u/Successful-Spring-30

Had to get something done at the police station and while I was there, I heard someone come in and say they had an issue with their child being bullied. The door to the room I was in was open and I saw who definitely looked like one of my students and her mother. I left the view of the door because I didn’t want to cause a scene if they saw me, but I’m pretty confident it was them. I heard her mention a couple details and talk about how the school had not taken enough action. I have heard nothing about this, nor as far as I know have any of her other teachers, but I do remember seeing the mom come in to speak to administration a couple months ago. They left before I was done with what I had to do so I didn’t see them, which was probably for the best since I’m not sure what would even be the way to respond as I wasn’t on the job. But what do I do? I assume this wouldn’t fall under mandated reporting since she was already reporting it to authorities? But should I tell the other teachers? The guidance counselor? Or should I pretend I wasn’t there and wait for the police to take action since it was only sheer coincidence I overheard? I don’t think they (the mom and kid) would have been happy to know I was there.

I’m putting the cart way ahead of the horse here, but while writing a current YA series I’ve gotten way too distracted with plans for a prequel trilogy focusing on the main character’s parents and two of their friends. A key thing about her parents is they got married when they were 18 and that the wedding ended up being a contributing factor in her mother’s estrangement from her family and one of her childhood best friends. So currently the plan is for the third book in the trilogy to cover the parents being separated and writing letters to each other from the ages of 16 to 18 with a time skip (it’s a fantasy world so no phones) and then having the proposal halfway through the book and the second half is about the wedding planning and how the cracks began to form in her relationships. But while YA technically goes to age 18, a wedding is obviously not an experience most teens in today’s world relate to. Can it still be marketed as part of a YA series if it culminates in a wedding? Should the first two books (when they’re 14-16) be YA and the third marketed differently, is that even possible? Again I know I’m way ahead of myself since I’m still writing the original four book series and this prequel would be seven books down the line, but I’m just wondering if it could work at all.

I just don’t know what to do. The school already told me they’re not renewing my contract, which honestly came the day after I’d already decided to take a break from this career. But I still have these kids for two more months and I’m out of ideas. Every week they just get worse and worse. They constantly tell me how bad I am at my job and how they haven’t learned anything all year but it’s worse than that because I remember the start of the year… I remember calling kids up to the board to do work and them excitedly sharing and maybe not understanding the material but working on what they were asked and asking questions. But that’s a distant memory now, they talk through the entire class and then when I tell them to stop they say things like “will you just teach us already” and “you never teach because you spend all your time yelling at us” which is obviously an exaggeration but so much time is wasted talking, and I could just pretend they’re not and keep going but only like one or two kids in the front row would hear me. Some ignore my talking at the front of the room to either try and do the assignment early or do old work they missed and when I tell them to stop they complain that my expectations are unfair and I don’t really want them to do the work. During independent work time they goof off and either chat with each other or play Internet games. And they’re constantly out of their seats, and sometimes even doing wild things like climbing on the table or throwing things. And when I call to have someone remove the kids from the room nobody ever answers. And sometimes they still ask questions but they’re not curious anymore, and I feel like instead of inspiring a love for the subject I’ve killed it. And because of how much time is wasted talking, I never get to call kids up to go over stuff anymore, I have to just get through it as quickly as possible. Which also means there’s no time for fun stuff or relationship building which only makes the discipline worse. The only help I got was “establish routines” but that’s not helpful because I did! They just ignore it. The routine is literally posted on the wall, they still ignore it. The super helpful response when I said that was “if the kids don’t follow them you don’t have them” which yeah, duh, but what can I actually do??? And there’s essentially no enforceable consequences, I give them lunch detention and they fail to show up, I write them up to the office and nothing gets done, I message home and the parents either side with the kid or do nothing. A few talk to them and then the kids come back with “why did you email my mom???” and the behavior doesn’t change. I’m at my wit’s end with it but also it really just breaks my heart to know that I had them at the start and something good was happening and now I’ve lost them and it’s probably too late to get them back but… I at least want to try. Maybe I can’t get it all the way back but at least something? And it can’t all be about punishment for behavior there has to be some real way to prevent it and get them on board. Today a kid asked why I became a teacher and I said to help kids and one kid said it must be because I like torturing kids while another said I haven’t helped her, I’ve ruined her. And maybe that’s true, idk. Most of them are not like this in other classes. I just want to leave this job feeling like I at the very least didn’t ruin these kids’ lives or their futures in math, and maybe even got to make a positive difference for some. But even the sweet kids who used to tell me about their interests make snide comments or are totally checked out now. And I feel like it’s killed all the fun in me, like I’m always in a bad mood and when they do silly things like sing songs I would love to engage with it for a little bit but we’re so pressed for time and I’m so stressed out that I can’t. Is it too late? Is there anything I can do? Can I do anything good for them before the end?

Edit: I guess I should clarify that some days I can actually get through a lesson and they’re not so bad, those days are just growing farther apart. Since March is when it’s really been going downhill. I have repeatedly begged admin for a second person in my worst block but they claim they can’t due to understaffing. Which I guess is true because when I took a half day off the other day for an appointment they pulled the special ed teacher out of ELA to cover my classes (which feels not allowed but idk).

Finally got my last result tonight, almost three weeks after I put down a deposit, so here's all my results. I let people get into my head after the LSAT and overapplied lol, but I'm happy with where I am and happy to be going to law school!

https://preview.redd.it/aa0z3am2ofyg1.png?width=1858&format=png&auto=webp&s=af5329a657a152b7f1b930b1be6acb3ea339c685