Teachers deserve so much more respect than they get, and I am partly to blame for this. When I was in high school , I wasn't blatantly rude to my teachers, but I did not give the educators in my life the respect they probably deserved. For instance, I called every single one of my teachers Senior year by their first names, either behind their backs or to their faces, depending on how close we were. Out of Barb, Cathy, John, Paul, Linda, and Kelly, I could only call Barb by her first name to her…

There is nothing more humiliating in school than being dress coded. I remember being dress-coded by a teacher I once thought was my friend: the middle school theatre teacher. I soon learned that he was nothing of the sort. He made me change from simple black leggings into sweatpants from the 90s, and I was horrified. I don't know what changed in him, but one day he snapped and started ranting about the importance of the dress code and how we need to “dress our age.”

One of the hardest parts of being a teacher is that the work keeps coming and never stops coming . At a normal job, you clock in at 9 and leave at 5 without having to do extensive planning for days to come during the time you're not in the office. When you're a teacher, it's a completely different story. There's never time for not working. You have to grade papers, answer emails, create new assignments, work on lesson plans, meet with higher-ups, and that's not to mention having to teach classe…

“College was the best part of my life” is a sentiment often expressed by weepy alumni. It can be a lot of pressure for college students to have the best time ever because college is supposedly the best part of their lives. I sometimes wonder whether college was the best part of my life, and it's all downhill from there, and I must answer that with a decisive no.

Well… back to school season is officially over. The novelty of new classes and the burgeoning fall semester has more than wore off, and teachers and students are finally back at the old grind. If you are a teacher, you've probably got an idea of how the rest of the school year is going to go down. Or do you? You might think you've got a pretty solid read on your new classes, but who knows! There's a lot of days in between now and June. This school year hold so many possibilities. But then again…

And physically preparing, tbh...

Bright college days , oh, carefree days that fly! It's almost time for first-year students to move into their dorms, syllabus week to commence, and the binge drinking to begin. College is such a unique time in your life. For many students, it's the first time they'll be away from their family and maintain a semblance of independence. You are forced to learn how to take care of yourself and not make crazy choices all the time. I learned over the course of my freshman year that I couldn't eat thr…

The teacher shortage in the United States has caused significant problems in public schools. Many states are lowering the requirements for teaching to ridiculous levels just to ensure they have enough educators to go around. During the pandemic, the school system and parents put an astronomical amount of pressure on teachers to do impossible tasks. For the 2020-2021 school year and since then, more and more teachers have taken a stand and left the profession for good. While this has benefitted…

The biggest blessing of all

Teaching is one of the most misunderstood professions. Teachers sacrifice their time and energy for their students and are rarely compensated for what they deserve. Unlike many pointless email jobs, teachers actually create tangible good in society through their work. It's essential for kids to not only have great educators but great role models in their corner and teachers wear both hats. If you're a teacher, you already know all of that. What you also likely know is that there is a special hu…

Finally. Here in the Northeast the long and oppressive winter is beginning to loosen its grip on our poor, seasonal depression-addled sou ls. The sun is starting to pop out, the open-toe shoes are getting paraded around town, and teachers are starting to feel the restlessness that happens before school's out for summer. If kids think they have it hard, though, they need to get real and start thinking about their teachers. They deserve our pity. By mid-May, they're on the verge of insanity after…

They're savage.

It'll bring a skilometer to your face

There are a lot of things you expect to find in a child's backpack, this is not usually one of them.

There's plenty of injustice in the world. Every day, people are wrongly convicted for crimes they didn't commit. But while adults at least have due process to protect them to a certain extent, children aren't always extended the same respect. In elementary school, it's one kid's word against another, and adults can arbitrarily pick who they believe if they feel like skipping the whole due process thing. When comedian @itsnashflynn told a story about how she got in trouble as a kid for an egg-re…

Of all the parts of the learning environment, the quality of the teacher has to be one of the most important factors. There’s nothing like a jerk grading your papers to cause stress and demotivation, so when you are faced with a situation like that it’s important to take action. This was exactly what u/ttbmips did when they faced off one of their strict college professors. After their midterm grade suffered after she wrongly announced how much time was left on the test, the teacher asked the cl…