Said It Here

Teaching during theme weeks and the day after Halloween

Themed events like Red Ribbon week and the day after Halloween leave students overstimulated and buzzing from sugar. This classroom pandemonium means very little to zero learning actually happens. The chaos leaves teachers exhausted and wishing they had just taken the day off by 8:15am.

Overview
People affected4 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found5 items attempted
Community agreement9 total upvotes

What people tried

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

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    planning fun, low-stress activities like reading horror literature or doing skits
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    treating oneself to coffee or comfort food
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    taking a day off to avoid the chaos
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Accepting that little to no learning will happen
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    Joining in on the festivities by handing out more candy
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

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/Teachers4 people · October 2026

“I had seniors literally buzzing from the sugar and overstimulation by 3rd hour. It was pandemonium! Very little to zero learning happened today.”source ↗

Pretty-Biscotti-5256 · r/Teachers · 6 upvotes

“Nothing can prepare you for the day after Halloween when it’s a school day lol”source ↗

Witty-Cat1996 · r/Teachers · 2 upvotes

“By yesterday at 8:15am, I wished I had taken the day off!”source ↗

FantasticWittyRetort · r/Teachers · 1 upvotes

“Thank god red ribbon week is over. Talk about something they couldn’t remotely care about.”source ↗

JHG722 · r/Teachers · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised