IAmA First Year Teacher at an Underfunded Urban High School. AMA, but be warned: I have had a BAD day.

This is my first salaried job as I graduated college Spring of 2009. I'm not doing Teach for America; I just happened to get accepted for a teaching position the week before classes began this fall. Since then I have been chronically sleep-deprived, stress-eating, and have uttered or thought the phrase "I hate my life" more times than I ever thought someone could in two months. To be fair, I've also met some wonderful students who fill me with hope. But to be unfair again, I've also had students removed from my classroom in handcuffs.

Have at it.

edit for no good reason: I just wanted to add that, not only have I broken down and cried (once at my class, and once after a meeting with the principal), I have also been told by an incredible number of people (not that I know that many, but at least five or six) that they cried EVERY DAY after school their first year. Some also took up drinking every day. Even with experience in a similar school, I really had no idea how much a teaching job really entails, and how much it wears on you. No wonder the only people with more than a few years of experience are bitter and hateful.