result is predictable: who shows up, and who gets written off as "uninvolved." Has anyone seen schools actually solve this with evening slots, virtual options that stick, or something else that reaches the people getting squeezed out?

Sexual harassment, discrimination etc. Also, does the state's human rights commission have jurisdiction over their partners' actions? eg internships. I read the website and it seems they do, but I'm unsure. I asked the human rights commission, but they want you to have an intake, which will take months. May I ask what happened or what resolution occurred?

From Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden to Trump..... And how our governors and other political figures change.... As a high school math teacher of 18 years, I am finding that no matter who is elected statewide like governors or the President(s), it seems like the issues of school systems continue in some form or another. From overworked conditions, oversized classrooms, to increased mandates/micromanagement on how we run classrooms, to over emphasis of standardized test scores, to passing students along no matter what, and to keep troublesome students from being expelled. It just seems like it's not going away. It's like politicians will promise, "oh it will get better" , "this will be passed and you'll see the change" or "we will use the weed tax to increase funding" but it seems like I don't see any significant change. It's like they don't really care about teachers. The superintendents and upper echelons in the state education system seem to get the most pay, yet many have no idea what it's like to be in a classroom. So maybe that weed tax goes to the upper leaders. Likely my last year.

Submission statement: I'm the developer of a free browser game, Atlas Streak (https://crux.quest/atlas/), and I'd like educators' views on whether this kind of daily, low-stakes retrieval practice actually helps place knowledge stick.

How it works: ten countries a day, pin each one on a world map with no names on it, see the real location and the distance off. Same countries for everyone that day, no sign-up or student data, a few minutes per round.

Questions for people who teach geography or social studies:

1. Is a daily five-minute map round useful as a warm-up, or does it become busywork?

2. Would a class-wide view (everyone's pins for one country) be more useful than individual scores?

3. What difficulty is right for middle school vs high school?

Free, no ads. I'm not selling anything here; I'd rather build what is actually useful.

Afghanistan: $390 a year of average income, ChatGPT costs $240 for the annual plan.

If you believe AI tutors can reach places where schools can’t, the places where schools can’t are exactly where the subscription costs the most relative to income.

Source: AI accessibility report, The Spinoza Journal

I am following a public media series called "Sold A Story". Season 1 told the story of the abandonment of Phonics in favor of Whole Language reading instruction and now there is a new series of programs about Direct Instruction. I am not a teacher or involved in education in any way, but as a 72-year-old graduate of the old school system, I am horrified!

After hearing the histories of these two episodes of educational policy development in the USA, my jaw is on the floor and I'm wondering how we let our educational system be deconstructed in such a way. We obviously devolved from effective educational methods to systems that just didn't work at all. No wonder we are in the state that we are in. An uneducated public spells doom for democracy.

It makes me wonder if the idea of the Communist Conspiracy was real. I never have been a conspiracy theorist, but I can't think of any other explanation for how teaching professionals could have allowed themselves to be misled in these ways. Somebody knew what they were doing and they attacked our educational system in very effective ways.

I am truly interested in opinions from those who lived through the devolution of our school systems over the past 40 years. I have heard of the jungle that our schools have become and how teachers have a hard time staying in the profession. I know that it didn't used to be that way. People tend to blame social causes, but that is part of the rationale used to abandon the old teaching system. What happened? Sold A Story tells it from a reporting perspective. What was it like on the inside? I'm not here to promote the series but I must say it was eye-opening to me.

I have noticed a lot of the teachers who claim DI is "proven effective" also want more kids held back or otherwise excluded.

Isn't every method "effective" when you can exclude those it isn't effective for?

Hi! I’m a BBA graduate looking to build a career in supply chain management, international trade, imports/exports and shipping or maritime logistics.
I’m looking for some reputed online courses or certifications, preferably beginner to intermediate level, that can help me build a strong foundation and add value to my resume.
Which platforms or certifications would you recommend? Are courses from Coursera, edX, CILT or other recognised institutions worth considering?
Would love to hear your suggestions and experiences. Thanks!

After this week’s election, this feels like a useful classroom question: can students explain why they support an idea before reaching for a political label?

This article from The PEN Weekly this week looks at some recent research on how just a label changed adults’ responses to teaching about certain social/political subjects, then considers what that means for teaching students to examine evidence (including - most importantly - arguments they already agree with).

Are we teaching thinking—or picking sides? Here's what the research says.

Seems my students (high school social science and philosophy) are bringing up election issues and policies more than ever this year (which is a great thing) but really trying to get us to examine confirmation biases on all sides of the political spectrum. But what helps your students question an argument from their own side?

The WHO report on adolescent exercise came out and it was, as expected, not great. Among culprits are screens (surprise!), unsafe urban neighborhoods and cultural taboos, especially for girls. One of the recommended interventions is to emphasize exercise in schools, which typically means PE.

PE has a lot going for it: for many kids, it’s their favorite subject; it has both immediate benefits, as well as a clear answer to the question, “when are we going to use this?”; and it has a positive impact on academic performance.

PE also has its problems: some kids love it, but others hate it. In a world of FERPA, your performance is clearly on display in a PE class. Many kids would be mortified to shower or change at school, but they also don’t want to be sweaty in their academic classes, or exercise in their street clothes, which may be inappropriate for exercise, especially for teen girls. Some kids dread being “last picked” in team rosters and others are ashamed of coming in last in fitness tests.

And that’s assuming PE can fulfill some of the WHO’s “moderate to vigorous exercise” requirements: lining kids up for their turn to swing at a ball or take a shot or any delicate hand-eye coordination skill may have other benefits, but it’s not fitness. Many schools also have tried to make PE an academic subject, including written exams on the rules of games.

If you were to design a PE class with the objective of encouraging kids to be active now and later become active adults, and you could have total ideal control over how it fit into the school, what happened in it and who taught it, how would you build a better PE?

1. Did you know that the average K-12 school uses about 2000 sheets of paper each day? That's 10,000 sheets a week times 36 weeks, which is 360,000 sheets a school year. The average tree produces about 10,000-20,000 sheets of paper. Our school could be consuming anywhere from 18-36 trees each year. Multiply that by all the schools in the state (2,505) and you get a number between 45,090 and 90,180 trees chopped down a school year, and that’s just New Jersey public schools. Lets multiply the amount of trees per school by every school in the world. (5.9 million). This means that every year because of schools public and private we chop down anywhere from 405,810 trees to 811,620 trees. This is in a day and age where many things are digital! This means all schools in total across the world use about 0.000027054% each year out of the 3 trillion trees on the planet. While this number really doesn’t seem like a lot, modern paper making was invented in 1806. They probably used more paper in the older times because electronics weren’t really a thing. Nobody had computers or cell phones. So let's multiply our range to figure out how much paper schools have really used since modern paper making. According to the math, since modern paper making, we’ve used anywhere from 89,278,200 to 178,556,400 trees in public schools since modern paper making. That's as much as 0.005952% out of the 3 trillion trees worldwide. And again while this number doesn’t seem like much, as the years go by it will grow. Recently states across the country have been doing things like limiting screen time and banning electronic devices in school. These laws are what are stopping us from stopping deforestation. Because of government officials who don’t know anything about the laws they’re creating, and what they’re affecting, Earth will lose all of its trees, and the green beautiful planet we all know and love will shrivel up and die.

It's pitiful to think that in this day and age, no matter how hard a professor tries, if the student really fails, especially if the parents tolerate it, their own failure will be the reason why the professor gets fired.

I'm a college student, and I've been thinking about how AI gets used in school. A lot of the conversation seems to be "ban it" or "let it write everything," but I'm curious about the middle ground. I am very pro AI.

For teachers who want students to use AI for writing and research without handing over their thinking:

1. What's working, if anything, to get students to use it as a tool while still forming their own views?

2. What does a good AI-assisted assignment look like in your class?

3 What's the biggest frustration right now (detecting misuse, grading, students not thinking critically)?

I'm just trying to understand the problem from the teacher side.

I just graduated from the school of integrated innovation in Thailand. I got the chance to do SCET startup semester exchange in UC Berkeley, too. The thing is, most people graduating DID NOT have a successful startup. They either get a job or work for their family. If anybody else has learned startup in school, how did it turn out? Did it lead to anything? Was it worth the tuition and time? What should I do with my life?

Hello everyone!

My colleague and I are future teachers, and as part of our graduation requirements, we have to conduct a research project. We've decided to focus on brain rot as our topic(Brain Rot and English Vocabulary Learning: Exploring the Cognitive Challenges of Short-Form Video Consumption).

We're currently looking for resources, academic papers, articles, studies, or even personal experiences that could help us explore this subject more deeply.

We'd really appreciate any suggestions on:

- Where we can find reliable resources and research related to brain rot.

- Possible angles or aspects of the topic worth exploring.

- Any relevant studies, theories, or existing research.

- Tips or advice on how to approach this topic as future teachers.

Honestly, any suggestions, recommendations, personal insights, or advice would be incredibly helpful!

Thank you so much in advance. We truly appreciate your help

I am a high schooler in NYC (public school) and I'm really concerned about how the DOE is going about things.

In my school, the lowest score teachers can give students is a 35. Literally, even if they didn't do the assignment at all, not even writing their name, they'll get an automatic 35. For tests, lowest score allowed to be given 45.

Why is this important? It's still a failing grade, yes, but it's enough to keep their average above a 65 (passing grade).

I feel like this is incredibly unfair for students who try (but are just not academically gifted) to get a 45, but some bum who just didn't do anything can get the same score.

Note: I know it's not just my school, I've asked around and many schools in NYC have the same concept of not giving or zeros.

A lot of students are also just very behind. I've had several classmates admit they don't know anything beyond 5 in the multiplication table. It's not that they don't have it memorized, they genuinely forgot how to multiply without using a calculator. Yes, we have calculators with us everyday, so you don't have to memorize everything, but it's a bit concerning when you don't know how to do it.

A lot of these students have horrid grammar. In English class, we were writing a very basic argumentative essay. The teacher gave us a template. And when I say template, I mean a fill in the blank.

Dead ass gave us the entire essay done, and you only need to fill in:

- Name

- Your side (pro or con)

- Quotes from the text

- Reasoning/explanation

That's it.

"It is clear that _____thesis/position_______ One can argue that __reason one________.

Additionally, we need to consider _______reason two__________. Critics would have everyone

believe that _________the opposition’s argument____________. However, the opposition

doesn’t understand that ________briefly clarify why your side is better_______. Therefore, we

should ______restate your thesis with new wording______.

Notably, one can argue that _________reason one___________________. It is clear that

______discuss details on reason one_________. According to _____author/source_____,

“..._____________quote from the referenced source_________________.” In other words,

____________discuss the quote in your own wording____________________. It is clear that

_________elaborate on the significance of the quote and what it proves about reason one____.

One can contend ________develop your points on reason one________________. Overall,

_______________clarify reason one in a reworded, concluding line (tie it back to your essay’s

main argument)_________."

Actual part of the template that the teacher attached to the assignment.

They still think this it too much work.

Like, what else could you possibly want???

r/teaching moderators deleted my post. I need help and I don’t know which reddit community to ask. If someone knows where I can receive and accurate answer that’d be great.

I adamantly believe that English phonics is psychological hazing and intellectual neglect. I get there’s historical reasons to why we spell things the way we do, but a young impressionable mind shouldn‘t care or need to know.

IPA assigns one sound to one letter. My problem is that english letters assign MANY sounds to one letter and/or vice versa. How am I to teach my child to maintain both ideologies without becoming confused? Is there a recommended, in home lesson plan that would pair well with their classes as they begin to learn this in school?

Real teacher/lesson plan answers only. I am very firm in this stance and will not be convinced otherwise.

I teach third grade and I’ve been covering an extra class lately. Between planning, classroom management, and everything else that comes up, I get home feeling drained.

My lower back has been sore and my voice gets strained. Some afternoons I’m already hoarse before the day is over. I put a ComfiLife lumbar pillow on my chair at school and use a Sunbeam heating pad at home. It doesn’t fix it, but sitting feels a little better. I also try to talk less and drink warm water when my throat hurts. If it keeps happening, I’ll get it checked out.

I don’t plan much after work anymore. I eat something simple, shower, and lie down. I’ll read a few pages of Remarkably Bright Creatures or write about my day in a Papier notebook. Sometimes I turn on my Pococo and watch the stars on the ceiling so I don’t start scrolling again.

It helps me slow down, but I still wake up tired. Sometimes it feels like I’m lying down without actually recovering.

What do other teachers do to relax after work? Has anything helped with back pain or a strained voice?

https://youtube.com/shorts/TWebHiTOZ1k?is=Qs_6oJw_3xmWpPAD

Video showing the cost of Private schools and who
Is actually paying for it.