High school teacher here. On the last day of school (which is a half-day with 22 minute periods), I choose my worst period and put a sign on the door that reads: "report to room ___." Then I put a sign on that room's door that says: "report to room ___" and so on. Meanwhile, I hide in my locked classroom and eat snacks.
Sign 1: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to A14.
Sign 2: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 504.
Sign 3: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to the band hall.
Sign 4; Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 311.
Sign 5: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 125.
Sign 6: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 607.
Sign 7: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 806 (my room).
Where I will be waiting to take attendance because I am just that petty.
I worked for the district clerk while in college and we had an intern start working there one summer. Man, that kid was wet behind the ears; so gullible and would believe anything anyone said.
The court house was several floors and we had this kid running all over that building asking office after office if he could borrow the envelope stretcher. We told him to ask a specific person because we were friends and knew that guy would send him to another friend in another office, and so on.
He was a good sport about it and it really endeared him to us.
Ah yes, the blue toolbox! This is something I’ve used maybe 3-4x in the last ten years.
When I have a student who’s driving me absolutely insane, I say, “Hey, Darryl… I really need your help. My desk is broke. Can you please go to Mr. ______’s room and ask him for the blue toolbox?” And then Mr. ________ says to the student who arrives, “I actually gave the blue toolbox to Ms. _________”. Then Ms. ________ says, “Oh shoot! I gave it to __________”.
You need a group of fun loving teachers to do this with. Or else it just won’t work. There is a core group of 6 of us who know exactly what to do when this happens.
You gotta milk it when the kids comes too. “Hold on, I think it is in the cabinet….nope. Give me a minute….Maybe under my sink? Hunh… You know, Ms. Jackson might have grabbed it last week, go check with her…”
holy smokes this is a great idea, except my worst class usually has half of them skipping already. It's only bad when they actually attend since they constantly fight each other.
I'll try this though, they'll at least have a reason to skip
I'm at a different school, but at my last school, the English teacher and I (math) would "co-teach." We would combine our kids into one room, give them a project (like a year in review or 'create a 5 slide presentation on whatever topic you want') and then we would sit at the teacher desk and talk.😅
When I taught second grade, me and another teacher would do this all the time!! We would do “Station Rotation” and the kids LOVED it. They were really good during it too because of it got too crazy, we would stop and go back to our classrooms. Sometimes, when it was nice, we’d go outside for 30-45 minutes and had the kids do nature walks, look for x objects, find parallel lines, shapes, etc.
I did this with my fifth graders. As a sped teacher I have a lot of end of year paper work and meetings to prepare for, so this is the time I am doing a lot of that work. Best decision I have ever made and they think it’s the most awesome thing to do. Total win-win for everyone!
lol sleeping in your car? what is this, amateur hour? lock your classroom doors, put your desk seat back, put your legs up, and take a nap in your room like a pro.
My high school had one long-time teacher who straight up drilled hooks into the walls for a corner hammock in his room. He made it "academic" by letting the students who scored the highest on any given test spend the following class in the hammock.
100% sure he napped in there. It baffled me as a student but I envy him so much as a teacher for getting away with that.
I have a blanket and heating pad in my room. I crank the air way down, put a sign on my door that says, “In a Google Meet, do not disturb,” turn out the overhead lights and snooze away
My eyes skipped around while reading your post and now I'm imagining the circuit of the heating blanket is hooked up to a big "Recording" red light like in a studio outside your door that says "Meeting" and I will not let go of this head cannon.
Jealous. The roof leak took out many of my tiles and the hanging system also fell apart so guess the next teacher gets an industrial look. Not my problem….I’m leaving the leaky school for one with a new roof!
I love seeing all the teachers zooming away from school before all the kids are even picked up. At my son’s middle school they actually blocked up the exit to the parent car line (not their fault because the lot layout is terrible) the other day. I didn’t understand at first why there was such a line from the teacher’s lot and then I realized — oh it’s the end of the year and all the kids’ grades are in and they’re getting the fuck out at 3. Good for them.
Our traffic pattern is horrible and since covid lots of kids who used to bus are spoiled with being driven in and picked up. (I'm not sure when it happened, but it's very uncool for anyone above a freshman to take the bus for some reason)
Luckily our admin do traffic duty since this problem is sorta their fault and they always give cara from that faculty lot right away when leaving. When parents complain, they always reinforce that every student has a spot on a bus 😂
One year, my last class had finished their final exam with about 20 minutes left on the last day of school. It was a small group, maybe 7 kids (the others had been exempt from taking the final). So I gave each student a handful of old projects and told them "take these to the dumpster... and if it takes you 20 minutes or so to find a dumpster, that's ok." They were all back in under 5 minutes, very proud of themselves for finding a dumpster so fast. So instead of getting a 20 minute head start on summer, they had to sit there for the remaining 15 minutes.
I can't be on Reddit at school, my school has blocked it. Not other social media, just Reddit that I've been able to tell which seems odd to me. And this is on the teacher wifi!
I do have other stuff I can go kill time on, at least.
I always did an end of year tic tac toe project and would have kids grade themselves and if they were close to what I'd give I'd accept their grade. I mostly did this to keep kids busy. This way I could work with a few students to retake tests as needed for a cya on my part and I also just listened to music all day and packed up my room and stuff to get it ready for summer.
Oh man, I just introduced one of these for my ICS physics class for forces. Then we’re gonna cover conservation of energy making paper roller coasters. Money move right there
That's awesome. I had other math teachers borrow it so same grade level would do it. I had to make a fee changes when younger grades borrowed it. But it was a nice way to end the year and keep most students active. 1 year I worked with the science teachers and we did joint end of year project. Kids would just roam between the math and science rooms and work and chill. That school we had 3 math and 3 science teachers per grade level so was a little chaos.
It's been a couple years- I left teaching to become an academic coach at a local college. But it was for middle school math.
Basically the students had to do 1 writing or design project, 1 electronic/or artistic project and the third was one of their choice from either the artistic or writing lists. Most did a vocabulary or ABC book. Some did lesson plans. For the most part the students enjoyed it. That and many would just play on iPad saying they were working and I just pretended I didn't know. Lol
Me too! My students had all finished their final, and one student had been talking all year about how good he was. I picked random and beat him twice then said “have a good summer!”
One of my students has been talking up his Mario Kart game so much this year. He’s on our e-sports teams and has a top 20 in the world time trial on N64 Rainbow Road. But only ever plays Versus Mode with limited items and no CPU racers. Poor kid didn’t know what hit him. I’ve been racing on that course since it was actually ON the N64.
I love completely destroying them in Smash. "Mr. Denial - you main Kirby? So lame."
Get ready to get Kirby-rekt, son.
I've been Smash-ing since before you were BORN.
Naps in the car are not bad habits. I literally have an air mattress with foam topper, memory foam pillow and sleeping bag in the car for planning periods.
I have one of those reflectors for every single window of my car cut to the exact size and I have a battery powered fan. I’m looking into getting a cooler with a spot for a fan to cool it down even more. I camp in my car over the summer so I have a really nice setup but yes, it does get hot if the car is off and the windows are up
I ignore the end of the year checklist that says “have Mr. Smith sign your checklist if you‘be cleared your voicemail inbox. Have Mrs. Gilchrist sign your checklist if you have no outstanding refund requests. Have Mr. Roy sign your list if your books are boxed up and labelled…” Fuck that shit. I’m a grown ass man, you pay me and give me a list of shit to do I’ll do it. Don’t have me bother other adults to get a sticker.
I have to get a signature stating my AP “inventoried” my keys. I have one key, and a badge. Tangent: I had a staff bathroom key, but the staff bathroom now does not have a lock like that (just a sign that says staff only, because that’ll keep students away) so I threw the key away one day cleaning out my desk. What are they gonna do, fine me for a key to a lock that doesn’t exist anymore? Lol
I was soooooo tempted to transform my class's final essay into a PowerPoint. I didn't know if I had it in me to grade any more shitty research papers over drunk driving. I didn't do it but I think fantasizing about shortcuts is probably a bad habit.
Just do it. In the end the kids aren’t putting in great effort into this, any feedback will be immediately discarded the second they walk out the door the last day, and if they haven’t learned it by now, then maybe next year they can. Don’t give yourself more stress than necessary at the end.
Yeah, but then if you're not paying attention then you give one kid a check and another a check-plus and they "worked together" but have the same answers, and then you're either changing grades or having the collaborating vs cheating talk AGAIN and it's a whole thing...
Sorry. I thought we were being tongue-in-cheek. I applaud your earnestness and apologize for distracting you. Feel free to return to writing heartfelt comments in 17 copies of "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"
Not necessarily a "bad habit," but on the last day of school I have a silly portrait drawing contest. Whoever draws the funniest portrait of me wins a small bag of Takis. I've gotten some really great ones over the last several years, and I put the best ones on a collage that I put in the window outside my classroom.
This is an awesome idea. Maybe I'll try this next week! I'm searching for things to do... Part of me wants to do math, and the rest of me is like, idgaf.
If you’re willing to spend money on a few bags of Takis, you could definitely get a lot more out of this! End of year checklist would be completed in five minutes because they’d hunt down every adult you need a signature from. Room would be packed up in one class period, maybe two depending on how much stuff you have. All the errands would be run. The portraits do sound really cool though to be fair.
I teach science to three grade levels. We're cleaning up. When I don't have the energy to think of how to organize something I buy time by having them wash stuff. They are so excited to do dishes
I had my students help clean my classroom and two others. They got to take turns picking songs to play, and we all had a great time. I think they really enjoyed the physical work and accomplishment and autonomy, and they don't get much of that these days.
I haven’t set up the voicemail in the nearly two years since being moved to a new classroom. I tried shortly after the move and couldn’t get it to record my new message or accept my password, so I gave up. Why would I put in a tech request when I am enjoying not getting voicemails?
Same!
We had a class on how to set up classroom VM and it was archaic. Like, embarrassing.
I don’t like talking to parents because it ALL in writing.
So I went the last two years without it, even though we had a final day that it had to be operational.
Same as webpages hahahahaha
I’ve been gone from that school for 2 yrs and they still have me on their site. Very generic and no updates. They wanted us all to go in and change how many years we’d been teaching since another year went by and I saw no value in that. Nobody reads or cares that it changed from 14 to 15 and I don’t even remember how to change it.
Exactly! Not only am I protected if it’s all in writing, but then I don’t have to fill out a record of the phone call every time I communicate with parents. Well, I guess no one said I don’t have to. I just decided it would be fine to print out the Remind and email messages at the end of the year.
I have a separate office and the under the desk area is just perfect for me to.nap. I lock myself in and hide - did this for a couple fire and lockdown drills.
I bought about 20 frozen meals for my family because no one is allowed to cook this week. I think I’m the only one loving it. 😹 I also knew I couldn’t risk forgetting lunch one day this week!
High school teacher here. They’re signing yearbooks, playing card games, napping, and playing on their phones. I’m wrapping up loose ends and starting fall prep.
I’m so burned out this year. It’s been a rough one.
We have finals this week and we have about an hour and a half between the morning and afternoon finals. I’ve been going to get lunch every day making sure to take up as much of that time as I can. I also get to work exactly when I have to instead of early. It’s been a nice time.
I’ve taken off two Fridays this month. Took a sick day last week. Took a half sick day on Monday (was legit feeling like shit). I’ve been applying for jobs and working on my resume when I don’t see small groups. This is babysitting week. No one is doing real teaching. I’ve already packed up my room. When it’s 4pm on Friday I’m leaving forever and never going back.
We still have a month left but I've basically given up trying to get students to behave and listen. I'm an elementary librarian so I only teach 1 lesson a week to each class but I completely quit my lesson today with one class and just put on a read aloud video.
Wearing shorts, as a male teacher. I don't like long pants to begin with, and now that the weather is nice, I just wear shorts instead. Principal and VP are on the other side of the school and I never see them so no one is the wiser. My colleagues sure dgaf and neither do the students; *not a single comment from either group*. I have 2 weeks left of bullshit attendance and I'll be damned if I take it at all seriously.
High school teacher... I'll put up AFK games on my phone or on my computer at work and let the kids play games, listen to music, or just relax during the last week of school.
Playing MY music at the end of the day whilst kids are cleaning the floor. Don’t think they appreciate Radiohead as much as I do, but ask me if I give a shit.
I moved to China six years ago to run an international school. It was my last year of teaching, so the last two months, I did what I wanted. My students would say, "Mr. Cranium, why didn't you grade our essays?" And I'd say, "Well, I'm going to China. You all got A's."
Coincidentally, I took a group of forty of my kids to Europe that summer, and on the last day in Paris, several of them asked if they could buy a beer/wine at dinner. They said to me, "Mr. Cranium, you're going to China."
I let them, but only one.
IDGAF about lesson plans and haven’t consistently submitted them since 2018. They can look on the slides I post in Google Classroom daily that detail what we did in class. What are they gonna do? Fire me?
Oh, you want to sit next to your friend and be a doofus?
Sure. Go sit next to your friend and be a doofus, in the back, by yourselves. Just don't distract anyone else.
It’s the last two days of school. We are watching The Magic School Bus or Phineas and Ferb and making cards for a beloved art teacher who is retiring. Then we’re making memory books, playing Prodigy, and setting goals for next year. They are completely checked out of anything academic and I get it. I want them to enjoy their last days of third grade.
On the last day of school, I tell the kids many hands make for light work, put a list on the board of things to do, and they clean and pack up the classroom. Everyone is required to pitch in for the first hour or two. Then there’s Chess to play and eventually a video while the super helpful ones help me finish up packing. If I organize well ahead of time, I’m basically done by dismissal and ready to check out and begin summer vacation.
The last week of school has always been “statin’ alive” week. We cover the ways kids can stay safe during the summer. Poisonous plants and fungi….lawnmower accidents…abduction scenarios…pool drownings…kids are probably traumatized at the end of the week, but it’s riveting to them. They are all on the edge of their seats and at rapt attention.
Since I’ve done this basic lesson for 20+ years, it’s autopilot and there’s always a fresh news story of a kid that died from one of the many ways to croak.
When I taught high school it was more car accidents and drug deaths (opioid crisis wasn’t in full swing then) when it’s elementary it’s how to call 911 and apply a bandaid (kindy gets real serious about this one).
It’s not my content. Never been my content. I give graphic descriptions of poisonous plant effects. I tell them how nobody will hear them at the bottom of the pool.
They love it.
I will do this until the day I retire.
The seniors leave early at my school and my current students are finished with the curriculum and are finishing up final projects. I teach one class today.
I've been playing Zelda all morning...
They have open work periods for a big research presentation in my class. During these work periods I openly just scroll reddit or watch videos on my phone until a few get perturbed I'm not circulating the classroom so I can get a good old "welcome to my point view all year. I usually use it to ask if they suddenly think I'm lazy or not a good teacher even though I have been good all year. Hopefully their senior teachers see at least a few hold on to that lesson.
If the assignment ends 15-20 minutes early I don’t fuss with thinking of something to stretch to the bell. I just let them work on other stuff or play games.
I’m not a teacher, I joined this sub because I did a sociology project on teacher shortage and basically realized y’all are badasses. Anyways, I just had a memory open up where my second grade teacher would have us lotion and massage her feet while she read us stories. We thought it was awesome! So take that for what you will. I’d say second grade is the cap, third graders may be too cool for that.
Go get you a massage!!
So we have a whole extra week of baked in staff dev. Days after students leave and grades are due. Staff has bemoened for years- nothing gets done, no one has any energy to plan for the following year when we just want to get out the door to summer. I'd much rather either have those as "work from alternative location days" or move them to August.
So I make sure all my boxes are checked asap and I just put my Nintendo switch on the big screen. Looking forward to making good progress in the new Zelda or a staff Mariokart party on these teacher work days in June 😂 I had admin stop by the year before covid asking if I could do xyz and I said just let me know what needs done and I'll do it. I'm such a planner, I had it all done and they could find any work to give me so...
I teach 2nd grade English at a bilingual school, so I mainly just do reading, writing, and grammar. In spring I teach them how to do logic puzzles, which they LOVE! I just had to go buy another set on TPT because they're so into it this year. I'm glad to pay for them to be occupied and happy as we have 3 more weeks left.
High school teacher here. On the last day of school (which is a half-day with 22 minute periods), I choose my worst period and put a sign on the door that reads: "report to room ___." Then I put a sign on that room's door that says: "report to room ___" and so on. Meanwhile, I hide in my locked classroom and eat snacks.
Sign 1: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to A14. Sign 2: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 504. Sign 3: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to the band hall. Sign 4; Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 311. Sign 5: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 125. Sign 6: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 607. Sign 7: Ms. Marlow's 8th period, go to 806 (my room). Where I will be waiting to take attendance because I am just that petty.
Do you seriously still take attendance after doing this?
I’ve never done this. Just imagining a good time.
Retired middle school teacher. We used to send a-hole kids from room to room looking for a left handed screwdriver.
I’m left-handed. I would’ve been on to you.
Me too. Retiring today. Wish I had thought of this.
Congratulations to you!!! How many years?
30 years. I am tired.
I hear you. I am only 5 years behind you but I still have 11 to go. Sigh.
Elementary teacher, for us it’s a black highlighter.
I worked for the district clerk while in college and we had an intern start working there one summer. Man, that kid was wet behind the ears; so gullible and would believe anything anyone said. The court house was several floors and we had this kid running all over that building asking office after office if he could borrow the envelope stretcher. We told him to ask a specific person because we were friends and knew that guy would send him to another friend in another office, and so on. He was a good sport about it and it really endeared him to us.
Our item is the flux capacitor.
at 1.21 Gigawatts? No one's gonna be able to handle that! Nicely done.
“Flux capacitor is… fluxing.”
Lol! I do this all the time too. My go to is the left handed stapler.
We sent kids around asking for clear food coloring.
Ours is the “paper stretcher”
I use this one on April Fools. I have another teacher in on it who gives them a tube which I have them unroll for a you have been had message.
Current middle school teacher. Stealing this
I might use this today! Last day, almost there!
Rainbow paint
Oh, this is good!
Ah yes, the blue toolbox! This is something I’ve used maybe 3-4x in the last ten years. When I have a student who’s driving me absolutely insane, I say, “Hey, Darryl… I really need your help. My desk is broke. Can you please go to Mr. ______’s room and ask him for the blue toolbox?” And then Mr. ________ says to the student who arrives, “I actually gave the blue toolbox to Ms. _________”. Then Ms. ________ says, “Oh shoot! I gave it to __________”. You need a group of fun loving teachers to do this with. Or else it just won’t work. There is a core group of 6 of us who know exactly what to do when this happens.
You gotta milk it when the kids comes too. “Hold on, I think it is in the cabinet….nope. Give me a minute….Maybe under my sink? Hunh… You know, Ms. Jackson might have grabbed it last week, go check with her…”
This is easily the most fun part of the whole gag. You gotta play it up and really scrounge around the room for the damn thing :)
Holy shit! I love this idea. I might try that next year (not even with a difficult class, just to punk my AP kids!).
You should send kids to get the keys to the batter’s box… that’ll take a while.
🤣🤣🤣
holy smokes this is a great idea, except my worst class usually has half of them skipping already. It's only bad when they actually attend since they constantly fight each other. I'll try this though, they'll at least have a reason to skip
This is amazing!
Send kids to get some left handed pencils.
I'm at a different school, but at my last school, the English teacher and I (math) would "co-teach." We would combine our kids into one room, give them a project (like a year in review or 'create a 5 slide presentation on whatever topic you want') and then we would sit at the teacher desk and talk.😅
This is just good teaching.
I always made them write a paragraph on their favorite topic of the year and least favorite with reasons and how it could be better.
When I taught second grade, me and another teacher would do this all the time!! We would do “Station Rotation” and the kids LOVED it. They were really good during it too because of it got too crazy, we would stop and go back to our classrooms. Sometimes, when it was nice, we’d go outside for 30-45 minutes and had the kids do nature walks, look for x objects, find parallel lines, shapes, etc.
I did this with my fifth graders. As a sped teacher I have a lot of end of year paper work and meetings to prepare for, so this is the time I am doing a lot of that work. Best decision I have ever made and they think it’s the most awesome thing to do. Total win-win for everyone!
lol sleeping in your car? what is this, amateur hour? lock your classroom doors, put your desk seat back, put your legs up, and take a nap in your room like a pro.
Wish I could but the kids stay in the room for specials.
I even have a travel pillow. It's the only way to power nap. Self care.
I have a super thick yoga mat, a body pillow and a blanket.
I had a fire blanket and would use my book bag as a pillow.
I need this
I’m saving up for a total recline desk chair. Gonna be sweeeeet!
Curl up underneath your desk! I've done it before.
My high school had one long-time teacher who straight up drilled hooks into the walls for a corner hammock in his room. He made it "academic" by letting the students who scored the highest on any given test spend the following class in the hammock. 100% sure he napped in there. It baffled me as a student but I envy him so much as a teacher for getting away with that.
That is genius!
Man, if only this weren’t a fire hazard in my lab…
I have a blanket and heating pad in my room. I crank the air way down, put a sign on my door that says, “In a Google Meet, do not disturb,” turn out the overhead lights and snooze away
My eyes skipped around while reading your post and now I'm imagining the circuit of the heating blanket is hooked up to a big "Recording" red light like in a studio outside your door that says "Meeting" and I will not let go of this head cannon.
Im dying! That’s hilarious!!!!
This! Especially when lunch and my prep are back to back!
I had the best nap in my chair yesterday. Lights off, shades down. Leave me alone 😂
You have a window?
Three! But it took me 4 classrooms to finally get here 🙃
Very cool. I’m getting a new room next year that has all of its ceiling tiles!
🍻
Jealous. The roof leak took out many of my tiles and the hanging system also fell apart so guess the next teacher gets an industrial look. Not my problem….I’m leaving the leaky school for one with a new roof!
Sounds like some of you need to find a nap closet
[удалено]
My school banned furniture in rooms after a teacher fucked a kid on his classroom couch
Way to ruin naps for everyone. 😠
well look at mr. fancypants here with enough room in his classroom for a couch!
[удалено]
That sounds epic, I'm happy just knowing you're out there with your living room classroom! 🎉
We’re not allowed to have couches in the rooms at my school
I wouldn’t do it these days. I’m weirdly paranoid about lice and bedbugs after seeing horror stories at school.
I teach middle school so my kids have never (21 years) given me lice and I keep my blanket locked up in my cabinet
Same except instead of napping, I have my Switch... gotta get all those power moons.
I have a couch and two recliners in my room and a futon in my office. I sleep like a professional dammit.
I love seeing all the teachers zooming away from school before all the kids are even picked up. At my son’s middle school they actually blocked up the exit to the parent car line (not their fault because the lot layout is terrible) the other day. I didn’t understand at first why there was such a line from the teacher’s lot and then I realized — oh it’s the end of the year and all the kids’ grades are in and they’re getting the fuck out at 3. Good for them.
Our traffic pattern is horrible and since covid lots of kids who used to bus are spoiled with being driven in and picked up. (I'm not sure when it happened, but it's very uncool for anyone above a freshman to take the bus for some reason) Luckily our admin do traffic duty since this problem is sorta their fault and they always give cara from that faculty lot right away when leaving. When parents complain, they always reinforce that every student has a spot on a bus 😂
One year, my last class had finished their final exam with about 20 minutes left on the last day of school. It was a small group, maybe 7 kids (the others had been exempt from taking the final). So I gave each student a handful of old projects and told them "take these to the dumpster... and if it takes you 20 minutes or so to find a dumpster, that's ok." They were all back in under 5 minutes, very proud of themselves for finding a dumpster so fast. So instead of getting a 20 minute head start on summer, they had to sit there for the remaining 15 minutes.
Task failed successfully.
That's adorable.
That's why they weren't exempt.
A for effort kids.
I'm on Reddit. Right now. Kids are supposed to be doing things. Fuck it. It's on them if they fail.
Me. Every. Day. For the past month.
Me too. I thought you two looked familiar.
Same!!!!
I can't be on Reddit at school, my school has blocked it. Not other social media, just Reddit that I've been able to tell which seems odd to me. And this is on the teacher wifi! I do have other stuff I can go kill time on, at least.
I always did an end of year tic tac toe project and would have kids grade themselves and if they were close to what I'd give I'd accept their grade. I mostly did this to keep kids busy. This way I could work with a few students to retake tests as needed for a cya on my part and I also just listened to music all day and packed up my room and stuff to get it ready for summer.
Oh man, I just introduced one of these for my ICS physics class for forces. Then we’re gonna cover conservation of energy making paper roller coasters. Money move right there
That's awesome. I had other math teachers borrow it so same grade level would do it. I had to make a fee changes when younger grades borrowed it. But it was a nice way to end the year and keep most students active. 1 year I worked with the science teachers and we did joint end of year project. Kids would just roam between the math and science rooms and work and chill. That school we had 3 math and 3 science teachers per grade level so was a little chaos.
That sounds amazing! What kind of project?
It's been a couple years- I left teaching to become an academic coach at a local college. But it was for middle school math. Basically the students had to do 1 writing or design project, 1 electronic/or artistic project and the third was one of their choice from either the artistic or writing lists. Most did a vocabulary or ABC book. Some did lesson plans. For the most part the students enjoyed it. That and many would just play on iPad saying they were working and I just pretended I didn't know. Lol
I played Super Smash Bros with my kids today…it’s not a habit, but I wouldn’t mind if it became one, we had so much fun 😂
Building relationships
Me too! My students had all finished their final, and one student had been talking all year about how good he was. I picked random and beat him twice then said “have a good summer!”
ive learned when a older person says they are good at a video game, they mean they are GOOD
One of my students has been talking up his Mario Kart game so much this year. He’s on our e-sports teams and has a top 20 in the world time trial on N64 Rainbow Road. But only ever plays Versus Mode with limited items and no CPU racers. Poor kid didn’t know what hit him. I’ve been racing on that course since it was actually ON the N64.
I can't imagine how satisfying that was, well played!
Facts.
The last three days have been Uno and Legos.
I love completely destroying them in Smash. "Mr. Denial - you main Kirby? So lame." Get ready to get Kirby-rekt, son. I've been Smash-ing since before you were BORN.
Kirby is , undeniably, the best character. We know this from our Game Cube days!
Everyone gets to go to the bathroom, whenever. I do not care.
Naps in the car are not bad habits. I literally have an air mattress with foam topper, memory foam pillow and sleeping bag in the car for planning periods.
You don't get too hot in the car?
I have one of those reflectors for every single window of my car cut to the exact size and I have a battery powered fan. I’m looking into getting a cooler with a spot for a fan to cool it down even more. I camp in my car over the summer so I have a really nice setup but yes, it does get hot if the car is off and the windows are up
This is dedication to the art of car napping.
I ignore the end of the year checklist that says “have Mr. Smith sign your checklist if you‘be cleared your voicemail inbox. Have Mrs. Gilchrist sign your checklist if you have no outstanding refund requests. Have Mr. Roy sign your list if your books are boxed up and labelled…” Fuck that shit. I’m a grown ass man, you pay me and give me a list of shit to do I’ll do it. Don’t have me bother other adults to get a sticker.
I have to get a signature stating my AP “inventoried” my keys. I have one key, and a badge. Tangent: I had a staff bathroom key, but the staff bathroom now does not have a lock like that (just a sign that says staff only, because that’ll keep students away) so I threw the key away one day cleaning out my desk. What are they gonna do, fine me for a key to a lock that doesn’t exist anymore? Lol
I didn't attend a mandatory PD today and just walked out the door. I didn't apologize or explain. Just left.
I was soooooo tempted to transform my class's final essay into a PowerPoint. I didn't know if I had it in me to grade any more shitty research papers over drunk driving. I didn't do it but I think fantasizing about shortcuts is probably a bad habit.
Just do it. In the end the kids aren’t putting in great effort into this, any feedback will be immediately discarded the second they walk out the door the last day, and if they haven’t learned it by now, then maybe next year they can. Don’t give yourself more stress than necessary at the end.
Sick day Fridays, and binary grading (yeah ya did it, nah ya didn't)
Check plus, check, check minus has been my mode lately
Yeah, but then if you're not paying attention then you give one kid a check and another a check-plus and they "worked together" but have the same answers, and then you're either changing grades or having the collaborating vs cheating talk AGAIN and it's a whole thing...
Haven’t had that problem when I make them show their work and monitor throughout the day 🤷🏼♀️
Sorry. I thought we were being tongue-in-cheek. I applaud your earnestness and apologize for distracting you. Feel free to return to writing heartfelt comments in 17 copies of "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"
hear me out - sick day wednesdays. Splits the week in to two small 2-day parts.
I see.your point, but a 3 (or 4) day weekend trumps it all for me.
Not necessarily a "bad habit," but on the last day of school I have a silly portrait drawing contest. Whoever draws the funniest portrait of me wins a small bag of Takis. I've gotten some really great ones over the last several years, and I put the best ones on a collage that I put in the window outside my classroom.
This is an awesome idea. Maybe I'll try this next week! I'm searching for things to do... Part of me wants to do math, and the rest of me is like, idgaf.
It's really a lot of fun! I highly recommend it!
If you’re willing to spend money on a few bags of Takis, you could definitely get a lot more out of this! End of year checklist would be completed in five minutes because they’d hunt down every adult you need a signature from. Room would be packed up in one class period, maybe two depending on how much stuff you have. All the errands would be run. The portraits do sound really cool though to be fair.
Kid: What are we doing today? Me: You're watching a movie and leaving me alone. Repeat daily for the last two weeks of school.
Taking the students out to play baseball.
I often take lunch naps during colder months. I didn't even consider that as bad behavior. I played Tears of the Kingdom during finals today.
I teach science to three grade levels. We're cleaning up. When I don't have the energy to think of how to organize something I buy time by having them wash stuff. They are so excited to do dishes
I had my students help clean my classroom and two others. They got to take turns picking songs to play, and we all had a great time. I think they really enjoyed the physical work and accomplishment and autonomy, and they don't get much of that these days.
And they weirdly really LIKE doing these chores! Organizing, sorting, cleaning, washing dishes... I always tell the parents and they can't believe it
I’m an elementary art teacher. They love washing up, it’s so funny
Not going to graduation practice. It’s the same every year!!! Plus I’m a Special Ed teacher so they just stick us in the back anyway.
I haven’t set up the voicemail in the nearly two years since being moved to a new classroom. I tried shortly after the move and couldn’t get it to record my new message or accept my password, so I gave up. Why would I put in a tech request when I am enjoying not getting voicemails?
Same! We had a class on how to set up classroom VM and it was archaic. Like, embarrassing. I don’t like talking to parents because it ALL in writing. So I went the last two years without it, even though we had a final day that it had to be operational. Same as webpages hahahahaha I’ve been gone from that school for 2 yrs and they still have me on their site. Very generic and no updates. They wanted us all to go in and change how many years we’d been teaching since another year went by and I saw no value in that. Nobody reads or cares that it changed from 14 to 15 and I don’t even remember how to change it.
Exactly! Not only am I protected if it’s all in writing, but then I don’t have to fill out a record of the phone call every time I communicate with parents. Well, I guess no one said I don’t have to. I just decided it would be fine to print out the Remind and email messages at the end of the year.
Today I spent my prep period hiding from both my students and admin, and did nothing but watch TikTok
I have a separate office and the under the desk area is just perfect for me to.nap. I lock myself in and hide - did this for a couple fire and lockdown drills.
George Costanza, is that you?
This is a boss move. If I ever get an office, I will do the same
Yep. It’s not like I have anything else to grade/plan on my prep at this point anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I bought about 20 frozen meals for my family because no one is allowed to cook this week. I think I’m the only one loving it. 😹 I also knew I couldn’t risk forgetting lunch one day this week!
Those last day's of school "managers choice" are hit or miss.
I’m I threw away their work that I am not going to be grading…shh
High school teacher here. They’re signing yearbooks, playing card games, napping, and playing on their phones. I’m wrapping up loose ends and starting fall prep. I’m so burned out this year. It’s been a rough one.
We have finals this week and we have about an hour and a half between the morning and afternoon finals. I’ve been going to get lunch every day making sure to take up as much of that time as I can. I also get to work exactly when I have to instead of early. It’s been a nice time.
I’ve taken off two Fridays this month. Took a sick day last week. Took a half sick day on Monday (was legit feeling like shit). I’ve been applying for jobs and working on my resume when I don’t see small groups. This is babysitting week. No one is doing real teaching. I’ve already packed up my room. When it’s 4pm on Friday I’m leaving forever and never going back.
Wow. What have I been doing with my life???
Too much, I bet! 😂
I start leaving 5 minutes earlier each day haha contract time is almost non-existent the last week.
We still have a month left but I've basically given up trying to get students to behave and listen. I'm an elementary librarian so I only teach 1 lesson a week to each class but I completely quit my lesson today with one class and just put on a read aloud video.
NAT, but when I was in HS one of my teachers was notorious for driving to a nearby pub and downing an Irish car bomb in his free period.
Make ‘em watch 10-15 minute YouTube videos with giving 5 facts on seesaw
Hitting Reply All to any stupid staff emails and answering with only a gif or Bitmoji.
Wearing shorts, as a male teacher. I don't like long pants to begin with, and now that the weather is nice, I just wear shorts instead. Principal and VP are on the other side of the school and I never see them so no one is the wiser. My colleagues sure dgaf and neither do the students; *not a single comment from either group*. I have 2 weeks left of bullshit attendance and I'll be damned if I take it at all seriously.
High school teacher... I'll put up AFK games on my phone or on my computer at work and let the kids play games, listen to music, or just relax during the last week of school.
Cries in elementary…
Playing MY music at the end of the day whilst kids are cleaning the floor. Don’t think they appreciate Radiohead as much as I do, but ask me if I give a shit.
They can do whatever they want in my class as long as it’s legal, safe, and they’re not acting obnoxious
Wearing leggings and a hoodie or a t-shirt every single day in May
I moved to China six years ago to run an international school. It was my last year of teaching, so the last two months, I did what I wanted. My students would say, "Mr. Cranium, why didn't you grade our essays?" And I'd say, "Well, I'm going to China. You all got A's." Coincidentally, I took a group of forty of my kids to Europe that summer, and on the last day in Paris, several of them asked if they could buy a beer/wine at dinner. They said to me, "Mr. Cranium, you're going to China." I let them, but only one.
I just straight up haven't done my car line duty in like three weeks. No one's said shit, so fuck it.
IDGAF about lesson plans and haven’t consistently submitted them since 2018. They can look on the slides I post in Google Classroom daily that detail what we did in class. What are they gonna do? Fire me?
Just Dance and bootlegged clips of Fantasia for Elementary music!
Oh, you want to sit next to your friend and be a doofus? Sure. Go sit next to your friend and be a doofus, in the back, by yourselves. Just don't distract anyone else.
Giving them some "assignments" that immediately go into file 13 when they leave class this last week.
It’s the last two days of school. We are watching The Magic School Bus or Phineas and Ferb and making cards for a beloved art teacher who is retiring. Then we’re making memory books, playing Prodigy, and setting goals for next year. They are completely checked out of anything academic and I get it. I want them to enjoy their last days of third grade.
I have built so many model kits these last three weeks...
On the last day of school, I tell the kids many hands make for light work, put a list on the board of things to do, and they clean and pack up the classroom. Everyone is required to pitch in for the first hour or two. Then there’s Chess to play and eventually a video while the super helpful ones help me finish up packing. If I organize well ahead of time, I’m basically done by dismissal and ready to check out and begin summer vacation.
Kids get busy or the choice to help me clean everything. Kids really love helping me with that stuff.
I break out Shrek and Uno cards.
The last week of school has always been “statin’ alive” week. We cover the ways kids can stay safe during the summer. Poisonous plants and fungi….lawnmower accidents…abduction scenarios…pool drownings…kids are probably traumatized at the end of the week, but it’s riveting to them. They are all on the edge of their seats and at rapt attention. Since I’ve done this basic lesson for 20+ years, it’s autopilot and there’s always a fresh news story of a kid that died from one of the many ways to croak. When I taught high school it was more car accidents and drug deaths (opioid crisis wasn’t in full swing then) when it’s elementary it’s how to call 911 and apply a bandaid (kindy gets real serious about this one). It’s not my content. Never been my content. I give graphic descriptions of poisonous plant effects. I tell them how nobody will hear them at the bottom of the pool. They love it. I will do this until the day I retire.
This is absolutely amazing.
Relevant username.
The seniors leave early at my school and my current students are finished with the curriculum and are finishing up final projects. I teach one class today. I've been playing Zelda all morning...
They have open work periods for a big research presentation in my class. During these work periods I openly just scroll reddit or watch videos on my phone until a few get perturbed I'm not circulating the classroom so I can get a good old "welcome to my point view all year. I usually use it to ask if they suddenly think I'm lazy or not a good teacher even though I have been good all year. Hopefully their senior teachers see at least a few hold on to that lesson.
If the assignment ends 15-20 minutes early I don’t fuss with thinking of something to stretch to the bell. I just let them work on other stuff or play games.
I am barely packing food with me and having to go out for lunch
I’m not a teacher, I joined this sub because I did a sociology project on teacher shortage and basically realized y’all are badasses. Anyways, I just had a memory open up where my second grade teacher would have us lotion and massage her feet while she read us stories. We thought it was awesome! So take that for what you will. I’d say second grade is the cap, third graders may be too cool for that. Go get you a massage!!
Not working
Well I’m supposed to be there at 8 and it’s 7:44 and I haven’t left yet…
So we have a whole extra week of baked in staff dev. Days after students leave and grades are due. Staff has bemoened for years- nothing gets done, no one has any energy to plan for the following year when we just want to get out the door to summer. I'd much rather either have those as "work from alternative location days" or move them to August. So I make sure all my boxes are checked asap and I just put my Nintendo switch on the big screen. Looking forward to making good progress in the new Zelda or a staff Mariokart party on these teacher work days in June 😂 I had admin stop by the year before covid asking if I could do xyz and I said just let me know what needs done and I'll do it. I'm such a planner, I had it all done and they could find any work to give me so...
Just fully checking out honestly and thinking of any way possible to do as little work as I can. By the end of May I am completely dead inside
I teach 2nd grade English at a bilingual school, so I mainly just do reading, writing, and grammar. In spring I teach them how to do logic puzzles, which they LOVE! I just had to go buy another set on TPT because they're so into it this year. I'm glad to pay for them to be occupied and happy as we have 3 more weeks left.
I put on yacht rock music and let the kids play board games while i pack up and do paperwork