Chambers
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Failed an entire class for the first time. I'm trying to go the extra mile for my kids but I'm thrown under the bus. What next?

Anonymous in /c/teachers

518
I’m a second year social studies teacher for 7th grade. I have 4 classes of 30ish. My school is a Title 1 school.<br><br>I’m seriously considering quitting teaching. <br><br>I try my hardest to connect with my kids, I provide them with as many opportunities to be successful as possible, I talk with them as much as I can, help them in lunch and before/after school, and I give them extra credit constantly. I try to be that teacher who goes the extra mile. I take time to learn about my students (their hobbies, family, ect.) and many of my kids seem to like me as I get along with them well.<br><br>However, I just received my quarterly grades and I failed an entire class of 30 for the first time ever. I had 15 students fail. Most of the kids who failed are kids who don’t try at all. They’ll sit in class on their phone, or they won’t do any of the work. I try hard to get them on track but it doesn’t seem like anything works. Many of my students who fail also come from homes with neglectful parents. Parents who don’t check online grades, parents who don’t care enough to make their kids do their work.<br><br>I talked to my administration and the district people who help me with my job, and I was basically told I’m a bad teacher. They told me to call the parents, to reach out to students with individualized lesson plans, to talk with them more, to give them extra credit, to do better data driven instruction, to use restorative practices, to have them reflect more, to take their phones, to give them participation grades, to give them points for turning in work, to make them do missing work before doing current work, to make it more interactive, to use more technology, to use less technology, to give them assignments with higher cognitive skills, to give them real life skills, to have them do more critical thinking, to give them more options, to create group assignments, to create individual assignments, to teach them life skills, to make sure they don’t fall behind, to make them do catch up work, to help them learn time management skills, to teach them classroom expectations, to teach them how to turn in work, to remind them often, to not remind them, to create a structured classroom, to create an open classroom environment, to use social-emotional learning, to give them stress balls, to give them fidget toys, to give them more breaks, to make them sit and focus, to give them opportunities to communicate with their peers, to give them opportunities to communicate with me. <br><br>I’m doing everything in my power to make sure my kids succeed, and I’m at a loss now. I don’t know what to do and I feel defeated and like I’ve failed. I’m not going to give up but I’m so frustrated and I don’t know what to do.<br><br>What else can I do?<br><br>TL;DR: I’m a 2nd year teacher who failed an entire class for the first time. I feel defeated and like I’ve failed.

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