r/TexasTeachers

I had a student tell me today that they are moving back to their home country they were born in this upcoming Monday. Today is likely the last time I will ever see them. Evidently, ICE has been holding this student’s father in detention for ~6 months and they feel like it would be best for their family’s safety to return. Never knew any of this before today. I’m so sad for this student and their family. Kids should not have to carry burdens like this.

I dunno what my goal is in posting this other than to just vent into the ether. I’m so sad for the kid.

Hi y'all! Im a second year teacher almost done with my certification. I am pregnant with twins that I expected to make it to my due date in mid june. Due to some unexpected circumstances I was told my new Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist that I should be put on bed rest due to a shortened cervix. I have gone to work all week despite having a doctors note to leave since Monday. I am mostly staying at my desk during the day trying to take it easy but high school kids can be stress inducing lol.

I had decided I would stay as long as I could but this week has been hard on me. I truly feel like I should be at home resting however I would also like to get paid over the summer. To top things off my team lead was put Administrative leave late this afternoon so I was told I will be taking the reins on all of their classes until the end of the year as well. When I informed my department chair that things had changed and that my babies would most likely be induced some time in May she just said I looked too small.

What would you do if you were in this situation?

Hi guys

I am a just a dad that moved from Virginia to Texas last year, my son is almost done with 1st grade and he's grown very fond of math. So much so that we are having him take the accelerated math exam to jump to 3rd grade math. So to help him retain and even learn some new math objectives I created a app for him. This started as a quick little project but has blossomed into a real working idea. Currently I am following the TEKS standards, and trying to piece together lessons from different school districts syllabus.

I was wondering how are teachers building there lessons plans. my goal for the app is for my son and possibly other kids to do a quiz or two or practice some of the things they learn in school, this is not a gamified app, not meant for extended periods of play just something to keep their mind fresh on the work they learned.

Any help or feedback would be great.

So I’ve been struggling with an autoimmune disease for the last two years, multiple sclerosis, unfortunately, I had some issues at work in regards to my conduct towards students. Nothing egregious, just not being the nicest. My principal was going to recommend me for non-renewal. I guess what didn’t help was that I had filed a grievance against my assistant principal for her final comments on the growth plan. I was put on a growth plan, which yes I made mistakes on it as well, but I did try and do everything that they asked me to do. Through my union I resigned in lieu of non-renewal and I got a pretty decent resignation agreement. The only thing that sucks is I can no longer ever apply to the district. My lawyer fought tooth and nail for a positive referral given all I did for the school. All I got was a very neutral referral and I just want to say that when schools have called my principal or they’ve called HR, I feel that the way they’re answering certain questions isn’t accordance with the agreement. I can’t prove it, but I feel that they’re saying it but in a very read between the lines type way. I think I’m getting screwed over because I had two interviews. I didn’t get them. You know what maybe I just did not interview correctly or properly maybe my interview was terrible. Maybe there was a better candidate, but I do feel that no one else has called no one else has set up interviews so I don’t know.

My partner is a California graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Math. He wants to be a HS math teacher in the DFW. He subbed this school year in Texas so he has some experience. What are his steps to get hired as a full time teacher in DFW? Teachers have told him he can do iTeach during the Summer and be hired by the next school year, is this accurate? If so what exactly does he need to do? Does he need to reach out to the school districts? Sorry I don’t even know what to ask. We’re stressing trying to find him employment before we actually move to DFW. Please help, and thank you so much.

I’m in Texas Teachers of Tomorrow (alt cert) and was two tests away from finishing the TST 391 test prep when the course was suddenly retired.

They gave two days’ notice through a Canvas announcement (no email), and I immediately lost access to all my completed work. I was told I now have to restart the entire course from the beginning.

When I reached out, they acknowledged the short notice but said there are no exceptions due to compliance requirements.

This has now delayed my certification and impacted a job opportunity.

Has this happened to anyone else in this program? Or is this just how they handle course updates?

If you’re currently in Texas Teachers, I’d recommend double-checking timelines and saving your progress externally just in case.

I’m a first year teacher and I had my end of year meeting (I got renewed for next year and already signed my contract) I was told I’m going to be put on a growth plan at the start of next year. Does this mean they’re planning to let me go after next year? Or do they genuinely want me to grow? I’m just confused because why would they renew me then?
Not sure if I should start looking for other districts now or just stick it out and see if they keep me after next year.

I was asked to resign in lieu of non-renewal. I was told it was not due to performance, I got a letter of recommendation from the AP who gave me the news and she called another school on my behalf. I was just not a good fit for the direction they were going.

I was told that resignation would allow me to tell my own narrative for job interviews, but every application I've filled out except for one (which only asked in lieu of termination) has had a question asking if I had resigned in lieu of non-renewal (even the terrible district). I understand non-renewal goes on a permanent record, but what is the point of resignation if I have to say yes anyway? It feels like I get the choice to lie or be blacklisted.

What should I do?

I am looking to buy an All In One color printer for my elementary classroom. I will also be purchasing a printable Classroom Decor Bundle, so I will need to print A LOT especially at the beginning of the school year. I am just unsure that the Instant Ink will be enough to meet my needs. Advice? For those who have HP Smart Tank printers, which ones do you have and do like them?

Hi, my husband and I are both teachers from Georgia — we are moving to Austin so I can pursue graduate school in August (moving in July) and our original plan was to transfer our certification over to still maintain two full time teacher positions.

We have already told our current schools in Georgia we will not be coming back, and have already planned our move but we are freaking out because we are not hearing back from anyone about a potential job opening.

I know about budget cuts,we discovered that a month after we started putting things in motion but has anyone heard anything I haven’t as someone who LIVES in the state and is maybe hearing something in their school.

Also if there are ANY elementary positions open at your school, we would love to know we are desperate

Took the exam and I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t know how to gauge it. I couldn’t really tell whether I was doing good or not while taking the exam. Exam is 140 questions with maximum time limit of 5 hours . It took me about 2 1/2 hours to complete.

Question topics cover US history, Texas history, federal vs state government, economics, the constitution, geography, early world history and human migrations, interpreting charts/graphs, women’s suffrage, civil rights, Native American and Aztec civilizations, and a few classroom teaching method topics.

Majority of questions are more than just recalling facts, they are shaped as higher level questions usually exploring the cause and effect relationships between two things. This caught me a bit off guard because multiple answers seemed feasible. For instance a question would sound like this:
“Select the answer that BEST describes the relationship between the invention of the steam motor engine and the North’s manufacturing economy during the Industrial Revolution.”

All answers will seem correct but you have to mold your thinking to look back at the question for something particular. The question is asking about a motor engine meaning transportation, so you would choose the answer that specifically mentions “allowed for easier transportation of goods.”

Also what helped me is memorizing dates and timeline of things. It may ask you a question about the progressive era, legislation and so you should note that it was late 1890s-1920s and it would have more to do with Woodrow Wilson than FDR. Little things like that helped with my process of elimination along the way. Always read the question and the answers, then reread the question again.

Now to the crazy part, I registered for the test and idk why but I chose a test date that only gave me 3 days to study smhhhh. Most people take weeks. So I found myself crashing and cramming all this study material in 3 days. I stayed up to 3 in the morning every night. At first I was trying to use free Momentix study guides, but they are too formal and boring and non interactive. I signed up for 240tutoring and paid the $50 subscription. The material was much better worded and had questions set up more like the actual exam. It is user friendly and easy to read. The quizzes are cool and give good feedback on wrong answers. I just used my phone the whole time. Worth it!

I didn’t walk out of the exam feeling great, I thought I wouldn’t score high enough because there weren’t a ton of answers I was 100% confident about. It’s a 2 day wait for your results. Apparently the questions are weighed differently depending on difficulty.

I PASSED!!!!! God is good!

Be encouraged

Hi! I have a question regarding my T-TESS summative.

I’m a second-year teacher and new to my district (I was at a charter last year), so this process is still new to me. I teach 6th grade math, and my AP recently presented my summative. I have concerns about my ratings in Domains 2.2 and 2.3. I provided evidence aligned to Accomplished, but she declined to review my portfolio and stated the scores are final, based only on walkthroughs and my formal observation.

During our summative conference (which was rescheduled three times), she limited the meeting to 15 minutes due to the Friday deadline. The meeting was interrupted multiple times by another staff member, and she allowed the interruptions to continue, which further limited our time. I was not given the opportunity to discuss or dispute my ratings.

What’s especially frustrating is that two of my teammates shared that during their conferences, they were asked what changes they wanted to reach a 3.7 and were not required to provide evidence. My experience felt inconsistent and inequitable in comparison.

Additionally, my formal observation did not include areas of reinforcement, or areas of refinement. I’ve followed up via email asking what documentation would be helpful, but I haven’t received clear guidance.

At this point, I haven’t signed my summative and requested another meeting to review my evidence. While she agreed to meet next week, the deadline is Friday. I’m feeling unsure how to proceed and would appreciate any guidance.

Hello everyone, I’m attending to the job fair in Dallas on May 16th, I have tattoos in both of my upper arms, I read that Dallas ISD is very progressive and doesn’t mind about tattoos, but I thought it would be different for the first impression, should I covered them for the interviews in the Job fair?

I know what I DONT wanna teach, but Im still pretty split on what I do want to do. I don’t want to do math or science. I think I COULD do ELA but am leaning away from it. I am probably most geared for social studies/history subjects but don’t want to do sports or anything touching middle school. I did do some EC-6 as a sub and while it was VERY challenging (kindergartners, man) it was also very fun and felt rewarding. All in all, I think I would want to do EC-4th (4th was my favorite). If I were to go higher, I would want to do social studies. I think I could do high school but only social studies or some elective like AVID or yearbook. Maybe even art, but I would DEFINITELY wanna do some courses on that outside of teacher certification.

What is really getting me though is figuring out what certification program I should look into. For the time being, I am stuck in Bryan/College Station and cannot relocate so anything will have to be online if not available here in College Station or close by near Huntsville or Prairie View. But when I look at the EPP map explorer, I only see so many options near me then once I start plugging in certification areas Im even more limited (like art EC-12 is apparently in San Antonio only???)

Are the programs for some categories really so limited that you need specific programs or are these a lot more general than I think they are? Will most of these offer online options or am I just SOL for certain subjects if Im not willing to relocate or travel for the program? Do I need to be more decisive on what I wanna do exactly or is there any general program that would be a great starting point?

If it helps change anything, I DO have a bachelor’s (SHSU Political Science). From my understanding, this DOES make it a bit easier for some certifications depending on the major and subject (I think???). Depending on the subject, though, I would still want to do a full certification program.

((On a side note of why I wanna avoid ELA- I have a solid grasp but I am not perfect. I know the rules but often times need to remind myself or brush up on them. Sometimes I have to google a grammar/punctuation rule to check myself when I’m unsure. For some reason I’ve always just assumed English teachers had to have perfect mastery of reading and writing. I’m good but far from perfect.))

I am currently enrolled in Teachers of Tomorrow and am working through getting my certification. I want to try to get a job teaching in the fall. I think I’ll be able to get my exams and classes done but with the current school year coming to a close, I don’t think I’ll be able to get my FBE’s done in time. I don’t know what to do or how to apply for jobs without my certification. I’m panicking because I really don’t want to wait another year to get this done and I feel like I’m falling behind

I got an offer working at an NES school. What are your experiences? Would you recommend?

Hey everyone,
I’m looking for some honest advice from anyone who’s been in a similar situation or has experience with TEA investigations.
I’m a certified Texas teacher currently dealing with an ongoing TEA investigation that recently showed up as a notice on my certification record. The issue stems from a classroom management situation at a previous district. I want to be very clear: **I deny the allegations being made against me, specifically anything involving physical contact with a student.**From my perspective, this situation has been misinterpreted or escalated beyond what actually occurred.

Here’s where things stand:

TEA placed an investigative notice on my certification.

My current district became aware of it and placed me on administrative leave while they conduct their own review.

I submitted my written response to TEA within the requested timeframe.

As of now, there have been no findings or conclusions, it’s still pending.

What’s really weighing on me is how this impacts my career moving forward. I’ve been applying for high school social studies positions, and I’ve been fully transparent on applications where required. Still, I’m worried this notice alone is enough to get me passed over before I even get a chance to explain.

A few questions I’m hoping to get insight on:

Has anyone gone through a TEA investigation and come out the other side? What was that process like?

How do districts typically view an “ongoing investigation” with no findings yet?

Is full transparency always the best move in applications/interviews, or is there a smarter way to frame this?

Is there anything I should be doing right now to protect my career while this plays out?

I’ve worked hard to build my career in education, and this situation has been incredibly stressful and honestly pretty discouraging. I’m trying to stay professional and proactive, but I’d appreciate any guidance from people who’ve been there or know the system.
Thanks in advance.

I am a 5th year English teacher in Texas and I was asked to resign in lieu of non-renewal 3.5 weeks ago. Our English department was asked to use some games and other resources for STAAR prep and most of us did not use it (we all agreed it did connect with our 10th grade students). I was the only one with a probationary contract (I was hired after my 3rd year teaching, and my district keeps you on a probationary contract for 2 years with 2-4 years of experience).

My AP of Instruction and my department AP both gave me a letter of recommendation and told me I was a good teacher (just not a good fit for the curriculum strategies the district would be focusing on next year).

I've applied to most of my local districts and I haven't heard anything for 3 weeks. Idk if I am just paranoid and should wait a little or does saying that you've been asked to resign just a career killer? The silence is just a lot to deal with right now and I would appreciate some advice from anyone who has been in this situation.

I’m taking the ELA7-12 (331) on Saturday and I’m nervous. I did okay on the Pearson practice test, but not as well as I hoped. I’ve been studying since then, but I’m still pretty anxious about it. Does anyone have any last minute tips??