I'm a Middle School Teacher in the Hood Who's Losing Hope For our Future AMA

[Towlie]

Benefits? Perks? Breh, we're paying out of pocket for supplies, food, clothing and the lot. Most of us brought our own printers and laptops from home. This summer, we'll be repainting the school - and yes, the paint and supplies will come from our wallets. Last year, we fixed the bathroom doors - again, with our own tools and money for things like handles and locks. You KNOW your school is fukked when the principal says - and I quote: "We're not going to be able to just get rid of the bees." And this is a fukking portable campus!

Did I mention that most of us tutor after school for free?
Did I mention a lot of us teach on Saturdays for free?
Did I mention that we don't get a lunch break because "you can eat during your conference time"?
Did I mention that a parent complained about me being "unprofessional" for eating during a virtual conference even though I apologized profusely AND hadn't eaten breakfast because - waiiiit for it - I was doing before school tutoring?

We were lucky that we even got a Saturday stipend this year - and by "stipend" we mean "money you'll be paying for supplies and food for your students". Last year, we didn't even get THAT.



Our 6th grade has lost four teachers last semester - two of them in two weeks. I don't mean long-term subs - I mean these motherfukkers were hired and everything. Now we're at the time of the year where if you lose a teacher (and we're about to lose two), they just combine the classes to prevent rehiring.

Dang we don't have it that bad. Our school district is pretty large though about 150k students. We get a district issued laptop and a desktop at school with a printer. Kudos to you paying for the school to improve though.

We're lucky enough to have a non-profit here that supplies any teacher in the city with supplies. You go shopping there, make an appointment and you can take your quota of items. You can do this once a month


I feel you on the dispersals. The same thing happened two years ago. We were dispersing 120 kids over 10 teachers. Teachers that might already have 35-37 kids. Subs refused to come to the school. We arrested l switched substitute agencies and it was better last year

 

[Maxine Shaw]

Oh wow that’s awful!! Do y’all have a PTA? They don’t help at all? I’m the treasurer for our PTA and we always try to lend financial support to our teachers for things you mentioned. We carved out a budget for replacement ink for personal printers this year.

Sheeeeeeeeeit, the parents are probably going broke paying for our paper towels, soap and hand sanitizer. We're also a K-8 school, so a number of parents have multiple children here. It's hard for a bunch of broke asses to allot extra money for their broke ass school. But we make it work somehow.

 

[Dave24]

My dude you must have never worked with youngin's. Any Pop warner Football coach, Teacher, Scout master, Big Brother etc gets ghetto single mother p*ssy thrown at him. If nikkas are incels that knew this, they wouldn't be incels @Dave24

 

[Rawtid]

Sheeeeeeeeeit, the parents are probably going broke paying for our paper towels, soap and hand sanitizer. We're also a K-8 school, so a number of parents have multiple children here. It's hard for a bunch of broke asses to allot extra money for their broke ass school. But we make it work somehow.

Awwwww that’s sad, but I commend all your effort and hard work. It’s not easy.

 

[Rawtid]

Does anyone ever talk about poor rural white schools?

I wonder if they have the same conditions.

Poor rural schools aren’t typically as crowded, so their resources can go further. 12-15 kids in a class may be “crowded” for them while inner city schools have 35-40.

 

[Maxine Shaw]

Subs refused to come to the school. We arrested l switched substitute agencies and it was better last year

I was a sub for about five years, and I STAYED eating b/c I went to the schools no one would ever go to. I'm talking schools where they confiscated your keys at the front office to prevent the subs from leaving. One day, I asked a principal who kept checking up on me why he kept coming into the portable. He told me that because I hadn't sent anyone to the office, he was worried that I'd left the campus. When I pointed out that the office took my keys, he told me the last sub called her husband to come pick her up and the kids were teacherless until recess. Personally, I was impressed they were able to keep up the ruse that long. It wasn't even that I was that great a sub - I was just broke as fukk and couldn't afford to turn the work down or quit (especially not at $68/day). Long-term jobs were a godsend.

Ironically, the one time I straight up quit a long-term job was second grade. I made it to the end of the day, then faked strep throat (I've had it as an adult before) and just didn't sub that week. I never wanted to set a classroom on fire so bad in all my life. Eventually it got to where I wouldn't sub lower than 4th - 3rd if I was just desperate. When I was a classroom teacher (I'm an interventionist now), my kids knew that there would be pure hell to pay if I got a bad note from a sub.

(A secret to you teachers who never subbed: if the sub doesn't leave his/her name and number for you to call again, your class SUCKED. Subs rarely leave bad notes for teachers because teachers will complain to the sub office and potentially be barred from that campus. Subs want to work and be seen as reliable, so if they had a good day, they'll leave their contact info for you if you ever need a sub again.)

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

My dude you must have never worked with youngin's. Any Pop warner Football coach, Teacher, Scout master, Big Brother etc gets ghetto single mother p*ssy thrown at him. If nikkas are incels that knew this, they wouldn't be incels @Dave24

 

[Wiseborn]

I was a sub for about five years, and I STAYED eating b/c I went to the schools no one would ever go to. I'm talking schools where they confiscated your keys at the front office to prevent the subs from leaving. One day, I asked a principal who kept checking up on me why he kept coming into the portable. He told me that because I hadn't sent anyone to the office, he was worried that I'd left the campus. When I pointed out that the office took my keys, he told me the last sub called her husband to come pick her up and the kids were teacherless until recess. Personally, I was impressed they were able to keep up the ruse that long. It wasn't even that I was that great a sub - I was just broke as fukk and couldn't afford to turn the work down or quit (especially not at $68/day). Long-term jobs were a godsend.

Ironically, the one time I straight up quit a long-term job was second grade. I made it to the end of the day, then faked strep throat (I've had it as an adult before) and just didn't sub that week. I never wanted to set a classroom on fire so bad in all my life. Eventually it got to where I wouldn't sub lower than 4th - 3rd if I was just desperate. When I was a classroom teacher (I'm an interventionist now), my kids knew that there would be pure hell to pay if I got a bad note from a sub.

damn you got 68 dollars a day? its like they dont value education.

i know a history major who took a job at a juvie prison and she loved it.

if the kids got out of line they had a goon squad so they didnt really act up. she said they just made snide jokes about masterbation a lot would you twach in a juvie now?

 

[Marc Spector]

lol America is so fukking awful bruh.

how have we failed this bad?

the better question is aside from the obvious need to change tax laws, what can we do as tax paying voters to fix something? @Booksnrain @Diana Burnwood @Towlie @Verbal Kint @staticshock

 

[Towlie]

lol America is so fukking awful bruh.

how have we failed this bad?

the better question is aside from the obvious need to change tax laws, what can we do as tax paying voters to fix something? @Booksnrain @Diana Burnwood @Towlie @Verbal Kint @staticshock

As tax payers we have to be involved in what's going on in schools. Here they give letter grades based upon school performance. Almost 3 years ago now they merged an F school with a D school and now that D school is an F school.

It was an assignment switch. The K-8 F school sent their middle school to us and turned into a K-5. When that school merged with ours class sizes got larger and we turned into an F school the following year. Couple that with poor leadership and you have a disaster. They merged the schools in the name of gentrification. The area that the K-5 school is at is close to downtown. The K-5 school got a new name and everything. The board of education votes on these kinds of things and anyone is allowed to speak and comment at board meetings. In times like these we need to hear the voice from the community saying we don't want this.

No way we should have class sizes of 40. You're ineffective as a teacher. Only the strongest survive that kind of situation. Most teachers we get are Teach For America , and even though some great educators come out of that program most are doing it as a second choice career. They do their two years, get money towards their student loans, and bounce. Our kids crave consistency. The environment that is allowed doesn't encourage teachers to stay.

Over the summer two of our students that were 14 and just left 8th grade were shot in the head and killed in separate incidents. The news reported it , but separately. The connection was never made that these students attended the same school. Yes they were involved in street shyt outside of school but we actually let school mirror the streets. The kids walk around in gangs they're in and almost run with immunity in the school. We need to have high expectations and not just expect students to be that way cause that's how the neighborhood is. School is different. We foster the behavior. Kids getting into multiple fights and not receiving consequences. Like how many times can you fight and not get sent to an alternative placement? We have kids that accumulate 30 suspension days in a year. They just come back like it's nothing. Affluent schools would not tolerate that. I know punishment is not the answer but turning a blind eye isn't either. Our principal has literally said if they wanna fight they're gonna fight. If they're gonna cuss then they're gonna cuss. A fight led to one of our 14 year olds getting killed.

Our school is literally failing to get students to high school. The second student that was killed has pictures of him on IG standing on a desk in class taking pictures. I wish somebody would stand on a desk in my classroom. If two students were killed 15 days apart at the whitest school, the community wouldn't stand for it. They'd be investigating the school, demanding answers. This is long and is specific to my situation but those are my thoughts.

 

[Be Strong Blackman]

What’s the update OP? You still working there?

 

[Be Strong Blackman]

@Verbal Kint so you ended up quitting... what field are you in now?

 

[thekyuke]

My girl works with grade schoolers and she cries every day about the kids cuss her out, punch her, throw chairs at her, one little girl grabbed her nipple piercing and tried to pull it out maliciously.

And all she can do it take it because they're children and their parents aren't shyt/don't give a fukk.



She also said the same thing about the girls. I said black childhood in lower income communities is "Lord of the Flies" especially for young black boys, and she quickly responded "The girls are worst!"

Having seen what we've seen in the Anglo sphere this ISN'T news.

 

[concise]

Somewhat related

16 and in the 8th grade.
Now doing life in prison.

 

[concise]

I thought I was a street nikka in high school, so I'd get in fights, post guns on Snapchat & sell nicks & dimesLil Wayne raised me

I snapped out of it when a crew of real self-destructive crash dummy project nikkas showed me I was p*ssy

I've always been smart so I got good scores on the SAT & ACT and went to college