😆😆😆 Wow! When I worked adjunct at a college that I had gotten accepted to but didn't go there, still had my info from my application. I had to correct it, while doing HR paperwork.
When I was a kid, my favorite teacher was fired in front of us. I will always remember him crying and leaving the room. No one ever explained anything to us, and we never saw him again. I later found out the parents had demanded he be fired because he had answered a question they deemed inappropriate. 30 years later, I am still sad thinking about how they treated our teacher.
Aren’t the teachers supposed to be the ones with specialized knowledge of teaching rather than admins who don’t teach at all? How did they become just a disposable employee...
@@killersugar6816 Because school board members don't have to be teachers to become board members. They can swing their power around like a cudgel. Especially the ones who are voted in because they will gladly throw you under the bus for any perceived slight to ensure they can win re-election.
Because he has ANSWERED a question they deemed inappropriate??? That makes no sense at all. Someone asked him an inappropriate question, and he answered it. And he got fired? Are you sure it wasn't because he answered a question inappropriately? Or he asked an inappropriate question, maybe.
I had emergency gallbladder surgery on the first day of school and had complications so was out for 4 weeks. The principal was so angry! When I came back to work he had a pallet of paper boxes (25 lb each) left in the middle of my room and told me I needed to put them away. I just had abdominal surgery. That was the last straw. I quit. Best thing I ever did... Teaching is a horrible job because of administration not kids.
I had five state evaluators come into my room my first day back from heart surgery! A surprise evaluation for some stupid program the system was only halfway committed to anyway.....and which was gone the next year. I was already coming back over a week early because they hated us being out and they knew I was weak, and hurting, but, I am just a teacher, so let's put a lot of pressure on her. Leaving teaching rules! Glad you got out!
@@mingo-mingo1946 That's disgusting. A similar thing happened to me after I was out for 2 weeks with a bad case of COVID, I was weak and should have stayed out longer but didn't want to fight for short term disability (which only gives a fraction of our paycheck, anyway). The principal and deans had the audacity to come do an unannounced observation the 2nd day I was back and gave critical feedback about things that weren't related to the lesson but "keeping up appearances," which admin always seems obsessed with because it justifies their jobs 🙄
This sounds SO MUCH like being a nurse in healthcare! Sometimes it seems like the system is rigged against good, hard working people while incentivizing bad behavior more!
The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber explains why. It’s because they’re the caring class. Hey, if you care so much, you’ll DO ANYTHING for low pay even!
on the flip side, I found out that I lacked 1/2 year of Freshman English with 2 months to go for graduation, having transferred from a school that only required one semester to my present school which required two semesters. I hurried over to the English Dept and was able to speak to Dr, Ghallar . After listening to my situation he rummaged in his bookshelf and pulled out a poem , Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold. He told me to sit down and write a critique, which I did. After reading it over he said, "you're fine, congrats on your graduation" -------no idiot bureaucrat was he!
This reminds me of how my district helped me get 3 credits for English in my senior year so I could graduate on time. (I was a troubled kid in a alternative school) the classes are all the same for everyone so I couldnt just take extra or diffrent classes. For the first 1 just normal English class for the year For the second one they took half my Science credit & half my History credit I would be getting that year (and didnt need) and called it an english credit. And for the third. They had me pick from a few diffrent books that had a movie adaptation. Asked me to read it at home, watch the movie and then write a paper (atleast 3 pages). I had to summarize the plot of the book. Talk about its themes, ext. Then explain if and how the movie deviates from the book. And if I thought that the differences made the core themes different or less impactful. Basically a at home project I did in less than a week (I loved reading and writing) I waited until the middle of the year to hand it in because I didnt want them to think I was cheating or something (my 17 year old self thought if it was so easy they wouldnt give it to me)
When I was a young teacher I was assigned to yard-duty at lunch time. As I walked past a group of guys I notice that one of them had a very large knife that he was showing to his friends. I told him he had to give it to me, and he refused. I told him he needed to take it to the office, and he refused to do that as well. I was a petite 24-year-old, and he was a large football player, and the whole thing made me quite uncomfortable. I went to the office to get back-up, and the secretary said, "I don't think there's anything in the rules about not having a knife at school; my daughter always has a pocket knife in her purse." The secretary and counselor then got a copy of the handbook and noticed that, sure enough, there is a rule against having knives at school. So they told me I had been correct and that I should go back out and tell him he had to give me the knife. Umm . . . no . . .
I am not a teacher, but every single non-vocational institution of learning that I have attended has been run by some of the most hostile, nasty people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. And I was an enlisted infantryman for six years. Hats off to you teachers who put up with that.
I’m a paraplegic veteran and history Professor. I love teaching history, but I absolutely hate the administration. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t fantasize about how wonderful it would be to just quit right on the spot.
You are correct, ryanKane. The HR people in schools are mean and nasty and they know they can be that way. This was not the way to handle the missing class situation! She could have met with him before or after school and discussed it quietly without all the drama and tension. You work or have worked for a very mean, antagonistic district.
Don’t we tell our kids “your poor planning does not constitute an emergency for me”? And to have the audacity to use YOUR earned sick days for THEIR mistake!?!
Not sure of the state that this happened in but trust me: school administration doesn't care as long as they save money. I was hired to do a long term position for a teacher that was going out on maternity leave. The principal told me I was required to come in and shadow the teacher for two days before Christmas break since I was going to be covering for her after but that he couldn't afford to pay me for those two days (which the agency I worked through told me was not correct). Okay no biggie. I am going to get paid a higher rate than usual to come in for two months and I am excited to be getting this position since I am a certified teacher. I shadow her and she gives me materials and shows me the guidelines for what I will be teaching while she is out. Bear in mind that while I worked as a substitute I had two other jobs as well (tutoring and a cashier at a food store). So I spend the week of Chrstmas juggling the holidays, working, and planning for the upcoming first few weeks and I mean planning (developed my own materials, lesson plans, worksheets, etc.) and I came in for my first day. It well well not great but still good. Second day went good as well or so I thought but as I am getting ready to leave an angry voice over the loud speaker says that I need to go the vice principals office at once. I was in the staff room and even the other teacher there was like what the heck? So I go and I am told that they had had another candidate that they had wanted to hire all along but they weren't certified. Well they had just gotten their certification granted so now I was going to be let go. What? I was asked if I had all of the books and guidelines the regular teacher had give me. I advised not all as I had only brought it in what I needed to teach that day and the rest were at home. Oh could I come in tomorrow and hand deliver them to the school? Are you going to pay me for my time? No we can't afford to. Oh, then I will ship them to you when I get home tonight and email you the tracking information. I came back to the staff room and could barely keep from crying as I told the other staff member what happened he was floored and asked me if I wanted to go to get a cup of coffee off campus and talk for a bit. I told him thank you but that I wanted to just turn in my stuff and go home. He understood and even emailed me later telling me he was appalled at what had happened and I had handled myself well. The next day I got a phone call from the principal first accusing me of taking the seating charts saying, "I noticed you had a binder with you when you left yesterday." I explained that binder was my lesson plans for the next two weeks and the seating charts were in their designated place in the top right drawer of the desk. He put me on hold and then came back and asked me if I wanted to come in so we can speak in person and could I bring the other materials I had as well? I told him I was going to be substitute teacher that afternoon somewhere else and then going right to my other job and couldn't afford to lose a days pay to drop them off in person but that had shipped them last night when I got home and that the tracking information was already emailed to him. He asked me if I would be willing to email the lesson plans, worksheets, slideshows, etc. and everything else I had done for my plans for this assignment to help out my replacement. (Are you kidding me?) I told him no. The school tried to only pay me the low per diem rate for my two days there versus the long term rate which was double the amount. I contacted agency who told the district that they owed me four days pay: two for the low term rate for when I shadowed their staff and two for the long term rate for when I was teaching her class the admin agreed. My contact for the agency told me that the principal had wanted to keep me on his preferred list but I told her I didn't want to work there anymore and she told me she understood and to just decline all assignments from the school. She also told me that from now on I was to never ever agree to shadow someone for free. To call her and to tell her right away if a district they worked with did that and she would call them and say, "I understand Mrs. so and so is shadowing someone today and was unable to substitute anywhere else so I just want to make sure she gets paid for the day." and make herself look like the bad guy.
@@Tiffany-fr5um It's poorly worded, but the message is correct. Do you want your kids to learn that they find themselves where they put themselves when they are 7, or when they are 19, homeless, and at risk for a very early death from double pneumonia and flu? Speaking from experience, here. Teach your kids responsibility, so they won't have to learn it the hard way.
I identify with your plight! My principal called me into her office before school one day. I had “bus duty” the previous afternoon. She asked me if i knew a particular 5th grade student. i did not. “ We’ll his dad called me and said you grabbed his son by the ear and threw him in the car.” I leaned back in my chair and said, “ Oh for crying out loud! When is the meeting?” She responded that there wouldn’t be a meeting. She had told the father that she would talk to me.. I said, “ Thanks for the trust and support.” I left her office and went to inform my CTA rep, in case this went any further. Keep in mind this was after 25 years as a Special Ed teacher and 9 years as a first grade teacher! It didn’t go any further but still continues to haunt, disgust and sadden me even after 12 years of retirement.
I had a student say I hit him because I walked into the classroom and saw him going through my top desk drawer. I stood in his way so I could shut the drawer. Fortunately the principal believed me (I'm very petite) but the dad had a complaint that his stellar son was carrying a "c" in my class (didn't get to talk to the dad - just the principal) and I explained that the student actually had an "f" and it was because his parents were divorced. The principal didn't believe that was the cause and never gave me the chance to explain that a friend was a neighbor of the mother who said she ran the streets all the time and was lying to the dad about staying on top of the son's education so she was telling the dad he had a "c" (apparently they thought he was capable of all "a's") and didn't want to tell him the truth because then he'd know the kid was basically raising himself while mom was out strutting her stuff.
OMG. Totally unprofessional on their part. To get back into teaching, as a backup, I had to retake a class that I had already had in college. The district said they had updated the class to reflect modern sensibilities. Several of the videos shown in class, I kid you not, were from the 1950s, the 1970s, and 1980s. The only thing modern added was the shaming added to the end of the semester long class, which I finished in one week. I was the oldest in the class by 3 decades (or more). When I turned in a paper, of which there were 20 in total, They were not only long, well researched, and ridiculously documented with plenty of pertinent personal examples and experiences. The instructor flabbergasted that I had to take the class. Score 130/100 and I'm out $400, but the district is happy.
@@weatherlady9666 I’m in college and dealing with a sort of similar issue this year. I took a microeconomics class last semester during COVID and now that I am trying to get into upper division classes for next semester they decided that the online class did not meet the microeconomics class requirements because it did not have a proctored exam so I’m going to need to retake it even though I passed with an A.
My Principal found out I have Autism about 3 days after my Gran died. She then did the same thing yours did, came into my room mid-lesson with another teacher, told me to pack my things and that she needed to 'speak to me in [her] office'. I was put off work pending a FULL PSYCH EVAL because I was seen "stimming on the oval with string which is a sign of heightened anxiety in Autistic people" (stimming = repetitive behaviours). Mind you, this is not one of my stimming beahviours and I had a profoundly Autistic class and I'm pretty sure I just pulled the string out of a kids mouth. Anyway, she put me off work for MONTHS pending this evaluation. No pay. Not allowed to talk to anyone from the school community etc. My disability rights lawyer had a field day with the psych evaluation that basically said "she has Autism, and she's grieving because her Grandmother died". We ended up at the Human Rights Commission and settled out of court. I had paperwork going back years to prove her statements were outright lies. It was insane to know a Principal could lie so much and the department would defend her. This year, she's off work (full pay of course) because one of the students from my class that year has taken her to court. She expelled him without doing the proper paperwork. This went on for two years where the family believed he was expelled...only to have his photo put up with his graduating class as a student that graduated that year. *Insane*!
It is incredible how much has changed for those for us with disabilities/disorders and yet at the same time nothing has changed at all. I am sure your students felt lost and disconnected when that had happened, especially if they are deeply bonded and connected with you. I am a firm believer in that no one could teach a kid how to overcome their own disabilities/disorders quite like someone who has been there and done that already. Nothing like the feeling of amazement when you find a mentor who already has gone through with what one is currently going through. I hope you kept teaching and stayed within the profession. Those kids need more teachers like you. Such an inspiration.
@@KamiFei I'm in Aus too and I won't say too much about my current school but it does seem to take a long time for the people in power to receive justice. A bad principal can really ruin things.
First weeks as a teacher I was told the funding for my position had ended and they would be letting me go. I did not realize that as a union member you just become displaced not fired. I drove in tears to the nearest HEB to apply to work in the grocery story but the application had no place for your certification or College Degree. When I asked where I could write in My Bachelors degree the lady almost tripped over an open file cabinet trying to get to me to offer me a position in management that started the very next day. I felt hope for the first time in hours. The school contacted me and told me that there was an overflow in another grade level and I would start in that grade the following day. I spent the rest of the year telling myself if things got hard I was wanted at HEB. HEB is always hiring!
And groceries can be great places to work. It's so vital to all of us to have a clean, well-stocked grocery. My local one has the best staff and they all appear to really enjoy working there.
I've come to your stories late but had to add mine to this document. After 30 years of teaching a class , requirements changed so I needed more credits in that subject. I had also been teaching that class at the Community College. So, I enrolled in my class to get the credits I needed. I retired the next year.
I was called into the office, chastised, and repeatedly asked the same question for what seemed like an hour but was more like thirty minutes. "Why is --'s state mandated scantron not bubbled in with answers? You know you will have your license revoked?" What was the hardest part was the smirk on the testing coordinator who reported me. The student in question was absent the day of the test. When the attendance clerk finally came in to confirm his absence, the tension and anger on my principal's face dissipated and he just told me I could leave. Later I found three bite- sized chocolates in my mailbox. This was the testing coordinator's apology.
Admin: You're fired. Right now. In front of the children. Because you didn't take a class three years ago and we should have fired you in two. Devin: ...I took that class ten years ago. Admin: Lies! Guilty until proven innocent! Now stay fired, take two sick days to spend loads of money for something we already accounted for, and be rehired. You're welcome. Have a good day. I have loads of stories. I'll write another post
@@tarody3953 You'd almost certainly lose and be out of a job. Also, good luck affording a lawyer to begin with on whatever savings you could scrape together in just a couple years of teaching. People love to say they'd sue when they aren't actually facing the prospect of a time/money-consuming legal battle.
Lots of pathetic, useless, egotistic, narcissistic, office-politics-loving leaders do this. It doesn’t stop at teachers. It also has to do in the military, hospital, police, etc.
After hearing this and reading all the comments I am just stunned and flabbergasted. I also got flashbacks about leaving things at the front desk of the school. My son had sold $200 in candy in 5th grade. The school wouldn't take a check so he had to bring the cash. He handed it in at the front desk. It was never seen again and the school accused us of stealing the money. My son's trust in school was broken. His dad spent many hours in meetings with the principal and phone calls trying to iron this out. The money was never found. We totally refused to choked up the money.
Oh my God. This happened to me. My first year of Teaching, my students had started a club and ran a Fundraiser. I submitted the ~$500 to the front office in a drop box in a labled envelope. 6 months later we did another Fundraiser and I was given the paperwork as proof of the money. I asked about not having recieved the same type of paperwork on the first fundraiser and they turned around and accused me of stealing the $500 that they had forgotten existed until I brought up. They said I would have tp talk to an interrigator. Other stuff happened at the school and I never heard anything else or had any sort of resolution. I told the students I refused to handle money so they found another sponsor. This is one of the main reasons I will NEVER do a field trip or sponsor any clubs where I might be asked to handle money.
I always told my kids to get a receipt before handing over any money or goods. I told them the teacher will say, "I'll get the receipt for you later." but you have to tell the teacher, "Ok. I'll give you the money later after you give me the receipt. My dad won't let me give you the money without a receipt." The teacher invariably would get miffed but my kids hung in there and got the receipt. Numerous times over the years, we were told that we hadn't paid the money, so I would have my kid bring in a copy of the receipt, on which I would write a very direct note about it being paid.
Keep your receipts, keep written records, keep anecdotal records. I am so sorry your son had to learn the harsh realities at such a young age….grrr! Someone in that office made off with the money.
In highschool, our schools receptionist in charge of handling money was arrested for stealing funds over the course of 10 plus years she's been working with the district.
I got an email saying that the deadline was approaching to pay back into my pension for the maternity leave I had apparently taken. I am childless...have never taken a leave. I emailed to inquire and was told that my record shows I took a 10 month mat leave. Further investigations had to happen but...guess what? It turns out I didn't have a baby without remembering and I didn't take a year off work. Surprise, surprise.
In 2019, I retired from a school district that I had taught in for 36 years. I was one among seven other teachers who retired at the same time. Collectively the eight high school teachers that were retiring had taught over two hundred and six years. As retirement gift from the high school administration, each of us received a sack filled with the following items, a badger yeti cup, a fifteen dollar Sonic card, and a small baggy of candy! While in that school year had hired a new superintendent at the salary of $140,000.00 (10,000.00 dollars more than the last individual), a brand new Ford pickup truck, a clothing allowance, and remodeled his office building a private restroom complete with a shower! At the time I retired, I was was the longest tenured teacher in the district! I still feel the love!
I got a bell and a crystal????? apple. I don’t even think a card. I didn’t stay for the whole retirement banquet as one of the retirees shared her whole life history, bad mouthed family, and was still going strong as I exited.
I got a mat w/ a photo frame. The teachers signed their names all around it. It was left by my mailbox, unassembled. It was not even with a photo. I guess I was supposed to take my own 8 x10 photo and put it all together. 26 years with the same district. They had bottled water and a cake (I never saw the cake) and the "retirement party" was held outside in the 100 degree heat in Az. (Not sure why they couldn't use the MPR as it was at 4 pm.) It all made me cry. Then it made me mad. Then it made me relieved I am retired.
CTA always holds the retirement parties for teachers. My mom did this for the 30 years she worked. When she retired to save the job of a new special education teacher (my mom was special ed for those 30 years) since they wanted to downsize to one teacher, she became an independent part time special ed teacher they used to provide service to their continuation high school/alt ed programs. 30 years of holding parties, was union president for 2 decades. They didnt even bother to have a retirement party for her.
Hate the teachers unions… they take $700 a month from the teachers and then spend it on political campaigns and never make real change other than benefits and preventing firings
At least the receptionist who took your paperwork didn't "lose" it. I would have demanded to hand it directly to a person who could verify that it was indeed the required paperwork and attest to that in front of witnesses including my union rep.
My district office is a massive building they NEVER let anyone in. Just a woman behind plexiglass that tells people no and collects things all day. It is like the mint.
Not a teacher but similar story. I went to a public charter school which closed down right after my senior year. They sent my transcripts to my district of residence. Several years later when applying to firefighter school, I needed my transcripts. I called my district of residence to get them and it turns out, as it took me several months to uncover, they signed for them and proceeded to lose them. It took more than a year for me to get unofficial transcripts from my state's department of education and it is impossible for me to get official high school transcripts. So every time I need them for something I have to jump through a bunch of hoops and explain that while I would love to provide an official copy, they literally do not exist.
Teachers have the biggest heart, greatest patience, unrelenting discernment, largest amount of admin and the smallest amount of time to do it all. To all of you still out there trying to make a difference, keep your head up and remember who you do it for. For those of us who have already left, we came , we saw, we taught and we loved. May you all be blessed as you bless those around you.
I had a friend who taught English at a small school district in Indiana. She taught 2-3 years, during which time she was observed only once by her principal for about 10 minutes. Near the end of her last year, she was called into her principal's office. He began by saying, "I suppose that you know why I am talking to you today." She had no idea, and was told that her contract would not be renewed. The reason he gave her was that she had poor behavior management skills, and the example he provided was that she asked a question, and two students answered at the same time. It turned out that the school needed a new basketball coach the next year and needed an open English position.
Yep. Quite typical. I had a friend on good pay because of Special Needs qualifications. The school fired him and hired 3 newly qualified teachers with the money they saved.
When I was straight out of college, in May, I was hired to teach high school English in Kansas. I'd graduated in Oklahoma and had to transfer over my license. In early July I got a call from my new job asking if I'd want to take on the Yearbook Sponsor position since I had graphic design experience. It was a class and extra pay, so I agreed. Near the end of my first year as a teacher, I was notified that I'd been teaching the Yearbook class without a proper license all year. My school district never told me what kind of license I needed for it. I was from another state. I had no idea I needed a different kind of license. I called the Kansas State Dept of Ed. They said "What is the course code? We can't advise you without the specific course code." I said "What's a course code?" Lol. They explained. I didn't know. I asked my admin, my district people, my counselors. Nobody knew at first. Eventually a first year counselor at my school helped me figure it out. I told the State. The State said "That course code is invalid and hasn't been in use since we updated our system almost 15 years ago. So we can't advise you on what certification you need. That sounds like an elective so any high school license should be fine, including your ELA one." I was pissed. At this point I'd told my Yearbook kids they might not let me teach it again next year. The students CRIED. They said "Please don't leave us, we've had a different Yearbook teacher every year for so long. We know this year was hard but we just want someone who won't leave." So I spent another plan period making phone calls. I learned that because of the course codes, the certification the state recommends wasn't actually available to test for anymore. I'd have to go BACK TO COLLEGE and take 15 hrs of undergrad classes to get the certification. I ended up emailing the Deputy Superintendent (of my very large urban school district) and basically saying "If you don't change the course name to make it an elective, then let me continue to teach this course next year, I will tell the state that you are incompetent because all these courses are using outdated coding information and you're not following the rules about course sequences, etc." The next day the Deputy Superintendent emailed my principal and basically said "Please for the love of god just let this woman teach Yearbook again next year so she stops calling and emailing us." And my principal was annoyed because her bosses had been the ones to tell me I couldn't continue it. My principal loved me. I was teacher of the year in my first fucking year. End story of insanity. 4 years later I'm still doing Yearbook.
@@Heyu7her3 as someone who had both an awesome, competent yearbook advisor and an awful one: ...yeah. i can see it. Like. Literally by looking at the yearbooks.
@@MrClarissacain except that there's not a specific certification for Yearbook. So then the state has to decide which would work best? English? Journalism? Business? Art? Those are all subjects that could work, but if you pick one you'd exclude competent people who lack that specific credential. If you choose all of them then you aren't really narrowing down the pool to people with the skill.
@@Heyu7her3 it's a hard job. I understand why they wanted me to have the certification, but crazy that the situation happened the way it did. And that certification wasn't even available in my state anymore at the time. The test was discontinued.
I was a long term newspaper, yearbook and English sub at a high school. I have a bachelors degree in journalism, worked in journalism, and have a masters degree in teaching journalism. The students wanted to write a controversial piece and I told them I backed them but went over consequences that could happen. They agreed and went forward with it. The principal found out and called me to his office in the middle of class and said he was firing me and was going to make sure I would never again work in teaching. He said he spoke to his lawyer and I’m going to be sued. I was upset but told him I knew the law and I was right. I even outlined the big case that protected me and the students with the first amendment. He told me I was wrong and would never work again. I was so pissed. He sent me back to class “to finish teaching for the day” because they needed me. I went back to my class so mad I couldn’t teach. 5 hours later he came to the middle of my class and said “you never told me about the law. That’s your job, to educate me on journalism. See you tomorrow we love having you” and he left. I finished out the week and never went back to that school. Luckily I work full-time at a great school now!
A friend of mine was licensed to teach health and PE. One year, early in his career, they needed someone to teach biology, and even though he wasn't licensed for biology, they assigned him to teach it, which he did... for 15 years. Then the district realized he wasn't licensed and said he couldn't teach it anymore. Apparently 15 years teaching biology can't make up for a few college classes. Mm-kay.
Think 🤔 about this: Substitute teacher gets to teach in every class and every grade level. Take over and continue the same curriculum, testing, programs, etc.... BUT THE MOMENT YOU GET A FULL TIME TEACHERS CREDENTIAL...YOU ARE INSTANTLY LIMITED TO A PARTICULAR GRADE LEVEL OR SUBJECT MATTER YOU'RE "QUALIFIED" TO TEACH BASED ON THE TRANSCRIPT. I have 20 years of Substitute teaching experience. And I am dumbfounded by this.
@@TheFoxisintheHouse It's a kill-switch to ensure you can't be a "problem" across grade levels. A sub can be reassigned anytime but a fixed position teacher can influence whomever they're in contact with. If that's multiple grade levels, they foresee a major integrity breach. it also ensures that they can have modular teaching staff that can be removed and replaced like cogs.
@@TheFoxisintheHouse Wait, what? Where I'm from substitutes can't just teach a different subject matter (unless it's very closely related - say you studied biochemistry and usually teach biology but now there is an opening in chemistry). But where you live a French teacher can just up and teach physics or vice versa?
@@Snowshowslow in California, I can teach in any grade level, any subject. I have literally taught everything out there...daily for 20 years. I love ❤️ that!!! Today I am going to teach a kindergarten class (5 to 6 year olds).
@@TheFoxisintheHouse Interesting... I can see how that would be fun as a teacher, but I can't imagine you can be caught up on all subjects as well as teachers can on one or two main subjects.
The school system is so backwards, I never blamed the teachers for my frustrations in school because 99% of the time they were just complying with the bs as well. Every good teacher I've ever had went as far off of curriculum as they could get away with.
Two stories come to mind. 1) I was interrupted mid lecture to move my car because the snow had finally melted and I (and everyone else in the line of cars) was slightly over the parking lines. I had a free block after that period but they insisted I interrupt my class and do it NOW. 2) an admin asked a teacher dying of cancer not to wear her bandana covering her chemo fried hair to school anymore because "the kids were upset she didn't have to follow the no hat rule too"
That reminds me of my own hat story... This happened at the school I student taught at. This school used PBIS discipline model, or positive behavior intervention system. In theory, this is meant to reward troublesome students for demonstrating good behavior. In practice, it means troublesome kids get special treatment for following the most basic of school rules. One day, all the teachers in the school got an email saying "Skippy is now allowed to wear hats to school." No explanation, no clarification on who Skippy even is, just an email blast so we all know not to tell him to take his hat off if we see him. This (and the thousand special privileges like it) make it so much harder for teachers to maintain classroom order, because now kids are going to be on our case about why Skippy is allowed to wear a hat and they're not... And of course, for privacy reasons, we can't actually tell them why so we have to make something up.
TEACHER: You DO know that I'm dying and therefore DGAF about whether or not I'll die in jail before going to trial for stabbing you in the head 42 times with this pencil, right?
Hunh😳 to the last one. That’s awful and I thought the no hat rule didn’t apply to any child suffering hair loss, the no hat rule is incredibly stupid anyways, just another way to brainwash children.
I was fired from a principal position - 3 years into the position! - because the district said I falsified my resume. I took a year off to move closer to my parents and care for my sick mom. I did register as a sub admin in their local district, but never was asked to sub. When I was ready to go back to work I updated my resume but left that year off since I didn't work. Some wonk found my name on the sub rolls, told some other wonk in HR, and they canned me. I quickly got a job in another district. Midway through that year, the district I was fired from called to ask me if I'd take over a position from a retiring admin. I shit you not.
Alright, YOU were working as an administrator, what did you notice among all your district/state colleagues that makes upper level administration as nutty as it is??? There had to be SOMETHING you saw as a common thread while you worked among the bunch. I personally don't believe People "get into education" for the money or for the "three months vacation" touted by People who know absolutely nothing about what's expected of Educators, therefore, I don't believe People who become Education Administrators start out being as finky as the group seems to become. There's got to be something that can be turned around!
I taught for 3 years in the mid 90's. It was a school on the lower economic side of town. I had the one kid that, although naturally very smart, was so disruptive in class that almost nothing got done. Admin just tells me to deal with it. I called his parents. "Mr. Johnson, your son is very disruptive in class." Reply, "Yeah, we don't know what to do with him either". I felt like saying, "Should I just take him down to "county" now?" Good bye teaching.
I was a math teacher teaching 5 different math classes. One day the answer keys were not in the material packets - we all had to teach the same material on the same day. I asked my advisor where they were, he said they took them from me and I was required to do all of the problems myself and generate my own answer keys. I went home and took out all of my old material and generated my own lesson plans. I ended up having a nervous breakdown and went out on paid sick leave for the rest of the school year because I donated one sick day to the Union, which covers teachers for extended illnesses. I got paid through the rest of that school year and the whole summer lol. Someday all of us teachers who were tortured are gonna be welcomed back in the teaching field.
I am so glad that I teach in Canada and at a private school, at that. When I read what American teachers have to go through, I shiver. You all deserve to be treated the way we are here in Canada - as respected professionals. The stories I'm reading in the comments leave me speechless!
I was a brand new teacher at an alternative school, and within the first few weeks I saw some really disturbing student and admin behavior. The vibe in that place was way, way off. I wrote an email to admin detailing my concerns. Their response? First, they approached another teacher about the email, because they thought she was me. They didn't even know my name in a staff of less than 50- there were that many new teachers that school year (totally a red flag). Second, they sent an admin member who had never observed my class into my room mid-class to pull me out. This snide person told me I was incompetent and that I needed to make a plan for teaching at their school. I quit on the spot.
Story too long for details so here are the "Cliff Notes". *I had been teaching about 12-13 years and a high school student threatened to kill me & I truly believed the threat was valid. *I had been a law enforcement officer for almost six years before I began teaching and knew how to deal with issues like this *Went to the Police Office that was on the campus (it was a rough school) and filed a Terrorist Threat report and signed a complaint. *The next day I get called to the principal's office and immediately met by the principal, an asst. principle, a counselor, the threatening student, his mother and his football coach (it was October, season in full swing) *all parties grill me that the student didn't threaten me, he's a good boy, not raised like that & the school would handle it (HA!) & for me to drop the complaint. *I refused to drop the complaint & we carried on with the student remaining in school just not in my class. *Fast forward to Feb. & our on-campus officer delivers a subpoena for a court date. No problem...Been there, Done that *Same day the officers returns to my room & picks up the subpoena so after class I visit officers office to ask why subpoena was taken back *Come to find out the "Model Student" that didn't do anything had been indicted for robbery in my county *Trial date-"Model Student" gets seventeen years in prison being found guilty of over twenty armed robberies committed over the previous 10 months in five counties *Still waiting for an apology from anyone from the campus....So far, not even a mention
@@AT-ox9np I knew that if the "school" handled it the kid would get three days of ISS & have to run a couple of extra laps after football practice. And the Admin wonders why teachers don't trust their decisions regarding such behavioral issues. Very frustrating for the Admin to ALWAYS side with the students.....no matter what. Makes me so glad I'm out of the education.
@@grantcritchfieldstexastrai7072 Admin doesn't always side with the students. They always side with their star students and the students who's parents they don't want to deal with. There is a group of students who always get shafted by admin because the don't "contribute" anything or their parents won't/can't fight for them.
I had a kinder student, let’s call N (who, by now, should be in the 4th grade) who was violent. He was aggressive towards the students, disruptive during class, destructive in class (he flipped tables, tore things off the wall, broke or stole students supplies, and threw things) and was a runner. We asked for help every day with this kid. Our other kids were afraid of him. Our crisis response team did not believe us and blamed us for triggering him. Our counselor repeatedly said “he’s only 5”, our principal and assistant principals gave him treats and rewards when they removed him from class…you get the picture… One day N (again) sucker punched a kiddo. Let’s call that kiddo J. J was sent to the nurse and I told the nurse to tell J’s parents EXACTLY what happened. Usually the nurse didn’t tell the parents when N struck another kid, but this was not the first or second time he’d punched J. J’s parents were furious and wanted a meeting with the assistant principal (who oversaw kinder). The ass. Principal came to me and asked me if I told J’s parents that he was hit again. I answered honestly that I didn’t report that to the parents. J must have told them… 🤷🏻♀️😏 Kid you not, the assistant principal told me to stop writing up N and calling the crisis team because every time I did, they had to enter it into his record. YEAH, it’s called DOCUMENTATION. Their solution for J’s parents was to remove J from our class. 🤦🏻♀️ Parents fought that. They loved us despite all the issues with N. Anyway, the final straw for us came when N flipped a table and was going for another and we called for support. Up until then they thought we’d been making up the claims. One of our assistant principals arrived first and had to dodge a cup full of sharpened pencils thrown at his head. He called for backup and by time the other 2 admins, counselor, and crisis response team arrived, the assistant principal was literally chasing him over, under, and around the class. This was in December. In January they decided to put him into a different kinder class. He got worse. He jumped a wall and ran into the street in front of a truck. Luckily the truck was able to stop. He nearly gave his new teacher a heart attack. She was so stressed she had to have a corrective dental procedure from grinding her teeth at night. By the next school year, our school decided he couldn’t return. He’d been out of district the year before and they finally decided to enforce the boundaries. At some point that September the new school emailed his 2nd kinder teacher and wanted to know why they hadn’t received any paperwork on him. Nothing noted in his cum folder…nothing in his SAT, no BIP…Apparently there was nothing in his records indicating his outbursts. Their stories matched ours. We were at a loss for words. By this point, 2/3 of the admin were at new schools. No answers out of them…🤯 Last I heard his family moved to Arizona.
Teachers and nurses are the most kind-hearted souls. You guys deserve so much better than this. Never stop fighting for it. And if you ever need to leave, for yourself and your wellbeing, please do :(
After 6 years at one school I was sent to another one inside my school district. Didn't know anyone and was looking to make friends with the new staff quickly. Saw a familiar face, a teacher who had worked for a month at my previous school. Didn't know him but struck up a conversation and began hanging out with him for the first week of school. Next week the police showed up and arrested him mid class and walked him off campus. I spent the rest of school year saying "I didn't really know him." and enjoying the constant admin "sit ins" in my classroom. No idea what he did but being perp walked out of your classroom has to be the worst way to go.
nah teachers treat kids like that aaaalll the time. Especially when they are younger because they are easier to take advantage of. Maybe they just dont know. That's why there should be cameras in classrooms
if you put cameras in the classrooms it will do little more than escalate classroom anxiety. there are cameras in the halls and the children still misbehave. I don't need help catching a student doing the wrong thing, I just need the space and time to deal with those students in a way that doesn't require embarrassing them in front of 20 of their ruthless peers. I can only imagine cameras in classrooms would result in even more of a teacher shortage due to the simple fact that the position is already unstable and administrative practices imprecise and often inaccurate. I'd hate to be fired for putting my hands on a kid that was actively mauling another student, and I've only had to do that once (mostly for their own good, kids pick fights without thinking of if they will be hurt) it happens to be the case that that incident was on camera and I wasn't reprimanded for it, but I still remember thinking: "this kids health is more important than my employment" and being scared shitless that I was risking losing my career.
@@maheraahmed4210 Take of advantage of what? Most teachers are women. All that surveillance is just going to force them to be even meaner to the students to keep them under control. Teachers have planning periods too where they don't leave their classrooms to prepare plans for other classes, you want to spy on them while they're alone too? Did I mention most teachers are women, how are they going to spy on women inside those classrooms?
My AP had my co-teacher video me for my review because she didn't want to be bothered to come in and watch me teach. I found out about it because my co-teacher used my I Pad instead of hers. I had a costly injury on the job so they were trying to get rid of me. I just retired and am soo happy I did. It was a blessing in disguise.
Got another one. I wanted to add a special education license. Took the state exam and passed. However, state cutbacks slowed down license processing. By the time my application was being handled, regulations had changed. The test I passed was no longer valid for the license I was pursuing, There was a new test to be taken. NOTE: One year wasted, thus far. I prep for this new test and take it in the summer. Fall rolls around, no test results. During winter break, I go to the state’s licensure department to inquire in person because I’m getting nowhere over the phone. A clerk explains to me that my exam was “flagged” because my score was too high. Yup! Test developers told the state that there wouldn’t be high scores during the first test administration. The reasoning was that no one could completely prepare for a yet-to-be-seen test. I was fit to be tied. I was being penalized for being a wicked smart veteran educator. I requested an appeal of the department’s decision. The new year means I’m in my THIRD calendar year of pursuing a license. I contact the union at the state level, and they take up my case. I got the license and was reimbursed the cost of the additional exam.
I taught in Catholic school, and the Principal picked on a different teacher each year. The year it was my turn, she decided that I needed help in getting my classroom together. She brought in a nun from the diocese to observe me and make recommendations. The nun said she had never seen a teacher with just three years’ experience be as professional as I was, the children were engaged, behaved, and my lessons were well presented. That miserable woman wasn’t happy to hear this. I quit that year. Enough was enough. It wasn’t worth $225 a week in 1992 to put up with that.
I found myself trying to picture what a "bun from the diocese" might be. I pictured an authoritative type, hair done up in a bun, hands on hip. Reading on, I realized that a bun was a nun, (keyboard adjacent). Typos are fun!
New superintendent in the district - called over to district office during prep: “You are not Highly Qualified. Get highly qualified before the end of the year or we will not renew your contract!” My response: “Hi, my name is, (…), who are you and what is Highly Qualified?” I Leave and go read the law, turns out I am Highly Qualified. I inform my principal that the new Super doesn’t understand the law. I am officially determined to be Highly Qualified. The Superintendent then spends the next 9 years doing everything in her power to make my life a living hell because I was right and she was wrong. In the end, she was not renewed under a cloud of improper use of district resources for personal gain/use. I’m so glad I stayed in teaching so I could enjoy that moment. It still makes me smile. Learned a valuable lesson: Admin are just passing ships. Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.
My school principal was so desperate to find a reason to fire me I was brought up "on charges" in front of the superintendent. My crime? I had worn cordoroy pants while teaching. And ... My students were noisy while they were in groups performing science experiments. I kid you not.
I have been a second-career teacher for over 20 years-was in corporate white collar MBA-land before that. My district is far better than most, but still my 1st year they put me in a tiny former storage room that wasn’t even on the Fire Dept evac map outfitted with an ancient and horribly-looking wooden teacher desk. My first official duty was to round up some oil-based gray porch floor paint and paint my own desk! You can’t make this stuff up.
Crazy true stuff! One year, I did not have a classroom assigned to me. I was told to go around the building on my own and see if other teachers would let me share their classrooms. Each teacher looked at me crazy and told me no! I used to walk around the school building with 4 or 5 special needs "pull-out" students in tow, trying to find a place to sit and work with them. This went on for several months. I ended up locating a storage closet and used it as my classroom for the rest of the school year! I didn't have a desk or a table--just a few chairs. I purchased some clipboards and gave them to the students and bought a small chalk board and used it for instruction. Admin did absolutely nothing to resolve this! This was in a big inner city school in 2007. True story!
Telling for a friend who was forced to resign one year before getting retirement rather than get an extra certification. She had an MFA with a secondary certificate but taught most of her 19 year career in elementary before becoming a GT teacher. She had the GT certification and after teaching that for 3 years was told she needed to get the elementary general ed certificate to keep her job. No they wouldn't let her finish the school year without it despite having been a teacher of the year. We crazily thought she should have just buckled and taken the stupid test. She now sells paintings for more than we make in a month.
Lol, I had a desk like that, but it was covered in graffiti and engravings. Couldn’t round up any paint. The school got rid of all the staff at the end of the year and hired more disposable employees.
@@goodgracious6364 they moved me out of a small room to a portable, which I share with another teacher. I don’t have a place to go during my conference period, due to the other teacher having a class in that portable.
I am a retired teacher and have had this type of thing happen to me a few times. The toughest hurdle for me was getting references from my work history. This was back to my 16th birthday and I was 44 at the time. I told them I wasn't going to do it and verbally tenured my resignation on the spot. I taught culinary arts and it is extremely difficult to find teachers who are certified in that field. I had 200 kids a day that didn't have a teacher anymore. The monkey jumped from my back to the district's back. Of course they had no idea what they were asking me to do when they asked. The phone call came late afternoon assuring me that they wanted me back the next day and not to worry about the references. To avoid this disrespectful nonsense in the future I requested a work history form from Social Secutity and they could use that to vett my resume. When it came in they wanted to keep the original and I wouldn't let them stating that they would probably lose it. It was my dream job and I have an amazing retirement because of it. The only thing I miss are those wonderful students and the top-notch faculty. When the phone rang I was in the process of booking a flight to SE Asia. I am one not to take getting jerked around very well. Lol
I don't have a story THAT good! However, many years ago, I was in the middle of teaching, a few years in, also, when an administrator walked into my room and interrupted to explain that I was technically teaching "out of certification" and I had to keep it "under wraps". It was through no fault of my own, either. I had mailed my provisional certification in to NYSED (NYS Ed Dept) to trade off for my permanent certification. (with whatever documentation was required) MONTHS earlier, and they had neglected to mail my permanent certification back to the district. The district was advised they'd mail it in a few more MONTHS. So... I was told to really keep a low profile and dot my i's, cross my t's, until the documentation came through. The idiocracy of the bureaucracy and the pencil-pushing that goes in to working at the state level.
Oh, NYSED. When I came to NYS to teach at the turn of the century, I also qualified for another license. I paid $400 for both. Now, I hold 3 credentials in a different state and paid $80. The latter I can see as a fee. The former I now call a bribe.
I left the classroom this year to work for a nonprofit that has several former educators. When my supervisor asked what she should know about how I respond to leadership and what I want from a leader (something most former admin Never would have asked), I told her I was a delicate flower because of the abuse I’d endured as a teacher. And she said unfortunately most of my colleagues also felt the same way. It’s trauma.
do i have stories. this channel has helped me deal with the literal ptsd i still have six years after i left the classroom. no one understands what we go through, no one understands how abusive it can be. you make me feel not crazy. i have so many stories and i don't even know where to begin and i don't know if i'll ever share the stories because my principal literally threatened me in front of my kids if i ever told a soul so yeah good times, good times.
So sorry that happened. I hear this a lot. People long removed from the profession won’t even discuss it because they still feel an invisible hand over them.
I may never recover from the lies and twists of words put on paper about me. In my last two weeks of my career, my principal actually told me that she never had anything but the utmost respect for me. HA! I looked her straight in the eye and told her I have never believed anything she has said. I then turned around and just walked away.
@@DevinSiebold you always get it. yup! did i have a small panic attack even commenting about this? yes. yes i did. thanks for speaking so honestly and publicly.
My first year of job hunting as a new teacher was a disaster. Turns out I was shooting myself in the foot by talking about how much I believe in the school-home connection. I was also being sabotaged by the recurring question of "What does your ideal school administration team look like?" Still not sure what the correct answer to that one was but I know it's not "A team that supports their teachers." Yeah, I left the teaching profession several years back. I do think the experience has made me a well-informed, boundary-respecting parent, though. My boys have amazing teachers and I make sure to not be a negative part of their lives.
I'm not a teacher, but I feel your pain. I've heard stories (about teaching) from my friend. I should start posting my own stories about the long term care industry! Keep up the truth telling!
A couple years ago my kid's teacher was fired a month before school was out. They're little second graders so their hearts were absolutely broken. It doesn't help that this school is in a rough neighborhood so a lot of these kids are already dealing with abandonment issues, many with fathers gone but some mothers also gone, left with their grandparents or other relative. You'd think the stability and lack of trauma to just stick out the last month would be enough. They replaced her with a student teacher that was even worse! I'm pretty sure that was against state law because you have to have a teaching license and degree where I live. They didn't have a plan at all. They said it was because she was too "soft" with the students. She seemed fine to me, my kid was reading at a 6th grade level in 2nd grade . Probably could've done higher but didn't allow IT because of the mature topics in older books.
Oh Devin, I have a story. I fell at work walking across campus and broke my foot. I had to have surgery. The district was screwing with my pay, so I lawyered up. They had me arrested for apparently WC fraud, oh yeah, I had to have two surgeries on my foot. I wound up having to go to court and because I didn't have the money to fight, I had to take a plea deal. Totally ridiculous. THEN they reported me to the credentialing board and fired me! I had to appear before the board, got a 3 day suspension, and that was that. In the meantime, I had a terminally ill husband, no insurance, and, well, you get the story! So horrible!
I had a serious abdominal infection diagnosed at the start of a school year, the Friday before students were to start. My position was as a special education teacher for a “resource” (self-contained) classroom of students with autism, most who also had very unsafe behaviors. Of course, this was at the start of the pandemic. For every appointment leading up to diagnosis and then surgery, I needed to get a covid test, quarantine until results came in 3- 5 days later, then schedule the appointments. Due to the nature of the job (requiring a lot of lifting of children off window sills, furniture, etc) I was told not to go to work until after surgery and healing. The principal called nearly daily, angry with me. The Friday before my Monday surgery, I had my pre-surgery appointment scheduled, which included another covid test to prove I was still negative.. and no return to school after the test. My principal called me into her room, reamed me out loudly, said I could not go, etc. I this point I had a sizable hole in my gut, a snaking tunnel of infection throughout my abdomen, had been to emergency room 3 times for care, and was at risk for septicemia. All my leave time was used up on cOVID quarantines post- testing and appointments. Principal had insisted I would not be approved for FMLA. I had filed anyway and was approved. At the time she was yelling at me and stating I could not go to my pre-surgery appointment or my surgery appointment, that she was going to put a negative report in my file because I’d be basically AWOL, I told her to do what she had to do as a principal… to fire me even…. But I needed to have that surgery. My health and potential life depended on it. Had the surgery. Open wound healing. She put the negative report in my file and called me nearly daily with her anger (they had trouble finding a teacher to manage the classroom). At one point I went back before the doctor wanted me to (arm twisted) and promptly and solidly got kicked in the gut by a student. It set my healing back (not to mention was very painful). So I was out again trying to heal. Ultimately, I returned, the year was rough, admin support minimal for my room. I left for a different position at the end of that school year. They still have not hired a teacher for that classroom and many teachers have fled the school. What shocks me is that principal had emergency surgery herself the year before I had mine. You’d think she’d have some compassion. Nope.
God knows. It won't go unjudged. My co-worker was in a bad car accident with her son and husband - car totalled - minor injuries like a broken tooth, broken foot, bruises...took xrays and dr. visits....traumatic. But she only took a week off. The very next week her family was diagnosed with covid, so she was out a second week. One of them had to go to the hospital, but was out the same day...all this, also traumatic. So before her annual review her manager threatened to have a negative report made that she didn't have any vacation hours left in her account. The co-worker checked with HR, and it's not a requirement to have time sitting in your vacation hours account. My poor friend just went through a horrible car accident with her family and a week of them having covid, and this manager had NO sympathy. It's like they're evil robots with no hearts.
I was called into the Principal's office and raked over the coals because a parent had complained that I was too authoritarian and arbitrary. I'd told their child, a high school student, that he could not take off his pants in my class even if he had shorts underneath. The principal was on the side of the student (his parents seemed to have some political pull) until I asked him to think about what he would have said if all the other students' parents called to complain about me letting a student undress in class.
Are you an elementary school teacher? Junior/Senior high makes sense because *why* would they need to do that during class, but in elementary school it would make sense to let them. Its like taking a sweatshirt off. Its not "undressing".
He was layering his clothes... I don't see what the problem was. He wasn't getting naked on you. Dress codes are so f'ed up and only seem to be getting worse.
@@eamartig No, I'm not an elementary teacher. I was a high school science teacher. Students changing clothes in the middle of a science class has never been an okay thing--that happens in a PE class with a dressing room not in the middle of a classroom. If a student were to complain to a parent that I was letting students take off their pants in class, especially if he showed more than he said he intended, I would have been fired without question
I lost my entire career in the cemetery industry after turning in the new general manager for sexually harassing my staff. At the HR meeting he admitted that he did everything they accused him of and two weeks later, I was called into a manager's meeting and fired in front of my friend, the funeral home manager. That was the day that I found out Maryland is an "at-will" employer state and an employer can fire you for any reason. I was also listed as not-hirable, so death care killed my entire career.
The stories you share is a huge part of what is wrong with the educational system. Some places are begging for teachers. Others are stomping on the good teachers they do have. I wish you lived here. I think our county schools could use teachers like you.
I was told that I needed to take the district’s horrible Teaching English Language Learners course because my Master’s in TESOL was too old, I.e. more than 10 years. Fortunately I was able to use my out of date MA to get an ESL endorsement added to my license by the state and avoid the course.
I had kind of a reverse story..several years into my teaching career personnel sent me a msg. Asking me to refill my initial application forms. ( apparently they'd lost them...but wouldn't actually say that) soooo I decided to not do that...and I continued working for another 24 yrs until I retired...never heard about it again. My district is more into the cover up and pretending it didn't happen I guess!
I am a Community College teacher. I gave them a copy TWICE of my master’s degree diploma.They kept paying me at the bachelor’s degree level and insisted that I didn’t have a master’s degree. They of course had my transcripts as well and a copy of my adult ed credential. Took years to straighten it out.
@@jonathandixon1305 How did he mess up? If it's accredited there should be no problem. It's the school that fucked up. This why we have unions and contracts.
When I was in a private K-8 Catholic school, the 7th grade teacher was AWESOME. His primary subject was math and he would teach that for the 6-8 graders, 7 graders got him for essentially home room, religion, math, and maybe English but I don't remember. This guy was the only teacher in my life that I've seen teach ACTUAL life lessons we needed. He taught how to balance a checkbook, how to budget, and we even took a field trip to a grocery store so we could learn how to properly shop, looking at things like price per ounce and if bulk is necessarily better. To go further on this, he had is do a project where we had a set budget, we had to get a newspaper, find a job, find a car, find a place to live and try to have the most money towards the end. He would throw curve balls/adult life moments at us like "ok if you bought a car for under $1000, your car is now broken and needs $500 in repairs". So anyway, given that we were a Catholic school, he offered extra credit to students who watched the passion of the Christ WITH PARENTS, and the school immediately fired him. Well given how awesome of a teacher he was, we weren't having any of that nonsense. We walked out and protested (which is crazy to think of given our age and I'm not the protesting kind) and the school hired him back on. It was amazing
@@emg7882 yeah the movie was Catholic based as well, it was a religious movie so none of us saw an issue with it. My only thought is that they probably fired him because the movie was rated R so even though he told us to go with parents, the school probably didn't want him to tell minors to go to a movie intended for adults
I applied for a job at a local school district and got called for an interview. I had an email with the date, time and location of the interview. I showed up. Waited and waited. The front desk didn’t know where the hiring person was but “ wait and I’m sure she’ll be with you.” By this time, I’m supposed to be somewhere else so I email and ask to reschedule because no one knows where this interview is to take place. I get a text an hour and a half after my appointment time. “Hey. We moved all interviews today to Starbucks. If you come now we can still fit you in.” I text back that I didn’t receive any communication regarding the change of location and asked we we could reschedule because I had another obligation. “ Yeah, we just needed a change of scenery.” I feel like I dodged a bullet!
any chance that that was the interview? to see if you were willing and so hungry for a job that you cancel everything to bow down to their changing wishes? Seems like that good ground for finding cowards that kiss tail by having interview display how desperate you are?
@@Musicphilsgood it had crossed my mind. It was only for a summer school job, too. No thanks! Not spending my summer with people who are testing me or can’t communicate 😂
This exact same thing happened to me. Taught ESOL for around 12 years and was told I needed to take ESOL classes. I wasn’t about to do that. My grad work is in linguistics and language acquisition. Took about 6 months for them to realize they were wrong. Absurd.
Clearly all of that was an excuse to get rid of you for some untold reason. Based on what I see in this video, you handled this very very well. I on the other hand would have not. I'm self employed and have been for many years, so there's benefits of not working for the system, but of course I have to make my work work. How you can tell that story with a smile is beyond me. You have to be some kind of super hero ;)
School administrations, in some places, are simply ran by pompous idiots. My wife is an OT and has told me about all of the shenanigans that have gone on, many not legal, and other things would get people fired for being grossly incompetent in the corporate world. She was hired by a district with a $15k pay raise. They eventually retracted the pay, told her that they overpaid her, and said that she owed them $6k for their "mistake". Apparently this is a common thing in the Medford Oregon school district. She knows of at least 4 other specialists this has happened to, and it is a tactic that has been used for years to get new talent in. If you get hired into a school district, make sure you keep any sort of email communication, and get an official letter for what you'll be paid. In all of this mess, they "lost" her transcripts as well.
I am from the same area, I recommend getting a job at RCC, they get paid above average (from what i hear) and most the administrators are easy to work with.. the school district's in the area are not great to work for, i hear SOU can be not so great sometimes as well.. but i know several teachers at RCC and SOU and never heard anything bad about RCC. Not 100% sure about OT, but its worth a shot.
Kate Brown eleiminated math and reading requirements now to "fight inequality". The world portrayed in the movie Idiocracy is taking shape all around us
I was working for a special education classroom, students who were trouble never gave me grief I could usually get the most troubled kids to work happily, all staff I spoke with constantly sung my praises. The principal called me in and said "you are just not the right fit for this school." The kicker, I was one of 2 male teachers in the entire school. I guess straight male was not a right fit for the class.
If she actually said the "straight male" thing, in most places in the western world you could probably sue. Discrimination based on gender and such is discrimination, no matter against which group.
I worked in a for-profit charter. The "superintendent" observed me and told my principal that if I didn't improve by the time she came back, I would face consequences. She gave me a month. My principal saw me as an asset, observed me, critiqued me, had veteran teachers observe me, and critique me. All great advice. But I kept asking, what did I do wrong, where does the superintendent want me to improve, where are her notes. With every new critique, I asked again. Finally a day before the observation, we got the notes. (We were a for-profit school where students did all their work online with a program, and teachers were there to assist one on one. My principal implemented a classroom setting for harder subjects. In my case, junior English, but the books were online, so the kids were supposed to read before my class, and I would go over it. It worked as well as you may expect.) My superintendent was upset that students did not have the books. This is an online school. The books were illegally downloaded for the students to use. The book I was teaching was the only book we had to get paper copies for because no one could figure out how to get it online. They bought 12 copies for the whole school; by spring semester when I was teaching it, we had 6 copies left. I had been arguing for more copies of the book since the beginning of the school year. The superintendent had denied my request multiple times. When I read my notes, I looked up at my principal and said "you realize I has judged on something not in my control, right, and this is really all her fault. Ok, let's do this thing." Something in my voice must have tipped off my principal, so she spent the rest of the year making sure the superintendent never observed me. I only worked there one year.
Not to me, but to my sister, this happened: one Friday night was the first Parent/Teacher meeting, she has about 20 kids in her class, and she met all the parents of student, and all of them had either no issue with her, or were extremely satisfied with the progress their kid had made so far that year. So, a great night. On the next Monday, she was summoned to the principal office, and the lady(a former colleague of my sister, who have been moved to an administrative position for her sheer incompetence at teaching) told my sister that most parents had complained about her lack of proper supervision of the kids and that she was too lax with discipline... The strangest thing was that every year my sister's students had among the best report cards of all the school district... and that she received anything but praise for her methods of teaching by the parents...
MY MY MY. You have such a great attitude🙂. It is obvious you love what you do! The atudents are blessed to have you as their educator in the Brick & Mortar INSTITUTION! However, you & all the other hardworking Teachers of America deserve BETTER 👏 👍💯
"They finally found out about the murder." Honestly, I would have said that for sure! Get that rumor mill really going, and have some fun with it. You still had a better experience than one of the teachers at my High School when I attended. Poor lady was driven literally insane by her students and had to be escorted into an ambulance for a wellness check.
That is maddening to hear about. I feel terrible about that happening to you. Teachers are critical to the success of any society and for you to get treated like this breaks my soul a little bit. You're a champion, thank you for the time you've spent as a teacher.
The head of the local teaching administration asked to see me in her office. I went there at the exact time she had requested, but she wasn't there. I waited for 45 minutes until I went to look for her, nervous that I had misunderstood the location. I encountered her in the hallway where a group of my pupils was gathered. "You asked to see me?" I said. "Oh right, I did," said the head of the administration. "We've decided that we don't need you any more after this term." And that's how I got fired. No sorries, no lowering her voice. Happened in the hallway right in front of my pupils. Not even done by the headmaster (as is the practise here). And after I had been left to wait for 45 minutes.
Stories like these are why I choose to remain a sub. I have a bachelors in English and an MAT in secondary education. I will never work full time again. I stay in one school and do the best damn job at subbing I can do. Why are you not full time some ask? Why don’t you have your own classroom?!? Well it’s a toss up between admin and the parents! Take your pick!
@@neponepo8349 I’m so sorry that happened. That’s a terrible thing. Doesn’t matter where you’re from. I’d like to say nothing like that happens in the US but I’d be lying. The school I work at now (subbing) is wonderful. Never knew an admin could be that supportive until I met her. So not all schools are bad. I hope you find a great environment that is worthy of your talents and your time 🙏
I'm split between 3 schools and am non-tenured. All of my admins forgot to observe me by the deadlines then were in a rush to get all the observations done in a timely fashion. I had 1 observation in May after I signed my contract renewal and then 2 in the same week in June. The 2nd week of June I had an observation on Wednesday then one on Friday. The next week I had 2 post observations then the following week I had my summative evaluation. It's crazy how the deadlines seem flexible for the admins but if I did anything like that it wouldn't go over well.
Disgusting that they used your sick days, you should have told them to get lost and found another place to work at. Or to stand your ground on the sick days. It was THEIR mistake and they should be held legally accountable for giving you back your sick days.❤
It's here in Australia too. I had a senior student threaten to 'knock my head off with a Broom'. I logged it on the student management system and took stress leave. Stress leave was denied because principal told ed department there was 'no record of any incidents'. I had screenshots of it. I was forced back to work stressed. Then the started a misconduct case citing every little thing I had ever done wrong. I resigned.
When I was pregnant with my first baby, I transferred to a new school to share a contract. After my baby was born that summer, I had to take additional time off because I had an unplanned c-section. The principal was not happy and let me know it. As a new mom with postpartum depression, I still worked my butt off and did my best, and even had wonderful observations that year. But at the end of the year evaluation meeting, she told me (off the record) I did not have my "priorities straight" that year! I let her know that my family will always come first. (No, she wasn't a mother, but she did compare having a new baby to having cats when we met.)
What the hell? No surprise that the principal was not a mother. Absolutely unprofessional. Cats? Give me a break. Anyone working in public education should understand the importance of the family in civic duty.
Something like that happen when I was student teaching. My University lost my background check. They sent a professor down to escort me to my car. I drove my happy self down to the University and sat there for hours. When they finally saw me I said, "I had to register with the state's public education department can't you get a copy from them?" They said they didn't do that. I told them I was not paying for another so they needed to call. Five minutes later PED sent a copy and I was good to go back to school.
I come from a family of teachers (spent my own time in the classroom). Reading through the comments, sadly nothing surprises me. In fact, I'm certain the general public would be floored if they had a clue what teachers are routinely put through. As a parent, I've seen a whole lot in our district that I can't unsee. On the outside, things look so nice. As you get closer to those inner circles, it's super sad.
Not the same type of teacher, but something very similar happened to me. I'm a swim instructor. The only certs I was required by administration to have was CPR/AED. The manager wouldn't hire anyone who didn't have American Red Cross water instructor. But, anything relevant, they wanted on file, because then they could justify charging parents more for lessons (and not pay us more, of course). I get an email saying that I'm delinquent and need to take a community response CPR course by Friday. I tell them that I already submitted my CPR cert. They say, "Oh we must have lost it. Get it to us by Friday or you're fired." This was a side hustle, so at least I could say, "Your being disorganized is not my emergency. I'll get it to you when I get it to you." I got it to them that weekend. Then, they say, "This is the wrong CPR. We want Red Cross community responder." I thought they meant they wanted Red Cross and were upset that mine was American Heart. So, I said, "Oh, well, my lifeguarding cert is Red Cross and that has CPR with it." No, they were mad because mine was BLS, which is a higher level of certification than community. Then, I find out that they lost my lifeguarding cert too. And my boat instructor. And my epi pen injector. And my wilderness first responder. And my water instructor. Then, I learn, they actually lost my entire personnel file.
When the last recession hit, my district was looking to cut payroll, and fired a bunch of teachers for not having their CLAD credential. (It deals with teaching non-English speakers) One of the teachers who was fired didn't have the credential because she taught the class that awarded the credential at the college level. She still got laid off.
Damn and I was looking into becoming a math teacher for my high school. It's not just your story. I hang out with a lot of high school and college professors. They all have horror stories. Even when I was enlisting to the Navy, I needed my high school transcript, college transcript, and my *birth certificate*. They actually almost denied me because all I had was my passport, until I spoke to someone that was a higher rank in the recruiting station. I wonder how I can become an educator, without dealing with the department of education. The whole system needs serious reforms.
Oh boy typical let me tell you mine: 12 years into teaching I had to go to 3/5ths due to surgery (wanted me to stay home but couldn’t afford) to keep my insurance I had to pay which I did once back teaching full time for 3 years I kept asking why my check was so small and they told me it wasn’t then I get a message to Call District immediately! I did they told me to sit down I’m like “what?” And they proceed to tell me that they had goofed they owed me $8,000! They said “Great huh!?” I said “ No it’s pretty crappy I could have I invested and made more $ you owe me the interest and I want it in a separate check.” Like you I went to Union and after a lot of back and forth I got what I wanted..looking back I should have sued them ugh!
I am fortunate to work in a great school with a wonderful admin who back teachers 100%. However, the other day, the parking enforcement officer, who is supposed to monitor the STUDENT parking lot, not the FACULTY lot, literally made me leave the school secretary in charge of my class while I went outside to move my car about 2” so I wasn’t “taking up two spaces.” There were at least 50 open parking spaces. By the way, Devin, I’m a huge fan; I watch all your videos. I 100% would have told my high school students “they found out about the murder!” hahahaha
I was having some nostalgic memories about my 14 years of teaching that I left for a literal dream job….this video reminded me of so many similar situations that all I feel now is RELIEF.
On my first day of teaching 5th grade, one kid tried to push another one out the window! I called the office, and the vice-principal asked me in a loud voice in front of the class, "Can't you control your students?" I left public school teaching and later became a deputy sheriff, working as a jailor. It was much easier than teaching, and paid a lot more!
I didn't have anything like this happen to me but I did have the following happen. I was working at a school and fell, tearing a tendon in my right ankle. I was made to drive myself to their doctor to get checked out, who in turn made me drive myself to the hospital. I was out on medical leave for 3 months. Returned with restrictions in September, but by July had to have surgery on the ankle to repair the tendon. The day after my surgery I got a letter in the mail that my contract was not being renewed for the following year.
So I was fired my first official year; I started out as a long term sub and was supposed to be surplussed but the Principals entire 3rd grade quit. (Mind you I was 17 days away from being relocated and had already given my notice) because I yelled at a student. Once I was gone from the district and the state for like 4 months, the FLDOE came after me and falsely accused me of grabbing that student and throwing them into a trophy case, which never happened and this school doesn't own! I was given two choices: I could either go all the way back to FL from VA to fight charges that they didn't even have to prove or give up my temporary certificate, which no other state would accept and that was set to expire in 3 more months!! I still have tire marks on my soul where I was thrown under the bus! I have only subbed in VA and we've been relocated again to NC. I will never go back into the classroom again unless it's to retrieve my own child.
I havent been fired before, but these are crazy things that have happened during class: 1. A rat ran along the open window frames 2. A girl walked in with poop under her shoe and there was no janitor, only paper towels in my room 3. A dog waltzed in 4. A lizard jumped on a desk, girls screamed, and a boy took the lizard and threw it at one of them 5. Construction workers came in to take measurements for a smart board for the math teacher who would be given my room in that same month of April. Then they proceeded to DRILL HOLES while I gave class, no excuse me's or questions asked. These are my top five~
Yep, maintenance workers generally just go about their day as if no one else exists and they NEVER clean up after themselves either. I don’t understand why these jobs aren’t done before or after school hours. My husband does shift work…it’s not a new concept😬
So I just had maintenance walk into my classroom while we were teaching our students, proceed to test our electrical sockets, talk like we weren't there, ask us questions about said sockets, and then walk outside and discuss what needed to happen in our room. No hello, excuse me, when I asked could I help them they looked at me like I was crazy..... Year 39 y'all. Enough of the foolishness; OMW HOME.....
We had so many rodents in one school that a rat chased a mouse across my classroom and, as I had encouraged them, my students just calmly shifted from their chairs to their desktops and continued to attend the lesson without comment.
That is insane! I was never fired, but my first year as a middle school English teacher I had an angry parent accost me in my classroom at 7 am and scream at me and threaten me in front of other teachers and students because she was upset that her daughter received a D on an assignment (which I had given all of the students an opportunity to re-take with tons of support). No other teachers or admin came to my aid, even though they could clearly hear the screaming and see what was happening from my open door in the hallway. It's worth noting that we have a security guard who is supposed to monitor the campus and all parents are supposed to sign in at the front office, parents can't just walk onto campus and into teachers' classrooms without permission, but nobody at any point stopped her. After it was over, the teacher who was "temporary VP for the day" (because the real Vice Principal was out) told me that this happens all the time and I need to get used to it if I want to be a teacher. I filed an incident report with the front office, and a few days later the principal forced me to sit down in a room with this parent who made me feel unsafe, a local police officer, and herself, to "hear the parent out and come to an amicable agreement." I received no support from the administration, and at no point did anyone tell me that I did not deserve to be treated that way, or that I had no obligation to ever be in the same room with that parent again. I later found out that this parent did the same thing to 3 other teachers on campus over the years.
Teachers are by far the most under-valued, under-paid, and under-appreciated occupation in the world. My deepest gratitude and respect to our mentors, instructors, and educators for developing and enriching our lives.
I watched a teacher at the school where I worked get arrested mid class for drug possession and distribution to students. But for you to go through that crap for something you already supplied to them and still be willing to work for them, that is dedication to teaching. My hat is off to you good sir
My school district at one point required a copy of my high school diploma for their records. I graduated from the Highschool I work at.
😆😆😆 Wow! When I worked adjunct at a college that I had gotten accepted to but didn't go there, still had my info from my application. I had to correct it, while doing HR paperwork.
That’s ironically hilarious 😂
Lol wut 😂
This takes the "Can't make up sh!t like that" to a whole other level. 🤣
😂😂
When I was a kid, my favorite teacher was fired in front of us. I will always remember him crying and leaving the room. No one ever explained anything to us, and we never saw him again. I later found out the parents had demanded he be fired because he had answered a question they deemed inappropriate. 30 years later, I am still sad thinking about how they treated our teacher.
So sad but not surprising. Admin have crazy power over staff
Aren’t the teachers supposed to be the ones with specialized knowledge of teaching rather than admins who don’t teach at all? How did they become just a disposable employee...
@@killersugar6816 Because school board members don't have to be teachers to become board members. They can swing their power around like a cudgel. Especially the ones who are voted in because they will gladly throw you under the bus for any perceived slight to ensure they can win re-election.
@Coding Crusader When did I imply otherwise?
Because he has ANSWERED a question they deemed inappropriate??? That makes no sense at all. Someone asked him an inappropriate question, and he answered it. And he got fired?
Are you sure it wasn't because he answered a question inappropriately? Or he asked an inappropriate question, maybe.
I had emergency gallbladder surgery on the first day of school and had complications so was out for 4 weeks. The principal was so angry! When I came back to work he had a pallet of paper boxes (25 lb each) left in the middle of my room and told me I needed to put them away. I just had abdominal surgery. That was the last straw. I quit. Best thing I ever did... Teaching is a horrible job because of administration not kids.
25 yesrs ago my Es fsther up & retured, he had had it with admin., the kids were fine!
Oh, the kids, too.
I had five state evaluators come into my room my first day back from heart surgery! A surprise evaluation for some stupid program the system was only halfway committed to anyway.....and which was gone the next year. I was already coming back over a week early because they hated us being out and they knew I was weak, and hurting, but, I am just a teacher, so let's put a lot of pressure on her. Leaving teaching rules! Glad you got out!
@@mingo-mingo1946 That's disgusting. A similar thing happened to me after I was out for 2 weeks with a bad case of COVID, I was weak and should have stayed out longer but didn't want to fight for short term disability (which only gives a fraction of our paycheck, anyway). The principal and deans had the audacity to come do an unannounced observation the 2nd day I was back and gave critical feedback about things that weren't related to the lesson but "keeping up appearances," which admin always seems obsessed with because it justifies their jobs 🙄
I agree! I love teaching! Having supportive admin is key.
This sounds SO MUCH like being a nurse in healthcare! Sometimes it seems like the system is rigged against good, hard working people while incentivizing bad behavior more!
The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber explains why. It’s because they’re the caring class. Hey, if you care so much, you’ll DO ANYTHING for low pay even!
I ve done both jobs and yeap this is the truth
That is exactly accurate!....and we wonder why America is crumbling before our very eyes.
Not sometimes, ALWAYS.
They want robots not people with personalities and opinions.
on the flip side, I found out that I lacked 1/2 year of Freshman English with 2 months to go for graduation, having transferred from a school that only required one semester to my present school which required two semesters. I hurried over to the English Dept and was able to speak to Dr, Ghallar . After listening to my situation he rummaged in his bookshelf and pulled out a poem , Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold. He told me to sit down and write a critique, which I did. After reading it over he said, "you're fine, congrats on your graduation" -------no idiot bureaucrat was he!
This reminds me of how my district helped me get 3 credits for English in my senior year so I could graduate on time. (I was a troubled kid in a alternative school) the classes are all the same for everyone so I couldnt just take extra or diffrent classes.
For the first 1 just normal English class for the year
For the second one they took half my Science credit & half my History credit I would be getting that year (and didnt need) and called it an english credit.
And for the third. They had me pick from a few diffrent books that had a movie adaptation. Asked me to read it at home, watch the movie and then write a paper (atleast 3 pages). I had to summarize the plot of the book. Talk about its themes, ext. Then explain if and how the movie deviates from the book. And if I thought that the differences made the core themes different or less impactful. Basically a at home project I did in less than a week (I loved reading and writing) I waited until the middle of the year to hand it in because I didnt want them to think I was cheating or something (my 17 year old self thought if it was so easy they wouldnt give it to me)
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
👌
When I was a young teacher I was assigned to yard-duty at lunch time. As I walked past a group of guys I notice that one of them had a very large knife that he was showing to his friends. I told him he had to give it to me, and he refused. I told him he needed to take it to the office, and he refused to do that as well. I was a petite 24-year-old, and he was a large football player, and the whole thing made me quite uncomfortable. I went to the office to get back-up, and the secretary said, "I don't think there's anything in the rules about not having a knife at school; my daughter always has a pocket knife in her purse." The secretary and counselor then got a copy of the handbook and noticed that, sure enough, there is a rule against having knives at school. So they told me I had been correct and that I should go back out and tell him he had to give me the knife. Umm . . . no . . .
Yep, schools stupid.
Utter morons
Most teachers are awful. All administrators are terrible
@@ronniedio7013 blame the education system for making the high qualified good teachers leave
Sad part.....dude I can't believe they let you keep that machete.....cool....hummmmmm. Gen z begins
I am not a teacher, but every single non-vocational institution of learning that I have attended has been run by some of the most hostile, nasty people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. And I was an enlisted infantryman for six years. Hats off to you teachers who put up with that.
Yup. Ex jarhead, now professor here. Its crazy.
I’m a paraplegic veteran and history Professor. I love teaching history, but I absolutely hate the administration. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t fantasize about how wonderful it would be to just quit right on the spot.
You are correct, ryanKane. The HR people in schools are mean and nasty and they know they can be that way. This was not the way to handle the missing class situation! She could have met with him before or after school and discussed it quietly without all the drama and tension. You work or have worked for a very mean, antagonistic district.
Don’t we tell our kids “your poor planning does not constitute an emergency for me”? And to have the audacity to use YOUR earned sick days for THEIR mistake!?!
no you tell your kids that
Exactly. I’d be like. Nope and I’m going to need a you to pay for the transcripts, gas + travel, and some additional PTO for the trouble
That seems like it should have been reported to the union. He didn't get to choose to take those days off.
Not sure of the state that this happened in but trust me: school administration doesn't care as long as they save money. I was hired to do a long term position for a teacher that was going out on maternity leave. The principal told me I was required to come in and shadow the teacher for two days before Christmas break since I was going to be covering for her after but that he couldn't afford to pay me for those two days (which the agency I worked through told me was not correct). Okay no biggie. I am going to get paid a higher rate than usual to come in for two months and I am excited to be getting this position since I am a certified teacher. I shadow her and she gives me materials and shows me the guidelines for what I will be teaching while she is out. Bear in mind that while I worked as a substitute I had two other jobs as well (tutoring and a cashier at a food store). So I spend the week of Chrstmas juggling the holidays, working, and planning for the upcoming first few weeks and I mean planning (developed my own materials, lesson plans, worksheets, etc.) and I came in for my first day. It well well not great but still good. Second day went good as well or so I thought but as I am getting ready to leave an angry voice over the loud speaker says that I need to go the vice principals office at once. I was in the staff room and even the other teacher there was like what the heck? So I go and I am told that they had had another candidate that they had wanted to hire all along but they weren't certified. Well they had just gotten their certification granted so now I was going to be let go. What? I was asked if I had all of the books and guidelines the regular teacher had give me. I advised not all as I had only brought it in what I needed to teach that day and the rest were at home. Oh could I come in tomorrow and hand deliver them to the school? Are you going to pay me for my time? No we can't afford to. Oh, then I will ship them to you when I get home tonight and email you the tracking information. I came back to the staff room and could barely keep from crying as I told the other staff member what happened he was floored and asked me if I wanted to go to get a cup of coffee off campus and talk for a bit. I told him thank you but that I wanted to just turn in my stuff and go home. He understood and even emailed me later telling me he was appalled at what had happened and I had handled myself well. The next day I got a phone call from the principal first accusing me of taking the seating charts saying, "I noticed you had a binder with you when you left yesterday." I explained that binder was my lesson plans for the next two weeks and the seating charts were in their designated place in the top right drawer of the desk. He put me on hold and then came back and asked me if I wanted to come in so we can speak in person and could I bring the other materials I had as well? I told him I was going to be substitute teacher that afternoon somewhere else and then going right to my other job and couldn't afford to lose a days pay to drop them off in person but that had shipped them last night when I got home and that the tracking information was already emailed to him. He asked me if I would be willing to email the lesson plans, worksheets, slideshows, etc. and everything else I had done for my plans for this assignment to help out my replacement. (Are you kidding me?) I told him no. The school tried to only pay me the low per diem rate for my two days there versus the long term rate which was double the amount. I contacted agency who told the district that they owed me four days pay: two for the low term rate for when I shadowed their staff and two for the long term rate for when I was teaching her class the admin agreed. My contact for the agency told me that the principal had wanted to keep me on his preferred list but I told her I didn't want to work there anymore and she told me she understood and to just decline all assignments from the school. She also told me that from now on I was to never ever agree to shadow someone for free. To call her and to tell her right away if a district they worked with did that and she would call them and say, "I understand Mrs. so and so is shadowing someone today and was unable to substitute anywhere else so I just want to make sure she gets paid for the day." and make herself look like the bad guy.
@@Tiffany-fr5um
It's poorly worded, but the message is correct. Do you want your kids to learn that they find themselves where they put themselves when they are 7, or when they are 19, homeless, and at risk for a very early death from double pneumonia and flu? Speaking from experience, here. Teach your kids responsibility, so they won't have to learn it the hard way.
I identify with your plight! My principal called me into her office before school one day. I had “bus duty” the previous afternoon. She asked me if i knew a particular 5th grade student. i did not. “ We’ll his dad called me and said you grabbed his son by the ear and threw him in the car.” I leaned back in my chair and said, “ Oh for crying out loud! When is the meeting?” She responded that there wouldn’t be a meeting. She had told the father that she would talk to me.. I said, “ Thanks for the trust and support.” I left her office and went to inform my CTA rep, in case this went any further. Keep in mind this was after 25 years as a Special Ed teacher and 9 years as a first grade teacher! It didn’t go any further but still continues to haunt, disgust and sadden me even after 12 years of retirement.
I had a student say I hit him because I walked into the classroom and saw him going through my top desk drawer. I stood in his way so I could shut the drawer. Fortunately the principal believed me (I'm very petite) but the dad had a complaint that his stellar son was carrying a "c" in my class (didn't get to talk to the dad - just the principal) and I explained that the student actually had an "f" and it was because his parents were divorced. The principal didn't believe that was the cause and never gave me the chance to explain that a friend was a neighbor of the mother who said she ran the streets all the time and was lying to the dad about staying on top of the son's education so she was telling the dad he had a "c" (apparently they thought he was capable of all "a's") and didn't want to tell him the truth because then he'd know the kid was basically raising himself while mom was out strutting her stuff.
I quit teaching at age 45, mostly because of inept management, and described myself as an Escaped Teacher. It sure felt that way.
OMG. Totally unprofessional on their part. To get back into teaching, as a backup, I had to retake a class that I had already had in college. The district said they had updated the class to reflect modern sensibilities. Several of the videos shown in class, I kid you not, were from the 1950s, the 1970s, and 1980s. The only thing modern added was the shaming added to the end of the semester long class, which I finished in one week. I was the oldest in the class by 3 decades (or more). When I turned in a paper, of which there were 20 in total, They were not only long, well researched, and ridiculously documented with plenty of pertinent personal examples and experiences. The instructor flabbergasted that I had to take the class. Score 130/100 and I'm out $400, but the district is happy.
130/100 Sounds like a flex
@@yinyang1217 College course with a lot of extra credit available to make sure no one could really fail.
@@weatherlady9666 I’m in college and dealing with a sort of similar issue this year. I took a microeconomics class last semester during COVID and now that I am trying to get into upper division classes for next semester they decided that the online class did not meet the microeconomics class requirements because it did not have a proctored exam so I’m going to need to retake it even though I passed with an A.
@@pocketing7292 So frustrating, isn't it?
@@WthrLdy indeed
My Principal found out I have Autism about 3 days after my Gran died. She then did the same thing yours did, came into my room mid-lesson with another teacher, told me to pack my things and that she needed to 'speak to me in [her] office'. I was put off work pending a FULL PSYCH EVAL because I was seen "stimming on the oval with string which is a sign of heightened anxiety in Autistic people" (stimming = repetitive behaviours). Mind you, this is not one of my stimming beahviours and I had a profoundly Autistic class and I'm pretty sure I just pulled the string out of a kids mouth. Anyway, she put me off work for MONTHS pending this evaluation. No pay. Not allowed to talk to anyone from the school community etc. My disability rights lawyer had a field day with the psych evaluation that basically said "she has Autism, and she's grieving because her Grandmother died". We ended up at the Human Rights Commission and settled out of court. I had paperwork going back years to prove her statements were outright lies. It was insane to know a Principal could lie so much and the department would defend her. This year, she's off work (full pay of course) because one of the students from my class that year has taken her to court. She expelled him without doing the proper paperwork. This went on for two years where the family believed he was expelled...only to have his photo put up with his graduating class as a student that graduated that year. *Insane*!
Was this in Canada? Which province/school board?
@@steven21736 Australia. Victoria, Australia.
Holy crap. If this is how they treat teachers with disabilities I can only imagine how the kids are treated.
It is incredible how much has changed for those for us with disabilities/disorders and yet at the same time nothing has changed at all. I am sure your students felt lost and disconnected when that had happened, especially if they are deeply bonded and connected with you. I am a firm believer in that no one could teach a kid how to overcome their own disabilities/disorders quite like someone who has been there and done that already. Nothing like the feeling of amazement when you find a mentor who already has gone through with what one is currently going through. I hope you kept teaching and stayed within the profession. Those kids need more teachers like you. Such an inspiration.
@@KamiFei I'm in Aus too and I won't say too much about my current school but it does seem to take a long time for the people in power to receive justice. A bad principal can really ruin things.
First weeks as a teacher I was told the funding for my position had ended and they would be letting me go. I did not realize that as a union member you just become displaced not fired. I drove in tears to the nearest HEB to apply to work in the grocery story but the application had no place for your certification or College Degree. When I asked where I could write in My Bachelors degree the lady almost tripped over an open file cabinet trying to get to me to offer me a position in management that started the very next day. I felt hope for the first time in hours. The school contacted me and told me that there was an overflow in another grade level and I would start in that grade the following day. I spent the rest of the year telling myself if things got hard I was wanted at HEB. HEB is always hiring!
Union means shit unless you’re tenured. They can remove you faster than Dr. Pimple Popper.
And groceries can be great places to work. It's so vital to all of us to have a clean, well-stocked grocery. My local one has the best staff and they all appear to really enjoy working there.
What’s a HEB?
@@shanicesmith3341 yes- I’m curious as well as I’ve never heard of HEB
H‑E‑B is a wonderful Texas based grocery store. Just think…no parent- teacher conferences, no report cards, no hassle! Good luck!
I've come to your stories late but had to add mine to this document. After 30 years of teaching a class , requirements changed so I needed more credits in that subject. I had also been teaching that class at the Community College. So, I enrolled in my class to get the credits I needed. I retired the next year.
OMgosh! Sounds right!
That's absolutely fantastic. I hope you attended every class!
Omg
I hope you weren't a hard grader and made straight A's in your class, bruh.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I needed that amusement!!
I was called into the office, chastised, and repeatedly asked the same question for what seemed like an hour but was more like thirty minutes. "Why is --'s state mandated scantron not bubbled in with answers? You know you will have your license revoked?" What was the hardest part was the smirk on the testing coordinator who reported me.
The student in question was absent the day of the test.
When the attendance clerk finally came in to confirm his absence, the tension and anger on my principal's face dissipated and he just told me I could leave. Later I found three bite- sized chocolates in my mailbox. This was the testing coordinator's apology.
You’ll keep on with the teacher’s union, no doubt.
Another perfect example of why teachers are leaving the profession!
Honey somebody would’ve received some NASTY EMAILS.
Hello. I am 16 and dont know much about law. Cant you sue your boss for treating you like that?
@@maheraahmed4210 You must report it to Human Resources dept.
Admin: You're fired. Right now. In front of the children. Because you didn't take a class three years ago and we should have fired you in two.
Devin: ...I took that class ten years ago.
Admin: Lies! Guilty until proven innocent! Now stay fired, take two sick days to spend loads of money for something we already accounted for, and be rehired. You're welcome. Have a good day.
I have loads of stories. I'll write another post
I would've let them fire you, then sue. If they pulled that I wouldn't have been willing to work at that district going forward.
@@tarody3953 You'd almost certainly lose and be out of a job. Also, good luck affording a lawyer to begin with on whatever savings you could scrape together in just a couple years of teaching. People love to say they'd sue when they aren't actually facing the prospect of a time/money-consuming legal battle.
Well I am happy again today to not be American
Lots of pathetic, useless, egotistic, narcissistic, office-politics-loving leaders do this. It doesn’t stop at teachers. It also has to do in the military, hospital, police, etc.
@@sternreport And again today you make yourself sound ignorant and jealous of Americans!
After hearing this and reading all the comments I am just stunned and flabbergasted. I also got flashbacks about leaving things at the front desk of the school. My son had sold $200 in candy in 5th grade. The school wouldn't take a check so he had to bring the cash. He handed it in at the front desk. It was never seen again and the school accused us of stealing the money. My son's trust in school was broken. His dad spent many hours in meetings with the principal and phone calls trying to iron this out. The money was never found. We totally refused to choked up the money.
Oh my God. This happened to me. My first year of Teaching, my students had started a club and ran a Fundraiser. I submitted the ~$500 to the front office in a drop box in a labled envelope. 6 months later we did another Fundraiser and I was given the paperwork as proof of the money. I asked about not having recieved the same type of paperwork on the first fundraiser and they turned around and accused me of stealing the $500 that they had forgotten existed until I brought up. They said I would have tp talk to an interrigator. Other stuff happened at the school and I never heard anything else or had any sort of resolution. I told the students I refused to handle money so they found another sponsor. This is one of the main reasons I will NEVER do a field trip or sponsor any clubs where I might be asked to handle money.
I always told my kids to get a receipt before handing over any money or goods. I told them the teacher will say, "I'll get the receipt for you later." but you have to tell the teacher, "Ok. I'll give you the money later after you give me the receipt. My dad won't let me give you the money without a receipt." The teacher invariably would get miffed but my kids hung in there and got the receipt. Numerous times over the years, we were told that we hadn't paid the money, so I would have my kid bring in a copy of the receipt, on which I would write a very direct note about it being paid.
Keep your receipts, keep written records, keep anecdotal records. I am so sorry your son had to learn the harsh realities at such a young age….grrr! Someone in that office made off with the money.
In highschool, our schools receptionist in charge of handling money was arrested for stealing funds over the course of 10 plus years she's been working with the district.
I got an email saying that the deadline was approaching to pay back into my pension for the maternity leave I had apparently taken. I am childless...have never taken a leave. I emailed to inquire and was told that my record shows I took a 10 month mat leave. Further investigations had to happen but...guess what? It turns out I didn't have a baby without remembering and I didn't take a year off work. Surprise, surprise.
Eh, mistakes happen, as long as everyone is reasonable about it... I'm sorry it happened to you, but it was resolved.
@@christophertstone They were and it was. Just a story about something that happened.
When administration work seems odd like this, usually if you trace it back there is someone reporting this to get money out for him/herself.
@@christophertstone This does not fall into the "mistakes happen" category.
What a story!
I taught school for 17 years and just quit. the constant BS that teachers have to deal with is absurd.
In 2019, I retired from a school district that I had taught in for 36 years. I was one among seven other teachers who retired at the same time. Collectively the eight high school teachers that were retiring had taught over two hundred and six years. As retirement gift from the high school administration, each of us received a sack filled with the following items, a badger yeti cup, a fifteen dollar Sonic card, and a small baggy of candy! While in that school year had hired a new superintendent at the salary of $140,000.00 (10,000.00 dollars more than the last individual), a brand new Ford pickup truck, a clothing allowance, and remodeled his office building a private restroom complete with a shower! At the time I retired, I was was the longest tenured teacher in the district! I still feel the love!
Teachers and Admin were at odds just before Christmas and from the district we got stick pins, Scotch tape and glue. Message was clear: "Stick it"
I got a bell and a crystal????? apple. I don’t even think a card. I didn’t stay for the whole retirement banquet as one of the retirees shared her whole life history, bad mouthed family, and was still going strong as I exited.
After 35 years I got an in-house (home-made) certificate in a manila folder.
I got a mat w/ a photo frame. The teachers signed their names all around it. It was left by my mailbox, unassembled. It was not even with a photo. I guess I was supposed to take my own 8 x10 photo and put it all together. 26 years with the same district. They had bottled water and a cake (I never saw the cake) and the "retirement party" was held outside in the 100 degree heat in Az. (Not sure why they couldn't use the MPR as it was at 4 pm.) It all made me cry. Then it made me mad. Then it made me relieved I am retired.
CTA always holds the retirement parties for teachers. My mom did this for the 30 years she worked. When she retired to save the job of a new special education teacher (my mom was special ed for those 30 years) since they wanted to downsize to one teacher, she became an independent part time special ed teacher they used to provide service to their continuation high school/alt ed programs.
30 years of holding parties, was union president for 2 decades. They didnt even bother to have a retirement party for her.
Most important part here: "Luckily, I was in a union."
Absolutely
Hate the teachers unions… they take $700 a month from the teachers and then spend it on political campaigns and never make real change other than benefits and preventing firings
@@schroederscurrentevents3844 they most certainly do not take $700 a month from teachers. You can’t be serious.
Well, lucky until your pension statements come anyway.
What did the union do? He still had to drive and get the the transcripts himself...
At least the receptionist who took your paperwork didn't "lose" it. I would have demanded to hand it directly to a person who could verify that it was indeed the required paperwork and attest to that in front of witnesses including my union rep.
I thought the same thing when he said just to leave it there. If someone there “lost” it who knows what would have happened?!
My district office is a massive building they NEVER let anyone in. Just a woman behind plexiglass that tells people no and collects things all day. It is like the mint.
@@DevinSiebold Lee County?
Not a teacher but similar story. I went to a public charter school which closed down right after my senior year. They sent my transcripts to my district of residence. Several years later when applying to firefighter school, I needed my transcripts. I called my district of residence to get them and it turns out, as it took me several months to uncover, they signed for them and proceeded to lose them. It took more than a year for me to get unofficial transcripts from my state's department of education and it is impossible for me to get official high school transcripts. So every time I need them for something I have to jump through a bunch of hoops and explain that while I would love to provide an official copy, they literally do not exist.
@@DevinSiebold My new district is actually pretty good about that. I'm in PTSD because I'm prepared for a hassle, and there is no hassle.
Teachers have the biggest heart, greatest patience, unrelenting discernment, largest amount of admin and the smallest amount of time to do it all. To all of you still out there trying to make a difference, keep your head up and remember who you do it for. For those of us who have already left, we came , we saw, we taught and we loved. May you all be blessed as you bless those around you.
I had a friend who taught English at a small school district in Indiana. She taught 2-3 years, during which time she was observed only once by her principal for about 10 minutes. Near the end of her last year, she was called into her principal's office. He began by saying, "I suppose that you know why I am talking to you today." She had no idea, and was told that her contract would not be renewed. The reason he gave her was that she had poor behavior management skills, and the example he provided was that she asked a question, and two students answered at the same time. It turned out that the school needed a new basketball coach the next year and needed an open English position.
Yep. Quite typical. I had a friend on good pay because of Special Needs qualifications. The school fired him and hired 3 newly qualified teachers with the money they saved.
When I was straight out of college, in May, I was hired to teach high school English in Kansas. I'd graduated in Oklahoma and had to transfer over my license. In early July I got a call from my new job asking if I'd want to take on the Yearbook Sponsor position since I had graphic design experience. It was a class and extra pay, so I agreed. Near the end of my first year as a teacher, I was notified that I'd been teaching the Yearbook class without a proper license all year. My school district never told me what kind of license I needed for it. I was from another state. I had no idea I needed a different kind of license. I called the Kansas State Dept of Ed. They said "What is the course code? We can't advise you without the specific course code." I said "What's a course code?" Lol. They explained. I didn't know. I asked my admin, my district people, my counselors. Nobody knew at first. Eventually a first year counselor at my school helped me figure it out. I told the State. The State said "That course code is invalid and hasn't been in use since we updated our system almost 15 years ago. So we can't advise you on what certification you need. That sounds like an elective so any high school license should be fine, including your ELA one."
I was pissed. At this point I'd told my Yearbook kids they might not let me teach it again next year. The students CRIED. They said "Please don't leave us, we've had a different Yearbook teacher every year for so long. We know this year was hard but we just want someone who won't leave." So I spent another plan period making phone calls. I learned that because of the course codes, the certification the state recommends wasn't actually available to test for anymore. I'd have to go BACK TO COLLEGE and take 15 hrs of undergrad classes to get the certification. I ended up emailing the Deputy Superintendent (of my very large urban school district) and basically saying "If you don't change the course name to make it an elective, then let me continue to teach this course next year, I will tell the state that you are incompetent because all these courses are using outdated coding information and you're not following the rules about course sequences, etc."
The next day the Deputy Superintendent emailed my principal and basically said "Please for the love of god just let this woman teach Yearbook again next year so she stops calling and emailing us."
And my principal was annoyed because her bosses had been the ones to tell me I couldn't continue it. My principal loved me. I was teacher of the year in my first fucking year.
End story of insanity. 4 years later I'm still doing Yearbook.
Why in the world does someone need a credential for yearbook? HUH???????
@@Heyu7her3 as someone who had both an awesome, competent yearbook advisor and an awful one: ...yeah. i can see it. Like. Literally by looking at the yearbooks.
259?
@@MrClarissacain except that there's not a specific certification for Yearbook. So then the state has to decide which would work best? English? Journalism? Business? Art? Those are all subjects that could work, but if you pick one you'd exclude competent people who lack that specific credential. If you choose all of them then you aren't really narrowing down the pool to people with the skill.
@@Heyu7her3 it's a hard job. I understand why they wanted me to have the certification, but crazy that the situation happened the way it did. And that certification wasn't even available in my state anymore at the time. The test was discontinued.
I was a long term newspaper, yearbook and English sub at a high school. I have a bachelors degree in journalism, worked in journalism, and have a masters degree in teaching journalism. The students wanted to write a controversial piece and I told them I backed them but went over consequences that could happen. They agreed and went forward with it. The principal found out and called me to his office in the middle of class and said he was firing me and was going to make sure I would never again work in teaching. He said he spoke to his lawyer and I’m going to be sued. I was upset but told him I knew the law and I was right. I even outlined the big case that protected me and the students with the first amendment. He told me I was wrong and would never work again. I was so pissed. He sent me back to class “to finish teaching for the day” because they needed me. I went back to my class so mad I couldn’t teach. 5 hours later he came to the middle of my class and said “you never told me about the law. That’s your job, to educate me on journalism. See you tomorrow we love having you” and he left. I finished out the week and never went back to that school. Luckily I work full-time at a great school now!
Probably did a quick google search in his office after you left and found out you were right.
A friend of mine was licensed to teach health and PE. One year, early in his career, they needed someone to teach biology, and even though he wasn't licensed for biology, they assigned him to teach it, which he did... for 15 years. Then the district realized he wasn't licensed and said he couldn't teach it anymore. Apparently 15 years teaching biology can't make up for a few college classes. Mm-kay.
Think 🤔 about this:
Substitute teacher gets to teach in every class and every grade level. Take over and continue the same curriculum, testing, programs, etc....
BUT THE MOMENT YOU GET A FULL TIME TEACHERS CREDENTIAL...YOU ARE INSTANTLY LIMITED TO A PARTICULAR GRADE LEVEL OR SUBJECT MATTER YOU'RE "QUALIFIED" TO TEACH BASED ON THE TRANSCRIPT.
I have 20 years of Substitute teaching experience. And I am dumbfounded by this.
@@TheFoxisintheHouse It's a kill-switch to ensure you can't be a "problem" across grade levels. A sub can be reassigned anytime but a fixed position teacher can influence whomever they're in contact with. If that's multiple grade levels, they foresee a major integrity breach. it also ensures that they can have modular teaching staff that can be removed and replaced like cogs.
@@TheFoxisintheHouse Wait, what? Where I'm from substitutes can't just teach a different subject matter (unless it's very closely related - say you studied biochemistry and usually teach biology but now there is an opening in chemistry). But where you live a French teacher can just up and teach physics or vice versa?
@@Snowshowslow in California, I can teach in any grade level, any subject. I have literally taught everything out there...daily for 20 years. I love ❤️ that!!! Today I am going to teach a kindergarten class (5 to 6 year olds).
@@TheFoxisintheHouse Interesting... I can see how that would be fun as a teacher, but I can't imagine you can be caught up on all subjects as well as teachers can on one or two main subjects.
The school system is so backwards, I never blamed the teachers for my frustrations in school because 99% of the time they were just complying with the bs as well. Every good teacher I've ever had went as far off of curriculum as they could get away with.
Life begins the minute you resign.
Two stories come to mind.
1) I was interrupted mid lecture to move my car because the snow had finally melted and I (and everyone else in the line of cars) was slightly over the parking lines. I had a free block after that period but they insisted I interrupt my class and do it NOW.
2) an admin asked a teacher dying of cancer not to wear her bandana covering her chemo fried hair to school anymore because "the kids were upset she didn't have to follow the no hat rule too"
That reminds me of my own hat story... This happened at the school I student taught at. This school used PBIS discipline model, or positive behavior intervention system. In theory, this is meant to reward troublesome students for demonstrating good behavior. In practice, it means troublesome kids get special treatment for following the most basic of school rules. One day, all the teachers in the school got an email saying "Skippy is now allowed to wear hats to school." No explanation, no clarification on who Skippy even is, just an email blast so we all know not to tell him to take his hat off if we see him. This (and the thousand special privileges like it) make it so much harder for teachers to maintain classroom order, because now kids are going to be on our case about why Skippy is allowed to wear a hat and they're not... And of course, for privacy reasons, we can't actually tell them why so we have to make something up.
I had to go move my car mid-class just the other day!
If that hat thing ever happens to my wife I will start a general uprising.
TEACHER: You DO know that I'm dying and therefore DGAF about whether or not I'll die in jail before going to trial for stabbing you in the head 42 times with this pencil, right?
Hunh😳 to the last one. That’s awful and I thought the no hat rule didn’t apply to any child suffering hair loss, the no hat rule is incredibly stupid anyways, just another way to brainwash children.
I was fired from a principal position - 3 years into the position! - because the district said I falsified my resume. I took a year off to move closer to my parents and care for my sick mom. I did register as a sub admin in their local district, but never was asked to sub. When I was ready to go back to work I updated my resume but left that year off since I didn't work. Some wonk found my name on the sub rolls, told some other wonk in HR, and they canned me. I quickly got a job in another district. Midway through that year, the district I was fired from called to ask me if I'd take over a position from a retiring admin. I shit you not.
Alright, YOU were working as an administrator, what did you notice among all your district/state colleagues that makes upper level administration as nutty as it is??? There had to be SOMETHING you saw as a common thread while you worked among the bunch. I personally don't believe People "get into education" for the money or for the "three months vacation" touted by People who know absolutely nothing about what's expected of Educators, therefore, I don't believe People who become Education Administrators start out being as finky as the group seems to become. There's got to be something that can be turned around!
"I already paid you. Gimme my transcripts."
Right on. Been there.
I taught for 3 years in the mid 90's. It was a school on the lower economic side of town. I had the one kid that, although naturally very smart, was so disruptive in class that almost nothing got done. Admin just tells me to deal with it. I called his parents. "Mr. Johnson, your son is very disruptive in class." Reply, "Yeah, we don't know what to do with him either". I felt like saying, "Should I just take him down to "county" now?" Good bye teaching.
I was a math teacher teaching 5 different math classes. One day the answer keys were not in the material packets - we all had to teach the same material on the same day. I asked my advisor where they were, he said they took them from me and I was required to do all of the problems myself and generate my own answer keys. I went home and took out all of my old material and generated my own lesson plans. I ended up having a nervous breakdown and went out on paid sick leave for the rest of the school year because I donated one sick day to the Union, which covers teachers for extended illnesses. I got paid through the rest of that school year and the whole summer lol. Someday all of us teachers who were tortured are gonna be welcomed back in the teaching field.
I am so glad that I teach in Canada and at a private school, at that. When I read what American teachers have to go through, I shiver. You all deserve to be treated the way we are here in Canada - as respected professionals. The stories I'm reading in the comments leave me speechless!
Im also a teacher in Canada and the same shit happens here. Dont act like Canada is so much better. Its high stress and Im quitting.
I was a brand new teacher at an alternative school, and within the first few weeks I saw some really disturbing student and admin behavior. The vibe in that place was way, way off. I wrote an email to admin detailing my concerns. Their response? First, they approached another teacher about the email, because they thought she was me. They didn't even know my name in a staff of less than 50- there were that many new teachers that school year (totally a red flag). Second, they sent an admin member who had never observed my class into my room mid-class to pull me out. This snide person told me I was incompetent and that I needed to make a plan for teaching at their school. I quit on the spot.
Story too long for details so here are the "Cliff Notes".
*I had been teaching about 12-13 years and a high school student threatened to kill me & I truly believed the threat was valid.
*I had been a law enforcement officer for almost six years before I began teaching and knew how to deal with issues like this
*Went to the Police Office that was on the campus (it was a rough school) and filed a Terrorist Threat report and signed a complaint.
*The next day I get called to the principal's office and immediately met by the principal, an asst. principle, a counselor, the threatening student, his mother and his football coach (it was October, season in full swing)
*all parties grill me that the student didn't threaten me, he's a good boy, not raised like that & the school would handle it (HA!) & for me to drop the complaint.
*I refused to drop the complaint & we carried on with the student remaining in school just not in my class.
*Fast forward to Feb. & our on-campus officer delivers a subpoena for a court date. No problem...Been there, Done that
*Same day the officers returns to my room & picks up the subpoena so after class I visit officers office to ask why subpoena was taken back
*Come to find out the "Model Student" that didn't do anything had been indicted for robbery in my county
*Trial date-"Model Student" gets seventeen years in prison being found guilty of over twenty armed robberies committed over the previous 10 months in five counties
*Still waiting for an apology from anyone from the campus....So far, not even a mention
Wow…
@@AT-ox9np I knew that if the "school" handled it the kid would get three days of ISS & have to run a couple of extra laps after football practice. And the Admin wonders why teachers don't trust their decisions regarding such behavioral issues. Very frustrating for the Admin to ALWAYS side with the students.....no matter what. Makes me so glad I'm out of the education.
@@grantcritchfieldstexastrai7072 Admin doesn't always side with the students. They always side with their star students and the students who's parents they don't want to deal with. There is a group of students who always get shafted by admin because the don't "contribute" anything or their parents won't/can't fight for them.
I had a kinder student, let’s call N (who, by now, should be in the 4th grade) who was violent. He was aggressive towards the students, disruptive during class, destructive in class (he flipped tables, tore things off the wall, broke or stole students supplies, and threw things) and was a runner. We asked for help every day with this kid. Our other kids were afraid of him. Our crisis response team did not believe us and blamed us for triggering him. Our counselor repeatedly said “he’s only 5”, our principal and assistant principals gave him treats and rewards when they removed him from class…you get the picture…
One day N (again) sucker punched a kiddo. Let’s call that kiddo J. J was sent to the nurse and I told the nurse to tell J’s parents EXACTLY what happened. Usually the nurse didn’t tell the parents when N struck another kid, but this was not the first or second time he’d punched J. J’s parents were furious and wanted a meeting with the assistant principal (who oversaw kinder). The ass. Principal came to me and asked me if I told J’s parents that he was hit again. I answered honestly that I didn’t report that to the parents. J must have told them… 🤷🏻♀️😏 Kid you not, the assistant principal told me to stop writing up N and calling the crisis team because every time I did, they had to enter it into his record. YEAH, it’s called DOCUMENTATION. Their solution for J’s parents was to remove J from our class. 🤦🏻♀️ Parents fought that. They loved us despite all the issues with N.
Anyway, the final straw for us came when N flipped a table and was going for another and we called for support. Up until then they thought we’d been making up the claims. One of our assistant principals arrived first and had to dodge a cup full of sharpened pencils thrown at his head. He called for backup and by time the other 2 admins, counselor, and crisis response team arrived, the assistant principal was literally chasing him over, under, and around the class. This was in December. In January they decided to put him into a different kinder class. He got worse. He jumped a wall and ran into the street in front of a truck. Luckily the truck was able to stop. He nearly gave his new teacher a heart attack. She was so stressed she had to have a corrective dental procedure from grinding her teeth at night. By the next school year, our school decided he couldn’t return. He’d been out of district the year before and they finally decided to enforce the boundaries.
At some point that September the new school emailed his 2nd kinder teacher and wanted to know why they hadn’t received any paperwork on him. Nothing noted in his cum folder…nothing in his SAT, no BIP…Apparently there was nothing in his records indicating his outbursts. Their stories matched ours. We were at a loss for words. By this point, 2/3 of the admin were at new schools. No answers out of them…🤯
Last I heard his family moved to Arizona.
@@dorismidge8762 what is wrong with your administration? They aren’t doing themselves any favors ignoring that kind of behavior.
Teachers and nurses are the most kind-hearted souls. You guys deserve so much better than this. Never stop fighting for it. And if you ever need to leave, for yourself and your wellbeing, please do :(
After 6 years at one school I was sent to another one inside my school district. Didn't know anyone and was looking to make friends with the new staff quickly. Saw a familiar face, a teacher who had worked for a month at my previous school. Didn't know him but struck up a conversation and began hanging out with him for the first week of school. Next week the police showed up and arrested him mid class and walked him off campus. I spent the rest of school year saying "I didn't really know him." and enjoying the constant admin "sit ins" in my classroom. No idea what he did but being perp walked out of your classroom has to be the worst way to go.
It's great when admin treats their staff in a way that would get a teacher fired if they treated a student in the same manner.
Bubble wrapped snowflakes with helicopter parents.
nah teachers treat kids like that aaaalll the time. Especially when they are younger because they are easier to take advantage of. Maybe they just dont know. That's why there should be cameras in classrooms
Exactly!
if you put cameras in the classrooms it will do little more than escalate classroom anxiety. there are cameras in the halls and the children still misbehave. I don't need help catching a student doing the wrong thing, I just need the space and time to deal with those students in a way that doesn't require embarrassing them in front of 20 of their ruthless peers.
I can only imagine cameras in classrooms would result in even more of a teacher shortage due to the simple fact that the position is already unstable and administrative practices imprecise and often inaccurate.
I'd hate to be fired for putting my hands on a kid that was actively mauling another student, and I've only had to do that once (mostly for their own good, kids pick fights without thinking of if they will be hurt)
it happens to be the case that that incident was on camera and I wasn't reprimanded for it, but I still remember thinking: "this kids health is more important than my employment" and being scared shitless that I was risking losing my career.
@@maheraahmed4210 Take of advantage of what? Most teachers are women. All that surveillance is just going to force them to be even meaner to the students to keep them under control. Teachers have planning periods too where they don't leave their classrooms to prepare plans for other classes, you want to spy on them while they're alone too? Did I mention most teachers are women, how are they going to spy on women inside those classrooms?
My AP had my co-teacher video me for my review because she didn't want to be bothered to come in and watch me teach. I found out about it because my co-teacher used my I Pad instead of hers. I had a costly injury on the job so they were trying to get rid of me. I just retired and am soo happy I did. It was a blessing in disguise.
Got another one. I wanted to add a special education license. Took the state exam and passed. However, state cutbacks slowed down license processing. By the time my application was being handled, regulations had changed. The test I passed was no longer valid for the license I was pursuing, There was a new test to be taken. NOTE: One year wasted, thus far.
I prep for this new test and take it in the summer. Fall rolls around, no test results. During winter break, I go to the state’s licensure department to inquire in person because I’m getting nowhere over the phone. A clerk explains to me that my exam was “flagged” because my score was too high. Yup! Test developers told the state that there wouldn’t be high scores during the first test administration. The reasoning was that no one could completely prepare for a yet-to-be-seen test. I was fit to be tied. I was being penalized for being a wicked smart veteran educator. I requested an appeal of the department’s decision.
The new year means I’m in my THIRD calendar year of pursuing a license. I contact the union at the state level, and they take up my case. I got the license and was reimbursed the cost of the additional exam.
You actually come across like a very likeable dude with an excellent way of explaining things. I could have used teachers like you when I was young.
I taught in Catholic school, and the Principal picked on a different teacher each year. The year it was my turn, she decided that I needed help in getting my classroom together. She brought in a nun from the diocese to observe me and make recommendations. The nun said she had never seen a teacher with just three years’ experience be as professional as I was, the children were engaged, behaved, and my lessons were well presented. That miserable woman wasn’t happy to hear this. I quit that year. Enough was enough. It wasn’t worth $225 a week in 1992 to put up with that.
I found myself trying to picture what a "bun from the diocese" might be. I pictured an authoritative type, hair done up in a bun, hands on hip. Reading on, I realized that a bun was a nun, (keyboard adjacent). Typos are fun!
@ LOL! Let me fix that!
New superintendent in the district - called over to district office during prep: “You are not Highly Qualified. Get highly qualified before the end of the year or we will not renew your contract!”
My response: “Hi, my name is, (…), who are you and what is Highly Qualified?”
I Leave and go read the law, turns out I am Highly Qualified. I inform my principal that the new Super doesn’t understand the law. I am officially determined to be Highly Qualified.
The Superintendent then spends the next 9 years doing everything in her power to make my life a living hell because I was right and she was wrong.
In the end, she was not renewed under a cloud of improper use of district resources for personal gain/use.
I’m so glad I stayed in teaching so I could enjoy that moment. It still makes me smile. Learned a valuable lesson: Admin are just passing ships. Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.
My school principal was so desperate to find a reason to fire me I was brought up "on charges" in front of the superintendent. My crime? I had worn cordoroy pants while teaching. And ... My students were noisy while they were in groups performing science experiments.
I kid you not.
So funny about the corduroyed pants I love corduroy and everyone I talk to says oh that’s from the 70s….ya, peace!!!!!
I have been a second-career teacher for over 20 years-was in corporate white collar MBA-land before that. My district is far better than most, but still my 1st year they put me in a tiny former storage room that wasn’t even on the Fire Dept evac map outfitted with an ancient and horribly-looking wooden teacher desk. My first official duty was to round up some oil-based gray porch floor paint and paint my own desk! You can’t make this stuff up.
💀
Crazy true stuff! One year, I did not have a classroom assigned to me. I was told to go around the building on my own and see if other teachers would let me share their classrooms. Each teacher looked at me crazy and told me no! I used to walk around the school building with 4 or 5 special needs "pull-out" students in tow, trying to find a place to sit and work with them. This went on for several months. I ended up locating a storage closet and used it as my classroom for the rest of the school year! I didn't have a desk or a table--just a few chairs. I purchased some clipboards and gave them to the students and bought a small chalk board and used it for instruction. Admin did absolutely nothing to resolve this! This was in a big inner city school in 2007. True story!
Telling for a friend who was forced to resign one year before getting retirement rather than get an extra certification. She had an MFA with a secondary certificate but taught most of her 19 year career in elementary before becoming a GT teacher. She had the GT certification and after teaching that for 3 years was told she needed to get the elementary general ed certificate to keep her job. No they wouldn't let her finish the school year without it despite having been a teacher of the year. We crazily thought she should have just buckled and taken the stupid test. She now sells paintings for more than we make in a month.
Lol, I had a desk like that, but it was covered in graffiti and engravings. Couldn’t round up any paint. The school got rid of all the staff at the end of the year and hired more disposable employees.
@@goodgracious6364 they moved me out of a small room to a portable, which I share with another teacher. I don’t have a place to go during my conference period, due to the other teacher having a class in that portable.
I am a retired teacher and have had this type of thing happen to me a few times. The toughest hurdle for me was getting references from my work history. This was back to my 16th birthday and I was 44 at the time. I told them I wasn't going to do it and verbally tenured my resignation on the spot. I taught culinary arts and it is extremely difficult to find teachers who are certified in that field. I had 200 kids a day that didn't have a teacher anymore. The monkey jumped from my back to the district's back. Of course they had no idea what they were asking me to do when they asked. The phone call came late afternoon assuring me that they wanted me back the next day and not to worry about the references. To avoid this disrespectful nonsense in the future I requested a work history form from Social Secutity and they could use that to vett my resume. When it came in they wanted to keep the original and I wouldn't let them stating that they would probably lose it. It was my dream job and I have an amazing retirement because of it. The only thing I miss are those wonderful students and the top-notch faculty. When the phone rang I was in the process of booking a flight to SE Asia. I am one not to take getting jerked around very well. Lol
Years and years of being a principal and teacher and I’m still surprised by the chaos out there in schools.
You're surprised. Well I'm surprised you are slow, most likely dishonest.
I don't have a story THAT good! However, many years ago, I was in the middle of teaching, a few years in, also, when an administrator walked into my room and interrupted to explain that I was technically teaching "out of certification" and I had to keep it "under wraps". It was through no fault of my own, either. I had mailed my provisional certification in to NYSED (NYS Ed Dept) to trade off for my permanent certification. (with whatever documentation was required) MONTHS earlier, and they had neglected to mail my permanent certification back to the district. The district was advised they'd mail it in a few more MONTHS.
So... I was told to really keep a low profile and dot my i's, cross my t's, until the documentation came through. The idiocracy of the bureaucracy and the pencil-pushing that goes in to working at the state level.
I just KNEW there would be an Albany story. TEACH!!!
Long Island is nice though!
Oh, NYSED. When I came to NYS to teach at the turn of the century, I also qualified for another license. I paid $400 for both. Now, I hold 3 credentials in a different state and paid $80. The latter I can see as a fee. The former I now call a bribe.
Remember that the next time you cast a ballot in New York.
@@flyoverkid55 I'm no longer a resident of that state. It's been nearly 15 years since I could say that.
I left the classroom this year to work for a nonprofit that has several former educators. When my supervisor asked what she should know about how I respond to leadership and what I want from a leader (something most former admin Never would have asked), I told her I was a delicate flower because of the abuse I’d endured as a teacher. And she said unfortunately most of my colleagues also felt the same way. It’s trauma.
do i have stories. this channel has helped me deal with the literal ptsd i still have six years after i left the classroom. no one understands what we go through, no one understands how abusive it can be. you make me feel not crazy.
i have so many stories and i don't even know where to begin and i don't know if i'll ever share the stories because my principal literally threatened me in front of my kids if i ever told a soul so yeah good times, good times.
So sorry that happened. I hear this a lot. People long removed from the profession won’t even discuss it because they still feel an invisible hand over them.
I may never recover from the lies and twists of words put on paper about me. In my last two weeks of my career, my principal actually told me that she never had anything but the utmost respect for me. HA! I looked her straight in the eye and told her I have never believed anything she has said. I then turned around and just walked away.
Please share them!!!
@@DevinSiebold you always get it. yup! did i have a small panic attack even commenting about this? yes. yes i did. thanks for speaking so honestly and publicly.
My first year of job hunting as a new teacher was a disaster. Turns out I was shooting myself in the foot by talking about how much I believe in the school-home connection. I was also being sabotaged by the recurring question of "What does your ideal school administration team look like?" Still not sure what the correct answer to that one was but I know it's not "A team that supports their teachers."
Yeah, I left the teaching profession several years back. I do think the experience has made me a well-informed, boundary-respecting parent, though. My boys have amazing teachers and I make sure to not be a negative part of their lives.
I'm not a teacher, but I feel your pain. I've heard stories (about teaching) from my friend. I should start posting my own stories about the long term care industry! Keep up the truth telling!
A couple years ago my kid's teacher was fired a month before school was out. They're little second graders so their hearts were absolutely broken. It doesn't help that this school is in a rough neighborhood so a lot of these kids are already dealing with abandonment issues, many with fathers gone but some mothers also gone, left with their grandparents or other relative. You'd think the stability and lack of trauma to just stick out the last month would be enough. They replaced her with a student teacher that was even worse! I'm pretty sure that was against state law because you have to have a teaching license and degree where I live. They didn't have a plan at all. They said it was because she was too "soft" with the students. She seemed fine to me, my kid was reading at a 6th grade level in 2nd grade . Probably could've done higher but didn't allow IT because of the mature topics in older books.
Oh Devin, I have a story. I fell at work walking across campus and broke my foot. I had to have surgery. The district was screwing with my pay, so I lawyered up. They had me arrested for apparently WC fraud, oh yeah, I had to have two surgeries on my foot. I wound up having to go to court and because I didn't have the money to fight, I had to take a plea deal. Totally ridiculous. THEN they reported me to the credentialing board and fired me! I had to appear before the board, got a 3 day suspension, and that was that. In the meantime, I had a terminally ill husband, no insurance, and, well, you get the story! So horrible!
don't you have a union? Geez.
OMG that is heartbreaking. I am so sorry. This is an example of the compassion we are supposed to be instilling in our students…..
USA greatest country in the world haha
I had a serious abdominal infection diagnosed at the start of a school year, the Friday before students were to start. My position was as a special education teacher for a “resource” (self-contained) classroom of students with autism, most who also had very unsafe behaviors. Of course, this was at the start of the pandemic. For every appointment leading up to diagnosis and then surgery, I needed to get a covid test, quarantine until results came in 3- 5 days later, then schedule the appointments. Due to the nature of the job (requiring a lot of lifting of children off window sills, furniture, etc) I was told not to go to work until after surgery and healing. The principal called nearly daily, angry with me. The Friday before my Monday surgery, I had my pre-surgery appointment scheduled, which included another covid test to prove I was still negative.. and no return to school after the test. My principal called me into her room, reamed me out loudly, said I could not go, etc. I this point I had a sizable hole in my gut, a snaking tunnel of infection throughout my abdomen, had been to emergency room 3 times for care, and was at risk for septicemia. All my leave time was used up on cOVID quarantines post- testing and appointments. Principal had insisted I would not be approved for FMLA. I had filed anyway and was approved. At the time she was yelling at me and stating I could not go to my pre-surgery appointment or my surgery appointment, that she was going to put a negative report in my file because I’d be basically AWOL, I told her to do what she had to do as a principal… to fire me even…. But I needed to have that surgery. My health and potential life depended on it. Had the surgery. Open wound healing. She put the negative report in my file and called me nearly daily with her anger (they had trouble finding a teacher to manage the classroom). At one point I went back before the doctor wanted me to (arm twisted) and promptly and solidly got kicked in the gut by a student. It set my healing back (not to mention was very painful). So I was out again trying to heal. Ultimately, I returned, the year was rough, admin support minimal for my room. I left for a different position at the end of that school year. They still have not hired a teacher for that classroom and many teachers have fled the school. What shocks me is that principal had emergency surgery herself the year before I had mine. You’d think she’d have some compassion. Nope.
Wow! The principal was a bully.
God knows. It won't go unjudged.
My co-worker was in a bad car accident with her son and husband - car totalled - minor injuries like a broken tooth, broken foot, bruises...took xrays and dr. visits....traumatic. But she only took a week off. The very next week her family was diagnosed with covid, so she was out a second week. One of them had to go to the hospital, but was out the same day...all this, also traumatic.
So before her annual review her manager threatened to have a negative report made that she didn't have any vacation hours left in her account. The co-worker checked with HR, and it's not a requirement to have time sitting in your vacation hours account. My poor friend just went through a horrible car accident with her family and a week of them having covid, and this manager had NO sympathy. It's like they're evil robots with no hearts.
Just out of curiosity what did this student look like? And what happened to the student as a result of kicking you?
I was called into the Principal's office and raked over the coals because a parent had complained that I was too authoritarian and arbitrary. I'd told their child, a high school student, that he could not take off his pants in my class even if he had shorts underneath. The principal was on the side of the student (his parents seemed to have some political pull) until I asked him to think about what he would have said if all the other students' parents called to complain about me letting a student undress in class.
Are you an elementary school teacher? Junior/Senior high makes sense because *why* would they need to do that during class, but in elementary school it would make sense to let them. Its like taking a sweatshirt off. Its not "undressing".
He was layering his clothes... I don't see what the problem was. He wasn't getting naked on you. Dress codes are so f'ed up and only seem to be getting worse.
@@bennie1223 time and place to do a thing. Bathrooms are there for a reason.
@@eamartig No, I'm not an elementary teacher. I was a high school science teacher. Students changing clothes in the middle of a science class has never been an okay thing--that happens in a PE class with a dressing room not in the middle of a classroom. If a student were to complain to a parent that I was letting students take off their pants in class, especially if he showed more than he said he intended, I would have been fired without question
@@mum23kdz Given the day and age we live in, sounds to me like you made a solid call.
I lost my entire career in the cemetery industry after turning in the new general manager for sexually harassing my staff. At the HR meeting he admitted that he did everything they accused him of and two weeks later, I was called into a manager's meeting and fired in front of my friend, the funeral home manager. That was the day that I found out Maryland is an "at-will" employer state and an employer can fire you for any reason. I was also listed as not-hirable, so death care killed my entire career.
The stories you share is a huge part of what is wrong with the educational system. Some places are begging for teachers. Others are stomping on the good teachers they do have. I wish you lived here. I think our county schools could use teachers like you.
I was told that I needed to take the district’s horrible Teaching English Language Learners course because my Master’s in TESOL was too old, I.e. more than 10 years. Fortunately I was able to use my out of date MA to get an ESL endorsement added to my license by the state and avoid the course.
Pfft. I'm a native speaker teaching abroad with a masters degree in English, yet they're always getting me to take the TOEFL test.
@@decoraqueena6413 If you have a masters degree in English shouldn’t that override everything?
I had kind of a reverse story..several years into my teaching career personnel sent me a msg. Asking me to refill my initial application forms. ( apparently they'd lost them...but wouldn't actually say that) soooo I decided to not do that...and I continued working for another 24 yrs until I retired...never heard about it again. My district is more into the cover up and pretending it didn't happen I guess!
I am a Community College teacher. I gave them a copy TWICE of my master’s degree diploma.They kept paying me at the bachelor’s degree level and insisted that I didn’t have a master’s degree. They of course had my transcripts as well and a copy of my adult ed credential. Took years to straighten it out.
That’s some buwwwwshit.
Community college is where you messed up.
@@jonathandixon1305 How did he mess up? If it's accredited there should be no problem. It's the school that fucked up. This why we have unions and contracts.
@@joed2444 Community colleges aren’t the most professional. You don’t want to stick around them for more than 2 years.
When I was in a private K-8 Catholic school, the 7th grade teacher was AWESOME. His primary subject was math and he would teach that for the 6-8 graders, 7 graders got him for essentially home room, religion, math, and maybe English but I don't remember. This guy was the only teacher in my life that I've seen teach ACTUAL life lessons we needed. He taught how to balance a checkbook, how to budget, and we even took a field trip to a grocery store so we could learn how to properly shop, looking at things like price per ounce and if bulk is necessarily better. To go further on this, he had is do a project where we had a set budget, we had to get a newspaper, find a job, find a car, find a place to live and try to have the most money towards the end. He would throw curve balls/adult life moments at us like "ok if you bought a car for under $1000, your car is now broken and needs $500 in repairs".
So anyway, given that we were a Catholic school, he offered extra credit to students who watched the passion of the Christ WITH PARENTS, and the school immediately fired him. Well given how awesome of a teacher he was, we weren't having any of that nonsense. We walked out and protested (which is crazy to think of given our age and I'm not the protesting kind) and the school hired him back on. It was amazing
What school was it?
@@lilianmartinez4079 it was called St Lawrence but they closed down a while ago
Why the fired him, wasnt Mel Gibson catholic too?
@@emg7882 yeah the movie was Catholic based as well, it was a religious movie so none of us saw an issue with it. My only thought is that they probably fired him because the movie was rated R so even though he told us to go with parents, the school probably didn't want him to tell minors to go to a movie intended for adults
GOODFORYOU ANDFORHIM!ICANSEEWHY PEOPLEDON,TWANTTO BETEACHERS!
You must really love teaching to keep working for people like that.
I am so sorry that you had to go through all of this stuff.
I applied for a job at a local school district and got called for an interview. I had an email with the date, time and location of the interview. I showed up. Waited and waited. The front desk didn’t know where the hiring person was but “ wait and I’m sure she’ll be with you.” By this time, I’m supposed to be somewhere else so I email and ask to reschedule because no one knows where this interview is to take place. I get a text an hour and a half after my appointment time. “Hey. We moved all interviews today to Starbucks. If you come now we can still fit you in.” I text back that I didn’t receive any communication regarding the change of location and asked we we could reschedule because I had another obligation. “ Yeah, we just needed a change of scenery.” I feel like I dodged a bullet!
any chance that that was the interview? to see if you were willing and so hungry for a job that you cancel everything to bow down to their changing wishes? Seems like that good ground for finding cowards that kiss tail by having interview display how desperate you are?
@@Musicphilsgood it had crossed my mind. It was only for a summer school job, too. No thanks! Not spending my summer with people who are testing me or can’t communicate 😂
You are right that this is not so surprising. Teachers are quite regularly demeaned.
This exact same thing happened to me. Taught ESOL for around 12 years and was told I needed to take ESOL classes. I wasn’t about to do that. My grad work is in linguistics and language acquisition. Took about 6 months for them to realize they were wrong. Absurd.
Clearly all of that was an excuse to get rid of you for some untold reason. Based on what I see in this video, you handled this very very well. I on the other hand would have not. I'm self employed and have been for many years, so there's benefits of not working for the system, but of course I have to make my work work. How you can tell that story with a smile is beyond me. You have to be some kind of super hero ;)
School administrations, in some places, are simply ran by pompous idiots. My wife is an OT and has told me about all of the shenanigans that have gone on, many not legal, and other things would get people fired for being grossly incompetent in the corporate world. She was hired by a district with a $15k pay raise. They eventually retracted the pay, told her that they overpaid her, and said that she owed them $6k for their "mistake". Apparently this is a common thing in the Medford Oregon school district. She knows of at least 4 other specialists this has happened to, and it is a tactic that has been used for years to get new talent in. If you get hired into a school district, make sure you keep any sort of email communication, and get an official letter for what you'll be paid. In all of this mess, they "lost" her transcripts as well.
I am from the same area, I recommend getting a job at RCC, they get paid above average (from what i hear) and most the administrators are easy to work with.. the school district's in the area are not great to work for, i hear SOU can be not so great sometimes as well.. but i know several teachers at RCC and SOU and never heard anything bad about RCC. Not 100% sure about OT, but its worth a shot.
Kate Brown eleiminated math and reading requirements now to "fight inequality". The world portrayed in the movie Idiocracy is taking shape all around us
The dumbing-down of America has been going on for quite some time. LGBFJB
I was working for a special education classroom, students who were trouble never gave me grief I could usually get the most troubled kids to work happily, all staff I spoke with constantly sung my praises. The principal called me in and said "you are just not the right fit for this school." The kicker, I was one of 2 male teachers in the entire school. I guess straight male was not a right fit for the class.
If she actually said the "straight male" thing, in most places in the western world you could probably sue. Discrimination based on gender and such is discrimination, no matter against which group.
I worked in a for-profit charter. The "superintendent" observed me and told my principal that if I didn't improve by the time she came back, I would face consequences. She gave me a month. My principal saw me as an asset, observed me, critiqued me, had veteran teachers observe me, and critique me. All great advice. But I kept asking, what did I do wrong, where does the superintendent want me to improve, where are her notes. With every new critique, I asked again. Finally a day before the observation, we got the notes. (We were a for-profit school where students did all their work online with a program, and teachers were there to assist one on one. My principal implemented a classroom setting for harder subjects. In my case, junior English, but the books were online, so the kids were supposed to read before my class, and I would go over it. It worked as well as you may expect.)
My superintendent was upset that students did not have the books. This is an online school. The books were illegally downloaded for the students to use. The book I was teaching was the only book we had to get paper copies for because no one could figure out how to get it online. They bought 12 copies for the whole school; by spring semester when I was teaching it, we had 6 copies left. I had been arguing for more copies of the book since the beginning of the school year. The superintendent had denied my request multiple times.
When I read my notes, I looked up at my principal and said "you realize I has judged on something not in my control, right, and this is really all her fault. Ok, let's do this thing." Something in my voice must have tipped off my principal, so she spent the rest of the year making sure the superintendent never observed me. I only worked there one year.
Your blessed that your principal was supportive
Not to me, but to my sister, this happened: one Friday night was the first Parent/Teacher meeting, she has about 20 kids in her class, and she met all the parents of student, and all of them had either no issue with her, or were extremely satisfied with the progress their kid had made so far that year. So, a great night. On the next Monday, she was summoned to the principal office, and the lady(a former colleague of my sister, who have been moved to an administrative position for her sheer incompetence at teaching) told my sister that most parents had complained about her lack of proper supervision of the kids and that she was too lax with discipline... The strangest thing was that every year my sister's students had among the best report cards of all the school district... and that she received anything but praise for her methods of teaching by the parents...
MY MY MY. You have such a great attitude🙂. It is obvious you love what you do! The atudents are blessed to have you as their educator in the Brick & Mortar INSTITUTION!
However, you & all the other hardworking Teachers of America deserve BETTER 👏 👍💯
So sorry you went through that. Those in your profession should be honored and respected. Thank you for sharing.
"They finally found out about the murder."
Honestly, I would have said that for sure! Get that rumor mill really going, and have some fun with it.
You still had a better experience than one of the teachers at my High School when I attended. Poor lady was driven literally insane by her students and had to be escorted into an ambulance for a wellness check.
That is maddening to hear about. I feel terrible about that happening to you. Teachers are critical to the success of any society and for you to get treated like this breaks my soul a little bit. You're a champion, thank you for the time you've spent as a teacher.
The head of the local teaching administration asked to see me in her office. I went there at the exact time she had requested, but she wasn't there. I waited for 45 minutes until I went to look for her, nervous that I had misunderstood the location. I encountered her in the hallway where a group of my pupils was gathered.
"You asked to see me?" I said.
"Oh right, I did," said the head of the administration. "We've decided that we don't need you any more after this term."
And that's how I got fired. No sorries, no lowering her voice. Happened in the hallway right in front of my pupils. Not even done by the headmaster (as is the practise here). And after I had been left to wait for 45 minutes.
Oh geeze. Just demoralizing. That stuff makes you not want to even try and apply elsewhere for fear of going through that again.
That’s such a bitchy way to do it. Fuck that.
Stories like these are why I choose to remain a sub. I have a bachelors in English and an MAT in secondary education. I will never work full time again. I stay in one school and do the best damn job at subbing I can do. Why are you not full time some ask? Why don’t you have your own classroom?!? Well it’s a toss up between admin and the parents! Take your pick!
And I'm not even American. I'm from Finland which is supposedly a "good" country for teachers. Bullshit.
@@neponepo8349 I’m so sorry that happened. That’s a terrible thing. Doesn’t matter where you’re from. I’d like to say nothing like that happens in the US but I’d be lying. The school I work at now (subbing) is wonderful. Never knew an admin could be that supportive until I met her. So not all schools are bad. I hope you find a great environment that is worthy of your talents and your time 🙏
I'm split between 3 schools and am non-tenured. All of my admins forgot to observe me by the deadlines then were in a rush to get all the observations done in a timely fashion. I had 1 observation in May after I signed my contract renewal and then 2 in the same week in June. The 2nd week of June I had an observation on Wednesday then one on Friday. The next week I had 2 post observations then the following week I had my summative evaluation. It's crazy how the deadlines seem flexible for the admins but if I did anything like that it wouldn't go over well.
That is completely against the law in Cali.
Disgusting that they used your sick days, you should have told them to get lost and found another place to work at. Or to stand your ground on the sick days. It was THEIR mistake and they should be held legally accountable for giving you back your sick days.❤
It's here in Australia too. I had a senior student threaten to 'knock my head off with a Broom'. I logged it on the student management system and took stress leave. Stress leave was denied because principal told ed department there was 'no record of any incidents'. I had screenshots of it. I was forced back to work stressed. Then the started a misconduct case citing every little thing I had ever done wrong. I resigned.
When I was pregnant with my first baby, I transferred to a new school to share a contract. After my baby was born that summer, I had to take additional time off because I had an unplanned c-section. The principal was not happy and let me know it. As a new mom with postpartum depression, I still worked my butt off and did my best, and even had wonderful observations that year. But at the end of the year evaluation meeting, she told me (off the record) I did not have my "priorities straight" that year! I let her know that my family will always come first. (No, she wasn't a mother, but she did compare having a new baby to having cats when we met.)
did you happen to be a softmore year english teacher
@@bilbo_gamers6417 No, I teach elementary.
@@mommyteacher2961 Even still, it's good you're contributing to the "English teacher gets pregnant and leaves in the middle of the year" trope
What the hell? No surprise that the principal was not a mother. Absolutely unprofessional. Cats? Give me a break. Anyone working in public education should understand the importance of the family in civic duty.
Having cats, yeah, sure, almost identical to having a baby 🤦♀️ some people are so out of touch it's ridiculous 😵💫
I'm a homeschool Mom. It gives me an appreciation for all teachers do. Teachers aren't paid enough.
Yeah they are look at inner city schools your better off home schooling or ivy league public sucks at least you get to control your kids education.
Something like that happen when I was student teaching. My University lost my background check. They sent a professor down to escort me to my car. I drove my happy self down to the University and sat there for hours. When they finally saw me I said, "I had to register with the state's public education department can't you get a copy from them?" They said they didn't do that. I told them I was not paying for another so they needed to call. Five minutes later PED sent a copy and I was good to go back to school.
That's messed up in many levels, they treated you like a criminal, I'd sue them for everything they have.
I come from a family of teachers (spent my own time in the classroom). Reading through the comments, sadly nothing surprises me. In fact, I'm certain the general public would be floored if they had a clue what teachers are routinely put through. As a parent, I've seen a whole lot in our district that I can't unsee. On the outside, things look so nice. As you get closer to those inner circles, it's super sad.
Not the same type of teacher, but something very similar happened to me. I'm a swim instructor. The only certs I was required by administration to have was CPR/AED. The manager wouldn't hire anyone who didn't have American Red Cross water instructor. But, anything relevant, they wanted on file, because then they could justify charging parents more for lessons (and not pay us more, of course). I get an email saying that I'm delinquent and need to take a community response CPR course by Friday. I tell them that I already submitted my CPR cert. They say, "Oh we must have lost it. Get it to us by Friday or you're fired."
This was a side hustle, so at least I could say, "Your being disorganized is not my emergency. I'll get it to you when I get it to you."
I got it to them that weekend. Then, they say, "This is the wrong CPR. We want Red Cross community responder." I thought they meant they wanted Red Cross and were upset that mine was American Heart. So, I said, "Oh, well, my lifeguarding cert is Red Cross and that has CPR with it." No, they were mad because mine was BLS, which is a higher level of certification than community. Then, I find out that they lost my lifeguarding cert too. And my boat instructor. And my epi pen injector. And my wilderness first responder. And my water instructor. Then, I learn, they actually lost my entire personnel file.
When the last recession hit, my district was looking to cut payroll, and fired a bunch of teachers for not having their CLAD credential. (It deals with teaching non-English speakers) One of the teachers who was fired didn't have the credential because she taught the class that awarded the credential at the college level. She still got laid off.
That joke at the end was actually perfect. Shows you still had your sanity after dealing with that BS. Hope you're doing well!!
Damn and I was looking into becoming a math teacher for my high school. It's not just your story. I hang out with a lot of high school and college professors. They all have horror stories. Even when I was enlisting to the Navy, I needed my high school transcript, college transcript, and my *birth certificate*. They actually almost denied me because all I had was my passport, until I spoke to someone that was a higher rank in the recruiting station.
I wonder how I can become an educator, without dealing with the department of education. The whole system needs serious reforms.
Oh boy typical let me tell you mine: 12 years into teaching I had to go to 3/5ths due to surgery (wanted me to stay home but couldn’t afford) to keep my insurance I had to pay which I did once back teaching full time for 3 years I kept asking why my check was so small and they told me it wasn’t then I get a message to Call District immediately! I did they told me to sit down I’m like “what?” And they proceed to tell me that they had goofed they owed me $8,000! They said “Great huh!?” I said “ No it’s pretty crappy I could have I invested and made more $ you owe me the interest and I want it in a separate check.” Like you I went to Union and after a lot of back and forth I got what I wanted..looking back I should have sued them ugh!
You’re so lucky they even told you. I think most districts would say whoops and sweep it
@@DevinSiebold except it’s against the law ha and I could have taken them to Federal Court but I didn’t left 5 years later. Loved the kids hated Admin
I am fortunate to work in a great school with a wonderful admin who back teachers 100%. However, the other day, the parking enforcement officer, who is supposed to monitor the STUDENT parking lot, not the FACULTY lot, literally made me leave the school secretary in charge of my class while I went outside to move my car about 2” so I wasn’t “taking up two spaces.” There were at least 50 open parking spaces.
By the way, Devin, I’m a huge fan; I watch all your videos. I 100% would have told my high school students “they found out about the murder!” hahahaha
I was having some nostalgic memories about my 14 years of teaching that I left for a literal dream job….this video reminded me of so many similar situations that all I feel now is RELIEF.
On my first day of teaching 5th grade, one kid tried to push another one out the window! I called the office, and the vice-principal asked me in a loud voice in front of the class, "Can't you control your students?" I left public school teaching and later became a deputy sheriff, working as a jailor. It was much easier than teaching, and paid a lot more!
I didn't have anything like this happen to me but I did have the following happen. I was working at a school and fell, tearing a tendon in my right ankle. I was made to drive myself to their doctor to get checked out, who in turn made me drive myself to the hospital. I was out on medical leave for 3 months. Returned with restrictions in September, but by July had to have surgery on the ankle to repair the tendon. The day after my surgery I got a letter in the mail that my contract was not being renewed for the following year.
So I was fired my first official year; I started out as a long term sub and was supposed to be surplussed but the Principals entire 3rd grade quit.
(Mind you I was 17 days away from being relocated and had already given my notice) because I yelled at a student.
Once I was gone from the district and the state for like 4 months, the FLDOE came after me and falsely accused me of grabbing that student and throwing them into a trophy case, which never happened and this school doesn't own!
I was given two choices: I could either go all the way back to FL from VA to fight charges that they didn't even have to prove or give up my temporary certificate, which no other state would accept and that was set to expire in 3 more months!! I still have tire marks on my soul where I was thrown under the bus!
I have only subbed in VA and we've been relocated again to NC. I will never go back into the classroom again unless it's to retrieve my own child.
I havent been fired before, but these are crazy things that have happened during class:
1. A rat ran along the open window frames
2. A girl walked in with poop under her shoe and there was no janitor, only paper towels in my room
3. A dog waltzed in
4. A lizard jumped on a desk, girls screamed, and a boy took the lizard and threw it at one of them
5. Construction workers came in to take measurements for a smart board for the math teacher who would be given my room in that same month of April. Then they proceeded to DRILL HOLES while I gave class, no excuse me's or questions asked.
These are my top five~
We have also had a dog waltz into our school, and we also had maintenance drill holes in concrete for a new smart board in the middle of class. Smh
😱
Yep, maintenance workers generally just go about their day as if no one else exists and they NEVER clean up after themselves either. I don’t understand why these jobs aren’t done before or after school hours. My husband does shift work…it’s not a new concept😬
So I just had maintenance walk into my classroom while we were teaching our students, proceed to test our electrical sockets, talk like we weren't there, ask us questions about said sockets, and then walk outside and discuss what needed to happen in our room. No hello, excuse me, when I asked could I help them they looked at me like I was crazy..... Year 39 y'all. Enough of the foolishness; OMW HOME.....
We had so many rodents in one school that a rat chased a mouse across my classroom and, as I had encouraged them, my students just calmly shifted from their chairs to their desktops and continued to attend the lesson without comment.
That is insane! I was never fired, but my first year as a middle school English teacher I had an angry parent accost me in my classroom at 7 am and scream at me and threaten me in front of other teachers and students because she was upset that her daughter received a D on an assignment (which I had given all of the students an opportunity to re-take with tons of support). No other teachers or admin came to my aid, even though they could clearly hear the screaming and see what was happening from my open door in the hallway. It's worth noting that we have a security guard who is supposed to monitor the campus and all parents are supposed to sign in at the front office, parents can't just walk onto campus and into teachers' classrooms without permission, but nobody at any point stopped her. After it was over, the teacher who was "temporary VP for the day" (because the real Vice Principal was out) told me that this happens all the time and I need to get used to it if I want to be a teacher. I filed an incident report with the front office, and a few days later the principal forced me to sit down in a room with this parent who made me feel unsafe, a local police officer, and herself, to "hear the parent out and come to an amicable agreement." I received no support from the administration, and at no point did anyone tell me that I did not deserve to be treated that way, or that I had no obligation to ever be in the same room with that parent again. I later found out that this parent did the same thing to 3 other teachers on campus over the years.
Teachers are by far the most under-valued, under-paid, and under-appreciated occupation in the world. My deepest gratitude and respect to our mentors, instructors, and educators for developing and enriching our lives.
I watched a teacher at the school where I worked get arrested mid class for drug possession and distribution to students. But for you to go through that crap for something you already supplied to them and still be willing to work for them, that is dedication to teaching. My hat is off to you good sir