Bad Teacher Tales: Real talk stories and advice for teachers and those who love them.

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

The tapping just… wouldn’t… stop. It starts as a small sound. At first, it’s easy to ignore. A pencil against a desk. A nervous habit. Something most teachers have seen a hundred times before. So you redirect. You move closer. You offer options. You give gentle reminders. You try everything you know works. But it just doesn’t stop. Eventually, you reach the point every educator dreads—you have to...

What happens when a student you once taught reaches out… and the conversation doesn’t feel like it used to? At first, it seems harmless. A message. A question. Maybe they thank you for believing in them. Maybe they tell you how much your class meant. And as educators, those moments mean everything. They remind you why you chose this profession in the first place. But then, something shifts. The to...

What happens when a parent believes their child can do no wrong? Not sometimes. Not most of the time. But ever. Every missing assignment has an excuse. Every disruption has a justification. Every consequence becomes someone else’s fault. And somehow, the responsibility never lands where it should. Then the emails start coming. The tone shifts. The questions feel less like curiosity and more like a...

What happens when you do everything right—request the day off, attend a professional conference to grow in your subject area, and invest your own time (and money) to become a better teacher—only to find out later that your pay has been docked? You didn’t take the day off to relax. You didn’t call in sick. You went to learn. To improve. To bring back strategies, ideas, and opportunities that would...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

What do you do when a student proudly hands you a baggie full of coins for the class party… but there’s something else inside you never expected to find? At first, it seems like a simple bag of coins. Loose change collected from pockets, couch cushions, maybe even weeks of saving—just so they could have some pizza.  But then you open it. Something mixed in with the coins that doesn’t belong. Somet...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

What do you do when the district cuts social-emotional learning programs… just as your students need them most? Not during a time of calm. Not when everything is going well. But in the middle of heartbreak. In the middle of loss. In the middle of a crisis that no educator, no student, and no community should ever have to face. Because this isn’t theoretical. This is happening while students are st...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

What do you do when you’re told to stay on campus… while a student welding a knife is looking for you? You freeze. Your mind races through a thousand possibilities. Is it a misunderstanding? Is it a rumor? Or is the threat real? The hallway outside suddenly feels different. Every sound feels louder. Every second feels longer. As educators, you’re trained to protect your students. You’re trained to...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

Welcome to the first episode of our special series: Parent Emails . If you’re an educator, you already know that some of the most memorable moments of the school year don’t just happen in the classroom—they show up in your inbox. Parent emails can be thoughtful, confusing, hilarious, and sometimes so surprising you have to read them twice just to make sure you understood correctly. In this series,...

What would you do if you were asked to prepare a full performance for the school board… with only four days’ notice? No long planning period. No weeks to rehearse. Just four days to organize, practice, and somehow create something meaningful enough to represent your students, your program, and your school. In this full-length "re-teach" of Episode 3 "Can He Hold a Banner," one...

✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get to say the things they can’t (but want to) say at PD, staff meetings, or parent conferences. Every week, we share real teacher stories that are funny, shocking, heartbreaking, relatable, and sometimes downright unbelievable. If you’re a current teacher, former teacher, student teacher, or someone who just loves a g...

Have you ever had a student who stayed with you long after they left your classroom? In this episode, we’re talking about something powerful — the impact students make on us . As teachers, we spend so much time thinking about the impressions we leave on our students… but we don’t always stop to consider the reverse. Some students change the way we teach. Some challenge us. Some inspire us. And som...

Have you ever had a student who stayed with you long after they left your classroom? In this episode, we’re talking about something powerful — the impact students make on us . As teachers, we spend so much time thinking about the impressions we leave on our students… but we don’t always stop to consider the reverse. Some students change the way we teach. Some challenge us. Some inspire us. And som...

Every teacher has that moment, the one that reminds you why we do this. Sometimes it doesn’t come during a lesson you spent hours planning. Sometimes… it comes from something as unexpected as Pokémon. In this episode, we share a “Why We Do This” story about a student, a simple connection over Pokémon, and the reminder that relationships are what change lives. Then, in our “Things That Work” segmen...

What do you do when a student wishes harm for you and your unborn child? In this full-length "re-teach" of Episode 2 one teacher shares her what last day in education looked like.  When educators imagine their final day in the classroom, they picture heartfelt goodbyes, warm hugs, and words of appreciation from the students whose lives they’ve touched. It’s supposed to be a moment of ref...

What do you do when you’re left alone in a classroom full of kids before you’ve even officially started the job? Panic? Power through? Question every life choice that led you there? In this full-length "re-teach" of Episode 1, “Maybe I Should Stay,” we go back to the very beginning—the moment where uncertainty, responsibility, and instinct all collide. Thrown into the deep end with no wa...

One student. One year. Zero real consequences. In this episode of Bad Teacher Tales , I read through an actual discipline record and unpack how “nothing happening” keeps behavior going and burns teachers out. If you’ve ever wondered why classrooms feel chaotic or why teachers are exhausted… this one explains a lot. ✨ Welcome to Bad Teacher Tales The storytelling podcast where teachers finally get...