What’s up, everybody! 🍎 Welcome to our first-ever LIVE episode of The Teacher’s Lounge — the comedy-meets-classroom podcast where educators vent, laugh, and maybe overshare a little too much. Stick with us as we push through these stages and grow together as a community. Going Live every Thursday at 7PM. This week, we kick off with eye contact etiquette at the gym, throw textbook companies into detention, debate who deserves a Gold Star, and find out that Santa Claus himself follows our show (no joke — he’s got 435K followers, y’all 🎅). We also get real about burnout, teaching tips, and classroom chaos, plus the truth about cursive, iPads, and why middle schoolers are basically tiny hurricanes with Wi-Fi. 🔥 Sponsored by absolutely no one… yet. But if Hooked on Phonics wants to slide through with “The Science of Reading” money, we’ll act like we just discovered vowels. 00:00 – Intro & welcome back 01:21 – Going LIVE for the first time 02:00 – Audience heckling & boosting the algorithm 😂 02:40 – Who’s getting detention this week? 03:00 – Textbook companies and “The Science of Reading” scam 04:09 – “Until the behavior stops!” – lifelong detention 07:55 – iPad kids and the death of eye contact 08:39 – “I just need some attention!” – uncle problems 10:37 – Comment sections are savage comedy gold 11:17 – Gold Star time 🌟 12:39 – Teachers who bring joy! Shoutouts! 15:24 – The Method Santa with 435K followers 16:33 – Why Santa is basically a teacher 19:12 – Weekly updates – upcoming shows & pancake parties 23:51 – Balancing teaching, comedy, and chaos 27:13 – High school vs middle school: which is worse? 31:49 – “Hit by a school bus every day” – teacher exhaustion 36:38 – Writing vs typing – what kids lose when they stop writing 39:04 – Teaching tips for first-year educators 44:55 – “90% of communication is nonverbal” – mic drop #teachercomedy #educatorlife #teacherhumor #livepodcast #educationcomedy If you laughed, nodded, or yelled “same!” at any point — hit that LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and SHARE button like it’s your last brain cell before parent-teacher conferences. 💥 Drop your Detention & Gold Star nominations in the comments below — who deserves a call-out this week?