Reflection #11: Staff

 

        If you were preparing to go into the military, many old vets would tell you to stay on the good side of the mess sergeant and the motor pool non-coms. They would quickly let you know that a good deal of the real power resides there...(and with personnel clerks). Make no mistake about it, this is equally true in the teaching profession; you need every bit of good will you can get.

        People like the principal's secretary, the duplicating clerk, the textbook clerk, your classroom custodian, and all of the other support staff can make your job a great deal easier or into a living hell. Actually, all you really need to remember is that all of us are together in the process of serving students.  All of the classified staff are colleagues.  They may not have degrees; they may have a different way of looking at the world, but in the school, all of us work together for the kids.  Carrying that attitude with you will gain sincere cooperation for you.  Teachers, even the best, from a classified viewpoint, are forever screwing up...submitting an important notice for the bulletin after the deadline, needing a cashbox from the finance office after it is technically closed, needing this or that ; those needs must be met by a classified employee who, depending on your attitude, may or may not go an extra mile to help you. Also understand that what goes around comes around, and your good manners and sincere concern for the remainder of the staff will not only make life more pleasant but your working conditions much more efficient.  (Veteran  actors in the theatre know that they had better be pleasant to the costumer or they might go on stage with pins in their crotches. Do you get the analogy?)
        Sometimes the real power resides in another place than you would have guessed. Most experienced teachers have seen new teachers fall into dreadful quagmires, wagging their puppy dog tails in friendliness all the way into the sandy bubbles.  There is no implicit suggestion that you need toady to anyone or to be obsequious in any way; just be a bit cautious with faculty at your new school. Sit back and be friendly, but be watchful until you know where the possible quicksand is. Just maintain three weeks or so of gentle reserve. Such a policy  can go a long way toward building successful, long-term relationships. Don’t be frightened; just stay alert and be a little reticent until you are completely familiar with the psychological terrain of your working environment.
        While you are being quiet and observant, try to find a person in your department that seems to know the ins and outs.  Every new teacher needs, at the very least, a buddy; a mentor is even better.  If your school has on-site mentors, seek them out and find out the parameters of their assignment.  Chances are they will go out of their way to be helpful to any new minnow in the tank.  Don't be afraid to ask...Ask about everything you don't understand.  Most teachers are born rescuers.  Ask any of us which way is north and we'll tell you how to build a compass.  That's why we are in the profession, for the most part.  Take advantage of that fact.  Once you know enough to trust someone, give that individual’s ego a boost by giving him some ownership in your career.
        Experienced folks really can help you and save you from grief. They know all the survival questions like rules governing the use of video; policies about leaving campus during the day; who to contact for some special favor or need. The list goes on endlessly, and you'll feel so much better than if you have to stumble around pretending you already know it all.

          Now it is time to talk about your relationship to other neophytes on your campus.  Back in the olden times, we would see a crop of  8 to 12 new teachers come on staff in a given September.  By June, a number of them had resolved to move on, sometimes at the polite suggestion of others; sometimes of their own volition. What happened? Sometimes, the new arrivals banded together in their own misery.  They would eat and huddle solely with other new ones.  They would be so afraid that someone else might discover their vulnerability that they would shut themselves off from all sources of help.

        Huddling exclusively with other new ones is self-defeating.  You reinforce one another’s neuroses; you can't find solutions except in a hit-or-miss fashion, and you run the risk of excluding yourself from all the contacts that can be truly helpful. Others who have come from 2 or 3 years of experience elsewhere may sometimes be resolved to be unhappy in their situations.  Believe me, everybody knows that no educational institution is anywhere nearly perfect, but be resolved not to offer too much gratuitous advice about "how they did it back home."  At least have the grace to pick and choose your time for this type of contribution.

 

Caveat:       A final word of caution about these related matters. If you are taking a position far from you home, be aware that there is bound to be a cultural clash of some sort.  The place you go to teach may not have the cosmopolitan atmosphere of your college community.  Your student clientele may seem positively "backwoods" when compared to the incomparable clientele of your memory's classmates. There may be all sorts of differences. I can’t say it strongly enough: Do not offer gratuitous comments on local custom.  It is not only bad manners, it positively stands in the way of good relationships.  If you are truly sophisticated enough, try to keep your mind open while you keep your mouth shut.  Maybe there is something you can learn in that place.  Maybe you can teach the kids better if you have not relegated them and their culture to some intellectual garbage heap.  If you truly don't like your place, you can always move on, but meanwhile try to improve each "shining hour" with gaining what understanding of people you can.

                                         

                                                 ***************

 

        What follows is a brief field guide to some lounge inhabitants.  Use this to help you to identify these specimens and catalogue them. Every school has certain readily identifiable "types".  Enjoy them for their good traits, but do not spend so much time with them that others identify you with them.

        For example, every campus has the self-styled cynic. On Monday morning he can already tell you how many minutes until his last class lets out on Friday. He very carefully hides his pedagogical wounds behind a blase surface. Even if what you see is a facade for a very fine veteran teacher, it is easy for a neophyte to be infected with the malaise that represents.  Enjoy being with these folks (they frequently are the faculty-lounge wits) but don't get infected by their attitude.

        There is another truly burned-out type who, perhaps, never did enjoy teaching, but certainly at this point, is staying in the profession for reasons other than finding joy in it.  Spending too much time with such folks can bring you down as well.  You might go into the cafeteria or the lounge feeling pretty decent and leave wondering why you bother with those ungrateful little snots.

        That's not a good or healthy way to live your school life. Enjoy these folks occasionally, but don't "hang out" there.  If that is the lunch-room crowd, go there once a week or so, and then make other plans for another day.  Keep a high visibility, but don't swamp yourself in negativity. You'll run a lot less risk of burn-out if you stay relatively up-beat and remember why you chose this profession in the first place.  Hanging out with cynics and downers will burn you out before your time.