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It's not unusual for student teachers to go in for the new teacher orientation or classroom set-up, IMO. And Meagansmom is not complaining about that. Seems awfully silly for them to expect you to wear the hated jumper for it though. When my daughter did her student teacher and new teacher orientations, dress was summer casual, not business casual.
I think the AP is a jerk BUT unless you get another internship, don't you feel that you have stay there and somehow figure this out? I think it's pretty easy for those of us writing on this forum to say to not put up with this injustice and just walk away, but from what you've said you need this position (or another similar one) to graduate on time. Tell me if I'm wrong about that. I hope any posters reading this thread realize that.
toobusytoday, I agree with you. I thought she was doing all those duties while school was in session. While preparing to start the school year then it is common to help set up classrooms and other rooms as well. I too find the strict dress code during teacher work week or set up week kind of rigid and odd.
megansmom,
Either way, I sincerely wish you luck as this is a tough situation where completing your internship is required before graduating. Like I have stated before, see if it is not too late to possibly doing your internship someplace else. If it is too late and you stay where you are at, you may simply have to trade off dressing comfortable and dealing with what could be a rigid school/system and an unreasonable AP, in exchange for completing your internship and moving forward with your career.
I feel so bad for the OP here. I'm embarrassed just reading about you having to wear an ill fitting jumper and knee socks. I've never heard of such a thing.
If it were me, I would not return. I do think you made a huge error by taking it upon yourself to show up out of dress code, although why you have to wear the uniform before school starts just reeks of a power hungry AP who must know deep down how humiliating it is to make adults wear children's clothing.
For a learning environment that's supposed to be helping the up and coming teachers ease into the world of education they sure seem inflexible. That is their right but I can't think of any fellow educators in my circle who would wear such a garment under any conditions.
There's just something peculiar about their view that somehow wearing this jumper shows that you want to remain as a teacher there. It sounds like some sort of bad hazing thing, like Hell Week for an academic year and if you survive, you're in. No thanks.
Good luck to you. I really hope something else comes up for you.
I would not go back. Before it gets worse, talk to your advisor (great suggestion someone made above) and get another internship. Chalk this one up to 'you should have followed your intuition' and not taken the crazy job in the first place. They're not even paying you, right?
I guess I must be as tone deaf to critics as the assistant principal on this issue. I just don't see what the big deal is about having a student teaching intern wear a variant of the school uniform in a catholic school. My guess is the administration presses the dress code as part of its value system and they want to ensure that incoming student teachers from college dress in line with those expectations.
I know from going to catholic school that uniforms stand for school pride, self discipline and also to relieve the burden on what to wear everyday. All of these purposes can just as easily apply to teaching interns as to the students themselves.
I don't see the AP as some power hungry jerk trying to haze teaching interns. He's upholding his particular school's value system by having the OP wear a specified uniform consistent with his school's identity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cleasach
I feel so bad for the OP here. I'm embarrassed just reading about you having to wear an ill fitting jumper and knee socks. I've never heard of such a thing.
If it were me, I would not return. I do think you made a huge error by taking it upon yourself to show up out of dress code, although why you have to wear the uniform before school starts just reeks of a power hungry AP who must know deep down how humiliating it is to make adults wear children's clothing.
For a learning environment that's supposed to be helping the up and coming teachers ease into the world of education they sure seem inflexible. That is their right but I can't think of any fellow educators in my circle who would wear such a garment under any conditions.
There's just something peculiar about their view that somehow wearing this jumper shows that you want to remain as a teacher there. It sounds like some sort of bad hazing thing, like Hell Week for an academic year and if you survive, you're in. No thanks.
Good luck to you. I really hope something else comes up for you.
I consider a teaching intern closer to a function of a teacher than a student in this setting.
Therefore, I consider appropriate attire for a teaching intern what the school wants the teachers to wear or some sort of adult uniform attire (school polo with a khaki skirt for instance).
Do you really want a 40 year old woman wearing a jumper and knee socks? Ugh. A lot of women go into teaching after their kids get older - its not just 21 year old girls showing up to student teach.
I went to uniform schools and I GET IT. Really I do. I liked wearing a uniform. I prefer uniforms and wish my kids still went to a uniform school. I thought it was nice when the teachers at my kids' schools wore the school polo (the version designed for adults). I would think it very odd if a teacher showed up in a plaid jumper or even the middle school kilt.
I consider a teaching intern closer to a function of a teacher than a student in this setting.
Therefore, I consider appropriate attire for a teaching intern what the school wants the teachers to wear or some sort of adult uniform attire (school polo with a khaki skirt for instance).
Do you really want a 40 year old woman wearing a jumper and knee socks? Ugh. A lot of women go into teaching after their kids get older - its not just 21 year old girls showing up to student teach.
I went to uniform schools and I GET IT. Really I do. I liked wearing a uniform. I prefer uniforms and wish my kids still went to a uniform school. I thought it was nice when the teachers at my kids' schools wore the school polo (the version designed for adults). I would think it very odd if a teacher showed up in a plaid jumper or even the middle school kilt.
Thanks for saying this Lisdol. I am student teaching this semester at age 43 and I would look quite ridiculous in a jumper.
Thanks for saying this Lisdol. I am student teaching this semester at age 43 and I would look quite ridiculous in a jumper.
I am 39 and I would feel extremely uncomfortable in a jumper.
And I am considering studying an allied health profession or nursing and may have to wear the ugly student smocks and possibly all white polyester/cotton uniform pants and shirts, and while its not a uniform I would choose, I won't have a problem with it.
There is no valid reason for someone charged with instructing to be required to wear student uniforms, particularly juvenile student uniforms. Yes, a private institution has the right to require their employees to show up in whatever attire they choose. Doesn't make it any less ridiculous. I would imagine that an unreasonable dress code for student teachers is only the tip of the iceberg, and that more unreasonable demands are probably in the OP's future...the handwriting appears to be on the wall.
If it's definitely required of you to student teach for an entire academic year (versus the more typical one semester), I'd lobby hard with your academic advisor to at the very least obtain another post at another school for your second term. It may be too late to get out of the first semester at this school, but there should be time to line up another placement for the second semester elsewhere. I worry that you'll not be getting an incredibly useful training at a school so focused on questionable requirements, especially if it's to the exclusion of doing actual educational training.
It's not unusual for student teachers to go in for the new teacher orientation or classroom set-up, IMO. And Meagansmom is not complaining about that. Seems awfully silly for them to expect you to wear the hated jumper for it though. When my daughter did her student teacher and new teacher orientations, dress was summer casual, not business casual.
I think the AP is a jerk BUT unless you get another internship, don't you feel that you have stay there and somehow figure this out? I think it's pretty easy for those of us writing on this forum to say to not put up with this injustice and just walk away, but from what you've said you need this position (or another similar one) to graduate on time. Tell me if I'm wrong about that. I hope any posters reading this thread realize that.
I agree. It's dungerees for us when it's time for classroom set up. (Wednesday for me ).
Unfortunately, I also agree that she really has no choice if she doesn't have another internship. I do think this is unfair and they are setting her up for the students to not respect her by treating her like she's one of them instead of a person of authority.
As I said in another post, to have her wear a variant on the teacher's uniform would be one thing. To have her wear a variant on the student's uniform is another. It really is an insult but it may not be worth it to tick them off.
Unless this is a one semester internship and she'd have another shot at one in January. She could always sub until then and make some money then intern in January and still be done in time for spring recruiting. If it's a year long internship, she's stuck. She'd need one in hand now to walk away.
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