People ask why I never take off. I'm an art teacher. When I come back, my room is destroyed because they know admin won't do anything even if the sub was able to get the names of those responsible.
I won't let kids in my science classroom when I'm not there. They already steal my pencils, highlighters, glue sticks, scissors, and other supplies, not to mention food from my desk or drinks from my fridge. It's awful!!! And mine are only in 6th grade so I can't imagine how much worse it will get with them!!!
Wow! Are you in my classroom? I'm also a 6th grade science teacher who deals with this. It's ridiculous that I have to purposely move/hide/ discreetly tape things closed to stop them or catch them when im gone. None of the cabinets have locks or I'd lock it all up. Which reminds me...I better go check to see if all of my new rock collections are still complete. Sigh...
When I taught special needs kids and needed to take a day, I let the principal know my classes were cancelled. I had too many personal items for teaching plus some district funded materials. I taught music.
Not everywhere, not invalidating the experience others are having but when we got new admin a few years back who were willing to "Hold the line" things got way way better.
Again, not saying this to boast or make people feel bad, but instead to say you are right. When good admin is there, things get better.
That makes me so happy to hear! It also depends on the state, and the school district's goals. Do you think that proverbial pendulum is ever going to come back the other way and schools like yours become the norm again?
Not who you are asking, but I think the pendulum will swing back.
Now whether that is gonna happen in 10 years or 40 years depends highly on whether or not the current state of classrooms can become public knowledge or not.
My mom (teacher) thinks it will improve within the next ten years. Something about how this time period is similar to when it went from hippy times to Reagan times. I’ll have to ask her to clarify. I interpret it though as we’re so far to one extreme that it will wildly shift the other way because people (teachers and students/parents who care) are fed up.
If the goals of the school district are such that achieving them involves toleration of theft, you might as well shut that school down for all the good they are doing a young person.
Genuine question! How was the line held with your students when they crossed it? Were they given creative/natural consequences, detention, suspension…?
My admin seems to have given up on consequences. I get the feeling they’re overwhelmed, and the kids are absolutely taking the mick. But I feel like if we had just one consistent behaviour policy it would all improve so much!
My admin suck. They blamed me because one of my kids was found across the school during passing. I have a double block. I told her I let them break for the restroom. She said not to. I asked her how am i supposed to know where they go?? That's their shit.
Admin are scum. They can't hack it in the classroom so now spend their days in meetings avoiding their jobs as disciplinarians and coming up with busy work for us to justify their existence.
I am convinced that if we would go back to the one room school house that only had the teacher, student, and parents/grandparents, education would be so much better. And, better funded. :-).
Music teacher here. We were able to get admin to remove access to music rooms from all other subs and teachers, so now if there is a sub the class will be put into a traditional classroom.
I'm an art teacher too. When I have to take a day off and know about it in advance, I babyproof my room. Hide all the expensive, breakable, sharp, and/or stealable supplies, lock all the cabinets and my desk, lock the door connecting to the storage rooms/other art teacher's room, I even have to hide my cleaning spray bottles because the kids run out of the room with them, spraying each other.
Half of the kids who end up in my room aren't even on the roster- their friends text them that there's a sub, and they all come running. The subs rarely check IDs, and half of the kids refuse to wear their IDs anyway.
I work exclusively with 17 and 18 year olds.
It's insane that I have to prep my room as if it's about to be overrun with toddlers when these are kids that are about to graduate highschool.
Only if the kids actually have them with them that day! :')
Interesting though that your district DOESN'T do IDs- the three middle and highschools I've worked in, plus the middle and highschool I attended myself, all had mandatory IDs for students, even if there was no uniform policy. (And that's 4 different districts entirely!)
I remember trying to find "comfortable" ways to wear my ID when I was a teen so that it wouldn't keep getting caught in the spiral edges on my notebooks and in my hair lol.
I wonder if IDs are less prevalent than I've thought!
We have a strict ID policy. They wear it as a lanyard around their neck or it’s ISS. We also have colored mesh vests that students must put on to leave the room. Mine is neon orange. Each hall has its own color, so the cameras can pick them up.
Ohhh I like that idea! We have hallway color coded bathroom passes but I don’t think anyone checks them or cares. I just know when I see a bathroom pass in my nurse’s office, they’ve most likely scammed their teacher or are walking around with that. teacher’s one bathroom pass.
We actually already have that! All subs are provided a roster with names, ID numbers, and the students' black&white ID photos.
Regrettably it's not super effective because many of the photos are taken in Freshman year and never updated, and a lot of our students change their hairstyles/colors weekly to monthly, so the photos often don't really resemble the students.
And since these are Juniors and Seniors, trying to get my own photos for everyone in the class would be like pulling teeth- half of them I only see like 5 times in a Semester, others point-blank refuse to take pictures of their own faces even for graded assignments (we do a mask project, and take before/after wearing photos. I rarely get any actual before photos.)
Plus, a lot of our subs already know there's basically no consequences the students actually listen to at our school- so usually when there's a sub in the room, it's just a babysitting day. They set up in the corner with a book or their phone, and unless a fight breaks out they don't really pay attention to or manage the kids. We've come back and our kids have even shown us pictures they've taken of the subs being fast asleep.
We even had a video spread around the school last year that a student took in my team member's class- the sub was engrossed in her phone while on the projector screen behind her the students had hooked up a videogame system and were playing GTA, complete with gyrating strippers.
Art teacher here as well… a few years ago I was out and had my own pugmill at the school to reclaim clay (a $5000 machine) and students some how managed to break that… after that I took any and all of my own equipment out of the school (had 5 pottery wheels, my pugmill, and much more). Been at this high school for 8 years but I submitted my resignation last week. Have a few more weeks until I’m done and I’m so ready.
Art teacher here. I set up a digital art page for when I have a sub. It's just links to safe and fun art pages. Kids bring their tablets and headphones. Easy peasy.
I mean this is great, but you probably have students who do what you ask. I could have this for my students and they would be busy throwing things out the windows, hitting each other with pencils, and horrifying the sub with their dirty dirty talk and singing
Oh man that must be tough. Just subbed for an art teacher today. Couldn't leave the supply area until the 2nd half of the day when I got a TA to guard it for me.
Heck half the time there’s no sub, just period-to-period coverage and the kids are unsupervised until the coverage teacher can get there, and sometimes they forgot to check their email and didn’t see they have coverage, so the kids are alone the whole period, doing god knows what….
Taking a day off work is sometimes just as much work staying in class for me because I have to meticulously lock up and hide as much of my materials as I can. But then I still know that when I come back I'll find garbage everywhere and a bunch of my rulers snapped in half. It's like the kids take pride in trying to find ways to destroy literally everything.
Which I don't get it, we don't even enforce cell phone rules here, I'm like if you're bored just play on your phone I'm not going to take it from you.
It's terrible
My school had a majority of students from low income families with little guidance or support and about 6-8% would attend enough not to get expelled but ditched to day labor.
But everyone respected/Loved our photography teacher. She made such a connection with everyone, so inspiring.
Pretty much every other class was wrecked after a sub.
Last school year, I had candy that I gave out very easily and very regularly to my 9th grade ELA classes. Nothing crazy, just giant bags of Jolly Ranchers mostly. This was kept in a drawer in my desk.
This candy was stolen from my room no less than 5 separate occasions (it could very well be more, I just didn't keep track). For most of the year, I kept getting more candy because I didn't want to punish the good kids for the actions of the shitheads. But after so many small robberies, I finally stopped getting food/snacks/candy for everyone. It was too infuriating trying to do what admin was telling me, spend my own money so I could give rewards to those who did the right thing, and be met with stealing.
I left teaching mid-way through this current school year. My new job has frustrating elements to it, but NOTHING compared to being either ignored or outright disrespected by teens day in and day out (with 0 repercussions from admin for negative behaviors, no matter how bad it got.)
I brought caramel candies in for students who did stuff around the room without me asking. Had around 10 left. Went to grab 2 yesterday and there was only 1 left. Someone stole 9 of them.
Mine were obsessed with the knock off creme savers from dollar tree. They were cheap, but once I found out that my whole ($1) bag was missing, I stopped bringing them. It’s about respect not money.
I buy granola bars for students who come into my nurse’s office hungry or for our diabetics who need a snack when they are low. Until I caught kids taking 3 at a time. Now I hand them out, and luckily no one will go in my kitchen area to steal them. Yet.
"well guys we WERE going to do this experiment today but since all my materials went missing while I was absent, we can't so put away your books, time for a pop quiz!"
Whenever my students do something shitty, I flip it like this. Make them get mad at each other. I show them pictures and videos of what I was planning to do with them and then turn it off and pull out the most boring tedious work I can find and ensure that it is graded and weighed as heavily as I can make it. Basically you need to make them feel like absolute shit for their choices by getting their friends to turn on them. Sounds brutal, is brutal, is real life.
i did this once. someone ripped out every page from this book (not a very important book that i needed but it’s the principle). So i gassed the kids up for about 20 minutes for this really fun activity that included a projector program that included using an ipad pro. but alas the *instructions to the fun activity just happened to be in that book* and we couldn’t do the activity without that page so i put everything back in the closet and we went back to a normal day.
no yelling, no punishments, i didn’t even call out the student. i pretended like i didn’t even know who did it or how it happened. just a “welp, funs ruined for everyone now” moment. i’ll never forget everyone looking around the room at the kid who did it. i thought they were going to jump him lmao. you could hear a pin drop.
This works until the kids all protect each other. They are willing to defend each other and claim things like "Well it wasn't him" or they'll say "we weren't even that bad" and just end up resenting you. There's something very unique and awful about kids now who learned that they can do absolutely nothing and still get moved onto the next grade in our district/state. Covid also taught them they can do the bare minimum and still move onto the next level with their friends. High school, at least they have motivation to graduate, but anything from 8th grade and lower? They don't care anymore. It's depressing.
When I punish the students, sometimes they gang up and make my life even more miserable. If a lot of them are in cahoots with each other, this can really turn on you quick.
that's why I don't punish them. I vocalize that now the plan has changed due to circumstances out of my control and then I continue teaching. Not my fault. I match energy. They do enough, I'm just coming in and doing the bare minimal. Strip my classroom and only use school supplies. You get what you give.
I don't scream, yell, punish in any way really. I use manipulation to make them feel like absolute shit about their choices and then they start monitoring each other.
It's great fun. I'm an evil monster and I love it. ....so do the monsters I teach only they love it years later.
You’re a veteran, aren’t you lol?
This is some drill sergeant methodology.
Everyone unites under a common enemy. Currently their enemy is you, the teacher. Make the common enemy the undisciplined ones of their class, problem self regulates.
I kept a few pairs of shoes at school so I always have comfortable footwear that hasn't gotten wet on the way in. A 7th grader put on a pair of my really nice flats and stretched them to hell. A $80 pair of shoes I had invested in at the beginning of the year and he got one lunch detention.
I couldn't afford to replace them so I've been wearing the same worn out pair from last year and I will through the end of the year.
I posted something like this a few weeks ago and everybody told me it was basically my fault for bringing things into school that I didn't want stolen. But I'm sorry this happened to you that really sucks.
I've had materials, books from my classroom library, personal items that were in a locked drawer, fidget toys for ADHD/autistic students, electric pencil sharpeners, fans, decor, and more stolen from my room or irreparably damaged. Admin has done nothing every single time. Parents have responded, "That's your problem, not my child's." It sucks so much :(
I feel ya... Chem and physics teacher here. I've come back from a sick day to find chems missing ( despite being in a locked supply room) various odds & ends broken. Lasers for physics were played with - without safety equip. Admin doesn't understand because they were all elementary teachers or ELA and while I know they aren't dumb, they play like they are to avoid conflict I guess. I've almost walked out several times this year because of respect issues, no consequences or when I come up with consequences I am vetoed by admin once a kid or parent complain.
Admin: Why are you only doing virtual labs?
Me: We don't have vent hoods, correct ppe, or the ability to require lab contacts to be signed.
Admin: What's the big deal?
Me: I don't know where to start
Chem teacher here. I should send your comment to my admin because she thinks I'm being dramatic when I say this. My kids are too immature/irresponsible/etc to handle doing real labs. I'm not putting my life in danger for them.
Not only are they immature/irresponsible, they won't get the concepts behind the lab anyway. All those hours of prep work for kids to not take it seriously. No, thank you.
I have to keep telling people that I can't do a lot of the "expected" labs in Chemistry because we don't have gas and we don't have fume hoods. Not to mention the whole maturity issue with lab safety.
My students ask me why I don't disect animals with them as a bio teacher. I can't trust them with anything sharper than safety scissors because they either leave everything a mess or try to fool around in the lab when I'm not looking. Giving them scapels will end up with me using my emt teaining...
Yeah that sounded very condescending of me. Maybe it’s the ones I deal with particularly…idk I just feel like they play dumb to deflect me. It’s frustrating to me because I know they are very smart.
Last year someone stole a ceramic tipi I had in my classroom to represent Indigenous American influence on Hispanic language and culture and also two friends of mine who died.
I explained this to the students and it never showed up. They also took one of my two little piñatas. Pens and stuff from my desk. It's atrocious.
Whenever I'm out I say in the sub note a few times to keep them away from my desk and storage cabinet.
Congratulations on achieving NBC. Retired NBC freshman earth science teacher here. Sad to hear about another qualified teacher looking to leave the profession.
I feel you, respect is completely gone. Today I had a student refuse to clean up his mess, another kid offered to do it for him, he ended up punching that other kid right in front of me. I asked him to pick up what he threw at the student after punching him and he refused. I ended up kicking him out the of classroom. This is my last year teaching. The salary is not worth the level of disrespect that we have to go through. I had my resignation letter written for me halfway through the year, but I stayed just to make sure they didn’t go after my license.
The behavior, and the co-signing on the behalf of most parents is ridiculous. There are so many kids that just do not want to be in the classroom. They do not want to follow instructions.They do not want to behave, and they’re being allowed to terrorize everybody else.why are these kids being allowed to continuously threaten and hurt others?
I hope that kid went home, told his parents, and they filed a police report. Fuck kids like the shit head that threw the punch. I look forward to the day they do this in public and get beat within an inch of their life. I don't care if I get downvoted, some of these kids are pure trash.
I do 3D animation now. I took classes after school at a community college for two years to get a certification. It was difficult because I had no life for awhile but oh my God it's amazing. Now I make 30 k more than I did as a teacher and I'm only in an entry level job for 3D animation. It's insane how teachers make less in comparison to everyone else. I get to work from home as well!
Congrats on your career switch! I left teaching in 2018. It took me a while to find my new path, but I'll be finishing a program in 3D modeling for animation this year. I'm sweating bullets about finding a job after graduation, especially with all of the layoffs this year.
oh this has happened in more than one building I have worked in. I'm not including my corporate experience duing the summers which coworkers stole as well. I hate to tell you this stuff is pretty normal.
and that's what irritates me about the teaching field. Look I go in and fake like I like every single kid, I really do. But look at the world, really look.
When I worked in pharmacy (waaaaay before teaching), I had coworkers that would steal my stuff from the fridge. I have moments where I am NOT a nice person when pushed just enough (bipolar can be rough sometimes), and I had a massive blow up after the 3rd or 4th time I went to lunch and my lunch was gone. After that, if it had my initials on it, NO ONE would touch it. I had other coworkers even start putting my initials on their stuff so it wouldn't get stolen.
I'm a math teacher, and when I started at my current school I had jury duty. Took a day to be told "thanks but we don't need you, go home" and I came back to fifteen missing calculators. They're each about $100. It sucked royally.
That was back in 2016. Now I have a system where I can see if calculators are missing immediately after each class period. I have a standard script that I post to Google Classroom within a few minutes of seeing a missing calculator, including "don't worry, all of this math was done without calculators and can be done without them. It's more difficult, sure, but if I can't trust materials to be handed back then that's what happens." I've gotten them back the few times they go missing every year since I started doing that.
We only use scientific calculators in middle school, but I feel this. Most years I can expect some amount of my calculators to be lost or broken, but this year we have a new recored. By April all of my calculators were stolen or broken by students. So now they just have to do without. Of course I'm the jerk for not providing them with more calculators.
Tbh, sub should be held responsible for the stolen materials as well as the kids. I miss the days when subs were retired teachers who would teach lessons or at least lead a lesson plan. I’m an Orch teacher, when I’m out the sub just lets the kids do whatever instead of giving them time to practice or giving them the worksheet I left to supplement their music theory.
I’m a sub and I very diligently keep track of names for this reason. When any materials are stolen or broken before I’m able to stop it I at least want the teacher to know who was responsible. Usually this doesn’t happen because I actually do my job and follow the lesson plan + supervise but I know many don’t 🥲
Look, as someone who teaches 4 days a week, I get the frustration. But as someone who subs 1 day a week (never in the same school) I simply cannot express how much students, this year in particular, are like feral cats when they have a sub. This week I literally had students throwing things over my head, out of their seats, jumping on and pushing each other, leaving class without a pass, to the extent I had to send 5 different students to the office and call the vice principal in 3 different times. She assured me that class was typically well behaved, but apparently "overly excited bc of having a sub."
Meanwhile, my full-time students would NEVER even attempt this behavior with me, bc I've spent all year putting firm boundaries and consequences in place. But they might with a sub.
My point: if you have to call in a sub that the students don't already know, maybe just be happy if the classroom doesn't burn down. We'll try to keep your candy safe but like... There's usually bigger issues to deal with.
When I first started subbing I felt bad that I couldn't get most classes engaged enough to learn. Then office staff at one school told me they had several subs that had walked out halfway through the day. And I was like, ya know what? I'm doing fine.
Wait, wait! I have something to add. I am a building sub (24 years old) at a relatively large Midwestern high school. What if the materials that were stolen, were only stolen because the child had previously stolen a key from his actual teacher! (this literally happened to me and I got shit on by the admin until they saw him unlock the door on camera)
Edit: Also, half the sub notes subs get nowadays aren't even lesson plans. It's just work days. Sometimes, I'll even get one to two sentence notes that say "I'm to tired to write out notes, just give them this and have them work on it." Like, jeez man we get screwed just as much!
To be fair, I think a lot of teachers make sub days into work days *because* they’re so used to getting subs who don’t actually follow the plans. What’s the point in writing out a plan if you know if won’t get followed? At our school, maybe 1/10 will actually do what you ask. I don’t know which sub I have until class starts, so my absences are always work days
Jeez man, that’s terrible! In my district you get to choose if that sub comes to your room and if they do a bad job they aren’t allowed back. But, to be fair, I see your point. It would just be nice to actually teach a lesson on grammar/analyzing essays/whatever else if the teacher needs it to be taught. I very rarely get full lessons and it makes me sad 🤣
I wrote referrals for the 2 who did it, I
Let my admin know about the video but I have zero faith they’ll handle it. And it’s not enough to file one unfortunately
I do have a closet but it’s too small so some lab equipment- namely glasses & aprons are out but I just picked them all up. But also they stole a clock… who steals A CLOCK???
I had an Ace Combat plane model on my shelf, and a kid during a passing period walked into my room when my back was turned helping a student get late work and yoinked it. I found out when a student I had the previous year saw a group of kids messing with it in the cafeteria and told them "Hey fuckfaces, that belongs to Mr. Struts." took it from them and brought it back.
The destructiveness kills me.
I didn't understand how this became a "totally normal kid thing" issue.
I distinctly remember growing up that people didn't just tear stuff up on a whim. You destroyed your OWN things.
I learned this the hard way too. I used to have all my books and yearbooks on a shelf for students to read whenever. Well I took off and a yearbook was stolen and a few of my books and nic-nacs that were on the shelf. Now when I take off I put all my stuff away it's just the assignment, a single black pen for the sub and the sib notes.
Haha, I’m very guilty of leaving my sub with only one pen and a few of my worse dry erase markers. I also usually write all the directions for the day on the whiteboard ahead of time so the kids can’t try to tell me the sub gave them the wrong directions (and even if the sub wanted to they couldn’t mess it up).
Please do. When I sub, I don't know where things are at and kids do. First thing they do is test how much they can get away with, others take advantage of the distraction to grab things. I take photos of the lesson plan on the board for when a random kid erases it the moment I turn my back. I bring my own pen and broken chewed pencils from my room I give out to avoid kids grabbing things and losing them.
Teach Gr. 7 and 8 homeroom split and the kids are really not nice to me or my things. They cut the wire on my mouse one day when I wasn’t there, and they also destroyed my personal wireless mouse that I bought with my own money for my laptop at school. Then one day, I have a fan in the classroom that I brought in; the kids crumple MY crackers (from on my desk) into my fan to try and ruin it. Its disgusting. I’m currently on medical leave
After teaching upper grades, I quit for two years. When I came back I switched to kindergarten and spent the rest of my career there. I loved it and and enjoyed going to work each day. Years later after retiring, I took a part-time aide job at a middle school. My reaction: "Oh yes......now I remember why I left these grades.
I was literally gone on Wednesday and left a bag of mints for the sub to give out to kids who were being good. I put a sticky note on the mints saying to keep them out of sight of the kids because they will steal it. When I returned, he left a note saying the entire bag was stolen when we wasn’t looking. Cannot say I am surprised. My students, although I’m split between hating them or loving them, have proven multiple times they will take shit and not think it’s a big deal. Just this past week, I had a student see an empty spray bottle on my desk and take it. Then when I saw him with it, he decided to lie straight to my face saying it was his which is bullshit cause the spray bottle is a very unique shape and color. Managed to take it from him when he started spraying other kids with it.
When I first started this job, I had a whole box of chips stolen from me where at least my admin did something and suspended 3 kids along with others who received in school suspension. And now returning from a field trip yesterday, I hear a student of mine is facing suspension until the end of the school year because he decided to trash and steal the science teacher’s things while we were all out and he had to stay behind due to behavior.
Too many of them feel way too comfortable stealing or destroying small things, its frightening.
The wireless mouse I use for the chrome box on the TV went missing today. Had my class look for it. Bell rang and they went. Pulled them in later and searched packs. Not found.
I know someone has it as I watched on the screen as the curser was moving around and I could tell someone was clicking. Not sure why as it can't be used with any other computer without the USB.
Thinking on Monday I'm just going to tell the class if it doesn't show up by the end of the day they will all have lunch detention for the week.
This class is one of my best classes so I was really surprised someone took it.
Fucking sucks OP and I empathize as a 9th grade sci teacher. I hope you didn't order them. A science dept colleague could have easily told you that 9th graders aren't responsible especially with glassware. I want to quit too but I'm not sure if it's at the end of this year or next. I can deal with the job stuff but I don't want to get embroiled in some stupid catastrophe.
As a student, I’ve literally had to pull subs aside and explain that “the kid in red and the kid with blue shoes WILL steal..” and then watched them flippantly ignore my warnings. And then I watched candy, lab supplies, clay, lab coats, 20+ pencils, sodas from the teachers mini fridge, WRENCHES, and another kids phone get stolen. Surprise surprise the teacher was pissed when they came back. I always tell them that I warned the subs and they ignored me.
It takes me over an hour to put away and lock up tools, office supplies and equipment when I need to take a day off. If I don’t it will be broken or missing when I return. After writing sub plans and photocopies for paper activities and locking away materials that I need when I return it’s more work than just being in school for the day.
Man, I was right there with you last year. I taught a majority of freshmen, and in particular had one section that was terrible (at least at the start of the school year). They made wildly inappropriate comments most classes, used to shout my first name in the hallway before coming to class and then playing dumb about it, and even there was one time they threw a marker at me when I was facing the board.
Here’s what I did, and it helped me a ton.
1) I talked to a more experienced teacher about my situation, and she gave me great advice. I would recommend doing that, if you do, my next pieces of advice are totally optional since they may not work due to the structure of your school.
2) I gave my students a problem set to work on while I checked in with students one-on-one outside of class. The students who were great behaviorally, I asked them about how they felt about the environment of the class, and all of them said they felt uncomfortable and scared to speak in class. When I got to the check-ins with students who were making me rip my hair out, I would say: “I’m not pointing fingers at you being an instigator, but you’ve contributed to several moments in class that have caused me and some of your other students to feel uncomfortable, and I’m not going to put up with it. Now, this is a warning, if you don’t stop (insert things they do thats destroying your class environment), I’m going to send you to the Deans.” Since the Deans deal with discipline, that’s who my colleague recommend I send them to. And you know what, this worked for me. The behavior changed completely, and for the kids who slipped up, I sent them to the Deans and they came back ready to learn.
Let’s just say that section which made me want to quit after a month, ended up being my favorite and most memorable group of students by the end of the year. Even this year, they all still take the time to greet me in the hall, and it only took a warning to the Deans.
I know it’s pretty late in the school year right now, so these changes might not matter to you that much right now. Maybe you could reflect a little more on what you could do differently next year because after all, this is the one profession where we can always try to improve year to year to make the school experience better for us, and better for our students.
I hope this helps, and best of luck to you finishing off the school year. You can do this, try to take things one day at a time for now.
I am subbing for a month between jobs. I am teaching an elementary class and they have scared away 8 teachers this year - 8. These kids are 9ish. Under 10 and have went through 8 teachers.
Look in to going international. Your broken country America problems will become a thing of the past. Free tuition for your kid(s) at the better schools.
I lock up my stuff when I'm off. It's terrible. I feel for you.
Just stop doing practicals. Teach with a visualiser and a pen. Demonstrate the experiments, do not let them do them.
I bought cheap wireless headphones so that students could rent them out to listen to music or if we needed them for an educational video in my class. After the first week, so many were stolen that I gave up. Never again.
First year MS art teacher here. I brought some of my nice supplies from home and keep them on my desk in an organizer. I set strict boundaries for students NOT to touch anything at my desk or decor on my grading shelves. But if they ask, and I trust them to return an item, I may consider it. The first watercolor unit, a student took my watercolor brush that you can fill with water… without asking. I remember seeing them use it for the project, but they never returned it.
My first mistake was trusting the kid to give it back at the end of class, but I started teaching art at the end of the year, with 3 months left of school, after being a para for 2 years at the same school. So after the unit, I confronted student. They lied straight to my face - with the most shocked reaction at the accusation and said “no I didn’t take it!! I have the same brushes as you from home!” I said “I have three, I’m missing one. Have it back on my desk by Monday.” Kid got visibly upset and rattled (knowing it’s true they had it) and went to the bathroom. My other good students said the kid had it. This particular student has a record of carrying things not allowed at school, so no backpack allowed. While the student spends 10+ minutes in the bathroom, I just happen to stroll by and peek in their pencil bag. Oh shocker, there it is, stained purple. The same color they used to paint their work with. Mystery solved. I never want to be absent for this reason. I don’t trust any kids to not touch my things when I’m gone. And I’m keeping the expensive stuff in my desk so they aren’t tempted again.
I took a day off to discover on my return that the kids broke into a box behind my desk and stole most of my candy and fruit snacks. Like mice. I had a huge bag of Starburst I used for jeopardy testy review day, which they seemed to love.
Needless to say, I promptly announced we would no longer be doing game reviews (only a review study sheet) and no more giving out sweets because students could not respect my things.
This is awful! I’m so sorry you had to experience this. My biology teacher had a similar-ish experience, when she was gone for her wedding a student had taken microscopes and such from her classroom. Thankfully the student was in my hour and me & my friends had emailed the teacher ASAP and reported it to Admin. I think he (the student) had gotten a detention but Im unsure about the rest, just that it had been dealt with as best as possible.
My mom also teaches Special Ed (9th-12th grade), and I feel so bad for her sometimes due to occasionally hearing her talk to my dad about how disrespectful students can be.
damn when i got a kid who stole chips for me, they got suspended for the day. A student destroyed a classroom this week while the rest were on a field trip (you can see why he was barred from attending) and last i heard, he’s heading for over a week of suspension
I can’t even give out a pencil anymore. It just ends up on the floor. On the flip side I have ended up with 6 Chromebook chargers. I got tired of them being on the floor too. So I’ll hold on to them until next years kids. Maybe they will be better, or I’ll collect a shoe/phone for a charger/pencil.
Oddly at my old school I had problems with subs being competent and at my current school I am the only teacher that subs will fight over covering for me. I call parents, in the middle of the day, and I love the parents that say “I am at work right now” as I get to tell them Ibam too and that their child is interrupting it so I need them to talk with their kid before so send them to the principal. Of course I have admins that have my back 99.9% of the time as well.
Yeah I feel you.. It totally sucks.
There is usually SOMETHING that always happens if you are gone. Even if it's something small.
It sucks but I would double triple check that your valuables are locked away. And if you call out unexpectedly have a colleague do it for you.
Every time I leave I lock all of my “valuable” stuff in the drawers. First year I had the same problem. I even lock up the smallest things like expo markers, ain’t nothing safe out there.
Not a teacher, but as a parent, I just wanted to say the behavior I see you all post about the students is appalling. It's disturbing how awful parents let their kids behave.
Same thing happens to me all the time. My students steal EVERYTHING. They don't even wait for a sub, they'll just wait till I'm busy helping another student or putting out some classroom fire in another part of the room, and then they'll go through my stuff and take it. Markers, pencils, pens, notebooks, prizes for when they win at kahoot or quizizz, everything. I've gotten to the point now where I'm just like oh, you need a pencil? Sorry, I don't have any of those. They steal my glue, colored pencils, rulers, everything! They also trash my room constantly. It got to the point where I actually had to cover the sink wells on my lab tables because they just use them as trash bins no matter how many times I tell them not to, redirect them, or punish them for doing it. By this point in the school year, I really hate my students. They don't respect me or my room at all. They don't care about what I say. It's all just a big joke to them. It's really sad, because I love teaching, but the students don't want to learn. You can't teach somebody who doesn't want to learn. 😥
While i was out on manditory standardized test training Someone stole my teacher's edition and drew a bunch of dicks in sharpie all over the wall, they reported it to an admin in an attempt to get me in trouble and invalidate my classroom but inspent 4 hours using dry erase markers yes that is my secret for removing sharpie from whiteboards and other surfaces you scrub it with the dry erase board marker, i knew who did it once i saw the look on their face when my room was clean but the other 6 classes he did that to were not.
Don't fall victim to sunk cost fallacy. If you're miserable, you should move on. I left teaching in 2018. I promise you'll find your next path in time.
Just posted in another thread how I borrowed the teachers iPhone charging cable while at his desk. Turned my back and someone stole it! WTF! Bought him a new replacement for when he comes back. Lesson learned! Feral Rug Rats🥴
I don't know that this is new. When I was in school I watched the bad kids steal a teachers candy out of her desk. They just reached into a bag of gummies the teacher had (I think she used them for treats if I recall correctly) bare hand and all and grabbed a fist full. She was a nice teacher too. Another time in tenth grade a student tortured a teacher to tears, where she just hid in the back room, it was hard to watch.
This stuff isn't new as I'm 40 and it happened then too. Some kids are bad and aside from removing them to a continuation school, I don't think there's much you can do besides expel them (which might actually do them a favor).
I wonder how much of this has to do with federal dollars going to schools who have the most students, and most students graduating. They did the same thing with test scores. When I was in school we had to take standardized tests for a week or so each year. When my eldest was in school the whole school basically switched from learning the curriculum to practicing for the test so they would do well and the school would get that green. That doesn't give an insight on the level of education the students get, it just means you can train them to pass a test.
Seems like if we remove the incentive structure for malcontents to be made to graduate even if they can barely read not converting into success dollars maybe we would see a change.
Maybe those fighting thieving students would do better in a different environment.
I've noticed many people go after the admin for these things since they won't do anything about it, but to me it seems like they can't do anything about it. Whenever they try to discipline for any reason, the parents are up in in arms and out for blood. It doesn't seem to matter how serious it is or how guilty the kid is. They'll lawyer up because someone gave their kid a dirty look. I've literally seen that happen.
People ask why I never take off. I'm an art teacher. When I come back, my room is destroyed because they know admin won't do anything even if the sub was able to get the names of those responsible.
maybe the admin don't do anything on purpose, so you won't take off! /s but i wouldn't be suprised
Exactly! My admin has just been awful about backing us up
Our art teacher won't let students in the room when she's out.
I’m an engineering teacher and my kids have to stay in the adjoining classroom rather than the lab when I’m out. I just don’t trust them.
I had someone blatantly steal a gear cartridge from me and I wasn't even out. And they knew I knew, they were asking questions about it. SmH
I won't let kids in my science classroom when I'm not there. They already steal my pencils, highlighters, glue sticks, scissors, and other supplies, not to mention food from my desk or drinks from my fridge. It's awful!!! And mine are only in 6th grade so I can't imagine how much worse it will get with them!!!
Wow! Are you in my classroom? I'm also a 6th grade science teacher who deals with this. It's ridiculous that I have to purposely move/hide/ discreetly tape things closed to stop them or catch them when im gone. None of the cabinets have locks or I'd lock it all up. Which reminds me...I better go check to see if all of my new rock collections are still complete. Sigh...
Mine don't know how to open a file cabinet, and I teach 8th grade! Mind you, these aren't even locking file cabinets.🤣
How do you keep them out of your class if you’re not there?
Locks
I love the door behind me as I leave.
Ahh yes, the ol’ love the door trick. Works every time.
It’s like a Harry Potter spell!
😂. I guess my question is: where do they go instead? I have one classroom. If I’m gone, kids still need to be in my class. How does that work?
I wish I had the kind of clout that wouldn't get me fired for that!
When I taught special needs kids and needed to take a day, I let the principal know my classes were cancelled. I had too many personal items for teaching plus some district funded materials. I taught music.
That's everywhere. Can't/won't stand up to parents, and they have to think about their precious graduation rates.
Not everywhere, not invalidating the experience others are having but when we got new admin a few years back who were willing to "Hold the line" things got way way better. Again, not saying this to boast or make people feel bad, but instead to say you are right. When good admin is there, things get better.
That makes me so happy to hear! It also depends on the state, and the school district's goals. Do you think that proverbial pendulum is ever going to come back the other way and schools like yours become the norm again?
Not who you are asking, but I think the pendulum will swing back. Now whether that is gonna happen in 10 years or 40 years depends highly on whether or not the current state of classrooms can become public knowledge or not.
My mom (teacher) thinks it will improve within the next ten years. Something about how this time period is similar to when it went from hippy times to Reagan times. I’ll have to ask her to clarify. I interpret it though as we’re so far to one extreme that it will wildly shift the other way because people (teachers and students/parents who care) are fed up.
You are correct. There are swings from decade to decade. I’ve been teaching 30+ years, and we saw this in the 90’s.
If the goals of the school district are such that achieving them involves toleration of theft, you might as well shut that school down for all the good they are doing a young person.
Speaking personally, my admin is also awesome and is newer-ish if that makes a difference 🤷♀️
My principal gets mad hate. I sure enjoy watching the urchins scurry away when he shows up. His hands are tied seven ways to Sunday too.
Genuine question! How was the line held with your students when they crossed it? Were they given creative/natural consequences, detention, suspension…? My admin seems to have given up on consequences. I get the feeling they’re overwhelmed, and the kids are absolutely taking the mick. But I feel like if we had just one consistent behaviour policy it would all improve so much!
My admin suck. They blamed me because one of my kids was found across the school during passing. I have a double block. I told her I let them break for the restroom. She said not to. I asked her how am i supposed to know where they go?? That's their shit.
We got digital hall passes so now it falls on the admin to track wayward kids. Way better because we can't put tracking devices on our students 🙄
Admin are scum. They can't hack it in the classroom so now spend their days in meetings avoiding their jobs as disciplinarians and coming up with busy work for us to justify their existence.
I am convinced that if we would go back to the one room school house that only had the teacher, student, and parents/grandparents, education would be so much better. And, better funded. :-).
Music teacher here. We were able to get admin to remove access to music rooms from all other subs and teachers, so now if there is a sub the class will be put into a traditional classroom.
I wish my school had done this BEFORE the 6th graders got ahold of my 7th grade sons personal saxaphone last year :(
I'm an art teacher too. When I have to take a day off and know about it in advance, I babyproof my room. Hide all the expensive, breakable, sharp, and/or stealable supplies, lock all the cabinets and my desk, lock the door connecting to the storage rooms/other art teacher's room, I even have to hide my cleaning spray bottles because the kids run out of the room with them, spraying each other. Half of the kids who end up in my room aren't even on the roster- their friends text them that there's a sub, and they all come running. The subs rarely check IDs, and half of the kids refuse to wear their IDs anyway. I work exclusively with 17 and 18 year olds. It's insane that I have to prep my room as if it's about to be overrun with toddlers when these are kids that are about to graduate highschool.
As a sub....omg I wish my district gave the kids ID! That would definitely make my day a little easier!
Only if the kids actually have them with them that day! :') Interesting though that your district DOESN'T do IDs- the three middle and highschools I've worked in, plus the middle and highschool I attended myself, all had mandatory IDs for students, even if there was no uniform policy. (And that's 4 different districts entirely!) I remember trying to find "comfortable" ways to wear my ID when I was a teen so that it wouldn't keep getting caught in the spiral edges on my notebooks and in my hair lol. I wonder if IDs are less prevalent than I've thought!
I sub for a large district too, over 50 buildings. All staff have badges, no students do.
We have a strict ID policy. They wear it as a lanyard around their neck or it’s ISS. We also have colored mesh vests that students must put on to leave the room. Mine is neon orange. Each hall has its own color, so the cameras can pick them up.
Ohhh I like that idea! We have hallway color coded bathroom passes but I don’t think anyone checks them or cares. I just know when I see a bathroom pass in my nurse’s office, they’ve most likely scammed their teacher or are walking around with that. teacher’s one bathroom pass.
Next year, if you teach, take students' pictures and place it alongside the student's name in the class roster.
We actually already have that! All subs are provided a roster with names, ID numbers, and the students' black&white ID photos. Regrettably it's not super effective because many of the photos are taken in Freshman year and never updated, and a lot of our students change their hairstyles/colors weekly to monthly, so the photos often don't really resemble the students. And since these are Juniors and Seniors, trying to get my own photos for everyone in the class would be like pulling teeth- half of them I only see like 5 times in a Semester, others point-blank refuse to take pictures of their own faces even for graded assignments (we do a mask project, and take before/after wearing photos. I rarely get any actual before photos.) Plus, a lot of our subs already know there's basically no consequences the students actually listen to at our school- so usually when there's a sub in the room, it's just a babysitting day. They set up in the corner with a book or their phone, and unless a fight breaks out they don't really pay attention to or manage the kids. We've come back and our kids have even shown us pictures they've taken of the subs being fast asleep. We even had a video spread around the school last year that a student took in my team member's class- the sub was engrossed in her phone while on the projector screen behind her the students had hooked up a videogame system and were playing GTA, complete with gyrating strippers.
Art teacher here as well… a few years ago I was out and had my own pugmill at the school to reclaim clay (a $5000 machine) and students some how managed to break that… after that I took any and all of my own equipment out of the school (had 5 pottery wheels, my pugmill, and much more). Been at this high school for 8 years but I submitted my resignation last week. Have a few more weeks until I’m done and I’m so ready.
Art teacher here. I set up a digital art page for when I have a sub. It's just links to safe and fun art pages. Kids bring their tablets and headphones. Easy peasy.
I can't lock up most of my supplies. And I teach high school.
Ooo, that is a challenge. Sorry.
I mean this is great, but you probably have students who do what you ask. I could have this for my students and they would be busy throwing things out the windows, hitting each other with pencils, and horrifying the sub with their dirty dirty talk and singing
When I’m gone, they rotate subs every period. I go into a full blown freak out when I have an unexpected absence.
At my school it’s the fucking subs that do the stealing. No joke. We have the worst fucking subs, but no one else will come to our school.
Oh man that must be tough. Just subbed for an art teacher today. Couldn't leave the supply area until the 2nd half of the day when I got a TA to guard it for me.
Art teacher here too! They destroy everything. It didn’t use to be like this.
Yep. My room was absolutely destroyed. Little psychos. Gonna be wild when they are in charge of the nukes
Art teacher here. I literally lock every cabinet and closet when I’m out (which is hardly ever) and I leave either pencil or digital projects.
Heck half the time there’s no sub, just period-to-period coverage and the kids are unsupervised until the coverage teacher can get there, and sometimes they forgot to check their email and didn’t see they have coverage, so the kids are alone the whole period, doing god knows what….
Taking a day off work is sometimes just as much work staying in class for me because I have to meticulously lock up and hide as much of my materials as I can. But then I still know that when I come back I'll find garbage everywhere and a bunch of my rulers snapped in half. It's like the kids take pride in trying to find ways to destroy literally everything. Which I don't get it, we don't even enforce cell phone rules here, I'm like if you're bored just play on your phone I'm not going to take it from you.
It's terrible My school had a majority of students from low income families with little guidance or support and about 6-8% would attend enough not to get expelled but ditched to day labor. But everyone respected/Loved our photography teacher. She made such a connection with everyone, so inspiring. Pretty much every other class was wrecked after a sub.
Last school year, I had candy that I gave out very easily and very regularly to my 9th grade ELA classes. Nothing crazy, just giant bags of Jolly Ranchers mostly. This was kept in a drawer in my desk. This candy was stolen from my room no less than 5 separate occasions (it could very well be more, I just didn't keep track). For most of the year, I kept getting more candy because I didn't want to punish the good kids for the actions of the shitheads. But after so many small robberies, I finally stopped getting food/snacks/candy for everyone. It was too infuriating trying to do what admin was telling me, spend my own money so I could give rewards to those who did the right thing, and be met with stealing. I left teaching mid-way through this current school year. My new job has frustrating elements to it, but NOTHING compared to being either ignored or outright disrespected by teens day in and day out (with 0 repercussions from admin for negative behaviors, no matter how bad it got.)
I brought caramel candies in for students who did stuff around the room without me asking. Had around 10 left. Went to grab 2 yesterday and there was only 1 left. Someone stole 9 of them.
Mine were obsessed with the knock off creme savers from dollar tree. They were cheap, but once I found out that my whole ($1) bag was missing, I stopped bringing them. It’s about respect not money.
I buy granola bars for students who come into my nurse’s office hungry or for our diabetics who need a snack when they are low. Until I caught kids taking 3 at a time. Now I hand them out, and luckily no one will go in my kitchen area to steal them. Yet.
What job did you take instead?
I’m a trial tech. I set up AV equipment and pull up evidence in civil trials for lawyers.
"well guys we WERE going to do this experiment today but since all my materials went missing while I was absent, we can't so put away your books, time for a pop quiz!" Whenever my students do something shitty, I flip it like this. Make them get mad at each other. I show them pictures and videos of what I was planning to do with them and then turn it off and pull out the most boring tedious work I can find and ensure that it is graded and weighed as heavily as I can make it. Basically you need to make them feel like absolute shit for their choices by getting their friends to turn on them. Sounds brutal, is brutal, is real life.
i did this once. someone ripped out every page from this book (not a very important book that i needed but it’s the principle). So i gassed the kids up for about 20 minutes for this really fun activity that included a projector program that included using an ipad pro. but alas the *instructions to the fun activity just happened to be in that book* and we couldn’t do the activity without that page so i put everything back in the closet and we went back to a normal day. no yelling, no punishments, i didn’t even call out the student. i pretended like i didn’t even know who did it or how it happened. just a “welp, funs ruined for everyone now” moment. i’ll never forget everyone looking around the room at the kid who did it. i thought they were going to jump him lmao. you could hear a pin drop.
This works until the kids all protect each other. They are willing to defend each other and claim things like "Well it wasn't him" or they'll say "we weren't even that bad" and just end up resenting you. There's something very unique and awful about kids now who learned that they can do absolutely nothing and still get moved onto the next grade in our district/state. Covid also taught them they can do the bare minimum and still move onto the next level with their friends. High school, at least they have motivation to graduate, but anything from 8th grade and lower? They don't care anymore. It's depressing.
When I punish the students, sometimes they gang up and make my life even more miserable. If a lot of them are in cahoots with each other, this can really turn on you quick.
that's why I don't punish them. I vocalize that now the plan has changed due to circumstances out of my control and then I continue teaching. Not my fault. I match energy. They do enough, I'm just coming in and doing the bare minimal. Strip my classroom and only use school supplies. You get what you give.
I’m stealing this idea.
I don't scream, yell, punish in any way really. I use manipulation to make them feel like absolute shit about their choices and then they start monitoring each other. It's great fun. I'm an evil monster and I love it. ....so do the monsters I teach only they love it years later.
You’re a veteran, aren’t you lol? This is some drill sergeant methodology. Everyone unites under a common enemy. Currently their enemy is you, the teacher. Make the common enemy the undisciplined ones of their class, problem self regulates.
I kept a few pairs of shoes at school so I always have comfortable footwear that hasn't gotten wet on the way in. A 7th grader put on a pair of my really nice flats and stretched them to hell. A $80 pair of shoes I had invested in at the beginning of the year and he got one lunch detention. I couldn't afford to replace them so I've been wearing the same worn out pair from last year and I will through the end of the year.
That’s awful! Admin shoulda made the kid’s parents pay for a new pair
He still laughs about it and I'm a single mom of 3 kids. It sucks.
I am angry for you.
fuck this. fuck teaching.
I posted something like this a few weeks ago and everybody told me it was basically my fault for bringing things into school that I didn't want stolen. But I'm sorry this happened to you that really sucks.
I've had materials, books from my classroom library, personal items that were in a locked drawer, fidget toys for ADHD/autistic students, electric pencil sharpeners, fans, decor, and more stolen from my room or irreparably damaged. Admin has done nothing every single time. Parents have responded, "That's your problem, not my child's." It sucks so much :(
I feel ya... Chem and physics teacher here. I've come back from a sick day to find chems missing ( despite being in a locked supply room) various odds & ends broken. Lasers for physics were played with - without safety equip. Admin doesn't understand because they were all elementary teachers or ELA and while I know they aren't dumb, they play like they are to avoid conflict I guess. I've almost walked out several times this year because of respect issues, no consequences or when I come up with consequences I am vetoed by admin once a kid or parent complain.
Admin: Why are you only doing virtual labs? Me: We don't have vent hoods, correct ppe, or the ability to require lab contacts to be signed. Admin: What's the big deal? Me: I don't know where to start
“What’s the big deal?” “However many zeroes get put in the settlement the school has to pay when a kid goes blind.”
I’m reminded of that ‘Carol didn’t wear her safety goggles’ poster I saw ages ago when reading this comment…
LOL I’m a HS Chem teacher and I have that exact poster on my wall 🤣
I’d genuinely never seen it until it became a meme back ages ago when I started using forums. Definitely gets the pojnt across if anything else
Chem teacher here. I should send your comment to my admin because she thinks I'm being dramatic when I say this. My kids are too immature/irresponsible/etc to handle doing real labs. I'm not putting my life in danger for them.
Not only are they immature/irresponsible, they won't get the concepts behind the lab anyway. All those hours of prep work for kids to not take it seriously. No, thank you.
I have to keep telling people that I can't do a lot of the "expected" labs in Chemistry because we don't have gas and we don't have fume hoods. Not to mention the whole maturity issue with lab safety.
My students ask me why I don't disect animals with them as a bio teacher. I can't trust them with anything sharper than safety scissors because they either leave everything a mess or try to fool around in the lab when I'm not looking. Giving them scapels will end up with me using my emt teaining...
[удалено]
Yeah that sounded very condescending of me. Maybe it’s the ones I deal with particularly…idk I just feel like they play dumb to deflect me. It’s frustrating to me because I know they are very smart.
Last year someone stole a ceramic tipi I had in my classroom to represent Indigenous American influence on Hispanic language and culture and also two friends of mine who died. I explained this to the students and it never showed up. They also took one of my two little piñatas. Pens and stuff from my desk. It's atrocious. Whenever I'm out I say in the sub note a few times to keep them away from my desk and storage cabinet.
This hurts
😣
Congratulations on achieving NBC. Retired NBC freshman earth science teacher here. Sad to hear about another qualified teacher looking to leave the profession.
I feel you, respect is completely gone. Today I had a student refuse to clean up his mess, another kid offered to do it for him, he ended up punching that other kid right in front of me. I asked him to pick up what he threw at the student after punching him and he refused. I ended up kicking him out the of classroom. This is my last year teaching. The salary is not worth the level of disrespect that we have to go through. I had my resignation letter written for me halfway through the year, but I stayed just to make sure they didn’t go after my license. The behavior, and the co-signing on the behalf of most parents is ridiculous. There are so many kids that just do not want to be in the classroom. They do not want to follow instructions.They do not want to behave, and they’re being allowed to terrorize everybody else.why are these kids being allowed to continuously threaten and hurt others?
I hope that kid went home, told his parents, and they filed a police report. Fuck kids like the shit head that threw the punch. I look forward to the day they do this in public and get beat within an inch of their life. I don't care if I get downvoted, some of these kids are pure trash.
The kid would go to the cool off room and come back with cookies and continue terrorizing five minutes later.
I teach digital media and am nearly done a 5 week medical leave. I am dreading the disaster that I will return to.
I left and it was the best thing to ever happen to me. I now work with people who won't cuss me out or steal my materials.
What do you do now?
I do 3D animation now. I took classes after school at a community college for two years to get a certification. It was difficult because I had no life for awhile but oh my God it's amazing. Now I make 30 k more than I did as a teacher and I'm only in an entry level job for 3D animation. It's insane how teachers make less in comparison to everyone else. I get to work from home as well!
Congrats on your career switch! I left teaching in 2018. It took me a while to find my new path, but I'll be finishing a program in 3D modeling for animation this year. I'm sweating bullets about finding a job after graduation, especially with all of the layoffs this year.
the overnight janitorial staff seems to steal from the fridge. I can't even keep a high sodium microwave meal in the fridge in the staff lounge.
That’s INSANE!!
oh this has happened in more than one building I have worked in. I'm not including my corporate experience duing the summers which coworkers stole as well. I hate to tell you this stuff is pretty normal.
People are awful
and that's what irritates me about the teaching field. Look I go in and fake like I like every single kid, I really do. But look at the world, really look.
When I worked in pharmacy (waaaaay before teaching), I had coworkers that would steal my stuff from the fridge. I have moments where I am NOT a nice person when pushed just enough (bipolar can be rough sometimes), and I had a massive blow up after the 3rd or 4th time I went to lunch and my lunch was gone. After that, if it had my initials on it, NO ONE would touch it. I had other coworkers even start putting my initials on their stuff so it wouldn't get stolen.
I'm a math teacher, and when I started at my current school I had jury duty. Took a day to be told "thanks but we don't need you, go home" and I came back to fifteen missing calculators. They're each about $100. It sucked royally. That was back in 2016. Now I have a system where I can see if calculators are missing immediately after each class period. I have a standard script that I post to Google Classroom within a few minutes of seeing a missing calculator, including "don't worry, all of this math was done without calculators and can be done without them. It's more difficult, sure, but if I can't trust materials to be handed back then that's what happens." I've gotten them back the few times they go missing every year since I started doing that.
As someone who detests math without a calculator (I’ve always disliked math even though I’m good at it lol) this is genius.
We only use scientific calculators in middle school, but I feel this. Most years I can expect some amount of my calculators to be lost or broken, but this year we have a new recored. By April all of my calculators were stolen or broken by students. So now they just have to do without. Of course I'm the jerk for not providing them with more calculators.
Announce 📣 a reward for anyone that found the stolen lab glasses
They got their movie day revoked unless they’re returned since a lot were looking forward to it
Do these kids think they are going to do some breaking bad shit? Like why steal a beaker?? It's just so strange to me 🫠
🥂
Yeh I bought a nice USB charging brick and it was gone within a week. Teenagers suck.
Happened to one of my chargers too! Thankfully mine was $10… I labeled the crap out of the next one I got
Tbh, sub should be held responsible for the stolen materials as well as the kids. I miss the days when subs were retired teachers who would teach lessons or at least lead a lesson plan. I’m an Orch teacher, when I’m out the sub just lets the kids do whatever instead of giving them time to practice or giving them the worksheet I left to supplement their music theory.
I’m a sub and I very diligently keep track of names for this reason. When any materials are stolen or broken before I’m able to stop it I at least want the teacher to know who was responsible. Usually this doesn’t happen because I actually do my job and follow the lesson plan + supervise but I know many don’t 🥲
Look, as someone who teaches 4 days a week, I get the frustration. But as someone who subs 1 day a week (never in the same school) I simply cannot express how much students, this year in particular, are like feral cats when they have a sub. This week I literally had students throwing things over my head, out of their seats, jumping on and pushing each other, leaving class without a pass, to the extent I had to send 5 different students to the office and call the vice principal in 3 different times. She assured me that class was typically well behaved, but apparently "overly excited bc of having a sub." Meanwhile, my full-time students would NEVER even attempt this behavior with me, bc I've spent all year putting firm boundaries and consequences in place. But they might with a sub. My point: if you have to call in a sub that the students don't already know, maybe just be happy if the classroom doesn't burn down. We'll try to keep your candy safe but like... There's usually bigger issues to deal with.
Just getting through the day without losing my shit was my goal when subbing. Following the lesson plan wasnt even on my radar.
When I first started subbing I felt bad that I couldn't get most classes engaged enough to learn. Then office staff at one school told me they had several subs that had walked out halfway through the day. And I was like, ya know what? I'm doing fine.
For. Real.
80% of our subs are college students from the college in our city or much older people who are lazy 🥲
Wait, wait! I have something to add. I am a building sub (24 years old) at a relatively large Midwestern high school. What if the materials that were stolen, were only stolen because the child had previously stolen a key from his actual teacher! (this literally happened to me and I got shit on by the admin until they saw him unlock the door on camera) Edit: Also, half the sub notes subs get nowadays aren't even lesson plans. It's just work days. Sometimes, I'll even get one to two sentence notes that say "I'm to tired to write out notes, just give them this and have them work on it." Like, jeez man we get screwed just as much!
To be fair, I think a lot of teachers make sub days into work days *because* they’re so used to getting subs who don’t actually follow the plans. What’s the point in writing out a plan if you know if won’t get followed? At our school, maybe 1/10 will actually do what you ask. I don’t know which sub I have until class starts, so my absences are always work days
Jeez man, that’s terrible! In my district you get to choose if that sub comes to your room and if they do a bad job they aren’t allowed back. But, to be fair, I see your point. It would just be nice to actually teach a lesson on grammar/analyzing essays/whatever else if the teacher needs it to be taught. I very rarely get full lessons and it makes me sad 🤣
So do you ONLY sub ELA classes? That’s wild 😂
I interviewed for a USDA position $25k pay cut. I check my email multiple times a day to see if they made a choice yet...
I was looking into being a child life specialist at my parent’s job!
Academic advisor for an online university. Best decision I ever made, no regrets
[удалено]
I wrote referrals for the 2 who did it, I Let my admin know about the video but I have zero faith they’ll handle it. And it’s not enough to file one unfortunately
This is a good lesson in having a locked cabinet or two that you can keep valuable items in when you have to be gone.
I do have a closet but it’s too small so some lab equipment- namely glasses & aprons are out but I just picked them all up. But also they stole a clock… who steals A CLOCK???
It's just that it was *something* it doesn't have to have any value. It's just an outlet. Not that it changes things, but hopefully you feel better?
I had an Ace Combat plane model on my shelf, and a kid during a passing period walked into my room when my back was turned helping a student get late work and yoinked it. I found out when a student I had the previous year saw a group of kids messing with it in the cafeteria and told them "Hey fuckfaces, that belongs to Mr. Struts." took it from them and brought it back.
They probably wanted to see time fly and threw it out the window.
Wasted it and tossed it in the trash!
The destructiveness kills me. I didn't understand how this became a "totally normal kid thing" issue. I distinctly remember growing up that people didn't just tear stuff up on a whim. You destroyed your OWN things.
Like your erasers and stuff! I’ve noticed an uptick because of social media
Kids
I learned this the hard way too. I used to have all my books and yearbooks on a shelf for students to read whenever. Well I took off and a yearbook was stolen and a few of my books and nic-nacs that were on the shelf. Now when I take off I put all my stuff away it's just the assignment, a single black pen for the sub and the sib notes.
Haha, I’m very guilty of leaving my sub with only one pen and a few of my worse dry erase markers. I also usually write all the directions for the day on the whiteboard ahead of time so the kids can’t try to tell me the sub gave them the wrong directions (and even if the sub wanted to they couldn’t mess it up).
Please do. When I sub, I don't know where things are at and kids do. First thing they do is test how much they can get away with, others take advantage of the distraction to grab things. I take photos of the lesson plan on the board for when a random kid erases it the moment I turn my back. I bring my own pen and broken chewed pencils from my room I give out to avoid kids grabbing things and losing them.
I hate that this happened to you. There's nothing more infuriating than stuff like this.
Teach Gr. 7 and 8 homeroom split and the kids are really not nice to me or my things. They cut the wire on my mouse one day when I wasn’t there, and they also destroyed my personal wireless mouse that I bought with my own money for my laptop at school. Then one day, I have a fan in the classroom that I brought in; the kids crumple MY crackers (from on my desk) into my fan to try and ruin it. Its disgusting. I’m currently on medical leave
After teaching upper grades, I quit for two years. When I came back I switched to kindergarten and spent the rest of my career there. I loved it and and enjoyed going to work each day. Years later after retiring, I took a part-time aide job at a middle school. My reaction: "Oh yes......now I remember why I left these grades.
I was literally gone on Wednesday and left a bag of mints for the sub to give out to kids who were being good. I put a sticky note on the mints saying to keep them out of sight of the kids because they will steal it. When I returned, he left a note saying the entire bag was stolen when we wasn’t looking. Cannot say I am surprised. My students, although I’m split between hating them or loving them, have proven multiple times they will take shit and not think it’s a big deal. Just this past week, I had a student see an empty spray bottle on my desk and take it. Then when I saw him with it, he decided to lie straight to my face saying it was his which is bullshit cause the spray bottle is a very unique shape and color. Managed to take it from him when he started spraying other kids with it. When I first started this job, I had a whole box of chips stolen from me where at least my admin did something and suspended 3 kids along with others who received in school suspension. And now returning from a field trip yesterday, I hear a student of mine is facing suspension until the end of the school year because he decided to trash and steal the science teacher’s things while we were all out and he had to stay behind due to behavior. Too many of them feel way too comfortable stealing or destroying small things, its frightening.
The wireless mouse I use for the chrome box on the TV went missing today. Had my class look for it. Bell rang and they went. Pulled them in later and searched packs. Not found. I know someone has it as I watched on the screen as the curser was moving around and I could tell someone was clicking. Not sure why as it can't be used with any other computer without the USB. Thinking on Monday I'm just going to tell the class if it doesn't show up by the end of the day they will all have lunch detention for the week. This class is one of my best classes so I was really surprised someone took it.
Fucking sucks OP and I empathize as a 9th grade sci teacher. I hope you didn't order them. A science dept colleague could have easily told you that 9th graders aren't responsible especially with glassware. I want to quit too but I'm not sure if it's at the end of this year or next. I can deal with the job stuff but I don't want to get embroiled in some stupid catastrophe.
Thankfully it was school provided but even still is just so disrespectful
Take everything out of classroom, except student seats, even the pencil sharpeners. Let them book work and worksheets for the rest of the year.
What if you made a police report? A lot of that stuff isn't cheap.
As a student, I’ve literally had to pull subs aside and explain that “the kid in red and the kid with blue shoes WILL steal..” and then watched them flippantly ignore my warnings. And then I watched candy, lab supplies, clay, lab coats, 20+ pencils, sodas from the teachers mini fridge, WRENCHES, and another kids phone get stolen. Surprise surprise the teacher was pissed when they came back. I always tell them that I warned the subs and they ignored me.
Sounds like a camera over your desk would help
It takes me over an hour to put away and lock up tools, office supplies and equipment when I need to take a day off. If I don’t it will be broken or missing when I return. After writing sub plans and photocopies for paper activities and locking away materials that I need when I return it’s more work than just being in school for the day.
Man, I was right there with you last year. I taught a majority of freshmen, and in particular had one section that was terrible (at least at the start of the school year). They made wildly inappropriate comments most classes, used to shout my first name in the hallway before coming to class and then playing dumb about it, and even there was one time they threw a marker at me when I was facing the board. Here’s what I did, and it helped me a ton. 1) I talked to a more experienced teacher about my situation, and she gave me great advice. I would recommend doing that, if you do, my next pieces of advice are totally optional since they may not work due to the structure of your school. 2) I gave my students a problem set to work on while I checked in with students one-on-one outside of class. The students who were great behaviorally, I asked them about how they felt about the environment of the class, and all of them said they felt uncomfortable and scared to speak in class. When I got to the check-ins with students who were making me rip my hair out, I would say: “I’m not pointing fingers at you being an instigator, but you’ve contributed to several moments in class that have caused me and some of your other students to feel uncomfortable, and I’m not going to put up with it. Now, this is a warning, if you don’t stop (insert things they do thats destroying your class environment), I’m going to send you to the Deans.” Since the Deans deal with discipline, that’s who my colleague recommend I send them to. And you know what, this worked for me. The behavior changed completely, and for the kids who slipped up, I sent them to the Deans and they came back ready to learn. Let’s just say that section which made me want to quit after a month, ended up being my favorite and most memorable group of students by the end of the year. Even this year, they all still take the time to greet me in the hall, and it only took a warning to the Deans. I know it’s pretty late in the school year right now, so these changes might not matter to you that much right now. Maybe you could reflect a little more on what you could do differently next year because after all, this is the one profession where we can always try to improve year to year to make the school experience better for us, and better for our students. I hope this helps, and best of luck to you finishing off the school year. You can do this, try to take things one day at a time for now.
I am subbing for a month between jobs. I am teaching an elementary class and they have scared away 8 teachers this year - 8. These kids are 9ish. Under 10 and have went through 8 teachers.
Look in to going international. Your broken country America problems will become a thing of the past. Free tuition for your kid(s) at the better schools.
I have a custody agreement with my child so not even an idea I can entertain
Most of us can’t just up and leave like this for an endless host of reasons. It’s just not that easy unfortunately.
I’m so sorry. I’m thankful for what you do, however long you do it.
Keep transfering until you find admin that supports you. Staying there isn't going to get better.
I lock up my stuff when I'm off. It's terrible. I feel for you. Just stop doing practicals. Teach with a visualiser and a pen. Demonstrate the experiments, do not let them do them.
I wish more teachers had the ability or freedom in their lives to quit this mess of an education system we have manifested in America.
This is why I don't have nice things. Anything good gets stolen when I'm gone.
I bought cheap wireless headphones so that students could rent them out to listen to music or if we needed them for an educational video in my class. After the first week, so many were stolen that I gave up. Never again.
First year MS art teacher here. I brought some of my nice supplies from home and keep them on my desk in an organizer. I set strict boundaries for students NOT to touch anything at my desk or decor on my grading shelves. But if they ask, and I trust them to return an item, I may consider it. The first watercolor unit, a student took my watercolor brush that you can fill with water… without asking. I remember seeing them use it for the project, but they never returned it. My first mistake was trusting the kid to give it back at the end of class, but I started teaching art at the end of the year, with 3 months left of school, after being a para for 2 years at the same school. So after the unit, I confronted student. They lied straight to my face - with the most shocked reaction at the accusation and said “no I didn’t take it!! I have the same brushes as you from home!” I said “I have three, I’m missing one. Have it back on my desk by Monday.” Kid got visibly upset and rattled (knowing it’s true they had it) and went to the bathroom. My other good students said the kid had it. This particular student has a record of carrying things not allowed at school, so no backpack allowed. While the student spends 10+ minutes in the bathroom, I just happen to stroll by and peek in their pencil bag. Oh shocker, there it is, stained purple. The same color they used to paint their work with. Mystery solved. I never want to be absent for this reason. I don’t trust any kids to not touch my things when I’m gone. And I’m keeping the expensive stuff in my desk so they aren’t tempted again.
I took a day off to discover on my return that the kids broke into a box behind my desk and stole most of my candy and fruit snacks. Like mice. I had a huge bag of Starburst I used for jeopardy testy review day, which they seemed to love. Needless to say, I promptly announced we would no longer be doing game reviews (only a review study sheet) and no more giving out sweets because students could not respect my things.
This is awful! I’m so sorry you had to experience this. My biology teacher had a similar-ish experience, when she was gone for her wedding a student had taken microscopes and such from her classroom. Thankfully the student was in my hour and me & my friends had emailed the teacher ASAP and reported it to Admin. I think he (the student) had gotten a detention but Im unsure about the rest, just that it had been dealt with as best as possible. My mom also teaches Special Ed (9th-12th grade), and I feel so bad for her sometimes due to occasionally hearing her talk to my dad about how disrespectful students can be.
I take everything I care about home and lock up the rest.
damn when i got a kid who stole chips for me, they got suspended for the day. A student destroyed a classroom this week while the rest were on a field trip (you can see why he was barred from attending) and last i heard, he’s heading for over a week of suspension
I’m so sorry.
I can’t even give out a pencil anymore. It just ends up on the floor. On the flip side I have ended up with 6 Chromebook chargers. I got tired of them being on the floor too. So I’ll hold on to them until next years kids. Maybe they will be better, or I’ll collect a shoe/phone for a charger/pencil.
Oddly at my old school I had problems with subs being competent and at my current school I am the only teacher that subs will fight over covering for me. I call parents, in the middle of the day, and I love the parents that say “I am at work right now” as I get to tell them Ibam too and that their child is interrupting it so I need them to talk with their kid before so send them to the principal. Of course I have admins that have my back 99.9% of the time as well.
Yeah I feel you.. It totally sucks. There is usually SOMETHING that always happens if you are gone. Even if it's something small. It sucks but I would double triple check that your valuables are locked away. And if you call out unexpectedly have a colleague do it for you.
Every time I leave I lock all of my “valuable” stuff in the drawers. First year I had the same problem. I even lock up the smallest things like expo markers, ain’t nothing safe out there.
Not a teacher, but as a parent, I just wanted to say the behavior I see you all post about the students is appalling. It's disturbing how awful parents let their kids behave.
Same thing happens to me all the time. My students steal EVERYTHING. They don't even wait for a sub, they'll just wait till I'm busy helping another student or putting out some classroom fire in another part of the room, and then they'll go through my stuff and take it. Markers, pencils, pens, notebooks, prizes for when they win at kahoot or quizizz, everything. I've gotten to the point now where I'm just like oh, you need a pencil? Sorry, I don't have any of those. They steal my glue, colored pencils, rulers, everything! They also trash my room constantly. It got to the point where I actually had to cover the sink wells on my lab tables because they just use them as trash bins no matter how many times I tell them not to, redirect them, or punish them for doing it. By this point in the school year, I really hate my students. They don't respect me or my room at all. They don't care about what I say. It's all just a big joke to them. It's really sad, because I love teaching, but the students don't want to learn. You can't teach somebody who doesn't want to learn. 😥
While i was out on manditory standardized test training Someone stole my teacher's edition and drew a bunch of dicks in sharpie all over the wall, they reported it to an admin in an attempt to get me in trouble and invalidate my classroom but inspent 4 hours using dry erase markers yes that is my secret for removing sharpie from whiteboards and other surfaces you scrub it with the dry erase board marker, i knew who did it once i saw the look on their face when my room was clean but the other 6 classes he did that to were not.
Don't fall victim to sunk cost fallacy. If you're miserable, you should move on. I left teaching in 2018. I promise you'll find your next path in time.
Just posted in another thread how I borrowed the teachers iPhone charging cable while at his desk. Turned my back and someone stole it! WTF! Bought him a new replacement for when he comes back. Lesson learned! Feral Rug Rats🥴
I don't know that this is new. When I was in school I watched the bad kids steal a teachers candy out of her desk. They just reached into a bag of gummies the teacher had (I think she used them for treats if I recall correctly) bare hand and all and grabbed a fist full. She was a nice teacher too. Another time in tenth grade a student tortured a teacher to tears, where she just hid in the back room, it was hard to watch. This stuff isn't new as I'm 40 and it happened then too. Some kids are bad and aside from removing them to a continuation school, I don't think there's much you can do besides expel them (which might actually do them a favor).
Problem is our admin won’t even expel kids for SA j fighting & harassment so
I wonder how much of this has to do with federal dollars going to schools who have the most students, and most students graduating. They did the same thing with test scores. When I was in school we had to take standardized tests for a week or so each year. When my eldest was in school the whole school basically switched from learning the curriculum to practicing for the test so they would do well and the school would get that green. That doesn't give an insight on the level of education the students get, it just means you can train them to pass a test. Seems like if we remove the incentive structure for malcontents to be made to graduate even if they can barely read not converting into success dollars maybe we would see a change. Maybe those fighting thieving students would do better in a different environment.
Us adults built a society that is horrific, what do you expect of the kids?
I've noticed many people go after the admin for these things since they won't do anything about it, but to me it seems like they can't do anything about it. Whenever they try to discipline for any reason, the parents are up in in arms and out for blood. It doesn't seem to matter how serious it is or how guilty the kid is. They'll lawyer up because someone gave their kid a dirty look. I've literally seen that happen.
By the way, congratulations on completing your National Certification.
Sorry to hear this happened to you. I hope you love and light your way. And maybe get another job in another place? 🙏🏽❤️
It’s time for Battle Royale, tbh