Teachers, how do YOU handle 30 students by yourself?

Obviously, there's a certain student:teacher ratio that's supposed to come into play here, but not all places get it right. I wanted to be a teacher SO bad for a while. I took a job as an after-school daycare teacher around Halloween 2017. I only lasted a month. The kids were between 5-11 years old. I was hired as the "Assistant Teacher", but the "Lead Teacher" spent most of her time in a different classroom so I had to take on roughly 30 kids a day, by myself, having had no training prior to this. Up until that point, the most kids I supervised was 2. The whole experience ruined any desire I had to be a teacher and I've never gotten over that. How do you typically handle that many students by yourself? Even just as a daycare teacher. Laurie, I respectfully disagree. I really wanted to be a teacher. When they called me and told me I got the job, despite having no credentials or formal training, I was in tears from being so ecstatic. It was a Christian-based program, but these kids didn't care to know about God. I had my fair share of GOOD kids, but the bad kids influenced them to not listen. The majority of them would not listen, no matter what I said or did. Sadly, 3 of the worst students were the children of the daycare directors. One time, the daughter of one of the daycare directors sat there and poured milk all over the floor because she was upset at another student. I also had to be in charge of 4 out of 5 NIGHTMARE siblings. 2 of them got into an actual fist fight, on my watch and I had to break that up so I wasn't able to worry about what any other student was doing. It was awful. They even made me cry once or twice and eventually, I left at the end of my shift and never came back. Most of these kids had divorced parents or parents who were never married, parents who were on drugs or in and out of jail, kids who weren't allowed to see one of their parents, etc. All of these kids needed more help and attention than I could give them...not to mention, I realized months later that they only wanted their real teacher back. They were so happy once they got her back. The kids never wanted to give me a chance. 2 of those siblings lied to a director and said I cursed in front of them, which was a lie. She came to me and asked me if I cursed in front of them and I said I don't even curse outside of work, let alone at work.
Answers

Stylem

Being a teacher is one thing; being a teacher in a compulsory government indoctrination factory is another thing entirely. I wouldn’t have anything to do with the official brainwashing concentration camps. They are an abuse of power.

Laurie

You weren't a teacher. You were a babysitter. Just because they CALL the position a "teacher" doesn't make it so. In an actual classroom setting, there are certain expectations for behavior that (most) children expect and honor. Therefore, as a teacher, you need to reinforce those expectations, and "handle" the exceptions. Furthermore -- you said it yourself -- you had no training. Classroom teachers train for a long time to do their job, including at least one term of student teaching. If you're unsure whether you want to pay for a college degree, take a year off and get a job as a classroom assistant. (That's what I did-- in an inner-city school that was so dangerous TEACHERS were not allowed to walk through the hallways alone... and I decided I NEVER wanted to be a teacher!). There are many factors that affect teaching: the type of school (private? public? inner-city/low-income? affluent? religious?), the philosophy of the administration (performance-driven? development-driven? financially-driven?), the law (public v private schools), and the age of the students (grade school? junior high? high school? college?). I taught a class of 50 students - at the college level. Some of them were VERY disrespectful, but ultimately they were all there by choice, and they wanted a good grade in the class, so most of them behaved and worked hard. So, you have to know your environment, and select the environment that best fits with your personality and experience. Your experience was ruined because YOU had unrealistic expectations. Before you try it again, make sure you have observed the actual environment, at least twice, BEFORE you accept the job, so that your expectations are realistic. Good luck.