Said It Here

Why am I losing my motivation to teach?

When the vast majority of students require constant reminders just to open a Chromebook, very little learning actually takes place in the classroom. This extreme lack of effort makes educators feel like terrible teachers and causes them to hit a deeply demoralizing wall.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Treating the position purely as a job and detaching emotionally
  2. 2
    Focusing energy solely on the minority of students who show up and want to learn
  3. 3
    Leaving the profession entirely
  4. 4
    giving constant verbal reminders
  5. 5
    using relatable slang to playfully pressure students into complying

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/Teachers3 people · October 2026

“Would an AI know that calling a student “kinda cringe bro” for refusing to start his test with the rest of classmates was exactly what said student needed? Tbh I don’t think so”source ↗

belugiaboi37 · r/Teachers · 6 upvotes

“Students won't do anything without constant reminders to get back on task. Seriously, they won't even open the Chromebook without someone telling them to do it 3-4 times.”source ↗

Citizensnnippss · r/Teachers · 5 upvotes

“I'm at the end of my rope trying to help kids who just don't want to learn, which describes about 75% of my seventh-graders.”source ↗

“I thought I was good at my job, but every day I feel like a terrible teacher because there is so little learning taking place in my classroom.”source ↗

“It is deeply demoralizing to me, and I've hit a wall.”source ↗

clever-hands · r/Teachers

Where this came up

r/Teachersclassroom managementeducationstudent behaviorteacher burnoutteacher mental health

People with this problem also raised