CurricuMap

11 years in the classroom & I still learn something new every year. HS History & Government teacher. Building something for teachers on the side. Gonna start posting more here — come ride with me.

graded a bunch of papers today, needed this.

Me in April: Yea, we’ll do a project instead of a final. That’ll be more fun and give you a chance to be creative. Me now staring at a pile of 5 page papers and videos to grade:

@Principal_Jon the teachers I’ve seen leave weren’t burned out on kids. they were burned out on everything around the kids.

Teachers aren't leaving the profession because they stopped caring. They're leaving because policies no longer care about learning. We joined this profession to make a difference in the lives of children. But that mission is now impossible.

@anymanfitness 💯

Whenever I watch these videos it reminds me that for eons if you wanted social validation you had to do it in real life. Talk to friends. Make jokes. Flirt with girls. Actually be social. No phones. No internet. And 1000x the social skills of kids today.

@NancyH_60 Just trying to to make it through exams…

POV: Teachers counting down the FINAL days until summer break 🏖️😩 Coach Goff said ‘see ya later, kids!’ and we felt that in our souls 😂 Who’s ready to wave goodbye to the chaos and hello to peace? “Listen… if you know a teacher right now, just check on them. Because this week? It’s the home stretch. We love our kids — we really do. But after months of lesson plans, grading, meltdowns (theirs and ours), parent emails at 10pm, and trying to explain why we can’t just ‘watch a movie’ every day… we are RUNNING on fumes. Coach Goff gets it. Passionate, dedicated, making a real difference every single day in that Texas elementary school. But even the best teachers hit that point where they’re whispering, ‘One more week… just one more week.’ To all my teacher friends: You’ve poured your heart into these little humans all year. You’ve been their cheerleader, referee, nurse, comedian, and safe space. Now it’s YOUR turn. Pack those bags, turn off the alarm (or at least snooze it gloriously), and enjoy every second of that hard-earned break. You’ve earned the right to say goodbye to the chaos and hello to sunshine, silence, and maybe a margarita or three. We see you. We appreciate you. And we know… you can’t wait to close that classroom door and breathe. Happy almost-summer, teachers! ☀️ You did it.

Anyway that’s my current frustration summarized. Curious if other teachers feel the same way or if I’m just the problem 😂

So every summer I’d sit down and spend weeks doing it manually. Mapping out units, pacing lessons, making sure everything actually connects. Every year. From scratch. Because there was nothing else to do.

I’ve used a lot of curriculum tools over the years and most of them have the same core problem. A thread 🧵

nothing humbles you faster than realizing your students completely misunderstood something you thought you taught really well

@teachthemx3 even tho the only tools actually used by teachers are ones we choose ourselves

@CurricuMap They will keep rolling out tools because the districts are buying them.

@TolentinoTeach year 11 and I still have a class that makes me question everything I know about classroom management

Teaching is a profession where even the most experienced teachers, the ones who have “seen everything,” can still have days where nothing works and chaos takes over.

@LearnLead_ the problems that actually matter in schools can’t be solved with a purchase order

Curriculum purchases won’t fix schools. There. I said it.

Teacher Humor… Student: How can I bring up my grade. Teacher: Spell way Student: W-a-y Teacher: You forgot the F Student: There’s no F in way Teacher: Exactly

the last week of school is just both sides pretending they want to be here

@jarredgeller This is the most accurate description of the modern classroom I’ve read in a while. The variance alone is exhausting — differentiating for 6 different levels in one room isn’t teaching anymore, it’s triage

Here’s what’s always buried in these stories. Teachers need the devices. Not the kids. A typical public school classroom has gotten impossible to manage. They don’t hold kids back anymore. They don’t expel. They don’t really discipline at all. So now you have classrooms full of violent, anti-social, distracting behaviors with some kids who can’t recognize their own names and some kids who can read Crime and Punishment. The variance in the classroom is so high that teachers need the devices to just be able to breathe. They can’t lesson plan for some kids who need Kindergarten materials and some kids who need 8th grade and everyone in between. Put them on the device. They can’t manage the behaviors that are disrupting the classroom. Put them on a device. The device is the band aid to the systemic problems of the education system that no one wants to address. It is very much a screen time nanny for the kids who diverge from the rest of the class. The problem is… everyone has a device and it’s not fair to let the “bad” kids be the only ones who get screentime. Feels like a reward. So teachers cave and let everyone on, which exacerbates all the root causes and makes everything worse. All that to say, removing screens won’t do much of anything unless you start bringing back common sense of the 90s and 00s. If you fail, you’re held back. If you’re a jerk, you’re removed. When the classroom is relatively homogenous, there is no need for devices.

Just rearranged the whole room for semester exams — this is my go-to testing setup. How do y’all arrange your classroom for big exams? Drop your setups or pics below 👇 I’m always stealing good ideas #historyteacher #edchat #teachersofX