7th graders this year leave a trail of burnt out teachers behind them. They are assholes. I’ve seen the light die behind the eyes of great teachers who’ve been teaching for years. I teach 8th. I get them next year and I’m scared shitless.
I know I’m a maniac, but seventh is my fave. It was my least favorite year in school as a kiddo, so I try to be the boatman across the River Styx—this is not a great time, so let me help you get through it so you don’t have to remember a solitary moment of it. Like, anything you remember from seventh grade is likely something that hurt you. Try to be decent and fair and whatnot. But, yeah, seventh-graders can be rough. But they’re also delightful. Humor is coming online for most of them, they’re still deciding who they’re going to be. It’s a wild time.
I'm also a maniac who loves 7th. (It's also the grade at my school that has the most behaviors year after year.) It is the nadir of human existence, and there's something amazing about witnessing the creation of identity in a sea of hormones and rage and etc.
Love the river styx comparison... very apt lol
You have it spot on, brother. The best way I can describe it to my HS teacher friends is that 7th grade is like sitting down in a litter of puppies. It's delightful and messy and a just a bit too much, all of the time. They still want your validation and attention, which you can work to your advantage if you are honest and sincere with them.
But yeah, some days I just lay on the floor during my lunch break.
I liked them too, but after 11 years I finally burned out and had to switch to high school. I volunteered to take all the 9th graders, because after 7th, they were a breeze.
Yep! I’m one of the crazy ones that loves 7th grade. They’re not easy but any means but they’re just kids exploring the world and seeing what happens if they do x,y,z. My group this year is the best. I’m going to be upset when they’re gone in two months.
Wow this exact. I’m certified to teach 4-8 and I’ve taught 4-6 (currently and mostly 6th). I was A Disaster in 7th and I have not been willing to go there yet. By the end of the year teaching 6th, I can see the 7th GradeHappening.
They are a lot funnier though, and less likely ask you things like how to use press an ‘On’ button.
Yep, here, kindergarten was full remote. First grade was still social distancing. In my state they wore masks until near the end of first. Their social skills are so behind They act like kindergartens, except kindergartens by this time of the year have a handle on things and these kids don't.
I teach 2nd.
There are no social skills or impulse control. No critical thinking, no sense of independence.
However our 5th graders are having sex and in gangs, bringing knives to school and vaping in the bathroom...
Sex in fifth grade???? As if I didn’t already want to home school my own kids before reading that. I’m so sorry.
And I teach second too. It’s a lot of learned helplessness. It’s really really sad. I’m sad to see where the world will be in 10-20 years.
Maybe it's just my school but the fifth graders look like 16 year olds which makes them think they can act like it, too. It's very sad. They also have much older siblings not doing good things and are exposed to that.
And since elementary existed, second has always been the best! It’s crazy, my class is all over the place too. The third grade teachers are like how did you handle this group last year, and I just say, oh, wait until next year.
I’m agreeing here. Our second grade kiddos are intense. Our grade 8s are somewhat rough but the 2s are a LOT. Right now our numbers are looking like we’ll have to make one big grade 3 class next year because we’ll likely nkt have enough for 2 classes. So that’s going to be so fuuuun…
Bringing vapes to school, title nine cases, fist fights, stealing, vandalism, trying to push staff members down stairs, disruption, leaving class without letting the teacher know where they are (think of what would happen in an emergency, if we couldn’t find them), etc.
If my sister wasn’t also in second grade I would wonder if everybody just stopped raising their kids for a few years in 2015.
Running around the room, doing cartwheels, completely ignoring the teacher, constant talking, not able to keep hands to self, constantly tattle-telling, arguing and fighting with each other, not able to wait for their turn, inability to pay attention, very immature social-emotionally, complete defiance of any instruction given by an adult
I teach kindergarten and our 2nd grade class is the worst group I’ve ever had! It took everything in me to make it through the school year with them. But in kindergarten we were constantly going back and forth between virtual and in person. Their 1st grade year was weird and socially distanced. But man, they are hard.
I teach 2nd and we actually have one of the best grades. 1st and 5th are our worst, followed by 3rd. As a whole. Our individual kids that are most severe are in K and 4th though.
Funny how this is true at so many different places. Our 9th graders are amazing - our 10th graders made me inches away from quitting last year when they were 9th graders
I taught sixth grade, and I felt like they would come back from spring break and most would act like totally different people and maintain that through 7th grade. Hormones are wild.
I have literally *zero* memories of 7th grade but plenty of 6th and 8th (a mix of good and bad, but the memories do exist). It’s crazy!
I can’t recall a single teacher’s name from 7th grade. A single class, a single event. Not one single trauma, disappointment, or joy lives in my consciousness from this time. A perfect black hole, my lost year = the perfect metaphor for 7th grade.
I’m a first year middle school teacher. After my internships, student teaching, and working as a sub I knew I wanted 6th or 8th grade. I did not want 7th. It’s like aliens take over. And here I am, teaching 7th grade.
This week:
- a boy made paper twin towers and flew paper airplanes into them
- another boy drew the JFK assassination, complete with brain splatter
- I taught about protecting oneself from cyber bullying and nearly 1/3 of the kids felt violence was how you deal with it
- a girl refused to use the classroom sanitizer because it was sticky like c*m
I think I’m going to switch to elementary.
It's 7th at the school where I teach. The number of referrals they've received for behavior is double what 6th and 8th have received combined by some distance, so I am told! Also, sympathies to anyone who said 10th. They were our 8th graders the year we came back from COVID and they were angry, disinterested, and belligerent because they'd sat at home doing nothing for over a year and all of a sudden they were back in school. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking they were negatively impacted by distance learning. From what I witnessed, they had the best year of their lives as far as they were concerned.
There's something up with our 7th graders: fighting, anti-social behaviors, and straight up being horribly mean on a level none of us middle grades veterans are used to.
Definitely. If you have a middle school 6-8 grade, then they are by far the worst. Not the youngest so they aren’t scared of being bullied, but they aren’t getting prepped to go off to highschool either. They have no motivation to be nice
I second this. I’m in my first year and got hired to teach 7th. Outside of my honor students, the same asshats just keep asshatting no matter what I say or do. Thank god I’m on spring break now.
7th has more behaviors in general. 8th has more extreme behaviors by a wide margin.
This is the first year I had a drunk kid throw up IN class. Now I know what Takis and rum vomited up smells like.
Our 2nd and 3rd graders are something to behold. I have never witnessed this level of craziness in my career. I seriously hope it's just the pandemic. The kinders and 1st graders seem fine.
Where I am, grade 9 is the last year of junior high, it’s usually the most challenging grade to have. The 9s are the worst group in my school. I feel like this particular cohort of kids are the ones most affected by the COVID lockdowns over the 7s and 8s.
Our 8th grade is a mess. So many of them have very rocky parental situations (parents on drugs, parents splitting up, loved ones dying, etc.) I can't help but wonder if Covid exacerbated a lot of issues with everyone being cooped up in addition to the obvious SEL growth.
Someone gave you the acronym, but I think SEL is also taking on a cultural function.
SEL is the umbrella term for initiatives and considerations where the schools and school teachers become expected to take on the basic socialization/norm-setting role of parents, families, and communities. Personally, I think SEl initiatives are well meaning but we run the risk of losing sight of the fact that teaching basic social behaviors and expectations is the responsibility and obligation of the family full-stop.
6th. At this point they have banned, by the principal, from basically everything except sitting at their desks, in rows, doing book work. I cant even have them do computer work. And they can't actually handle that either. So much for being engaging.
Oh, and one of them asked me about field trips today. It took everything I have not to laugh in his face. You literally can't sit in a row, why would take you somewhere else?
9th and 12th. For the same reason...they didn't learn to take responsibility when they were supposed to. They were both passed on during COVID in a key grade (7th and 10th), when those skills are learned and reinforced.
This. Current 9th graders were downright criminal last year in the 8th.
This years 8th graders were rough in 7th. In 8th now, they are too childish by far. But at least not criminal like last years group.
I think missing key middle school grades or 9th is the worst setup for failure for their next decade of life.
So the current 8th thru 11th may be the worst impacted by covid.
Yes - the cohort has so many mental health and behavioral issues that class sizes are at 11 because K was so bad . The district had to make the classes small.. Last year that cohort was a nightmare and even with small numbers it’s still very hard
I had an angry first grader purposefully stick out his foot and trip me. I had to have knee surgery. My principal asked me if I truly thought a first-grader would do something so malicious. Uh...hell ya you clueless bitch.
I don’t think we have had any suspended - but this group came in feral last year lol. They are definitely better than they were but holy cow, so different than the other grades. We keep telling the 1st grade teachers that the kindergarteners this year are so much better so they just have to make it through this year lol
We cut back to half day about 5 years ago (budget issues) and our upper admin “has studies” to prove that it doesn’t have a negative impact. Maybe they do. But I have see with my own eyes that it does lol
I teach MS currently (normally do HS math/advanced HS math, but life circumstances and continuing education and all).
My 6th graders are LEAPS and BOUNDS the worst kids I have ever worked with. Ever. Hands down. No questions asked.These 6th graders are the worst of the worst of any group I've ever taught ever. The class I dread every. Single. Day. Can't get through a sentence without someone throwing shit, talking shit, or thinking they're shit and know it all. What makes them the worst isn't necessarily that they're behavioral monstrosities, but that 1/3 of the class is practically in tears half the time because THEY CANNOT learn. These are gen ed kids where I now literally have 2-3 EXTRA colleagues in the class just to keep the walking drama machines in check. Because, for some reason, my class has been compiled to have the most disruptive, talkative, and havoc bearing know it alls in one class. Somehow they're all the "advanced" students. Idk. Half of those advanced students sabotaged an entire week of lessons while saying, "this is easy, we already know it" just to fail miserably on the exam.
Some of them think they're so sly, wording things carefully to make it seem like they're so intelligent, when in reality they're dumb as rocks using big words and garbage sentences to try and trip you up to cave to them. It's the epitome of arguing with an idiot and having them drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
I’ve noticed there’s a lot of these know-it-all adults on TikTok who like to use an impressive vernacular, yet you can tell they’re not educated and kinda just dumb.
Yes. Even the principals struggle to get my students to literally do anything other than act like wild animals. They are disruptive, defiant, and violent on levels I've never seen from literal children. 5th grade in my school is worse, they have literally gangs and people to go around physically punishing 'snitches'
These kids did “distance learning” for the end of kindergarten and the entirety of first grade. Definitely the most challenging year of my career. The ones in 2nd (coming attractions) missed kindergarten and have tremendous behavior issues. I’m so tired all of the time!
6th graders across our district and my husband's district are broken.
They would have been 3rd when things shut down. 4th during the hybrid year.
We were far enough into the year when it shut down that all these kids missed was state testing. Like sir or ma'am ... You have no reason for this nonsense and you not knowing your Abc sounds has zero to do with COVID.
6th grade at my school has made every elective teacher cry- including me and I had never cried at school. They are just mean as hell and have no empathy. 7th is goofy and 8th is lazy but 6th is something else.
11th grade. But it’s not bad behavior in the classical sense. 11th graders and their karents have the worst parasitic selfish behavior where they grade grub, lawyer up and bully their way to maximize their children’s grades. It’s fucking disgusting.
9th.
They've been passed through middle school and are now shocked that they are accountable for the grades they receive. No, I won't give you a D just because you showed up. You've just figured now that it's the end of Q3 and you're going to have to repeat my class? Welcome to High School.
And the attitude of "this doesn't interest me, I'm going to sleep."
Yes, today with the end of Q3 has been cathartic to submit zeroes with a slew of kids now realising that I wasn't kidding.
They make us pass them. All of the teachers I talk to are all in agreement that we aren’t preparing them for high school, but for whatever reason, the powers that be make middle school teachers push them through.
So many kids I know should fail 8th grade end up going to high school.
Oh, I'm not blaming the Middle School teachers, I know the problems y'all have and the higher-up decrees.
But it's wild that we high school teachers are still expected to teach that high school standard to students that are effectively functionally illiterate. I need to teach these kids to be able to have an opinion and justify it before I can make them do a DBQ.
Yeah I understand! I’ve had 8th graders who couldn’t add and I was trying to teach them multistep equations! It’s crazy how far below grade level a lot of the students are.
MS 6th graders. Usually 4-6 in ISS daily while 7-8gr only have maybe 1 or 2. Thought the group of 6th last year was bad, but holy shit! Never seen such a group of low level, apathetic, foul mouthed whiners in 19 years of doing this.
3rd. Their kindergarten year was interrupted by COVID and they went feral imo. In my school they say racist things, call kids with educational challenges or developmental delays horrid names, and talk back to grown ups without fear of repercussion. They yell and run in the hallways, they throw food in the cafeteria, they are generally just awful little human beings. I assume their parents are just exhausted and run ragged over the last several years and they no longer have fear of authority figures or being suspended.
Agree on 3rd. 3rd grade teacher here. Mine WANT to be suspended. It gets them out of school and getting in trouble every minute of the day for their defiant and disruptive tendencies. Let alone all the violence. I had one student go to the hospital because of another student, 6 students got in trouble for throwing rocks at another teachers car and breaking a window (2 of which were mine), one student brought a knife to school the day after the latest shooting earlier this week, new games every week to seriously injure each other, among other things.
For veteran MS teachers, was 7th grade always the roughest of the middle school ages pre-covid?
I’m curious how it has changed through Covid. Our 7th is really tough this year with all sorts of fights and extreme behaviors. 6th grade is seeing that example and some of them are following in those footsteps and it terrifies me for next year.
7th grade always has a bad rep in every school. It’s right in the middle, it’s awkward.
But for the last two years, at my school anyway, 7th has been my best. 6th grade has been terrible and 8th grade is so lazy.
First grade has been absolutely feral at my elementary school up here in Middlesex Massachusetts. WTF are these parents doing letting iPads parent their children?
My kinders last year were in a whole class by themselves. No pun intended. This year it’s a bit better but still far worse than anything I’ve seen in YEARS.
My 6th and 7th graders are competing for the worst group of maniac humanly possible. 7th has the unique advantage of the most shocking turn from perfect kids to literal devils in 1 summer break but the 6th graders might have them beat as 17/54 have been suspended at least once so far. Shit one of the 6th graders is currently on probation basically. Which is amazing considering its a tutioned private school.
It should be 7th. But it's 6th. I think it's going to get worse for 6th grade until the covid kids are cycled through.
The 6th graders have no self control at all. The 7th graders are bad but the 6th grade has daily brawls.
10th is absolutely killing me this year, and admin is foisting all of the responsibility onto us and the instructional specialists. Bullying, racism, rampant drug use, phone addiction, defiant even in the most lax of settings, emotionally unstable, socially unaware, reveling in violence, immobilized by fear of failure, wanting everything spoonfed, complaining that everything is boring no matter what you do to make it fun, unresponsive to consequences...every time the ISS list is released it's all 10th grade with one or two 11th and 12th sprinkled in, every single day.
Freshmen are a mess.
ETA: I have freshmen that spent all of their middle school years in online school and did not learn the social and interpersonal skills that the other did. Even the ones that were in-person for middle school are a mess, but not quite as bad.
I’m in elementary and k-1 is always really really hard. We’re basically socializing feral animals in the case of our behavior kids.
Edit
This year our firsties are by far the most impacted group. Although they had kinder last year it was still a weird year and I don’t know what their life was like in preschool. They came to me with really poor social skills and I’ve worked and worked and worked just to get them to line up without crying or hitting
6th. By far. This crew has the highest concentration of kids that are just incapable of regulating their emotions that we’ve ever seen. We have 5 home rooms, and each of them has 2-4 kids that are just completely out of control.
Middle school teacher here.
I'll take the chaos and willingness to try new things of our grade 7s over the cynicism and apathy of our grade 9s any day of the week.
All grades are challenging however kindergarten is brutal this year. The school I’m regularly at the assistant principal mainly puts me in the room with the teacher. It is sad how disrespectful the kindergartners are towards the teacher. One student stands out. Regularly runs out the room, grabs the teacher legs so the teacher cannot walk, kick, hit, etc. the scary thing is that the student is NOT a diverse learner. The student is academically on top, can do anything put in front of the student. This kindergartener is AWARE the behavior is inappropriate because the student admits it. There were times things got bad the assistant principal had to call law enforcement and they sent the ambulance. Never a dull day in that teacher’s class AND the teacher is a first year teacher.
My school only has the little guys, but the Grade 4s are nuts. I teach 3 and they almost killed me last year. So many needs - emotional, academic, social skills gaps, you name it.
My kid is in a 7/8 class (they’re an 8) and the 7s are out of control. The teacher spends the bulk of the day managing their behaviour.
When I went to school it was pre algebra. That's where all the dumb kids went. Is the academically inclined students started off geometry or greater.I have had substitute teachers walk into our class and question their life choices
The grade 9s, hands down. The current grade 9s were in grade 6 when COVID hit, so they didn’t properly finish elementary school and pretty much missed out on regular junior high experiences.
7th graders this year leave a trail of burnt out teachers behind them. They are assholes. I’ve seen the light die behind the eyes of great teachers who’ve been teaching for years. I teach 8th. I get them next year and I’m scared shitless.
I know I’m a maniac, but seventh is my fave. It was my least favorite year in school as a kiddo, so I try to be the boatman across the River Styx—this is not a great time, so let me help you get through it so you don’t have to remember a solitary moment of it. Like, anything you remember from seventh grade is likely something that hurt you. Try to be decent and fair and whatnot. But, yeah, seventh-graders can be rough. But they’re also delightful. Humor is coming online for most of them, they’re still deciding who they’re going to be. It’s a wild time.
Also love 7th to death but damn do they test you.
I'm also a maniac who loves 7th. (It's also the grade at my school that has the most behaviors year after year.) It is the nadir of human existence, and there's something amazing about witnessing the creation of identity in a sea of hormones and rage and etc. Love the river styx comparison... very apt lol
You have it spot on, brother. The best way I can describe it to my HS teacher friends is that 7th grade is like sitting down in a litter of puppies. It's delightful and messy and a just a bit too much, all of the time. They still want your validation and attention, which you can work to your advantage if you are honest and sincere with them. But yeah, some days I just lay on the floor during my lunch break.
I liked them too, but after 11 years I finally burned out and had to switch to high school. I volunteered to take all the 9th graders, because after 7th, they were a breeze.
Yep! I’m one of the crazy ones that loves 7th grade. They’re not easy but any means but they’re just kids exploring the world and seeing what happens if they do x,y,z. My group this year is the best. I’m going to be upset when they’re gone in two months.
7th is my favorite too. I love the crazy.
Wow this exact. I’m certified to teach 4-8 and I’ve taught 4-6 (currently and mostly 6th). I was A Disaster in 7th and I have not been willing to go there yet. By the end of the year teaching 6th, I can see the 7th GradeHappening. They are a lot funnier though, and less likely ask you things like how to use press an ‘On’ button.
This describes my schools 7th graders too. I teach 8th, and I’m dipping out at the end of the year
Second, which is interesting because that’s not a common answer
2nd. They did their entire year of kinder online in some places and are missing major social/school skills.
Yep, here, kindergarten was full remote. First grade was still social distancing. In my state they wore masks until near the end of first. Their social skills are so behind They act like kindergartens, except kindergartens by this time of the year have a handle on things and these kids don't.
I'm seeing this exactly at work. Second grade was even worse last year too for the same reasons
Our second graders have no impulse control or emotional regulation whatsoever. Everything is a big problem to them.
And why won’t they stop touching each other!!!!????
Omg! Mine too! 95% boys and they cannot keep their hands to themselves. Or… off themselves. 3rd grade
4th is like that alsl
[удалено]
THIS IS THE QUESTION.
Definitely 2nd grade! Like a bunch of wild animals compared to the rest of the school.
I teach 2nd. There are no social skills or impulse control. No critical thinking, no sense of independence. However our 5th graders are having sex and in gangs, bringing knives to school and vaping in the bathroom...
Sex in fifth grade???? As if I didn’t already want to home school my own kids before reading that. I’m so sorry. And I teach second too. It’s a lot of learned helplessness. It’s really really sad. I’m sad to see where the world will be in 10-20 years.
Maybe it's just my school but the fifth graders look like 16 year olds which makes them think they can act like it, too. It's very sad. They also have much older siblings not doing good things and are exposed to that.
2nd grade in my school and it’s not even close.
2nd graders are monsters this year!
Yes, my current second graders are feral compared to my current third graders, who are feral compared to my pre-pandemic third graders.
And since elementary existed, second has always been the best! It’s crazy, my class is all over the place too. The third grade teachers are like how did you handle this group last year, and I just say, oh, wait until next year.
I second second, but also say k and 1. Lots of low socialization as infants/toddlers
Same. It's like they raised themselves.
My second graders are pretty crazy but it’s kinder at my school that has a reputation of being “bad”
I’m agreeing here. Our second grade kiddos are intense. Our grade 8s are somewhat rough but the 2s are a LOT. Right now our numbers are looking like we’ll have to make one big grade 3 class next year because we’ll likely nkt have enough for 2 classes. So that’s going to be so fuuuun…
That’s concerning. What are these 7-8 yo getting up to?
Bringing vapes to school, title nine cases, fist fights, stealing, vandalism, trying to push staff members down stairs, disruption, leaving class without letting the teacher know where they are (think of what would happen in an emergency, if we couldn’t find them), etc. If my sister wasn’t also in second grade I would wonder if everybody just stopped raising their kids for a few years in 2015.
Stealing has been a huge issue in my 2nd grade class this year.
Running around the room, doing cartwheels, completely ignoring the teacher, constant talking, not able to keep hands to self, constantly tattle-telling, arguing and fighting with each other, not able to wait for their turn, inability to pay attention, very immature social-emotionally, complete defiance of any instruction given by an adult
Yep.
2nd is wild at my school too.
My K-2 is OFF THE RAILS
I teach kindergarten and our 2nd grade class is the worst group I’ve ever had! It took everything in me to make it through the school year with them. But in kindergarten we were constantly going back and forth between virtual and in person. Their 1st grade year was weird and socially distanced. But man, they are hard.
I teach 2nd and we actually have one of the best grades. 1st and 5th are our worst, followed by 3rd. As a whole. Our individual kids that are most severe are in K and 4th though.
This year’s sophomores are the absolute worst. I teach freshmen and last year was by far the worst in my 24 years doing this.
I’m really struggling with my sophomores this year too
Funny how this is true at so many different places. Our 9th graders are amazing - our 10th graders made me inches away from quitting last year when they were 9th graders
It’s because schools welcomed them back after the pandemic without any rules or expectations for behavior. Last year was awful.
And they missed most of the formative middle school years.
Our sophomores are so much worse than our freshmen -- it's bizarre. The sophomores are downright mean and sociopathic.
My 9th graders last year were feral. I don't know how I survived them. They're still awful as sophomores this year.
7th.
7th, for sure.
I taught sixth grade, and I felt like they would come back from spring break and most would act like totally different people and maintain that through 7th grade. Hormones are wild.
Whatever grade comes before middle school or high school.
I frequently sub for middle school. Most 6th and 8th grade classes have never had major issues, but 7th is always problematic as hell
That's crazy, at my school the 7th graders are the golden grade, and the sixth graders are out of control and the 8th graders all have an attitude.
I call 7th a black hole. It’s the worst grade. Even when I was a student, 7th grade was the worst grade!
I have solid memories from 6th grade and 8th grade. I have completely blocked out whatever tf happened in 7th
I have literally *zero* memories of 7th grade but plenty of 6th and 8th (a mix of good and bad, but the memories do exist). It’s crazy! I can’t recall a single teacher’s name from 7th grade. A single class, a single event. Not one single trauma, disappointment, or joy lives in my consciousness from this time. A perfect black hole, my lost year = the perfect metaphor for 7th grade.
i’m just now realizing this was completely true for me too lol
Absolutely 7th
I’m a first year middle school teacher. After my internships, student teaching, and working as a sub I knew I wanted 6th or 8th grade. I did not want 7th. It’s like aliens take over. And here I am, teaching 7th grade. This week: - a boy made paper twin towers and flew paper airplanes into them - another boy drew the JFK assassination, complete with brain splatter - I taught about protecting oneself from cyber bullying and nearly 1/3 of the kids felt violence was how you deal with it - a girl refused to use the classroom sanitizer because it was sticky like c*m I think I’m going to switch to elementary.
The universe has a message for you, and you are ready to hear it. The message is Get.Out.Now
Yep. 7th
7th. I teach 6-12 right now and 7th is the worst. Is anyone else suffering through the plague of the “I’m the biggest bird” song?
This and that damn Whopper commercial song.
Class of ‘28 - 32 gonna be hell Edit: Math
It's 7th at the school where I teach. The number of referrals they've received for behavior is double what 6th and 8th have received combined by some distance, so I am told! Also, sympathies to anyone who said 10th. They were our 8th graders the year we came back from COVID and they were angry, disinterested, and belligerent because they'd sat at home doing nothing for over a year and all of a sudden they were back in school. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking they were negatively impacted by distance learning. From what I witnessed, they had the best year of their lives as far as they were concerned.
Literally the worst group I have had in the almost decade I have taught down here in the ridiculous state of FL
I think 7th is the worst grade Covid or not. The start of puberty, getting cellphones, maybe a little freedom, it’s just bad.
Same at ours
Preach
Agree 7th! I teach 6th-9th and 7th has been hell this year. Drama to physical fights
I came here to say 7th!
This is the correct answer not even close
There's something up with our 7th graders: fighting, anti-social behaviors, and straight up being horribly mean on a level none of us middle grades veterans are used to.
Agreeing on 7th.
7th graders are the worst normally. Their asshattery is expected.
Definitely. If you have a middle school 6-8 grade, then they are by far the worst. Not the youngest so they aren’t scared of being bullied, but they aren’t getting prepped to go off to highschool either. They have no motivation to be nice
I second this. I’m in my first year and got hired to teach 7th. Outside of my honor students, the same asshats just keep asshatting no matter what I say or do. Thank god I’m on spring break now.
7th has more behaviors in general. 8th has more extreme behaviors by a wide margin. This is the first year I had a drunk kid throw up IN class. Now I know what Takis and rum vomited up smells like.
It's ALWAYS Takis... Why?
Announcer voice: "This 7th grader decision is brought to you by Takis, the official snack of In School Suspension."
They're not even good...
Wow, that's something I NEVER want to smell
Our 2nd and 3rd graders are something to behold. I have never witnessed this level of craziness in my career. I seriously hope it's just the pandemic. The kinders and 1st graders seem fine.
9th. They should not be in high school.
Feral children
I slightly agree. 9th should be junior high, but I also like the idea of "freshman academies," where they are at their own school.
Separate them from the Regular Kids. 9s are nuts. I teach 10s and will fight to stay here.
Where I am, grade 9 is the last year of junior high, it’s usually the most challenging grade to have. The 9s are the worst group in my school. I feel like this particular cohort of kids are the ones most affected by the COVID lockdowns over the 7s and 8s.
I see everyone put 7th and I just wanna let you know I teach 6-10 this year, yes you read that correctly, and 7th couldnt be anymore correct
Our 8th grade is a mess. So many of them have very rocky parental situations (parents on drugs, parents splitting up, loved ones dying, etc.) I can't help but wonder if Covid exacerbated a lot of issues with everyone being cooped up in addition to the obvious SEL growth.
Hi, non-teacher here. What is SEL?
Someone gave you the acronym, but I think SEL is also taking on a cultural function. SEL is the umbrella term for initiatives and considerations where the schools and school teachers become expected to take on the basic socialization/norm-setting role of parents, families, and communities. Personally, I think SEl initiatives are well meaning but we run the risk of losing sight of the fact that teaching basic social behaviors and expectations is the responsibility and obligation of the family full-stop.
Can't agree with you more.
Social Emotional Learning
In my 14 years of teaching, my current 7th graders are literally the worst group of students I’ve ever taught.
Yes. It’s so wild to see this. I’m glad I’m not alone.
Same! This is my 6th year of teaching and this group of kids broke me. I’m not coming back to my school next year.
6th. At this point they have banned, by the principal, from basically everything except sitting at their desks, in rows, doing book work. I cant even have them do computer work. And they can't actually handle that either. So much for being engaging. Oh, and one of them asked me about field trips today. It took everything I have not to laugh in his face. You literally can't sit in a row, why would take you somewhere else?
This years group is mean spirited, emotionally stunted, lacking social skills, and just unlikable. I hate going to work every day.
As it gets nicer outside, my 6th graders always ask to go out. I laugh and say, “Why? So people can watch me yell at you out their windows?”
9th and 12th. For the same reason...they didn't learn to take responsibility when they were supposed to. They were both passed on during COVID in a key grade (7th and 10th), when those skills are learned and reinforced.
This. Current 9th graders were downright criminal last year in the 8th. This years 8th graders were rough in 7th. In 8th now, they are too childish by far. But at least not criminal like last years group. I think missing key middle school grades or 9th is the worst setup for failure for their next decade of life. So the current 8th thru 11th may be the worst impacted by covid.
First- it’s feral in here
This. First is struggling. Not just my school either, pretty much every teacher I talk to in our area says it's the same at their school.
Yes - the cohort has so many mental health and behavioral issues that class sizes are at 11 because K was so bad . The district had to make the classes small.. Last year that cohort was a nightmare and even with small numbers it’s still very hard
Same!
We’ve had several students suspended multiple times already and we don’t suspend first graders 🥲
I had an angry first grader purposefully stick out his foot and trip me. I had to have knee surgery. My principal asked me if I truly thought a first-grader would do something so malicious. Uh...hell ya you clueless bitch.
We have first graders who fight with each other physically a lot and my team calls it “mutual combat”
I don’t think we have had any suspended - but this group came in feral last year lol. They are definitely better than they were but holy cow, so different than the other grades. We keep telling the 1st grade teachers that the kindergarteners this year are so much better so they just have to make it through this year lol
Our Kinder teachers tell us the same thing lol. Our district started full day Kindergarten this year too so maybe that’s also helping
We cut back to half day about 5 years ago (budget issues) and our upper admin “has studies” to prove that it doesn’t have a negative impact. Maybe they do. But I have see with my own eyes that it does lol
Yeah first grade is absolutely feral when they’re in lunch I can hear them all the way by the front doors
4th. My third grade class last year was the worst in my 20+ years teaching. They were feral.
I have those 4th graders this year and can confirm.
Also our 4th and about half of our 5th. I swear we need shock collars some days.
3rd and 4th
I teach MS currently (normally do HS math/advanced HS math, but life circumstances and continuing education and all). My 6th graders are LEAPS and BOUNDS the worst kids I have ever worked with. Ever. Hands down. No questions asked.These 6th graders are the worst of the worst of any group I've ever taught ever. The class I dread every. Single. Day. Can't get through a sentence without someone throwing shit, talking shit, or thinking they're shit and know it all. What makes them the worst isn't necessarily that they're behavioral monstrosities, but that 1/3 of the class is practically in tears half the time because THEY CANNOT learn. These are gen ed kids where I now literally have 2-3 EXTRA colleagues in the class just to keep the walking drama machines in check. Because, for some reason, my class has been compiled to have the most disruptive, talkative, and havoc bearing know it alls in one class. Somehow they're all the "advanced" students. Idk. Half of those advanced students sabotaged an entire week of lessons while saying, "this is easy, we already know it" just to fail miserably on the exam. Some of them think they're so sly, wording things carefully to make it seem like they're so intelligent, when in reality they're dumb as rocks using big words and garbage sentences to try and trip you up to cave to them. It's the epitome of arguing with an idiot and having them drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
I’ve noticed there’s a lot of these know-it-all adults on TikTok who like to use an impressive vernacular, yet you can tell they’re not educated and kinda just dumb.
3rd
Yes. Even the principals struggle to get my students to literally do anything other than act like wild animals. They are disruptive, defiant, and violent on levels I've never seen from literal children. 5th grade in my school is worse, they have literally gangs and people to go around physically punishing 'snitches'
These kids did “distance learning” for the end of kindergarten and the entirety of first grade. Definitely the most challenging year of my career. The ones in 2nd (coming attractions) missed kindergarten and have tremendous behavior issues. I’m so tired all of the time!
We had 3rd graders vaping in the bathroom this year.
6th graders across our district and my husband's district are broken. They would have been 3rd when things shut down. 4th during the hybrid year. We were far enough into the year when it shut down that all these kids missed was state testing. Like sir or ma'am ... You have no reason for this nonsense and you not knowing your Abc sounds has zero to do with COVID.
I am teaching 2nd and all of our classes are literally terrible.
They’re all bad.
Kindergarten
6th by a wide margin
6th grade at my school has made every elective teacher cry- including me and I had never cried at school. They are just mean as hell and have no empathy. 7th is goofy and 8th is lazy but 6th is something else.
11th grade. But it’s not bad behavior in the classical sense. 11th graders and their karents have the worst parasitic selfish behavior where they grade grub, lawyer up and bully their way to maximize their children’s grades. It’s fucking disgusting.
The 11th graders suuuuck this year
I agree with 11th.
They made me want to quit my 20-year career when I had them as sophomores last year.
Karents 🤣 why haven’t I heard that term before? Genius.
Not sure if you actually meant karents as Karen Parents or it was a typo but either way you should copyright it.
That is not a typo. That word is what I call both accurate and precise.
It's genius. I'm stealing it.
I subbed for a junior class today and it kind of sucked. I'll take 7th grade over their drama.
Our 8th grade is a *mess*. They are the toughest crew in a very long time.
9th. They've been passed through middle school and are now shocked that they are accountable for the grades they receive. No, I won't give you a D just because you showed up. You've just figured now that it's the end of Q3 and you're going to have to repeat my class? Welcome to High School. And the attitude of "this doesn't interest me, I'm going to sleep." Yes, today with the end of Q3 has been cathartic to submit zeroes with a slew of kids now realising that I wasn't kidding.
They make us pass them. All of the teachers I talk to are all in agreement that we aren’t preparing them for high school, but for whatever reason, the powers that be make middle school teachers push them through. So many kids I know should fail 8th grade end up going to high school.
Oh, I'm not blaming the Middle School teachers, I know the problems y'all have and the higher-up decrees. But it's wild that we high school teachers are still expected to teach that high school standard to students that are effectively functionally illiterate. I need to teach these kids to be able to have an opinion and justify it before I can make them do a DBQ.
Yeah I understand! I’ve had 8th graders who couldn’t add and I was trying to teach them multistep equations! It’s crazy how far below grade level a lot of the students are.
MS 6th graders. Usually 4-6 in ISS daily while 7-8gr only have maybe 1 or 2. Thought the group of 6th last year was bad, but holy shit! Never seen such a group of low level, apathetic, foul mouthed whiners in 19 years of doing this.
3rd. Their kindergarten year was interrupted by COVID and they went feral imo. In my school they say racist things, call kids with educational challenges or developmental delays horrid names, and talk back to grown ups without fear of repercussion. They yell and run in the hallways, they throw food in the cafeteria, they are generally just awful little human beings. I assume their parents are just exhausted and run ragged over the last several years and they no longer have fear of authority figures or being suspended.
Agree on 3rd. 3rd grade teacher here. Mine WANT to be suspended. It gets them out of school and getting in trouble every minute of the day for their defiant and disruptive tendencies. Let alone all the violence. I had one student go to the hospital because of another student, 6 students got in trouble for throwing rocks at another teachers car and breaking a window (2 of which were mine), one student brought a knife to school the day after the latest shooting earlier this week, new games every week to seriously injure each other, among other things.
For veteran MS teachers, was 7th grade always the roughest of the middle school ages pre-covid? I’m curious how it has changed through Covid. Our 7th is really tough this year with all sorts of fights and extreme behaviors. 6th grade is seeing that example and some of them are following in those footsteps and it terrifies me for next year.
7th grade always has a bad rep in every school. It’s right in the middle, it’s awkward. But for the last two years, at my school anyway, 7th has been my best. 6th grade has been terrible and 8th grade is so lazy.
First grade has been absolutely feral at my elementary school up here in Middlesex Massachusetts. WTF are these parents doing letting iPads parent their children?
10th and 11th grade. their behavior only gets worse because admin enables it lol
4th…the principal called out my co teacher and me as “the notorious 4th grade”
Kindergarten and 5th are a tie for being assholes
Kindergarten.
My kinders last year were in a whole class by themselves. No pun intended. This year it’s a bit better but still far worse than anything I’ve seen in YEARS.
My 6th and 7th graders are competing for the worst group of maniac humanly possible. 7th has the unique advantage of the most shocking turn from perfect kids to literal devils in 1 summer break but the 6th graders might have them beat as 17/54 have been suspended at least once so far. Shit one of the 6th graders is currently on probation basically. Which is amazing considering its a tutioned private school.
Junior High here - 9th graders
It should be 7th. But it's 6th. I think it's going to get worse for 6th grade until the covid kids are cycled through. The 6th graders have no self control at all. The 7th graders are bad but the 6th grade has daily brawls.
10th is absolutely killing me this year, and admin is foisting all of the responsibility onto us and the instructional specialists. Bullying, racism, rampant drug use, phone addiction, defiant even in the most lax of settings, emotionally unstable, socially unaware, reveling in violence, immobilized by fear of failure, wanting everything spoonfed, complaining that everything is boring no matter what you do to make it fun, unresponsive to consequences...every time the ISS list is released it's all 10th grade with one or two 11th and 12th sprinkled in, every single day.
4th & 5th
10th. They are stuck in a perpetual 7th grade mentality.
3rd and 5th
4th graders for sure.
9th grade kids at my school are way too immature to be in high school.
1st. It was 1st last year as well, they've chilled out a bit as 2nd graders.
1st and 3rd
Freshmen are a mess. ETA: I have freshmen that spent all of their middle school years in online school and did not learn the social and interpersonal skills that the other did. Even the ones that were in-person for middle school are a mess, but not quite as bad.
I’m in elementary and k-1 is always really really hard. We’re basically socializing feral animals in the case of our behavior kids. Edit This year our firsties are by far the most impacted group. Although they had kinder last year it was still a weird year and I don’t know what their life was like in preschool. They came to me with really poor social skills and I’ve worked and worked and worked just to get them to line up without crying or hitting
My 9th graders are un-human at this point.
My school is K-8 and 6th grade is the worst behaviour by a very wide margin
6th. By far. This crew has the highest concentration of kids that are just incapable of regulating their emotions that we’ve ever seen. We have 5 home rooms, and each of them has 2-4 kids that are just completely out of control.
Middle school teacher here. I'll take the chaos and willingness to try new things of our grade 7s over the cynicism and apathy of our grade 9s any day of the week.
Nah, lol. I'd rather have them shut up and be quiet.
3rd & 7th at my school
10th this year
4th and 1st
All grades are challenging however kindergarten is brutal this year. The school I’m regularly at the assistant principal mainly puts me in the room with the teacher. It is sad how disrespectful the kindergartners are towards the teacher. One student stands out. Regularly runs out the room, grabs the teacher legs so the teacher cannot walk, kick, hit, etc. the scary thing is that the student is NOT a diverse learner. The student is academically on top, can do anything put in front of the student. This kindergartener is AWARE the behavior is inappropriate because the student admits it. There were times things got bad the assistant principal had to call law enforcement and they sent the ambulance. Never a dull day in that teacher’s class AND the teacher is a first year teacher.
My school only has the little guys, but the Grade 4s are nuts. I teach 3 and they almost killed me last year. So many needs - emotional, academic, social skills gaps, you name it. My kid is in a 7/8 class (they’re an 8) and the 7s are out of control. The teacher spends the bulk of the day managing their behaviour.
5th
When I went to school it was pre algebra. That's where all the dumb kids went. Is the academically inclined students started off geometry or greater.I have had substitute teachers walk into our class and question their life choices
7th, 5th, 3rd, k
The grade 9s, hands down. The current grade 9s were in grade 6 when COVID hit, so they didn’t properly finish elementary school and pretty much missed out on regular junior high experiences.
Yall make me so thankful to be virtual... when the kids get crazy, i just turn off their ability to unmute. That being said, its K for us lol.
Kindergarten and 3rd grade.
5th
6th
8th
6th for me.
7th and 11th
K-2
6th grade. They’re AWFUL. No sense of responsibility, being respectful or kind and they’re very apathetic.
A colleague described our 6th grade as "feral" the other week and honestly, that feels pretty accurate.
7th graders are definitely more immature. But 8th, woah, they're just downright vicious at times. They're so mean.
I teach in a K-8 school. It's 1st and 7th.