Born After 9/11, Raised on TikTok: Teaching Today’s Teenagers

Joining up with a group of students in a “dog-pound-like” cheering section at a recent volleyball game. These are great young adults.

Four weeks into a new career teaching in the Arkansas public school system, the lessons learned already abound. Here are a few things I’ve discovered:

I’ve fallen into a rigid routine that begins at 3:00 a.m., four and a half hours before the first bell. I spend this time thinking about the most productive ways to manage seven 53-minute periods and maximize learning for a hundred students, ensuring the lesson aligns with the state standards required for my 10th and 12th graders. The plan is locked in by 5:00 a.m., which allows me to start the day fully prepared. Preparation is key for me, because teaching isn’t a natural talent yet. I have to work at it—hard.

I’m typically the first person in the building around 6:05 a.m., an hour and a half before the day begins. It’s the calm before the storm, and for me, it’s a necessity.

Everything changes at the 7:45 a.m. bell. At that moment, my day radically shifts from a quiet, well-planned routine to fluid, minute-by-minute chaos where I’m making dozens of decisions on the fly.

I never appreciated how much goes into teaching beyond the actual instruction. Car-rider duty, lunch duty, hallway supervision, tech management, and implementing specific accommodations for dozens of students take up the day. We document literally everything for protection. Lesson development and grading? I don’t even think about them during the school day. I put in an extra 16 hours a week outside the classroom to get this right. That’s just part of the deal, and I think most educators accept it.

My students range in age from 15 to 18. I treat them as young adults, and they appreciate that.

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