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I don't even know where to begin. Please be patient with me This is my first time posting here. I am halfway through my student teaching program and I feel so miserable with my Cooperating Teacher (CT). I started on August 3rd and I won't be done until December 15th. I am currently running out of money, my body aches every day because of stress, and I can't sleep. I have developed depression and anxiety due to her shitty attitude, and I even started drinking, even though I don't normally drink. I feel like I am walking on eggshells.

Every day, my CT comes in to work in a bad mood, which sets the tone for the rest of the day. She has over 20 years of experience and is well-liked by everyone else, but she has a horrible attitude and brings her personal problems into the room. She is very fake and plays it off like she's the nicest person. There have been several instances where she undermines me and takes my power away in front of the students, which makes me feel like crap and throws my entire day off. Because of this, I feel powerless and less confident every day. The other day she admitted to me that because of her they got rid of the former principal and that it wasn't her proudest moment. She has a lot of power within the school.

For my university courses, I occasionally have to record video lessons or give presentations. Whenever I do, she rushes me and openly shows her irritation through her body language because I am "taking away her teaching time." It makes me feel like a burden. When she explains things to me, she talks super slow, as if I am an idiot who can't understand her. One time, right before I was about to record a lesson for the CalTPA, she let out a big sigh in front of the students because she couldn't open my PowerPoint presentation—which I had sent to her in advance. She then told me in front of the class that I needed to be more responsible, causing one of the students to pipe up and say, "Yes! Get it together!"

Her public undermining happens constantly. The other day, a student was wearing a hat inside the classroom, so I politely asked them to take it off. The student complained that I was wearing a hat too (mind you, it’s been 100 degrees out). I explained that as an adult, I was allowed to wear it. My CT immediately chimed in, told me to take off my hat, and announced that no hats were allowed in the room. It was never an issue until I apparently pissed her off that day. I wasn't upset about removing the hat; I was furious that she handled it in front of the students, stripping away my authority yet again.

Two weeks ago, she assigned me to teach an art lesson. She usually leaves me a notebook to write in so the students can see it on the projector. During the lesson, students kept asking me for pencils and I was visibly struggling. Instead of helping, she just sat back, watched, and then told me in front of the students that I needed to prepare better. I was shocked. In a serious tone, I told her, "Yes, I know, I have just been feeling a bit overwhelmed, I am sorry." My mom and my brother both have cancer, and I had been up all night trying to get the lesson together after taking them to their doctor appointments. When I let her know what I was going through, she backed off, pretended I was the one being mean to her, and told me, "We need to talk later."

Fast forward to the next week: she actually apologized. She admitted she was being way too harsh, acting like a "bi**h," and that I had caught her at the worst moment of her life because she was going through her own struggles. Because I am a calm, faith-driven person, I reassured her that it was fine, told her we are all going through things, and said, "I'll pray for you." She even admitted she wasn't being a very good example for me.

Unfortunately, things went right back to normal. She demands that I arrive at 8:00 AM, even though school starts at 8:30 AM. There have been several instances where I arrive right on time at 8:00 AM, but she isn't there and I have to wait outside because I don't have a key. She will text me saying she's late and tell me to call the office to let myself in. I never called her out on it because emergencies happen. However, last week, my son had an asthma emergency. I had to drive him to my sister's house so she could give him a nebulizer treatment. I texted my CT to let her know I'd be there by 8:20 AM, but I ended up arriving at 8:25 AM—just as the students were lining up. I bypassed the classroom and went straight to pick up the students so they wouldn't be left waiting.

Even though I explained that my son had thrown up all over my car and apologized for not checking in at the classroom first, she told me I was late and should never do it again. When it came time for my bi-weekly progress report for my university professor, she marked me as "inconsistent" for both attendance and lesson planning. I was so discouraged and angry. When I asked her why she marked me late for a medical emergency when she herself is late all the time, she just said it was still technically considered late. She had explicitly told me at the beginning of the term to communicate ahead of time if I had an emergency. I did exactly that, and I still got lit up for it. When I reminded her that she calls herself a Christian and that I expected more empathy, she told me my son being sick was "not an excuse."

The final straw happened this week. I had recess duty, and the other master teacher I work with (it’s a dual-immersion class) told me to take a break because there were plenty of adults outside. I asked twice if she was sure, and she said yes, telling me to just run it by my main CT. The next day, I walked in and could immediately tell my CT was pissed. She got right in my face and told me to never do that again, and commanded me never to take a break or even a bathroom break.

This latest blowup, combined with her terrible evaluations, has pushed me to the edge. In all four of my previous progress reports, she wrote that I have a positive attitude and am nice to everyone. I don't understand why she is marking me "inconsistent" when I am doing my absolute best. She claims it is necessary for me to "grow as a teacher" and that she plans to be even harder on me as the weeks go by. I feel like she is actively sabotaging my credential. I am terrified that if I speak up, she will fail me, and I am dreading the final two weeks of the course when I am supposed to solo teach. I deeply regret choosing my old childhood elementary school for this placement instead of staying where I used to work at; where the teachers actually know and respect me. Should I roll with the punches and accept the abuse, or should I talk to my university coordinator?

Am I exaggerating here or what can I do? Am I too far in that they wouldn't be able to switch me somewhere else? Thanks everyone.

i cant leave someone who i know needs it, though i know not everyone will be willing to listen

I teach 8th graders and had my takeover today. In one of my periods, I was made aware that two students were calling another student names and were throwing stuff at him. I had no idea that was happening aside from the talking. I did a whole class redirection and eventually moved the student’s seat that appeared to me as just talking.

A few students from my class made a report to my principal that the students were bothering him. My principal messaged me about whether I saw and heard what was being reported and only shared that I saw them talking, so I moved the student’s seat. I just feel bad because the previous day two other students were bothering the same kid, but I had not noticed. Another report was made by the students to the principal where they asked me to move the student’s seat, which I did today, but then two other students start bothering him.

I just feel sad and defeated because I am now failing to protect this student because I am not noticing the behaviors in my classroom. I do make it a point to circulate the room during activities (discussions and independent), but a point in reflection is that I should also move around the room when I am lecturing.

I also just feel like the students do not seem to trust that I will do anything because they make the report to the principal right away. I do not what I can do to make the students see me as an authority figure. My principal did ask I make phone calls home to the students families who were bothering him, which I did as soon I was informed. I want to protect all of my students and ensure they feel safe and protected in the classroom.

So I’ve been student teaching for a couple of months now and I’ve had a couple of observations from my cooperating teacher, another CMT, and my university advisor which has left me with some good feedback. Some of the feedback is stuff I’ve been actively working on like gaining more connection with students, being more clear on some directions, and working on my teaching voice. However they mentioned in a meeting with me that they’ve noticed that I haven’t been implementing other feedback like moving the desks into groups beforehand, putting a timer on the board, etc. They’ve also emphasized that my personality as an introvert and my tendency to get into my own head is a big issue I have. When talking to my university advisor about it today I ask if these issues are normal and she said no and that “If I take about 100 student interns, about 4 of them would have the issues you have”

Is this actually true?? My cooperating teacher said the issues I have could be a lot worse and that she thinks I’m doing fine, it’s just about implementing the feedback. Should I be worried?? Everyone says that my lessons are good and it’s just the actual instruction that needs help but I feel freaked out with what my university advisor said.

Anyone else?

I’m tagging this as success because, well, I survived! A month or so ago I posted here about how afraid I was of observations because of a traumatic one a year ago. My first observation was today and let me tell you:

The lesson kind of bombed. Completely off the mark. My expectations for the students were far too low. Context: these are high school seniors taking a college level course. I was not effective in my delivery, semi effective in my materials, and let my anxiety do the planning for me to the point where I tried to control as much of the lesson as I could leading to minimal student participation. At one point I panicked and showed them how to write a complete sentence. Went back to early middle school techniques. It was bad.

But guess what? I’m fine. The feedback I got was actionable and I was able to put it into practice the same day. I recorded the second go around, submitted it with my reflection, and asked for more feedback.

So. It bombed. I took the feedback. I used the feedback. I improved. I documented the improvement. I will be getting more feedback. I think this might’ve fixed it for me.

Thank you folks again for all of the support you gave me on that post. It really did make a difference. I hope all of you have a great day and remember that you make the world a better place 💕

I’m going into week 10 of my final internship and while I still have an A in my class, I can’t shake this dreadful feeling that a ball will drop somewhere and I’ll get failed. With every observed lesson, the plans I turn in are always praised but when it comes to my delivery I feel like I’m always missing the mark. My reflections are always strong, as well as my biweekly journals when I talk about my growth and goals. I’m wondering, is an A enough to pass your final clinical? My peers have told me if I were going to fail I probably would’ve had a lower grade by now. I just need this feeling of impending doom to leave.

I’m not really sure how to explain this but for about half a month I was in talks with a school about doing my student teaching internship there and they were really quick to try and get me in there and start teaching because they had no teacher in that position anyways so I’d be able to essentially work as the teacher for that curriculum. But since adding my director from my school and really getting serious about talking about it, they stopped replying to my emails, I didn’t reach out again for about a week other than a follow up email no response so I’ve been calling every single day both the principal and super intendant who’s email I was given initially and they’re never there and the desk lady always says they’ll give them my information but they never respond back to me or call me back. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve decided to go forward with sending ihr my requests for student teaching to other schools because I know there’s plenty that need what I’m teaching. I’m just so shocked by this kind of behavior, it seems unprofessional to me, and my student teaching starts January and I still need to find a place to live wherever I go so I’m not just being impatient.

Why do you think they’re being like this? Isn’t this behavior really unprofessional? Maybe I’m just being too anxious

Student teaching this semester. My ct has a grade level meeting every week and listening to them plan stresses me out so vad(I have had and ocd). I’m terrified that I won’t be able to do it wen I’m teaching alone. Or that it’ll be too much for me. I’m worried I won’t succeed. I’m scared it’ll be too much for me or more than I can handle. Does anybody who’s felt like this have any advice. Does it get better I only have 6 weeks left

I haven’t even finished student teaching yet but what I’m seeing at my current school with the behaviors from students, the amount of burnout I see at my school and online for teachers is scaring me. Not to mention how difficult it is to even get a teaching job right now in my area! I know I’m getting ahead of myself here but wtf…. It seems really rough. Really starting to regret my decision. Doesn’t seem worth it. 😭

what is wrong with children today? i mean i know 6-12th grade is automatically not the greatest but for K-5th to be just as bad or even worse now days???? like what happened to children in this day and age? i don’t remember being this naughty when i was in K-5. their behavior is so bad and they simply can’t listen. i’m not talking about all but most students are like this and honestly it makes me sad. i have never wanted to step away from teaching so badly. i have no idea what other career i see myself in but i know for sure i cannot stay in teaching forever. this is horrible.

So my mentor was out this morning and I had to solo teach for a couple hours (I’ve solod a lot of other mornings as well as “subbed” for a day (unpaid)) so I thought it was gonna be fine because those days the kids were good. Well today was HORRIBLE, they left me so drained just for a couple of hours. The overstimulation was so real. The behaviors were so bad. I didn’t understand why out of all days they chose today to be so bad. Well I left very upset and confused. Walking home, I’m like….. I cannot imagine myself in this field for 5 years let alone 4. What am I supposed to do with a teaching degree? And if you were a teacher, what career did you change into when you were tired of it? I do not see myself running the long game in this career. My mental health comes first and today really showed me I can’t handle it…. I feel so discouraged to be honest. I love teaching, I really do..but kids today are a whole different breed. Thank you for listening to my thoughts.

I am going to be taking over my CT’s class soon. She is pretty disorganized and her room is an absolute mess. With that said, she has all the chalkboards in her room covered in posters and blocked off by tables because she doesn’t like to use them. She has a projector but it is pretty close to the screen (it is a small room with many students) so it isn’t possible to get a large enough projection on the screen for students near the back to see very much.

Any workarounds for this? I’m teaching ELA it doesn’t necessarily require too much visual support and it seems that my CT’s workaround has been using lots of handouts but it would be nice to have a display for doing things like live annotations.

So umm here's the thing, I'm supposed to teach english [specifically like how to write narrative essays] to an 8th grader but idk how? I mean my english is good. I got an A* in IGCSE english as a first language even tho english isnt my first language, but idk how to teach it.... Can someone please help me with this?

I've got a class that I'm teaching that is usually pretty good, but there's a group of girls who sit in the corner of the room that give me trouble.

For context, I'm student teaching at the high school level, and this is a multi-grade level class since it's an elective. I've struggled with confidence with this class for the past few weeks due to lack of content knowledge and lack of confidence, which has led to some duds as far as lessons I've taught goes.

Anyway, I had a bit of a turnaround yesterday and the lesson went pretty well. However, that pocket of girls kept making loud, catty comments the entire time I was teaching (like "guys maybe we should listen to the teacher" or when I misspoke myself and had to correct "yeah, that didn't make any sense, that was wrong"). The "leader" of this group hasn't ever been friendly to me the entire time I've been at my placement, even though I try to be nice to her. Their comments don't hurt my feelings because let's face it, they're kids and I'm an adult, I don't value my worth or teaching abilities on whatever snarky comment a high schooler decides to say about me, it's just incredibly, incredibly annoying!

I don't want to try and correct them from doing that because I'm afraid that will escalate the situation, but it's really annoying to listen to them try and belittle me the whole hour. If I ignore it could that fix the issue? Has anyone else dealt with something similar?

Hello all. Monday was my first day ever subbing for my master teacher. I was soloing with my littles, and oh my days...it was incredibly challenging. I haven't fully taken over the classroom yet as a student teacher. When my master teacher is there, everything seems to go smoothly and the kids listen to me. However, I had so much trouble managing the classroom on my own. It felt like they did not respect me. The whole day was basically redirecting. To make matters worse, another teacher had to come out and shush my class in the hallway. The noise was out of control even though I had told them right before leaving the room that we needed to be quiet.

When I first started my program, a teacher friend had warned me that the kids really only love their main teacher. Everyone else (including subs and student teachers) will have their boundaries seriously tested...I don't know how true this is lol

I followed the behavior system that my master teacher uses, provided praise when students were following expectations, held a class discussion, and none of it seemed to get through to them.

Monday was rough, and I am still thinking about how I can change my approach. If you have any tips for classroom management or general advice, please do share. Thank you!

I really don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s my medication, except I don’t think I’ve felt this way before now. I took a day off today to work on my edTPA, and instead all I felt was dread. I could barely touch anything related to my placement or my school, I was so anxious.

Yesterday was fine. I was confident, I had fun, I worked on some things. I’ve been doing well, and I have a job lined up at my placement before I even graduate. So why do I feel like I’m about to mess up big time and lose it all? Why does it feel like something’s gonna come out of the woodworks and halt my progress completely?

I just want to know if anyone else can relate to this, or if this is highly abnormal and I should try contacting a therapist again.

We were going through all of the categories and ranking my ability on a scale of 0-3. Consistently I was giving myself lower scores than my coordinator and cooperating teacher. Both of them seemed to think I was being hard on myself. We've got some goals moving forward and I feel pretty good! So, I guess I've been doing better than I thought!

Hello, I am a senior and will be student teaching spring 2027! I am in AZ (NAU) and was wondering what the project for the university was like so I can mentally prepare and go in a little less blind. Thanks for any knowledge sharing and advice!

I’ve been in my student teaching placement since June and now I’m full time student teaching and these kids do not listen. Whatsoever. I’ve tried positive reinforcements, telling them the expectations again, having one-on-one chats with them. Nothing seems to get their attention. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for help!

Anyone else have trouble with the American board teacher praxis prep? Or is the actual praxis this bad? I am a former behavior therapist turned SpEd teacher. I'm on an emergency cert taking my praxis this weekend. I feel fairly confident but this question is absolutely wrong. None of the answers are correct. It's only a token economy if the stickers are then exchanged for another reinforcer. If they are the reinforcement themselves then it's just positive reinforcement. I just clicked a random answer since they were all incorrect. Is this common? Am I going to have to guess which wrong answer is actually what they are looking for on the exam ? Hopefully this is just an ABCTE problem.