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We had a principal a few years ago who actually banned teachers from going into each others' rooms during their planning periods. He was afraid we were conspiring against him.
Why are they so afraid of teachers talking to each other? You have to wonder.
I am a teacher of 20 years, and a strong union supporter, and a card-carrying Democrat.
But Kasich is right, in theory. To quote my education methods professor to us teachers-to-be: "Stay out of the teachers lounge: it's a den of iniquity."
My prof was absolutely, for the most part, correct. At least in my experience. Lots of sniping and gossiping and overall negativity, about the school and about individual students (some of them special ed where confidential stuff was illegally discussed) and select staff.
Make an "appearance" a couple of times a month, but otherwise eat in your classroom, and hang out with a couple of the outstanding teachers who ALSO stay out of the teachers lounges. I've seen horrible transformations of young teachers: fresh-faced idealistic souls who now resemble (in appearance and values) the bitter and angry lounge lizards who "mentored" them negatively, day in and day out, for a school year or two or twenty.
It isn't all the teachers lounge's fault, but it definitely plays a part. And sets a tone. Yuck.
Staying out of there is the best advice I ever received. I'm passing it on.
But I'm still NOT voting for Kasich.
We had a principal a few years ago who actually banned teachers from going into each others' rooms during their planning periods. He was afraid we were conspiring against him.
That would be funny if it weren't for real. It's more like something you'd see on the Simpsons.
I am a teacher of 20 years, and a strong union supporter, and a card-carrying Democrat.
But Kasich is right, in theory. To quote my education methods professor to us teachers-to-be: "Stay out of the teachers lounge: it's a den of iniquity."
My prof was absolutely, for the most part, correct. At least in my experience. Lots of sniping and gossiping and overall negativity, about the school and about individual students (some of them special ed where confidential stuff was illegally discussed) and select staff.
Make an "appearance" a couple of times a month, but otherwise eat in your classroom, and hang out with a couple of the outstanding teachers who ALSO stay out of the teachers lounges. I've seen horrible transformations of young teachers: fresh-faced idealistic souls who now resemble (in appearance and values) the bitter and angry lounge lizards who "mentored" them negatively, day in and day out, for a school year or two or twenty.
It isn't all the teachers lounge's fault, but it definitely plays a part. And sets a tone. Yuck.
Staying out of there is the best advice I ever received. I'm passing it on.
But I'm still NOT voting for Kasich.
You're right that teachers' lounges can be a place where there is a lot of bitter gossip, but that's not always the case. In some schools that's the exception. I was told to make sure to arrive part way through the lunch hour so as to not accidentally sit in the spot a senior teacher always sits in to learn what seats to always leave free. Unfortunately, there's some truth to that. I worked in the private sector before changing to education and those lounges tended to be places of a lot of awful gossip as well. I think lounges become infected with an awful attitude because there is something wrong with the workplace.
It's not just the lounge that may change a new teacher. Being a new teacher is a rude awakening to the demands of the profession. Teacher credentialing programs do not prepare teachers for the burnout experienced those first few years, with occasional exceptions. If anything, folks who want to get rid of the teachers' unions probably secretly approve of the teachers' lounges you described. It's that kind of attitude that keep teachers from becoming really organized. While we still have strong unions, or associations as they're typically called, their organization does not rely on the lounge, even if some coordination is done there. Were teachers to become really organized, we'd be very formidable. As it is, we pay our dues financially and come out of the woodwork on occasion to beat back the worst of the attacks against us.
We had a principal a few years ago who actually banned teachers from going into each others' rooms during their planning periods. He was afraid we were conspiring against him.
I've definitely worked in settings where two teachers conversing was seen as potential mutiny/conspiring. If, as an administrator, this is the first thing that crosses your mind when you see two subordinates conversing, that's a pretty good indication that your leadership is **** poor and so is morale.
I am a teacher of 20 years, and a strong union supporter, and a card-carrying Democrat.
But Kasich is right, in theory. To quote my education methods professor to us teachers-to-be: "Stay out of the teachers lounge: it's a den of iniquity."
My prof was absolutely, for the most part, correct. At least in my experience. Lots of sniping and gossiping and overall negativity, about the school and about individual students (some of them special ed where confidential stuff was illegally discussed) and select staff.
Make an "appearance" a couple of times a month, but otherwise eat in your classroom, and hang out with a couple of the outstanding teachers who ALSO stay out of the teachers lounges. I've seen horrible transformations of young teachers: fresh-faced idealistic souls who now resemble (in appearance and values) the bitter and angry lounge lizards who "mentored" them negatively, day in and day out, for a school year or two or twenty.
It isn't all the teachers lounge's fault, but it definitely plays a part. And sets a tone. Yuck.
Staying out of there is the best advice I ever received. I'm passing it on.
But I'm still NOT voting for Kasich.
Teacher, from a family of teachers, pro-union, liberal, non-Kasich fan, etc., here, too.
And the most practical advice I ever got in regard to teaching/working in schools in general was, without a doubt," "Stay out of the teacher's lounge." There is cattiness, inappropriate/unethical conversation about students, trash talk about parents, trash talk about other professionals in the building, etc. It's not a place I found remotely appealing.
Hilarious. I don't know why they call it a lounge. Teachers don't lounge. It's a lunch room, with a microwave, like most people have if they work all day in a building that they can't leave. Where would he like us to eat lunch, or would he abolish that too?
Teacher, from a family of teachers, pro-union, liberal, non-Kasich fan, etc., here, too.
And the most practical advice I ever got in regard to teaching/working in schools in general was, without a doubt," "Stay out of the teacher's lounge." There is cattiness, inappropriate/unethical conversation about students, trash talk about parents, trash talk about other professionals in the building, etc. It's not a place I found remotely appealing.
I've heard that advice too, but that wasn't true of our lounge. It was like any other workplace lounge, and as there was only 20 minutes to eat there wasn't time for a lot of talk. People were more likely to have impromptu meetings about instruction than they were to trash talk anyone. And anyway, it wasn't private enough to trash talk. We did that after school, behind a closed and locked classroom door.
I've heard that advice too, but that wasn't true of our lounge. It was like any other workplace lounge, and as there was only 20 minutes to eat there wasn't time for a lot of talk. People were more likely to have impromptu meetings about instruction than they were to trash talk anyone. And anyway, it wasn't private enough to trash talk. We did that after school, behind a closed and locked classroom door.
And in many schools, the teachers' supervisors and administrators ate lunch alongside the teachers in that lounge as that was the only place with a refrigerator, microwave, sink, or coffeemaker.
I student taught with a cooperating teacher whose husband was on the school board, and she and a few others ate lunch in the basketball coach's office, because she got so sick of having to sit through lunch listening to people ****talk her husband.
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