I can totally relate!!!! I taught for almost 25 years. I retired earlier than I planned because I was assaulted by a middle school student during class! For months prior to that, I was pushed, tripped, called names, cussed at, and had things thrown at me! I got no support from the administration! The only discipline I was allowed, was a referral to the dean's office, which was more of a reward than a punishment. I was a wreck! I was praying for God to get me out of there! I experienced many other BAD things over the years: Principals from hell, co-teachers from hell, teacher's aids from hell, parents from hell, students from hell, etc!!!!! I still have PTSD!!!!! I've thought of tutoring to earn extra money in retirement, but I just can't bring myself to do it. So, I've been working part-time in assisted living. The only teaching I will do in the future is with my grandkids.
I teach college, and I can relate on the "punishment that's more of a reward" detail. The policy at my school is I can ask them to leave the room if they disrupt class. Yeah, that will teach them. On college campuses, the classrooms are the least pleasant places. As soon as they leave, they've got coffee bars, snack bars, and lounges all over the place, gyms, game rooms. What am I going to do? Throw some kid out of my classroom because he won't stay off his phone during class.......so he can go downstairs one floor, buy himself a slice of pizza or a cup of coffee with his prepaid card, and be free to be on his phone all he wants?
Society and the government will need to listen carefully and fast or else when the 2030s roll around, there will be no more teachers, period, since the ones who leave typically do not get replaced because no one wants to undergo what the departed teachers experienced professionally!
Until administrators decide to actually punish disruptive and disrespectful students, remove them from the classroom and allow teachers to teach students…..this mess is going to continue. (I teach at the high school level and I am very blessed to have really good kids and an excellent principal that backs up the teachers.)
This AMAZING woman is my aunt! Thank you for hearing and sharing her story, she’s been through a lot and I have personally witnessed it. I’m so happy to see her here testifying I’m incredibly proud of her and how far she’s come. I can’t wait to see where her journey takes her! @TeacherTherapy
I love this channel because its completely obvious that parents are the root of the problem. Schools, teachers, and society have problems of course, but a good kid, raised by good adults can flourish and grow in a less-then ideal world.
Exactly. Many parents don’t realize that they themselves at the end of the day are truly responsible for their children’s and the world’s future on the whole.
And yet the society pressure everyone to reproduce. Many of those parents just went with the flow and never once wondered if it's a good idea to have a child. I see this issues minimised or completely ignored by practically everyone. Stop pressuring people to have children! Be supportive of those who choose not to.
I had no choice but to stick it out, going back into the classroom every morning sometimes without getting ANY sleep due to stress and anxiety. Now retired I know I'm dealing with actual PTSD.
I taught for 8 hellish years. One year was so bad I wound up in the ER with a panic attack but I thought I was having a heart attack! I left when my son was born to stay at home with him and I'm not sure I want to ever go back. My health has been sooo much better since leaving!
One year I was being pressured to make the stupid robotics team win and I’d never done robotics before. I was good with tech is why they asked me to do it. How can you say no? Well that pressure plus regular classroom crap really did me in that year. I’d have panic attacks around 2-3 am because I could not fall asleep. It was so bad. I have no idea how I survived that. Sorry you went through it too.
Me too! I took a one year job while the teacher took a year off to have her baby. By November I checked into the er thinking I was having a heart attack. They even gave me nitro. It was anxiety!
I'm a substitute teacher and I just had a middle school class last week so bad that I haven't picked up another job yet. These kids bullied another kid out of the room right in front of me despite my very strict and harsh reprimands, and I had a student spread rumors around the whole school that I was racist because I refused to tolerate disrespect and bad behavior from a student that happened to be a minority. Then a bunch of her friends spent their class time conspiring to team up and get me fired right in front of me. I haven't even been out of high school for 10 years yet and I am absolutely blown away by the complete 180 in student behavior that's happened. I'm so thankful that I'm only going to be doing this for a couple of years before I start my family and become a SAHM, you guys all deserve a veteran's discount.
Depends what you mean by "bad." If you mean they tend not to be as intentionally malicious, I agree. If you mean possessing the ability to behave in a structured and orderly manner, I would beg to differ. I've spent time in a number of Elementary classrooms recently, and I strongly sympathize with anyone tasked with trying to control the latest crop of children. Attempting to integrate them into the traditional education model is a fools errand in my view. It's no longer feasible. @@Jane5720
They've figured out the "race card" works in many cases, so they attempt to play it over and over. Best to let them know you see through what they are trying to do, and that it's not going to work with you.
They've figured out that 'the race card" works much of the time so they play it over and over. Tell them you see through what they are trying to do and that it won't work with you.
What makes it worse is when the principal tells you that you have to handle all your own discipline. "Because if you don't, the students won't respect you enough". Supposedly if he has to talk to the students, then they will only respect him and not me. So I have to do all my own detentions during my own unpaid 30 minute lunch, or in my planning hour. there is no dean at all. There is no other consequences for the really out of control ones who literally never stop talking the entire 40 minute class time and disrupting my instruction time and guided classwork time - HS Biology teacher generated curriculum bc they can't understand the county textbook workbook, for special needs: ESL, ED, and regular ed mixed. No class set of books or workbooks. I need to copy 250+ copies per day realistically. But I only get 1000 per month... they hate overhead note copying. They don't have the control to do centers without destroying everything. They break pencils & expo markers & crayons in half & throw them.
You have to do lunch detention because students would miss their bus? I'm old. Backn in the day detention was after school and you missed the bus. Teachers knew this and may only give you a detention for 10 minutes to miss the bus. Then you got to walk home. This was fully supported by the principal. If you skipped detention, then swats, next out of school suspension. There is no support for teachers now.
Teachers are being subjected to so much gaslighting. Creating curriculum is a high-paid career, not an after-thought. The principal is not doing their job properly, and is making that your responsibility.
@@roundtwo3321 I work an extra 20 hours per week unpaid. I make $3 more per hour than my Highschool daughter does as a hostess at BJ's restaurant, without benefits.
I was just told by my new district that I am "not meeting expectations" and I have a feeling it is because the KIDS are not meeting expectations despite all my efforts. This is my ninth cumulative year of teaching, and I think I am finally done. I am considering, quite literally, writing a book about all of my experiences. I don't think anyone but fellow teachers would believe the things I have been through!
Sounds all too familiar on all fronts! I too wrote and published a book about my teaching experiences. It has been my bestselling book to date (I have written and published three books with my fourth on the way)!
I can believe it. I was in 5th grade in 1999. One of my friends kindergarten teacher was retiring the same year. Sweet old lady. I didn't have her for kindergarten because at a different school when first started school but my best / close friend who was a 1st grader. My family & her's were close both in & out of school & each morning we would stop by her old kindergarten class & say hi to the kindergarten teacher & hug her. As for testing yeah we had alot of tests back then. The one they gave us was more a survey than a test & it was asking questions as to what our parents income was & how much they make in a year just really personal questions & when I called the teacher out on it in front of 30+ students in our class at the time I asked what is this exactly & why we were being asked very personal questions. I also asked I we were being graded & the teacher said no. I told her I refused to answer personal questions & tore up the survey in front of the class. Other read some of questions & refused to answer it as well. 🤷♀️✌️
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). Older released versions of the test were used to teach the test and test taking skills. @@Adennative
@Adennative Ours were PSSA testing if I remember the name correctly. At our school it was done it elementary, middle, & high school to see were the students were academically supposedly. I was never a great test taker back then. Everything else straight A's~ 🤷♀️✌️
I taught 17 years in WA state. It was hard, but I put up with it because the pay and benefits were good. Moved to FL… taught a couple months… quit 2 weeks ago for similar reasons. It’s not even tolerable here. Very toxic. Very abusive. The adults are nasty. The system is awful. My peace was so disturbed. I got a cancer diagnosis and I said peace out ✌️ not doing this anymore.
Wow, I’m experiencing the same things right now! I literally asked God to bless me with another job in front of the students today. 😢 If anyone knows of performance arts schools that are seeking dance educators hit me up! I want to hear more from her. Tag her 😊
Try getting a Real Estate License. It does not take long, (each state is different.) I knew a lady, that quit and earned her RN. There are different avenues to take, you just have to think about where you want to go.
I was blamed by a teacher for his class failing their assessment. He was in a leadership meeting and I was doing internal relief. On the way home I had an anxiety attack and don't remember driving home. My whole body was set on fire from the stress. My whole body aches, I had terrible headache, I couldn't make any decisions etc. My biggest issue now is how my brain shut downs. I forget things and can't remember names or where things are. It scared me. I pray to God every day, crying, please get me out. I feel so trapped. The DP did respond to my email. once I calmed down I wrote an email and complained. It's not rocket science as to why they can't get teachers at school. ALL of the leadership I've met seem to be in denial about how serious teaching shortages are. I'm sick of being switched on constantly and it is taking longer and longer for me to switch off. I've gone back to casual relief now, so I can have days off when I need too, but I do suffer financially. But I have to just stop.
She sounds like a great 👍 teacher. It saddens me to listen to the demise of public education. I taught for 32 years in high school and loved it, but the last two years demonstrated a massive change and an increase in disrespect. All the way from Canada 🇨🇦.
It would amaze me how a child could throw a desk half his/her size across the room. I would then get gaslit on classroom management. Glad to have escaped teaching.
Yes!! My para was knocked out by a flying desk from a child. (1st grade) She had a concussion and the admin said it was her fault for "being in the way" ...she tried to fight it for workers comp but got fired instead. Just insanity!!
Yes!! My para was knocked out by a flying desk from a child. (1st grade) She had a concussion and the admin said it was her fault for "being in the way" ...she tried to fight it for workers comp but got fired instead. Just insanity!!
You could always start fresh with a job that requires no experience but still pays enough (if not more than teaching) to allow you to keep a roof over your head and put food on the table, all the while reducing the stress in your life significantly professionally and personally.
Omg I understand. I was a temp grade school special ed hire once with 75 students 1 teacher and 3 assistants. Lord have mercy it sucked the life out of me. After that semester was over I stared at the wall for 2 straight weeks ! That was ages ago and those attacks still haunt me now and then .
I’m a teacher of 20+ years. I taught in an alt ed school for my first 6 years. Behaviors now are worse in a regular education classroom than they were back in 2010 in the alt ed classroom. In those first 6 years I never felt the urge to quit. Now I feel it on a daily basis. But I’m too far in to start over in a new career.
I can relate to all of this. When Covid shut things down I was actually grateful because I didn't have to deal with my nightmare 6th period class. I would be up at 3 a.m. every day dreading it. And getting home I would have to have at least an hour of total silence to decompress before I could start my evening after a day of chaos.
Thank you. That was a great interview. I am a teacher(23 years in the field). I do love teaching a lot. Will publish a book called "Why I Love Teaching " in 3 months and am curring writing a sequel called "Why I Hate Being a Teacher". Watching your interviews with fellow teachers who have quit, confirm the idea that being a "teacher" is an undesirable job in thia day and age. Thank you again for inspiring us to make the right decision for our mental sanity. Much love!
Congratulations in advance on your first forthcoming published book and your second book-in-progress! I too wrote and published a book in 2018 about my teaching experiences up to that point. I left teaching in 2023, so that’s a wrap!
Scratch, pinch, bite, kick, hit the teacher? F that. I just watch your videos here and there to confirm my decision to retire from teaching at 55 and move on to another career path. My last gig in AZ (I taught in CA, MA, NH, RI, CO, and AZ over 25 years) during the pandemic was the worst job I have ever had. I couldn't leave teaching or Arizona fast enough. Trash level parents and kids. Endless excused for bad behavior. No one held accountable. No consequences, cell phone addiction. Standards based grading. Joke of a system - BROKEN.
Those weeks after Covid closed school and before online teaching started were amazing. Me and my little girl went on adventures around the neighborhood everyday. 2020 was my 10th year of teaching and it felt like I could truly breathe and smile for the first time in 10 years.
This is so sad and I watched my daughter graduate from graduate school (during covid shutdown) with degrees in education and then excited to begin. She was immediately under high stress met with disappointment and sadness and she will never teach again. She spent one year at two schools and decided her mental health was more important than important. She was able to move into higher education working at a university. Your prayers for another career will be answered.
Well said! Teachers have the most stressful days, nights, weekends…lives! The dreadful feeling of going back to kids who are so out of control and disrespectful gives me triggered memories of one mom in particular. Her son was constantly interrupting, talking out, hitting kids, being rude, eating in class, endless behaviors, yet she insisted he should be allowed to go on the field trip because it was a right to his education. And this was 20 years ago before there were cell phones in the room The entire grade level agreed he should not be able to go because of his terrible behavior. all the tools that have been taken away from us to reprimand children to have consequences, everything is positive. Kids get rewarded instead with snacks and juice and a nice break from the classroom only until they return to the same problems they did 15 minutes prior. Our prisons are going to be full of these future criminals who cannot read, write, spell, or do math. They ruin the learning experience for everyone else in the room who really wants to behave and learn.
Michelle and Trish, this was an excellent talk and so validating for me. Everything you described, ALL of it, is what I experienced teaching in Charlotte and in rural eastern NC. The similarities blew my mind. I was diagnosed with the same things as you two, along with C-PTSD. Teaching had a lot to do with it. I didn’t officially retire, I just couldn’t go back. Zero desire. I will never put myself in another situation that does what teaching did to me. I started in 1999 so that bs has been working on me for a loooong time. Healing is front and center for me now.
@@TeacherTherapy Thank you, Trish 🙏. I commented mid- video, right before she said she went back into teaching. I am really happy she got well and is helping these poor kids. I really bonded with my elementary babes and they were in the exact same boat as the ones she described. All of her suggestions at the end are on point. It’s almost like teachers today need to be legit trauma therapists who add on a teaching credential. For real! One thought I had though is the entire country needs to implement a system that 1) teaches parents how to be what their kids need in terms of being that “first teacher” and 2) bring that into the prison-system. Most facilities have video visits now…technology is changing and I don’t see why something couldn’t be created to allow incarcerated parents access to participate more. Why can’t there be a centralized place in a prison where inmates can use Dojo? Or look up their kid’s grades to know what assignments are missing, or what grades are? Where there’s a will, there’s a way. No matter where parents are, they should be involved.
Michelle, you seem like a level-headed, caring, and fair teacher. I'm sure God has used you in children's lives, and that you've made an impact on lives you'll never know.
I've been a college writing teacher for going on nine years. The first eight of them I devoted my entire energy to an online for profit school. I still teach a class or two for them as a side job. The students are a bit older than traditional college ages for the most part. For going on two semesters now, my main teaching job is for a private university that pretty much revolves around sports. And while these videos for the most part are about elementary through high school teachers from public schools...I can still relate to them. The students just don't care about anything except how rich they think they're going to be as soon as they graduate, and in the private school...sports. You cannot get these kids to care about anything else that doesn't happen to them personally, and they have no respect for each other or for me. They'll sit there right in front of me and chat with other people on their phone, pull out the phone when they're supposed to be doing in-class writing exercises, walk in late anytime they feel like it, and throw a fit when asked to abide by rules that they agreed to on the first day of class. I'm looking for something else entirely. I don't even want to teach anymore.
As noted in my comment...I'm not a certified teacher. I teach college. And I'm already teaching online. It's no different except that they can't reach you. @@newmamaful
Greetings from Ukraine! Thank you for the channel! I have no clue about the US education system but we face similar issues. For me personally it helps a lot to get rid of that gaslighting and even self-gaslighting. I’ve been a teacher since 2011. I’ve worked in different environments, mainly private… now my life is better without school. You are doing an amazing job! Thank you so much!
Man I can relate. Everything from praying for God to get me out to the stress taking a toll. I have to wait until ny contract ends though (in June) because I don't want the repercussions of breaking a contract. Thank you for your channel Trish! Teacher tired is a real thing. Not only do we have to make decisions all day, but we get criticized for those decisions that we make. I appreciate you for showing this. 😊
Absolutely love this!!!!! Truth articulated with clarity! Like her suggestions for improvement BUT it is a vicious cycle of broken adults producing children they really don’t have the skills and resources to raise them into productive and healthy adults
Great interview! We have to get past keeping our teacher in survival mode themselves. She talked about how the staff was not supportive at her first school. The school climate is of the utmost importance! We talk about kids feeling safe, valued, and loved. TEACHERS need that as well. If you exist in an environment where everyone is cutthroat rather than collaborative-that’s going to make you feel unsafe. Don’t we WANT to have happy, we’ll-adjusted teachers taking care of our children? Administrators need to be the leaders in creating/promoting a safe and collaborative environment.
This same scenario happened to me. It used to be a job I loved, but student accountability is at an all time low. My principal even told me that everyone should be getting As in middle school. After 16 years in the classroom, I will never go back because I started teaching non-verbal autistic students to spell on a letter board. It is rewarding and 1:1, ahhhhhh.
I remember I told my students I was leaving for good on the my final day with them and I had some students switch up on me and act so disrespectful cos "you're quitting anyways". So if you quit, I highly suggest to not tell your students even on your last day. It's ridiculous
@@amandak.4246 oh really haha? i think i got that thought from the king of the hill episode where bobby gets caught with cigarettes and hank punishes him by smoking the entire carton in which he tells him not to 'hot box' his cigarettes
Last year I had a rough group of kids and my mental health was so bad I got on depression meds. This year I've had issues with mean negative co-workers because they are stressed about implementing a new curriculum. The kids are better this year so I'm closing my door, teaching my best and surviving til May. I'm buying out early retirement so this is my last year!!!!
Are you sure she didn't teach at my school?? LOL! Seriously, everything she said is spot on with what happens at my school: kids throwing desks and chairs, cussing teachers out, kids running out of the classrooms into parking lots, kids with no fear of anything, kids getting snacks at the office for misbehaving etc. I'm 100% positive this lady must have worked at my school 🤣😂😭😭
Great interview. She seemed reasonable and very open minded, and started out very excited about the job. But then it became too stressful and anxiety inducing for her to ignore. This is definitely a cautionary tale for anyone who’s been considering teaching.
My cousin was a teacher and gave it all up last year,she'd was tired of parents and kids threatening to bring their parents guns and shoot her and these were elementary school children.
This is so similar to my little sister's teaching story. I kept reminding her that her health was more important and she finally quit a few years ago. She has never turned back. I am so proud of her cause I know it was not an easy decision to make.
These kids are going home to a nightmare. Many are being abused in every way. How do they show up the next day to school and be okay? They won’t. My heart breaks for them! These parents need to be held accountable to how they are taking care of these children including the foster parents who often are no better.
Unfortunately, that's how many schools use PBIS. Hundreds of teachers have shared stories of kids getting snacks and IPad time when they are sent to the office for behavior issues. It's very rare to hear of schools implementing PBIS successfully. Most of them just run with the word *positive* and abandon any type of real accountability. 🥺😭
Hand out stupid phony "paws" and the administration couldn't take the time to even do their absurd raffles for chips or candy, meanwhile my proven awesome classroom management techniques went memoed into oblivion. I prefer dialysis to their top-down microManaged corporate "values"@@TeacherTherapy
This isn’t Norway. We never implement these theories how they’ve been implemented in these Nordic countries. Also we have a different culture. Kids here don’t have the same values as they do in those countries.
This is very concerning. If these teachers are backing out of their classrooms and effectively their communities, who else will pick up the pieces? These problems were created within the community and must be solved from within the community.
Videos like these that give insight into dealing with children, parents, and families is exactly why I am childfree. No amount of money is worth dealing with children all day long, and worse yet, teachers have to deal with the negligent parents. You are heroic (and innocent) for stepping into the fire like that.
Excellent point, Michelle! Don't call teachers after the school day is done. THEY have lives too. ... Back about 25 years ago when I started teaching ... they said that a teacher makes about 5000 decision a day, no joke! ... FACT not OPINION.
I'm always a student, love learning, but haven't been in a classroom since 05. I think then, or shortly after, things changed dramatically to what's going on today. Seeing the Ballet dance instructor cry as she spoke on her students broke my heart. I was aware things have changed but never knew the magnitude of what the teachers are dealing with, including low pay and most times thankless career (sadly)
I was a student in some terrible schools and seen what these teachers go through dealing with kids from broken homes and i have the utmost respect from yall. Im more of a right wing guy these days and on the right there are some who say inner city schools are a disaster because they have un qualified teachers but i don’t agree with that in every case, I’ve seen these wonderful human beings who take a job that doesn’t pay very well and who are trying to make a difference but it’s almost impossible with some students. God bless both of you wonderful ladies
Excellent interview. Thank you again, Trish. As a specials teacher who sees around 600 students a week, we are expected to build relationships with every student. This is emphasized over and over again in PD meetings. It is literally impossible to do that as a Speicials teacher who sees 600 students once a week for about 40 minutes. The admin at my school doesn't seem to understand that this is virtually impossible to do for us and I feel they are so disconnected to reality. I try my hardest to build reltaionships with students but it's very difficult when you only see them once a week. If the student's behavior is bad they will often blame it on you not building the proper relationship with the child. They expect the impossible out of us!
I hear every single example and experience that Michelle gave here loud and clear, especially in her closing statement. The downright laziness and cowardice that growing numbers of parents exhibit when it comes to communicating with their children’s teachers, disciplining their own children, taking necessary initiative in all respects, and just being overall decent human beings is continually appalling! Any parent out there who constantly asks for help from other people when it comes to caring for their children clearly is not cut out to be a parent. And any parent who truly does not have their act together overall never should have had children in the first place. Children are direct reflections of their parents. Some children will want to naturally do better than their parents while others will simply and naturally follow their parents’ examples. What Michelle said about learning needing to take place outside of school too is 100% spot on. Especially for all those parents who are dissatisfied with their children’s education. If they think that their child deserves better, then they themselves need to provide such “betterment”. Not ask somebody else to pick up the slack! And oh yeah, the negative energy that consumes so many schools from the inside out is definitely felt when you enter the building. The political heat, tension, power hunger, rage, hierarchy, all the toxicity in the world and then some increases exponentially! And it all boils down to human dysfunction and corruption, separately and together. No person should have to sacrifice their own emotional, physical, mental, or financial well being in order to educate others. It’s not worth it at all. The internal output of most schools and the people within them constitutes a sheer act of bullying that takes place on purpose from the top down.
You made an important decision for your well-being. Taking care of yourself is crucial, especially in challenging professions like teaching. I'm grateful Trish provided this platform for you to share your story. I applaud you!!
It's so sad that is generation is not being allowed to experience the wonderful gems teachers really give. The love for reading or whatever that a student favorite subject is. We had real everyday heros and didn't need to find them in Hollywood. We had them in the community (schools, barbershops, law enforcement, constructions, drivers, parents, favorite relatives etc) Seeing how these groups are not cherished anymore hurts. My 96 years old grandmother is still a hero to me. Never sold any albums but I have her, my parents people in my life autographs all in my heart. So because of this I never needed to chase Hollywood because I always had my own. These are things this generation does not have and don't blame those who need time away. It was already a selfless calling but it's beyond that today. Thank you to every teacher, community hero, past and present. ❤🙏🏿💐
Your guests are awesome and so genuine and such a shame that they got pushed out of teaching. At the same time, good for them for putting themselves first.
Can relate to everything Michelle expressed. It helps so much to not feel alone, thank you Michelle for sharing and Trish for this channel and doing these interviews! I haven't even been in the school system as long and am already burned out and experiencing all these things. Ready for a more peaceful life, the system is broken and it's not worth all this. And yes, Amen!
The states ruined it when they started 'scoring' the teachers. You are very correct! And it ruins the joy of teaching. Just teach to the test so you can get the points. TERRIBLE
Sharing the same strategy that worked best with a student is something that we did among my colleagues 17-20 years ago. It worked like a charm. ... I guess it is no longer part of common sense. Oh wait, that's right common sense is no longer common. Let's bring it back!
I'm an esl teacher in China teaching for the past 10 years of all ages, primarily high school to adult level. Although it's not as extreme as back home described in the video, students can be lazy or disconnected from the class material. There's no phones permitted but I can see that's a major reason why kids are on flight thinking about playing games or chatting.
Kidney failure and dialysis were my exit strategy... I could not handle the corporatized BS that started around 2010. Test scores, paperwork, data.. fly in the pie new curriculum nonsense! Teaching was my calling.. thank you Billy Fng Gates for tearing my heart out! Common Core! PBIS! Ugh!!!
The anxiety is real. Considering how few teachers in my building are actually certified (particularly in English), I'm pretty sure the district can't afford to fire me. Even so, I've felt like my head was on the chopping block all year. These are the worst performing kids I have ever taught. They can barely read in the 9th grade, and even those that can hardly care enough to try. My tried and true methods have failed. My new, experimental methods have failed. I've taught what a thesis is 8 times this year (not counting where it just came up in other lessons), and they still don't know it. I explain what I'm dealing with, but feel like I'm just whining and making excuses, even though I know its something genuinely out of my control. I feel like my administrators and appraiser's feel like I'm whining and making excuses. When I get observed, I get great marks and positive feedback. When I ask for help, for strategies, for anything I can do to improve, I get told things that I'm already doing. Hell, yesterday, they just told me to tell them its important. Even when I have found something that works, I feel like I'm being told that it's wrong because it's not the right way, or that it is not good enough. My wife and I moved halfway across the country 2 years ago to be here. We've bought a house here. We've gone all in on this community and we want to be here, and neither of us can afford to lose our position. I honestly don't rationally believe I'm on the chopping block, but, even so, I can't help but feel the sword of Damocles dangling above every morning when I head to work, and it's certainly not making me well.
A class on trauma awareness and response might be needed from 1st to 12th grades. AND. Mandates made for parents to participate in showing up for parent nights and meetings.
My heart goes out to all teachers today. All of the problems that teachers are facing today other than the low pay, which has always been a problem as far as I can tell, is a direct result of teaching the children of the first generation of kids to come out of school after NCLB was enacted. That piece of legislation caused the changes to school policies across the nation, that strongly discouraged teachers from giving any child a failing grade. That led from one thing to another until we now have a situation where children get up and go to a place, for eight hours a day, where they make all of the rules. One by one all real and effective forms of student accountability and discipline have been removed from our public schools in an effort to ensure each child gets an equal outcome of education to every other child. Equity is going to completely collapse our society. In order to fix these issues the first thing that needs to happen is for NCLB to be reversed. Students need to be held accountable for doing their part to receive the education provided to them. And teachers need to begin to press charges against violent children. But it has to be all of you. If only one or two of you do this you will simply get fired and nothing is going to change. These children need to learn that there are consequences for throwing a chair at another person, or punching someone, and I don't care if it is a second grader. By the time a person is five or six years old they already know, deep down, that hitting, punching, biting, throwing things, and such are all wrong and we shouldn't do it. Now there are young adults running loose in our society who think that A: they don't have to do anything but show up to succeed in life because they just spent twelve years in a school system that passed them every year even though they did almost nothing each year to earn a passing grade, and B: who can't control their emotions, impulses, and outbursts because that same system taught them that they didn't need to learn those skills since there were no real consequence for not doing so. Unfortunately the parents of these young people are no help because they are the first generation of snowflakes.....
Wow... 😯 This teacher seem's so nice. I wish I would have had her for a teacher in the 90's when I was in elementary school. She seem's as though she genuinely cares about the students she taught. I had several teachers say to me back then: you look normal there for you should be able to do the work... Or the other line when I raised my hand asking for help one day & being told: I have a classroom of 30+ students I can't "just" help you. This is the kind of teacher I wish we would have had. 👍 The irony when I was in school the school knew full well I had / have a learning disability & set up a IEP but NONE of my teachers showed up to any of the IEP meetings or filled out the papers saying how I was progressing. I opened my IEP folder as a student nothing was written except for in bold letters saying "mental retardation" the rest of the pages were left blank. I called out the teacher on it in front of my parents & she apologized but it was still insulting... I have autism as a girl / millennial. Back then found out the school refused to acknowledge I even had / have autism claiming I looked & acted to normal & supposedly only boys at the time had autism telling my parents that a girl having autism was unheard of in the 90's... 🤷♀️✌️ She's right the special ed classes are draining. I was put in 2 finally in high school for math & science & ended up dropping both because of how the other students acted. They distracted the teacher so mouthing got taught threw things, swore. I was used to being in regular ed classes which at the time a whole different mindset... ✌️
I am a speech therapist and was having mental health problems. However I can lose my license if they found out that I continued to practice while having depression and anxiety.
It's a good thing you didn't tell them you were leaving I once told my principal that I was leaving her school and she sabotaged me. She was someone who always wanted me open up to her. Worst mistake she literally used everything I told her against me. I eventually quit when she placed me on administrative leave. Just because i wrote a long email to all the staff outlining my frustration. Today I thank God I resigned. It was crazy working there.
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I can totally relate!!!! I taught for almost 25 years. I retired earlier than I planned because I was assaulted by a middle school student during class! For months prior to that, I was pushed, tripped, called names, cussed at, and had things thrown at me! I got no support from the administration! The only discipline I was allowed, was a referral to the dean's office, which was more of a reward than a punishment. I was a wreck! I was praying for God to get me out of there! I experienced many other BAD things over the years: Principals from hell, co-teachers from hell, teacher's aids from hell, parents from hell, students from hell, etc!!!!! I still have PTSD!!!!! I've thought of tutoring to earn extra money in retirement, but I just can't bring myself to do it. So, I've been working part-time in assisted living. The only teaching I will do in the future is with my grandkids.
I'm so sorry you had to endure those awful experiences. 🥺💔 I hope you are feeling more peace in your life now. 🙏🏾💙
@@TeacherTherapy Thank you very much. I am doing much better now.
I hope you can get on the road to recovery .It's the same system here in Ireland.
I teach college, and I can relate on the "punishment that's more of a reward" detail. The policy at my school is I can ask them to leave the room if they disrupt class. Yeah, that will teach them. On college campuses, the classrooms are the least pleasant places. As soon as they leave, they've got coffee bars, snack bars, and lounges all over the place, gyms, game rooms. What am I going to do? Throw some kid out of my classroom because he won't stay off his phone during class.......so he can go downstairs one floor, buy himself a slice of pizza or a cup of coffee with his prepaid card, and be free to be on his phone all he wants?
@@Gira315 yes do that let them do that if they don’t pass your course, you flunk them
There should be a 12 student per teacher Max. This just blows my mind they keep not addressing this
“Teacher tired is a whole different tired.” PREACH, SISTER!
That’s because our days are like weeks. We are living in dogs years.
Yes it is!!
@@annaburns2865😊😊😊
Precisely why I quit. It was literally sucking the life out of me
Me too
Me too! I quit this month
Exactly 🫠
I'm glad you give these former teachers a place to share their stories, their truths. If only society would listen.
Exactly.
Society and the government will need to listen carefully and fast or else when the 2030s roll around, there will be no more teachers, period, since the ones who leave typically do not get replaced because no one wants to undergo what the departed teachers experienced professionally!
Until administrators decide to actually punish disruptive and disrespectful students, remove them from the classroom and allow teachers to teach students…..this mess is going to continue.
(I teach at the high school level and I am very blessed to have really good kids and an excellent principal that backs up the teachers.)
This AMAZING woman is my aunt! Thank you for hearing and sharing her story, she’s been through a lot and I have personally witnessed it. I’m so happy to see her here testifying I’m incredibly proud of her and how far she’s come. I can’t wait to see where her journey takes her! @TeacherTherapy
She is amazing!!! 🤗💙💙💙
I resigned as well!! Just exhausting! They just don't care!
“Parents were non-existent”…….AAAAAAAND there is the REAL problem.
I love this channel because its completely obvious that parents are the root of the problem. Schools, teachers, and society have problems of course, but a good kid, raised by good adults can flourish and grow in a less-then ideal world.
Exactly. Many parents don’t realize that they themselves at the end of the day are truly responsible for their children’s and the world’s future on the whole.
And yet the society pressure everyone to reproduce. Many of those parents just went with the flow and never once wondered if it's a good idea to have a child. I see this issues minimised or completely ignored by practically everyone. Stop pressuring people to have children! Be supportive of those who choose not to.
@@tangerinetangerine4400 Beautifully put.
I had no choice but to stick it out, going back into the classroom every morning sometimes without getting ANY sleep due to stress and anxiety. Now retired I know I'm dealing with actual PTSD.
I taught for 8 hellish years. One year was so bad I wound up in the ER with a panic attack but I thought I was having a heart attack! I left when my son was born to stay at home with him and I'm not sure I want to ever go back. My health has been sooo much better since leaving!
One year I was being pressured to make the stupid robotics team win and I’d never done robotics before. I was good with tech is why they asked me to do it. How can you say no? Well that pressure plus regular classroom crap really did me in that year. I’d have panic attacks around 2-3 am because I could not fall asleep. It was so bad. I have no idea how I survived that. Sorry you went through it too.
Me too! I took a one year job while the teacher took a year off to have her baby. By November I checked into the er thinking I was having a heart attack. They even gave me nitro. It was anxiety!
I'm a substitute teacher and I just had a middle school class last week so bad that I haven't picked up another job yet. These kids bullied another kid out of the room right in front of me despite my very strict and harsh reprimands, and I had a student spread rumors around the whole school that I was racist because I refused to tolerate disrespect and bad behavior from a student that happened to be a minority. Then a bunch of her friends spent their class time conspiring to team up and get me fired right in front of me. I haven't even been out of high school for 10 years yet and I am absolutely blown away by the complete 180 in student behavior that's happened. I'm so thankful that I'm only going to be doing this for a couple of years before I start my family and become a SAHM, you guys all deserve a veteran's discount.
That sounds like a nightmare! 😳 I'm happy to hear that you have an exit strategy in the future! 💙
I would avoid middle school, stick with elementary school kids they’re not quite as bad yet
Depends what you mean by "bad." If you mean they tend not to be as intentionally malicious, I agree. If you mean possessing the ability to behave in a structured and orderly manner, I would beg to differ. I've spent time in a number of Elementary classrooms recently, and I strongly sympathize with anyone tasked with trying to control the latest crop of children. Attempting to integrate them into the traditional education model is a fools errand in my view. It's no longer feasible. @@Jane5720
They've figured out the "race card" works in many cases, so they attempt to play it over and over. Best to let them know you see through what they are trying to do, and that it's not going to work with you.
They've figured out that 'the race card" works much of the time so they play it over and over. Tell them you see through what they are trying to do and that it won't work with you.
What makes it worse is when the principal tells you that you have to handle all your own discipline. "Because if you don't, the students won't respect you enough". Supposedly if he has to talk to the students, then they will only respect him and not me. So I have to do all my own detentions during my own unpaid 30 minute lunch, or in my planning hour. there is no dean at all.
There is no other consequences for the really out of control ones who literally never stop talking the entire 40 minute class time and disrupting my instruction time and guided classwork time - HS Biology teacher generated curriculum bc they can't understand the county textbook workbook, for special needs: ESL, ED, and regular ed mixed.
No class set of books or workbooks. I need to copy 250+ copies per day realistically. But I only get 1000 per month... they hate overhead note copying. They don't have the control to do centers without destroying everything. They break pencils & expo markers & crayons in half & throw them.
You have to do lunch detention because students would miss their bus? I'm old. Backn in the day detention was after school and you missed the bus. Teachers knew this and may only give you a detention for 10 minutes to miss the bus. Then you got to walk home. This was fully supported by the principal. If you skipped detention, then swats, next out of school suspension. There is no support for teachers now.
Teachers are being subjected to so much gaslighting.
Creating curriculum is a high-paid career, not an after-thought. The principal is not doing their job properly, and is making that your responsibility.
@@geraldstone8396 Most of the time the bad ones are baseball players who leave school at 1pm. No detention for them is possible.
@@roundtwo3321 I work an extra 20 hours per week unpaid. I make $3 more per hour than my Highschool daughter does as a hostess at BJ's restaurant, without benefits.
I was just told by my new district that I am "not meeting expectations" and I have a feeling it is because the KIDS are not meeting expectations despite all my efforts. This is my ninth cumulative year of teaching, and I think I am finally done. I am considering, quite literally, writing a book about all of my experiences. I don't think anyone but fellow teachers would believe the things I have been through!
Sounds all too familiar on all fronts! I too wrote and published a book about my teaching experiences. It has been my bestselling book to date (I have written and published three books with my fourth on the way)!
This is one person that is telling the truth. What she is describing, goes on everyday.
Omg😳😳😳 this title is literally my life RIGHT NOW!!
I'm sorry to hear that! 🥺💙💙💙
😢😢😢
I left the classroom in 1999. We were pressured to teach the test. Much respect to the classroom teachers.
I can believe it. I was in 5th grade in 1999. One of my friends kindergarten teacher was retiring the same year. Sweet old lady. I didn't have her for kindergarten because at a different school when first started school but my best / close friend who was a 1st grader. My family & her's were close both in & out of school & each morning we would stop by her old kindergarten class & say hi to the kindergarten teacher & hug her. As for testing yeah we had alot of tests back then. The one they gave us was more a survey than a test & it was asking questions as to what our parents income was & how much they make in a year just really personal questions & when I called the teacher out on it in front of 30+ students in our class at the time I asked what is this exactly & why we were being asked very personal questions. I also asked I we were being graded & the teacher said no. I told her I refused to answer personal questions & tore up the survey in front of the class. Other read some of questions & refused to answer it as well. 🤷♀️✌️
What test?
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). Older released versions of the test were used to teach the test and test taking skills. @@Adennative
Thank you@@JBoomer-pi6ml
@Adennative Ours were PSSA testing if I remember the name correctly. At our school it was done it elementary, middle, & high school to see were the students were academically supposedly. I was never a great test taker back then. Everything else straight A's~ 🤷♀️✌️
I taught 17 years in WA state. It was hard, but I put up with it because the pay and benefits were good. Moved to FL… taught a couple months… quit 2 weeks ago for similar reasons. It’s not even tolerable here. Very toxic. Very abusive. The adults are nasty. The system is awful. My peace was so disturbed. I got a cancer diagnosis and I said peace out ✌️ not doing this anymore.
Take care of yourself 🙏🏾
So sorry to hear that. I pray for your recovery.
🙏🏽
❤❤
Wow, I’m experiencing the same things right now! I literally asked God to bless me with another job in front of the students today. 😢
If anyone knows of performance arts schools that are seeking dance educators hit me up!
I want to hear more from her. Tag her 😊
Try getting a Real Estate License. It does not take long, (each state is different.) I knew a lady, that quit and earned her RN. There are different avenues to take, you just have to think about where you want to go.
I was blamed by a teacher for his class failing their assessment. He was in a leadership meeting and I was doing internal relief. On the way home I had an anxiety attack and don't remember driving home. My whole body was set on fire from the stress. My whole body aches, I had terrible headache, I couldn't make any decisions etc. My biggest issue now is how my brain shut downs. I forget things and can't remember names or where things are. It scared me. I pray to God every day, crying, please get me out. I feel so trapped. The DP did respond to my email. once I calmed down I wrote an email and complained. It's not rocket science as to why they can't get teachers at school. ALL of the leadership I've met seem to be in denial about how serious teaching shortages are. I'm sick of being switched on constantly and it is taking longer and longer for me to switch off. I've gone back to casual relief now, so I can have days off when I need too, but I do suffer financially. But I have to just stop.
She sounds like a great 👍 teacher. It saddens me to listen to the demise of public education. I taught for 32 years in high school and loved it, but the last two years demonstrated a massive change and an increase in disrespect. All the way from Canada 🇨🇦.
Teachers deserve better!
Teaching itself is easy! Being a classroom teacher today is hard because we wear so many other hats!
It would amaze me how a child could throw a desk half his/her size across the room. I would then get gaslit on classroom management. Glad to have escaped teaching.
Yes!! My para was knocked out by a flying desk from a child. (1st grade) She had a concussion and the admin said it was her fault for "being in the way" ...she tried to fight it for workers comp but got fired instead. Just insanity!!
Yes!! My para was knocked out by a flying desk from a child. (1st grade) She had a concussion and the admin said it was her fault for "being in the way" ...she tried to fight it for workers comp but got fired instead. Just insanity!!
WOW! I'm so glad you got out. I am also on my way out because my health has deteriorated. Time to heal from teaching.
This is me right now as we speak. 18 years of teaching and I’m trying to figure out Plan B. 😭
Maybe consider online teaching, like K12 or Connections Academy?
You could always start fresh with a job that requires no experience but still pays enough (if not more than teaching) to allow you to keep a roof over your head and put food on the table, all the while reducing the stress in your life significantly professionally and personally.
I have around the same amount of time and trying to figure an escape. I cannot do this anymore.
Omg I understand. I was a temp grade school special ed hire once with 75 students 1 teacher and 3 assistants. Lord have mercy it sucked the life out of me. After that semester was over I stared at the wall for 2 straight weeks ! That was ages ago and those attacks still haunt me now and then .
I’m a teacher of 20+ years. I taught in an alt ed school for my first 6 years. Behaviors now are worse in a regular education classroom than they were back in 2010 in the alt ed classroom. In those first 6 years I never felt the urge to quit. Now I feel it on a daily basis. But I’m too far in to start over in a new career.
it's never too late to switch. many people do and feel way better.
I can relate to all of this. When Covid shut things down I was actually grateful because I didn't have to deal with my nightmare 6th period class. I would be up at 3 a.m. every day dreading it. And getting home I would have to have at least an hour of total silence to decompress before I could start my evening after a day of chaos.
Host, you are a great listener and very patient.
Trish is SO good at letting the guest speak and tell their story. I love all of the well-thought-out questions. Keep the videos coming Trish!!
Thank you. That was a great interview. I am a teacher(23 years in the field). I do love teaching a lot. Will publish a book called "Why I Love Teaching " in 3 months and am curring writing a sequel called "Why I Hate Being a Teacher". Watching your interviews with fellow teachers who have quit, confirm the idea that being a "teacher" is an undesirable job in thia day and age.
Thank you again for inspiring us to make the right decision for our mental sanity. Much love!
Congratulations in advance on your first forthcoming published book and your second book-in-progress! I too wrote and published a book in 2018 about my teaching experiences up to that point. I left teaching in 2023, so that’s a wrap!
Scratch, pinch, bite, kick, hit the teacher? F that. I just watch your videos here and there to confirm my decision to retire from teaching at 55 and move on to another career path. My last gig in AZ (I taught in CA, MA, NH, RI, CO, and AZ over 25 years) during the pandemic was the worst job I have ever had. I couldn't leave teaching or Arizona fast enough. Trash level parents and kids. Endless excused for bad behavior. No one held accountable. No consequences, cell phone addiction. Standards based grading. Joke of a system - BROKEN.
I can relate to this woman 100% Her story is my story!
Those weeks after Covid closed school and before online teaching started were amazing. Me and my little girl went on adventures around the neighborhood everyday. 2020 was my 10th year of teaching and it felt like I could truly breathe and smile for the first time in 10 years.
Covid was the excuse I needed to finally get out after wanting to get out for years! If I could go back and do it again, I wouldn’t. 😖
This is so sad and I watched my daughter graduate from graduate school (during covid shutdown) with degrees in education and then excited to begin. She was immediately under high stress met with disappointment and sadness and she will never teach again. She spent one year at two schools and decided her mental health was more important than important. She was able to move into higher education working at a university. Your prayers for another career will be answered.
Well said! Teachers have the most stressful days, nights, weekends…lives! The dreadful feeling of going back to kids who are so out of control and disrespectful gives me triggered memories of one mom in particular. Her son was constantly interrupting, talking out, hitting kids, being rude, eating in class, endless behaviors, yet she insisted he should be allowed to go on the field trip because it was a right to his education. And this was 20 years ago before there were cell phones in the room The entire grade level agreed he should not be able to go because of his terrible behavior. all the tools that have been taken away from us to reprimand children to have consequences, everything is positive. Kids get rewarded instead with snacks and juice and a nice break from the classroom only until they return to the same problems they did 15 minutes prior. Our prisons are going to be full of these future criminals who cannot read, write, spell, or do math. They ruin the learning experience for everyone else in the room who really wants to behave and learn.
Michelle and Trish, this was an excellent talk and so validating for me. Everything you described, ALL of it, is what I experienced teaching in Charlotte and in rural eastern NC. The similarities blew my mind. I was diagnosed with the same things as you two, along with C-PTSD. Teaching had a lot to do with it. I didn’t officially retire, I just couldn’t go back. Zero desire. I will never put myself in another situation that does what teaching did to me. I started in 1999 so that bs has been working on me for a loooong time. Healing is front and center for me now.
I'm so glad you were able to leave teaching, and I hope you are able to fully recover and find a happier career path. 🙏🏾💙🤗💕
@@TeacherTherapy Thank you, Trish 🙏. I commented mid- video, right before she said she went back into teaching. I am really happy she got well and is helping these poor kids. I really bonded with my elementary babes and they were in the exact same boat as the ones she described. All of her suggestions at the end are on point. It’s almost like teachers today need to be legit trauma therapists who add on a teaching credential. For real! One thought I had though is the entire country needs to implement a system that 1) teaches parents how to be what their kids need in terms of being that “first teacher” and 2) bring that into the prison-system. Most facilities have video visits now…technology is changing and I don’t see why something couldn’t be created to allow incarcerated parents access to participate more. Why can’t there be a centralized place in a prison where inmates can use Dojo? Or look up their kid’s grades to know what assignments are missing, or what grades are? Where there’s a will, there’s a way. No matter where parents are, they should be involved.
Michelle, you seem like a level-headed, caring, and fair teacher. I'm sure God has used you in children's lives, and that you've made an impact on lives you'll never know.
Thank you! I’m traumatized over several of my past experiences in education.
Me too! Still going through the healing process from all of it.
I've been a college writing teacher for going on nine years. The first eight of them I devoted my entire energy to an online for profit school. I still teach a class or two for them as a side job. The students are a bit older than traditional college ages for the most part. For going on two semesters now, my main teaching job is for a private university that pretty much revolves around sports. And while these videos for the most part are about elementary through high school teachers from public schools...I can still relate to them. The students just don't care about anything except how rich they think they're going to be as soon as they graduate, and in the private school...sports. You cannot get these kids to care about anything else that doesn't happen to them personally, and they have no respect for each other or for me. They'll sit there right in front of me and chat with other people on their phone, pull out the phone when they're supposed to be doing in-class writing exercises, walk in late anytime they feel like it, and throw a fit when asked to abide by rules that they agreed to on the first day of class. I'm looking for something else entirely. I don't even want to teach anymore.
Maybe consider online teaching, like with K12 or Connections Academy?
As noted in my comment...I'm not a certified teacher. I teach college. And I'm already teaching online. It's no different except that they can't reach you. @@newmamaful
@@newmamaful : I already do teach online. They're no different, you just can't see them. And I'm a college teacher, no certification.
Thanks for this channel! I don't know how I'd survive without you and your guests' insights on the teaching field.
Greetings from Ukraine!
Thank you for the channel! I have no clue about the US education system but we face similar issues. For me personally it helps a lot to get rid of that gaslighting and even self-gaslighting. I’ve been a teacher since 2011. I’ve worked in different environments, mainly private… now my life is better without school. You are doing an amazing job! Thank you so much!
We need caring and quality teacher like you Michelle. These children feel they are entitled. Your mental health is so important.
Man I can relate. Everything from praying for God to get me out to the stress taking a toll. I have to wait until ny contract ends though (in June) because I don't want the repercussions of breaking a contract. Thank you for your channel Trish! Teacher tired is a real thing. Not only do we have to make decisions all day, but we get criticized for those decisions that we make. I appreciate you for showing this. 😊
Absolutely love this!!!!! Truth articulated with clarity! Like her suggestions for improvement BUT it is a vicious cycle of broken adults producing children they really don’t have the skills and resources to raise them into productive and healthy adults
Great interview! We have to get past keeping our teacher in survival mode themselves. She talked about how the staff was not supportive at her first school. The school climate is of the utmost importance! We talk about kids feeling safe, valued, and loved. TEACHERS need that as well. If you exist in an environment where everyone is cutthroat rather than collaborative-that’s going to make you feel unsafe. Don’t we WANT to have happy, we’ll-adjusted teachers taking care of our children? Administrators need to be the leaders in creating/promoting a safe and collaborative environment.
This sounds like the DMV (DC, MD, VA) area. I can relate sis! I worked in DCPS for 16 years!!!
This same scenario happened to me. It used to be a job I loved, but student accountability is at an all time low. My principal even told me that everyone should be getting As in middle school. After 16 years in the classroom, I will never go back because I started teaching non-verbal autistic students to spell on a letter board. It is rewarding and 1:1, ahhhhhh.
I remember I told my students I was leaving for good on the my final day with them and I had some students switch up on me and act so disrespectful cos "you're quitting anyways". So if you quit, I highly suggest to not tell your students even on your last day. It's ridiculous
Alot of this reminded me of my experience. I literally had students who were "hot boxed" to school by their parents.
Hot boxed?
@@Bingewatchingmediacontent parents that smoke cigarettes or weed inside the car while driving their children to school
@@amoorphis1999i don't think the term has ever applied to tobacco. only weed
@@amandak.4246 oh really haha? i think i got that thought from the king of the hill episode where bobby gets caught with cigarettes and hank punishes him by smoking the entire carton in which he tells him not to 'hot box' his cigarettes
Correct only weed
Last year I had a rough group of kids and my mental health was so bad I got on depression meds. This year I've had issues with mean negative co-workers because they are stressed about implementing a new curriculum. The kids are better this year so I'm closing my door, teaching my best and surviving til May. I'm buying out early retirement so this is my last year!!!!
The last 10 minutes of this are beautifully articulated. Everyone should hear this.
Are you sure she didn't teach at my school?? LOL! Seriously, everything she said is spot on with what happens at my school: kids throwing desks and chairs, cussing teachers out, kids running out of the classrooms into parking lots, kids with no fear of anything, kids getting snacks at the office for misbehaving etc. I'm 100% positive this lady must have worked at my school 🤣😂😭😭
Same
Great interview. She seemed reasonable and very open minded, and started out very excited about the job. But then it became too stressful and anxiety inducing for her to ignore. This is definitely a cautionary tale for anyone who’s been considering teaching.
My cousin was a teacher and gave it all up last year,she'd was tired of parents and kids threatening to bring their parents guns and shoot her and these were elementary school children.
This is so similar to my little sister's teaching story. I kept reminding her that her health was more important and she finally quit a few years ago. She has never turned back. I am so proud of her cause I know it was not an easy decision to make.
I'm glad you found a better school that was ok for you !
These kids are going home to a nightmare. Many are being abused in every way. How do they show up the next day to school and be okay? They won’t. My heart breaks for them! These parents need to be held accountable to how they are taking care of these children including the foster parents who often are no better.
PBIS and Trauma Informed does not mean hungry or giving food to reinforce negative behavior.
Unfortunately, that's how many schools use PBIS. Hundreds of teachers have shared stories of kids getting snacks and IPad time when they are sent to the office for behavior issues. It's very rare to hear of schools implementing PBIS successfully. Most of them just run with the word *positive* and abandon any type of real accountability. 🥺😭
Schools like mine are also doing Restorative Practices. Which is nonsense. The kids just manipulate the system and receive zero consequences.
Hand out stupid phony "paws" and the administration couldn't take the time to even do their absurd raffles for chips or candy, meanwhile my proven awesome classroom management techniques went memoed into oblivion. I prefer dialysis to their top-down microManaged corporate "values"@@TeacherTherapy
@@MumbikGrimbelt Correct. They write apology letters and laugh about it.
This isn’t Norway. We never implement these theories how they’ve been implemented in these Nordic countries. Also we have a different culture. Kids here don’t have the same values as they do in those countries.
This is very concerning. If these teachers are backing out of their classrooms and effectively their communities, who else will pick up the pieces? These problems were created within the community and must be solved from within the community.
Please watch the whole video! 💙
Videos like these that give insight into dealing with children, parents, and families is exactly why I am childfree. No amount of money is worth dealing with children all day long, and worse yet, teachers have to deal with the negligent parents. You are heroic (and innocent) for stepping into the fire like that.
Excellent point, Michelle! Don't call teachers after the school day is done. THEY have lives too. ... Back about 25 years ago when I started teaching ... they said that a teacher makes about 5000 decision a day, no joke! ... FACT not OPINION.
Thank you so much for this video! People who are so quick to blame teachers for everything have NO idea what's going on in these schools.
I'm always a student, love learning, but haven't been in a classroom since 05. I think then, or shortly after, things changed dramatically to what's going on today. Seeing the Ballet dance instructor cry as she spoke on her students broke my heart. I was aware things have changed but never knew the magnitude of what the teachers are dealing with, including low pay and most times thankless career (sadly)
I was a student in some terrible schools and seen what these teachers go through dealing with kids from broken homes and i have the utmost respect from yall. Im more of a right wing guy these days and on the right there are some who say inner city schools are a disaster because they have un qualified teachers but i don’t agree with that in every case, I’ve seen these wonderful human beings who take a job that doesn’t pay very well and who are trying to make a difference but it’s almost impossible with some students. God bless both of you wonderful ladies
Excellent interview. Thank you again, Trish. As a specials teacher who sees around 600 students a week, we are expected to build relationships with every student. This is emphasized over and over again in PD meetings. It is literally impossible to do that as a Speicials teacher who sees 600 students once a week for about 40 minutes. The admin at my school doesn't seem to understand that this is virtually impossible to do for us and I feel they are so disconnected to reality. I try my hardest to build reltaionships with students but it's very difficult when you only see them once a week. If the student's behavior is bad they will often blame it on you not building the proper relationship with the child. They expect the impossible out of us!
I hear every single example and experience that Michelle gave here loud and clear, especially in her closing statement.
The downright laziness and cowardice that growing numbers of parents exhibit when it comes to communicating with their children’s teachers, disciplining their own children, taking necessary initiative in all respects, and just being overall decent human beings is continually appalling! Any parent out there who constantly asks for help from other people when it comes to caring for their children clearly is not cut out to be a parent. And any parent who truly does not have their act together overall never should have had children in the first place. Children are direct reflections of their parents. Some children will want to naturally do better than their parents while others will simply and naturally follow their parents’ examples.
What Michelle said about learning needing to take place outside of school too is 100% spot on. Especially for all those parents who are dissatisfied with their children’s education. If they think that their child deserves better, then they themselves need to provide such “betterment”. Not ask somebody else to pick up the slack!
And oh yeah, the negative energy that consumes so many schools from the inside out is definitely felt when you enter the building. The political heat, tension, power hunger, rage, hierarchy, all the toxicity in the world and then some increases exponentially! And it all boils down to human dysfunction and corruption, separately and together.
No person should have to sacrifice their own emotional, physical, mental, or financial well being in order to educate others. It’s not worth it at all. The internal output of most schools and the people within them constitutes a sheer act of bullying that takes place on purpose from the top down.
You made an important decision for your well-being. Taking care of yourself is crucial, especially in challenging professions like teaching. I'm grateful Trish provided this platform for you to share your story. I applaud you!!
It's so sad that is generation is not being allowed to experience the wonderful gems teachers really give. The love for reading or whatever that a student favorite subject is. We had real everyday heros and didn't need to find them in Hollywood. We had them in the community (schools, barbershops, law enforcement, constructions, drivers, parents, favorite relatives etc)
Seeing how these groups are not cherished anymore hurts. My 96 years old grandmother is still a hero to me. Never sold any albums but I have her, my parents people in my life autographs all in my heart. So because of this I never needed to chase Hollywood because I always had my own. These are things this generation does not have and don't blame those who need time away. It was already a selfless calling but it's beyond that today.
Thank you to every teacher, community hero, past and present. ❤🙏🏿💐
Your guests are awesome and so genuine and such a shame that they got pushed out of teaching. At the same time, good for them for putting themselves first.
I just want to say, everything that she stated is on point! I left for many of the same reasons. Thanks Trish for interviewing your guest.
Can relate to everything Michelle expressed. It helps so much to not feel alone, thank you Michelle for sharing and Trish for this channel and doing these interviews! I haven't even been in the school system as long and am already burned out and experiencing all these things. Ready for a more peaceful life, the system is broken and it's not worth all this. And yes, Amen!
The states ruined it when they started 'scoring' the teachers. You are very correct! And it ruins the joy of teaching. Just teach to the test so you can get the points. TERRIBLE
Great guest. I would love to work and teach along side Michelle. She’s what our kids need. Glad you are still in education.
I'm very ecstatic for her with her renewed opportunity to return to a healthier school environment.
Yes, yes to all of this!!
Sharing the same strategy that worked best with a student is something that we did among my colleagues 17-20 years ago. It worked like a charm. ... I guess it is no longer part of common sense. Oh wait, that's right common sense is no longer common. Let's bring it back!
I'm not an educator; but she spoke nothing but facts!
Great interview, thanks for sharing this information 👍🏾
I'm an esl teacher in China teaching for the past 10 years of all ages, primarily high school to adult level. Although it's not as extreme as back home described in the video, students can be lazy or disconnected from the class material. There's no phones permitted but I can see that's a major reason why kids are on flight thinking about playing games or chatting.
Love your channel. Please keep making more!
Thank you!! 🤗
Year 30 and done
Kidney failure and dialysis were my exit strategy... I could not handle the corporatized BS that started around 2010. Test scores, paperwork, data.. fly in the pie new curriculum nonsense! Teaching was my calling.. thank you Billy Fng Gates for tearing my heart out! Common Core! PBIS! Ugh!!!
@@SD9xcp311x I’m sorry to hear about your exit strategy
@@Jane5720So am I.
At least it got me out of a corporatized heartbreaking system!@@Jane5720
This is a great channel! Please keep going!!! Great interviews!
Thank you! 🤗
During summer break... I recover and heal.
What state did you teach in? Covid was also the best thing that happened to me as well.
She taught on the East Coast, and I taught in the Midwest. 😊
I was going to ask you what region or major city you taught in. I was in The South Region. @@TeacherTherapy
The anxiety is real.
Considering how few teachers in my building are actually certified (particularly in English), I'm pretty sure the district can't afford to fire me. Even so, I've felt like my head was on the chopping block all year.
These are the worst performing kids I have ever taught. They can barely read in the 9th grade, and even those that can hardly care enough to try. My tried and true methods have failed. My new, experimental methods have failed. I've taught what a thesis is 8 times this year (not counting where it just came up in other lessons), and they still don't know it.
I explain what I'm dealing with, but feel like I'm just whining and making excuses, even though I know its something genuinely out of my control. I feel like my administrators and appraiser's feel like I'm whining and making excuses.
When I get observed, I get great marks and positive feedback. When I ask for help, for strategies, for anything I can do to improve, I get told things that I'm already doing. Hell, yesterday, they just told me to tell them its important.
Even when I have found something that works, I feel like I'm being told that it's wrong because it's not the right way, or that it is not good enough.
My wife and I moved halfway across the country 2 years ago to be here. We've bought a house here. We've gone all in on this community and we want to be here, and neither of us can afford to lose our position.
I honestly don't rationally believe I'm on the chopping block, but, even so, I can't help but feel the sword of Damocles dangling above every morning when I head to work, and it's certainly not making me well.
UPDATE:
I actually got my contract renewal this morning!
Palpable relief.
I had the same experience after teaching for 1 Year. I thought that I was going to have a mental breakdown.
PBIS doesn’t work 😢
I used to love education - loved being in the schools as a speech therapist. Then my mental health deteriorated and I had to get out.
You went through it. Thank God you survived.
Last school year was so like what she was describing. I dreaded going to work every single day.
You are 100% right- the more you care, the harder it is!
A class on trauma awareness and response might be needed from 1st to 12th grades. AND. Mandates made for parents to participate in showing up for parent nights and meetings.
My heart goes out to all teachers today. All of the problems that teachers are facing today other than the low pay, which has always been a problem as far as I can tell, is a direct result of teaching the children of the first generation of kids to come out of school after NCLB was enacted. That piece of legislation caused the changes to school policies across the nation, that strongly discouraged teachers from giving any child a failing grade. That led from one thing to another until we now have a situation where children get up and go to a place, for eight hours a day, where they make all of the rules. One by one all real and effective forms of student accountability and discipline have been removed from our public schools in an effort to ensure each child gets an equal outcome of education to every other child. Equity is going to completely collapse our society. In order to fix these issues the first thing that needs to happen is for NCLB to be reversed. Students need to be held accountable for doing their part to receive the education provided to them. And teachers need to begin to press charges against violent children. But it has to be all of you. If only one or two of you do this you will simply get fired and nothing is going to change. These children need to learn that there are consequences for throwing a chair at another person, or punching someone, and I don't care if it is a second grader. By the time a person is five or six years old they already know, deep down, that hitting, punching, biting, throwing things, and such are all wrong and we shouldn't do it. Now there are young adults running loose in our society who think that A: they don't have to do anything but show up to succeed in life because they just spent twelve years in a school system that passed them every year even though they did almost nothing each year to earn a passing grade, and B: who can't control their emotions, impulses, and outbursts because that same system taught them that they didn't need to learn those skills since there were no real consequence for not doing so. Unfortunately the parents of these young people are no help because they are the first generation of snowflakes.....
Wow... 😯 This teacher seem's so nice. I wish I would have had her for a teacher in the 90's when I was in elementary school. She seem's as though she genuinely cares about the students she taught. I had several teachers say to me back then: you look normal there for you should be able to do the work... Or the other line when I raised my hand asking for help one day & being told: I have a classroom of 30+ students I can't "just" help you. This is the kind of teacher I wish we would have had. 👍 The irony when I was in school the school knew full well I had / have a learning disability & set up a IEP but NONE of my teachers showed up to any of the IEP meetings or filled out the papers saying how I was progressing. I opened my IEP folder as a student nothing was written except for in bold letters saying "mental retardation" the rest of the pages were left blank. I called out the teacher on it in front of my parents & she apologized but it was still insulting... I have autism as a girl / millennial. Back then found out the school refused to acknowledge I even had / have autism claiming I looked & acted to normal & supposedly only boys at the time had autism telling my parents that a girl having autism was unheard of in the 90's... 🤷♀️✌️ She's right the special ed classes are draining. I was put in 2 finally in high school for math & science & ended up dropping both because of how the other students acted. They distracted the teacher so mouthing got taught threw things, swore. I was used to being in regular ed classes which at the time a whole different mindset... ✌️
Very eloquently and thoughtfully spoken. As a teacher, thank you.
I am a speech therapist and was having mental health problems. However I can lose my license if they found out that I continued to practice while having depression and anxiety.
This is so sad. Very similar to the stress I went through. Thank you for sharing.
Totally describing my current school, toxic ,selfish. She nailed it
It's a good thing you didn't tell them you were leaving I once told my principal that I was leaving her school and she sabotaged me. She was someone who always wanted me open up to her. Worst mistake she literally used everything I told her against me. I eventually quit when she placed me on administrative leave. Just because i wrote a long email to all the staff outlining my frustration. Today I thank God I resigned. It was crazy working there.