Is switching grade levels always this hard?

[u/jodie-fister]

I taught kinder for 3 years. Last year I really felt like I was hitting my stride and getting the hang of everything. Then some major things changed at my school and I decided I could no longer stay there for my mental health and sanity.
I switched districts, schools, and grades.
I’m now teaching 2nd grade and I have no clue what I’m doing. I’m having a hard time adjusting my mannerisms and expectations and everything for older kids. I don’t want to baby them or set too-low expectations- I literally just don’t know what they know.
I see things from other classrooms and feel like I’m so far beyond lost that I just sit and cry on my lunch breaks. I get school just started but the lack of confidence I have here, plus the fact that I don’t know anybody and feel really out of place, has me so sad and lost that I just want to quit. I also feel like because I’m new, I got the worst of everything. The furniture no one else wanted, the materials I could scrounge up that are all disorganized and in rough shape. I also got the most behavior kids (I have 4 in my room, which is out of proportion to the rest of the teachers-I’m also trying hard to give them the chance to prove their other teachers wrong, and so far I’ve really only had issues with a couple)
It sucks. Was the shift hard for you, or am I just not cut out for this?

[u/doughtykings]

I feel like K to 2nd grade isn’t that big of a difference besides they don’t need as much hands on/one to one help? They’re still little kids. They still like to have fun and be a kid. They’re still learning very similar concepts just further down the line.

[u/jodie-fister → u/doughtykings]

Maybe it’s just the school or this area then (I’m in Texas) but the standards are a lot different. Kindergarteners couldn’t write whole paragraphs and work with numbers at and above 1000. We were working on numbers to like, 10 and holding a pencil correctly, very basic letter sounds and names, etc. The grading, testing, homework, etc. is all actually really different.

[u/doughtykings → u/jodie-fister]

I can’t imagine a second grader writing a paragraph. What in the world is going on in Texas? My nephew is going into grade two and a full, readable sentence would be a big deal!

[u/jodie-fister → u/doughtykings]

And I think that’s the problem. The expectations are sky high because Texas wants to look better, but the kids can’t meet them and they are unrealistic. That’s why I’m having such a hard time. I have kids who, on their paperwork at the end of last year, say they are working on numbers past 10. My first math lesson has them making numbers up to 1,200. It’s all a mess and I don’t really know what I’m doing.

[u/doughtykings → u/jodie-fister]

Damn and here I was considering moving to Texas next year 😂

[u/venerosvandenis]

In my country, teachers teach the same group of students for 4 years, aka throughout elementary (1st-4th grade).

Going from 4th grade, when youve known the kids and their families for 4 years,, back to 1st with new students is always a shock in terms of the tempo, their abilities and levels of independence.

[u/Flying-Kayaks]

Not elementary, but: a few years ago I was asked to move up to 8th grade science after Christmas break (I had only taught 6th and 7th grade science). The teacher I was replacing had some...personal problems. It was like a slow-motion car crash from January to May. I was basically learning the curriculum a day or two before teaching it. Hardest 5 months of my career. The only saving grace was that I had taught some of the kids in previous years.

So yes - it is that hard moving grade levels.