Are any other high school teachers experiencing worse freshman this year?

[Anonymous]

Hi. 8th grade teacher here. Ready to throw in the towel. Week four and I’m so exhausted. These kids Never. Stop. Talking. Zero executive functioning skills. Addicted to cellular devices. Send help.

[Anonymous]

I've noticed more and more freshmen as hallwalkers. Typically the freshmen attended class at least at the beginning of the year. And it's freshmen boys AND girls walking the halls. I don't think I've been cursed out by a freshman yet this year - I typically get ignored, or a "no hablo Ingles" from kids who were speaking perfect English a second before.

[Anonymous]

There are experienced teachers at my school whom for the first time are telling themselves they don’t want to go to work because some classes are miserable due to student disrespect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've noticed more and more freshmen as hallwalkers. Typically the freshmen attended class at least at the beginning of the year. And it's freshmen boys AND girls walking the halls. I don't think I've been cursed out by a freshman yet this year - I typically get ignored, or a "no hablo Ingles" from kids who were speaking perfect English a second before.

It seems like kids wandering the halls is actually a win-win. The teachers don’t have to deal with the hooligans in class, and admin gets to claim better attendance numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi. 8th grade teacher here. Ready to throw in the towel. Week four and I’m so exhausted. These kids Never. Stop. Talking. Zero executive functioning skills. Addicted to cellular devices. Send help.

It's seventh grade for me...the sixth graders are amazing..eighth grade...not the best, but they at least act like human beings. The seventh graders act like feral kindergartners...running around, screaming, not listening, constantly on their phones/putting make-up on...hitting on each other (playfully but...come on) Exhausting and just depressing at the same time.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher, what are you doing to address it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now it's the covid kids. Before that it was tik tok challenges before that it was no SROs.

The actual problem is that mcps has zero consequences for poor behavior.

Well true but it’s the parents.

When the parents COMPLAIN about the consequences, it’s an issue.

I grew up scared of what my parents were going to do if a teacher called. Now the kids just whine to their parents to fix it AND THEY DO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the teacher who was assaulted pressed charges with the police. I'm beginning to think of admins and parents aren't going to do anything, all teachers should press charges, regardless of student age. Our unions aren't worth crap when it comes to this and I don't know why.

Teachers absolutely should press charges. Each and every time. So should parents if their kid is assaulted at school. We’re going to have more VA Beach school shootings if removing disruptive students and enforcing some time of discipline isn’t brought back into schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, what are you doing to address it?

Everything in our power. The problem is the kids don’t care about consequences. In school suspension? So what. A phone call home? They laugh and say go ahead. There are no repercussions for them coming from parents and parents seem to think it’s on us for every single thing their kids does. It is absolutely as much of the parents fault these days as it is the kids. Our building already had two teachers quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, what are you doing to address it?

Everything in our power. The problem is the kids don’t care about consequences. In school suspension? So what. A phone call home? They laugh and say go ahead. There are no repercussions for them coming from parents and parents seem to think it’s on us for every single thing their kids does. It is absolutely as much of the parents fault these days as it is the kids. Our building already had two teachers quit.

Former HS teacher here..this is why I retired early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the teacher who was assaulted pressed charges with the police. I'm beginning to think of admins and parents aren't going to do anything, all teachers should press charges, regardless of student age. Our unions aren't worth crap when it comes to this and I don't know why.

Teachers absolutely should press charges. Each and every time. So should parents if their kid is assaulted at school. We’re going to have more VA Beach school shootings if removing disruptive students and enforcing some time of discipline isn’t brought back into schools.

Agree. I hope teachers do press charges when they are assaulted at school. That is unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the teacher who was assaulted pressed charges with the police. I'm beginning to think of admins and parents aren't going to do anything, all teachers should press charges, regardless of student age. Our unions aren't worth crap when it comes to this and I don't know why.

+1. Teachers need to call the police if they are assaulted. This will put MCPS, the kids, and their parents in the hot seat eventually. I would also keep track anytime I was verbally assaulted. Eventually you could argue you are in a hostile work environment.

One of my kids was in a kindergarten classroom with a violent child who threw chairs, poked people with scissors, destroyed property of the school and other kids. This was in the 2013ish time range and despite complaints by many parents nothing could be done. Once this kid started up, they would evacuate the room. He was allowed to stay in a regular ed classroom for 2 more years. Lucky for us the family moved. I wish I had called the police twice (once when my kid was hit by a chair, and another time when the kid managed to scratch my kid with a pair of scissors).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At my lower SES high school it seems that some freshman are pretty terrible. Cursing out teachers in the hallway. Throwing fits and disrupting class. We learned today that there isn’t really a referral for disrespect at them moment, only if it refers to gender, race or sexual identity. So, “F U Mr./Ms. teacher” doesn’t trigger an immediate consequence.

Is this worse at other school too?

I don’t have a feel for the 9th graders at our HS yet, but the hallway issues are mostly individual class avoidance rather than groups of kids. We’ve been focusing on limiting passes and putting extra adults to shooing kids into class at the bell. Still not under control, but not as bad as two years ago.

For folks who aren’t teachers, the cursing at a teacher isn’t acceptable, but administration and security are so overwhelmed with worse behaviors that they have no bandwidth for it. It isn’t worth reacting to as a teacher (when things are this awful). Just ignore the cursing and treat the behavior like you would a toddler having a tantrum. “I can’t hear you until you use polite language and a normal tone of voice.” Grey rock them. It’s not worth your energy to engage. At the end of the day, it’s the kid losing out, not the teacher.

Fair is fair. Teachers should be allowed to curse and throw things back.

Teachers should be allowed to throw one punch a semester. The kids wouldn't know when it's coming and would stay in line.

This wouldn't work for all teachers at all grade levels, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, what are you doing to address it?

Everything in our power. The problem is the kids don’t care about consequences. In school suspension? So what. A phone call home? They laugh and say go ahead. There are no repercussions for them coming from parents and parents seem to think it’s on us for every single thing their kids does. It is absolutely as much of the parents fault these days as it is the kids. Our building already had two teachers quit.

Many of do care and there would be serious consequences at home, far worse than at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher, what are you doing to address it?

Everything in our power. The problem is the kids don’t care about consequences. In school suspension? So what. A phone call home? They laugh and say go ahead. There are no repercussions for them coming from parents and parents seem to think it’s on us for every single thing their kids does. It is absolutely as much of the parents fault these days as it is the kids. Our building already had two teachers quit.

Many of do care and there would be serious consequences at home, far worse than at school.

The ones that do care clearly aren’t the ones causing the problems.