Why Middle School Teachers Are a Special Breed of Educators

Teaching really isn’t what it used to be…   Welcome back to Teachers Off Duty! This week our hosts Bri Richardson, Gabe Dannenbring, and Jess Smith break down some of the morally gray areas of teaching.    Here’s a hot take, homework is overrated. We had an intense debate over whether or not homework is even necessary in schools. Should students bring their studies home, or should teachers give them time for after school activities?    Between grading, lesson plans, and babysitting, teachers have a lot on their plate, so it could be hard to find friends. But sometimes during parent/teacher conferences you find out that some of your favorite students are cool because they have cool parents. Is it alright to hang out with students' parents after school, or do you think it could lead to unneeded classroom drama?   Social media is at the forefront of most of our lives, but what happens when your personal life interacts with your work life? This happens all the time with admin monitoring teachers social media accounts. Is it fair for teachers to be judged at work for bar photos on instagram, or should we just let them have a personal life?  Jump right to it! 03:15 Social Media Etiquette for Teachers 08:30 Student-Teacher Friendship Boundaries 14:20 Handling Emotional Breakups 20:50 The Debate Over Student Hugs 27:25 The Disappearing Teacher Act 33:40 Faculty Potluck Shenanigans   So tune in and let us be your moral compass on this week's episode of Teachers Off Duty.  

I don’t think we should trust these people with classroom advice… Welcome back to Teachers Off Duty! This week our hosts Bri Richardson, Gabe Dannenbring, and Jess Smith share stories of the worst unsolicited advice they've been given.  As teachers, we are constantly bombarded with well-meaning but misguided advice. From "just get another job if you're unhappy" to "you need to strictly enforce classroom rules" these suggestions may seem like the solution to our problems, but are they really? And should we trust these people’s opinions for how to run our classroom? Another common piece of advice is to be stricter with students to improve their behavior. But is being a strict teacher really the key to proper classroom management? We discuss the effects of strict discipline on students and share alternative methods that can actually lead to better behavior. Building relationships with students is often seen as the key to a successful classroom, but what does that even really mean? We share our strategies for building genuine connections with students and how it has positively impacted our teaching. We've all been guilty of staying late at school to finish grading papers or lesson planning, but is that really the best use of our time? Taking care of yourself outside of school hours is extremely important, so this week we're giving some self help tips for teachers.   Jump right to it! 2:35 Teaching Fashion Fails  7:15 Grade Inflation Pressure 13:45 The Teaching Marathon 18:20 Classroom Emergency Repairs 24:00 Admin vs. Teacher Dynamics 30:50 Coping with Classroom Meltdowns 36:30 Redefining Educational Norms   Trust us, we know what we're talking about, so listen to our advice on this week's episode of Teachers Off Duty.  

Our middle school students did what!?    Welcome back to Teachers Off Duty! This week our hosts Bri Richardson, Gabe Dannenbring, and Jess Smith give you the lowdown on the world of middle school education.    We know a thing or two, because we've seen a thing or two. You would not believe some of the hectic and hormonal things we’ve seen middle schoolers do. From giggling at textbook questions to making roaches class pets, they have some unhinged tendencies. But it’s not all bad, we also have our fair share of heartwarming stories to share about our middle school students.    Teaching middle school is not for the faint of heart, it takes patience, resilience, and perseverance. Although we like to stay positive, middle school is a rough time for these students and teaching them comes with its own set of challenges. But don’t you worry, if you’re struggling right now, were going to share our tips and tricks on how we handle these situations   With this all being said however, teaching middle school also comes with plenty of rewards. There is no better feeling than seeing your students grow and succeed in their goals. So tune in as we share the lighter side of teaching our middle schoolers.    3:25 - Tween’s Emotional Rollercoasters 8:40 - Teaching Triumphs & Trials 15:15 - Classroom Hilarity Ensues 21:05 - Hormonal Havoc Tactics 28:30 - Sanity Saving Strategies   So prepare to cringe and celebrate with our educators on this week's episode of Teachers Off Duty.   ______________________________________________________________ Teachers Off Duty Podcast by Bored Teachers  

Hey best friends! Welcome to this week's episode of "Teachers Off Duty" with Bri Richardson aka HonestTeacherVibes and give a welcome back to these Bored Teachers and Teacher Off Duty OGs Jess Smith and Gabe Dannenbring! The end of the year is here and we're diving into the highs and lows. From moving classrooms to the dreaded end-of-year checklists, we've got some stories you got to hear to believe!  Don't Miss: HonestTeacherVibes' hilarious flashbacks to year-end classroom chaos Jess Smith's tips on dealing with end-of-year stress and student absenteeism The return of Good or Garbage with Gabe! He’s just mad he’s too tall for the yellow school bus.  The emotional stories of student goodbyes. We always miss them, no matter how many classroom interruptions they may have been responsible for. It’s a long weekend so queue us up, grab your sunscreen lotion, put on that new Drake track and tune in for this week’s Teachers Off Duty!  

Ex boyfriends and rogue bats… It's been a weird news day   Welcome back to Teachers Off Duty! This week our hosts Bri Richardson, Devin Siebold, and James Yon unpack the weirdest teachers of the news, that you have to see to believe.    Sick days are hard to come by, but luckily for this teacher, while battling cancer, his fellow teachers came to his rescue. Although it's a heartwarming story of comradery between peers, should he have to take his friends sick days?   While most teachers seem to have bad luck, a small group of teachers in Kentucky managed to win the lottery! To make it even better they had plans to donate the money to their school, but we can't help but wonder if we would have been so generous.   In a turn of events we found a teacher in the news that was forced to resign after her ex-boyfriend maliciously sent some things to her school officials! Is it fair for this teacher to lose her job due to someone else's actions?    Speaking of stressful situations, we found a story about a bat on the playground, but not the sports kind, the animal kind. This flying rodent created a massive commotion, causing far more chaos than we ever imagined possible.   Jump right to it! 3:45 - Unbelievable Teacher Wins Lottery 10:02 - Cancer Battle and Recovery 16:30 - Bizarre Schoolyard Bat Infestation 22:50 - Classroom Heroics Revealed 29:35 - Transition to Comedy Tours 35:20 - Spiciest Teacher Gossip Unleashed 41:45 - Balancing Teaching and Dreams 47:59 - Unexpected Twists in Teaching Careers   So join us on Teachers Off Duty for an episode chock full of spicy after school teacher drama!  

Are notebook grenades a thing now!? Welcome back to Teachers Off Duty! Join Bri Richardson, Devin Siebold, and James Yon in this ‘Crying in My Car Podcast’ crossover where there’s no holding back on the craziest classroom chaos stories! Like teaching isn’t hard enough, we have chaos slowing down our lessons like one kindergartner who glued her crayons under her desk on the first day, to another student who was so annoyed by the lack of story time that they threw all their clothes off to make his displeasure make a statement. Remember when we asked our student to share his milk with the class - right, because we didn’t! Just imagine the snap back to reality during an actual peaceful day when out of nowhere a student decides to turn into a human fountain, spitting milk on his classmates directly behind him. Sometimes we’re just asking for it like the time when a science experiment went all kinds of wrong by completely filling the lab with bubbles. Not the kind of rave we’re hoping for. Speaking of science, you won’t believe what a student brought from home to “enhance” a biology lesson. It wasn’t *so* bad until it decided to go home early! You just got to hear it to believe it.   Jump right to it! 5:22 – Unfortunate Milk Mishaps 11:45 – Teacher Influenced Chaos 17:30 – Detention Reflection 22:15 – Bookshelf Blunders 28:40 – We Shouldn’t Laugh but… 33:50 – No More Story Time! 39:25 – Actual Classroom Scars   But there’s more - how could we prepare ourselves for a student starting a conga line during a math test. Imagine stepping out for just a second and returning to  the surprise of a full blown makeshift carnival being run in your classroom. Whoof, there’s not enough coffee to get us through that. So order that venti, take the long way to school, and tune into this week’s Teachers Off Duty! Maybe that math test conga line wasn’t such a bad idea…  

Can every week be Teacher Appreciation Week?? Teacher Style Box is giving all Teachers Off Duty listeners a 30-Day Free Trial of Unlimited Boxes with special code, TEACHERSOFFDUTY. Treat yo’ self! https://www.teacherstylebox.com/ Or enter their Teachers Appreciation Giveaway here for a chance to win 3 months FREE: https://mailchi.mp/1fe483a489c6/teacher-style-box-ta-giveaway-2024 Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!! Get ready for some flashbacks, our hosts KC Mack, Bri Richardson also known as HonestTeacherVibes, and The Angry Gym Teacher himself, Tom Filline are sharing some of the cringiest (and hilarious) first year teacher stories!! From 'phantom children' in overcrowded classrooms to the Great Glitter Explosion of fourth period, you’re not ready for these rookie teacher stories. KC admits to a mix-up that left his students brilliantly sparkling for days, Bri shares the "mystery of the mouse in the cereal box" that turned her science lesson upside down, and Tom explains how he navigated the scare of losing—and finding—a student during his first stint in the classroom. It's no secret that teaching is a tough job, but what happens when teachers start bullying each other? Despite the hard days, teaching is a gift that shapes future generations. KC shares his innerbattle experience of not being able to flunk a student, no matter how hard he tried. JUMP RIGHT TO IT! 2:15 - Rookie Teaching Myths 7:40 - "Phantom Children" Classroom Story 13:25 - Great Glitter Explosion Aftermath 21:10 - Hide and Go Seek the Lost Student 35:30 - Keeping High Spirits in Low Times 43:00 - Insane Rookie Mistakes Teaching is a tough job, but someone's got to do it. Grab your safety coffee mug, turn the volume up, and tune in to this week’s episode of Teacher’s Off Duty! Teachers get your perks! Teacher Style Box is giving all Teachers Off Duty listeners a 30-Day Free Trial of Unlimited Box Swaps with special code, TEACHERSOFFDUTY. Treat yo’ self!

Gen Z's sass meets classroom brass…. Welcome back to Teachers Off Duty with our hosts KC Mack, HonestTeacherVibes: Bri Richardson, and the Angry Gym Teacher, Tom Filline! Let’s have a real talk about Gen Z. They’re just built different. What is up with these snack smugglers and TikTok pre-stars?  Maybe we shouldn’t cry or laugh at the hilarious yet frustrating reality of teaching Gen Z students who don't know how to do a simple signature. It's a skill we often take for granted, but for this new generation, it's a foreign concept. Maybe they figured out a better way? Signatures stump them but we’re the ones lost at their new language that we can barely keep up with. And it's not just in the hallways, it's in the classroom too. From slang to memes, it's like a whole new language that we have to learn. And speaking of not keeping up with, we argue with KC about the infamous "shoe crease" dilemma. These kids refuse to change into their PE shoes because they don't want to crease them. He says he gets the issue, us not so much…..  Drink some hot tea to prepare to yell “WORLDSTAR!” at the next teacher debate because it might just hit the internet. Who knew there was a whole wave of Gen Z students starting "fight pages" on social media. It's a disturbing trend that’s taking off - one page even got a brand deal….  But it's not just the students who can be a handful. There was a teacher trying to bully a student who was bullying others. She thought it would hold up a mirror to their actions but that’s just not the route to take bestie.  It’s not always crazy, sometimes its outright HILARIOUS. From "Mrs. Funny Face" to "Mr. Cool" to “[REDACTED]”, these nicknames humble us real quick. 2:37 - Chalk Dust Confessions Begin 5:45 - Gen Z Hooligan Behavior 10:03 - Social Media Meets Syllabus 15:15 - Teaching Tech: Hit or Miss? 20:47 - Third Grader Mystery Story 25:58 - Behind Teacher's Lounge Doors 30:42 - Latest Tea on Teaching Fads Besties! Don’t forget - Teachers Off Duty listeners can get $10 off your first purchase by using the link: https://StoryWorth.com/TOD So tune in and listen up “bruh”! It’s about to get “lit” up in here. No cap. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe for your weekly dose of recess from reality. You bring the coffee; we’ll bring the stories!

Exploding urinal duckies and tornado drills: just another school day. Put away your Sunday scaries, it's time for Teachers Off Duty!! Join our hosts, KC Mack, The Angry Gym Teacher: Tom Filline, and HonestTeacherVibes herself: Bri Richardson. (Crowd goes wild!!) Teaching can be loud and chaotic, just the volume in the hallway is enough to make any teacher want to scream. But the louder the teachers scream, the louder the kids will be. It's a never-ending cycle of noise. 🍎 Featured Stories: Ring, Alexa, and a Rolex? Imagine teaching a reading group when the classroom phone rings, Alexa mistakenly orders a luxury watch…. "Thank goodness for cancellations! Teacher salaries don’t allow for this!" Tornado Terrors: Picture this—100 kids and 5 teachers squeezed into a bathroom during a real tornado warning. "Hot, sweaty, chaotic, loud, panic inducing, awful!" Nothing could prepare a teacher for this. Lizard Chase Mayhem: Half the class thrilled, half terrified, and a tail left wiggling on the floor. "We accidentally chopped off part of its tail and it was wiggling, which caused more chaos!" Say what!? Milk Shootout: The day two boys discovered they could shoot milk out of their noses. Note it for the record, my guy. Daily Overload: "I am trying to deliver a lesson, answer the phone, write a bathroom pass, get someone a pencil, check email, answer a question, solve a technology problem and hear an announcement at the SAME TIME all day every day...I am TIRED" We feel you bestie… Here's a hack for you bestie.... 2:45 - Detonating Rubber Duckies  7:30 - Teacher Car Confessions  12:20 - Pineapple Outfit Pandemonium 17:50 - Michael Jackson Dance-off 23:35 - Preschool Circle Survival 28:10 - Mayhem Management Secrets 👉 Tune in to laugh, and perhaps shed a tear with us on this episode!  ______________________________________________________________ Teachers Off Duty Podcast by Bored Teachers!

Get ready to dodge, duck, and dive!  Twin with HonestTeacherVibes with the 'Ya'll Gonna Learn Today Crew Neck! https://bit.ly/BTGonLearnToday Welcome back to Teachers Off Duty! Join our hosts KC Mack, Bri Richardson as known as HonestTeacherVibes, and The Angry Gym Teacher himself, Tom Filline for some of the funniest stories that NEVER made it to the yearbook.  In what might be a "you gotta be there to believe it" situation, imagine KC Mack's tetherball turnarounds that defy physics. Let's not forget to shoutout the gym class heroes that could either make or break your day. Plus, don't miss the tea of a not-so-happy gym teacher's journey from morning announcements to the stand-up spotlight! Expect hilarious stories of amputated toes (not as grim as it sounds, we promise), accidental bug invasions during soccer practice, and the side of PE you never thought existed. Buckle up, because Tom, KC, and Bri aren't holding back! Jump right to it! 2:15 - Dodgeball Disasters Shared 5:40 - Tetherball Turnaround Tales 9:25 - Secret Life of Gym Teachers 14:00 - Missing Toes, Storytime! 18:45 - Bug Invasion During Soccer 23:30 - What PE Teachers Really Think 28:50 - Gym Class Wins & Fails Hit play, share the laughs and remember: what happens in gym class, doesn't doesn't make it to the yearbook! 🤣 Teachers get your perks! Honeylove is giving all Teachers Off Duty listeners 20% off your entire order with the exclusive link - Honeylove.com/TOD. Visit Betterhelp.com/TOD today, to get 10% off your first month! ______________________________________________________________ Teachers Off Duty Podcast by Bored Teachers