Teacher Series: The teacher who spoke very rudely to my colleague!!

The teacher who spoke very rudely to my colleague!!




Once, many years ago, at an international school, my colleague had to supervise students at a particular venue. Later on, she was told by a teacher who was also an HOD, that she cannot have the activity there and was directed to another venue. The next day, I was talking to this HOD and another colleague about something in the corridor and my colleague happened to pass by. She approached him to tell him something and he said "I dont have time, I dont want to talk to you" and walked away. My colleague was very disturbed. She said that he had no right to speak to her that way.


The next day, my colleague came to see me. She said that she went to the Head of School and complained to him about what happened. She said that she found this behaviour unacceptable. He told her that he would speak to the Head of Department and get him to apologise to her. She said that soon after, the HOD came and spoke to her. He apologised to her saying that he did not mean to upset her and that he was sorry if he was rude. My colleague was thankful with the way things turned out.


I appreciate the Head of school who spoke to the HOD and asked him to apologise! I am glad he had my colleagues back! When I heard about what the leader did, I promised myself that I would stand up for my teachers when someone in a position of power treats them badly.


I remember another incident that happened years ago in an international school. The school had expatriate and local teachers. Initially both were allowed to park taxis near the school gate in the morning. Then one day, two local teachers who came together in a taxi, were asked by the school security to stop much behind, at the start of the street instead of at the school gate while the taxi with the expat teachers were allowed to park near the gate. Both local teachers were upset at this and one of them wrote a mail to teachers and the Head of School about what happened and asked in the mail if the security could be informed to either allow all teachers to stop at the gate or not allow anyone.


The Head of School called the local teacher for a meeting. He angrily told her that if she had an issue, she should write to him or report it and not send an email to the whole school. He said that she was spreading negativity and was completely unaware of email etiquette. Then the Head sent an email to everyone about school rules and etiquettes. The leader who both she and I reported to, read the mail. He immediately went to her room. He asked her if she was okay. He sat with her when she cried. She was worried that the whole school was going to talk about this and he replied that people had short memories. By the time he left the teacher's room, she was feeling much better. Without getting into what was acceptable or unacceptable, he made sure he was by her side when she was really hurting. Maybe they had this conversation later, but at that time, he was there for her when she needed someone.


When I heard about what the leader did, I promised myself that this is the leader I would be, one who understands your problems and one who is there for you when you need it.


#relationships,#new teachers,#behaviour,#school,#learning,#teacher-student relationships, #myp, #teaching,#students,#learning support,#ib,#LGBTQ, #motivation, #intercultural awareness













Popular posts from this blog

Child Series - Student safety

Image
I remember being scared of many of my teachers. They would hit students. I remember that our craft teacher was extremely strict. If we misbehaved or were caught talking or did anything to upset her, she would take a wooden ruler, ask us to put out our hand, close our fists to and make our knuckles visible, which she would hit our knuckles with the ruler, so we were very scared of her. I also remember an English teacher who would remove the pants of boys and make them parade through the school in case of any mis-behaviour. I remember the boys in my class screaming and crying and begging the teacher not to remove their pants. This is a problem at so many levels. First, you are shaming the child and humiliating him. Second, you are sexualising the problem.Third, you are scarring the children emotionally and traumatising them for years to come. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which has come into force with effect from 1 April 2010, prohibits 'phy...
Read more

Child series - Five articles

Image
     Child series - Five articles  I was perhaps in the sixth grade. We had a teacher - a craft teacher.  Craft period was when we would make products out of paper, cardboard or other material.   The culmination activity at the end of the year was creation of any five three-dimensional articles. Now the teacher told students that if they bought a plastic doll from her, some velvet material and some other accessories like sequins, she would help them make a dress for the doll from the velvet cloth and the doll in the velvet dress could be one of the articles. As this is so long ago, I cant exactly remember if students had to buy the doll from the teacher for a fee or if the students had to buy the doll and the velvet cloth themselves from a shop and the teacher would help them stitch the velvet dress for a fee, but a fee was involved. Craft was not something I was good at, but I could not dream of asking my parents for money for the doll.  Money was spe...
Read more

Child Series - Importance of Consent

Image
Child Series - Importance of Consent “Love Our Children Day” is celebrated in USA on the first Saturday of April, focusing on raising awareness about child abuse and promoting loving, respectful relationships with children. As this is the month of April, this post is to raise awareness about child abuse, honor all children, encourage the development of loving and respectful relationships with children and raise awareness of the importance of consent. My cousin sister and I (we lived together in a joint family) were a year apart and walked to school. We had to reach school by 7.15 am. It was a ten minute walk. Seven minutes walk to the main gate from our house in a housing colony and then 2 minutes to cross the main road and a minute to reach the school that was diagonally across. The last five minutes of walking in the colony to the main gate was walking in a lane with a compound wall on both sides - no buildings or houses. At that time in the morning, the lane was usually deserted. Wh...
Read more