I
have been observing an elementary music teacher who seems to have a bit of an
ego. His strong personality mostly surfaces when interacting with other
teachers, with the exception of his principal. When he is teaching,
however, he is a completely different person. He is funny, and so in tune with
what his kids need to learn. My respect level remains so high due to
the fact that he is awesome when he is with his students.
I
bring this up because, I believe, there will be many times that we come face to face with a
colleague with whom we may have a personality conflict. Teaching requires
us to work in an environment with many different people and many different
personality-types. Yet, we are all
expected to “pull together” and “work pleasantly together” for the sake of our
students.
My
question is this:
This is a great question, so many times we focus on the students that we tend to forget that we also need to be happy. When it comes to how to apporach this situation the truth is not everyone you meet will have a personality that we can get along with. However, if this teacher is as great as you say and other teachers also have been able to notice how he treats his students, passive is the way to go. At the end of the day I'm pretty sure he has a guard up for a reason. Sometimes it takes being the bigger person and trying to get to know the person outside of just a colleague.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to other aspects of our lives, we meet people who are different from ourselves and who share different opinions. In a school environment and having a colleague similar to this I think the best thing to do is keep to your own opinions and beliefs the way you do without becoming a show off or having an ego. As teachers our main goal is to find successful ways to educate our students, not become teachers who try to be better than other teachers and put them down. I think the best way to work with someone as this on a daily basis is try to find certain beliefs or teaching methods that you both agree on and use this as way to have some sort of a professional relationship.
ReplyDeleteMarina
This is definitely an interesting issue. I agree that if he is doing his job and educating the students well and they like him and respect him then that is all that matters. Even though he/she may get under your skin at times and you may not like him/her on a personal level, I think it's best just to brush it under the rug and try and tolerate the times you need to spend together. If it becomes more of an issue such as interfering with you being able to do your job, then that might be something you would want to bring up to Administration. If it is just a pour personality, I guess we'll just have to suck it up.
ReplyDeleteI think as we mentioned in class, that these types of issues occur anywhere, so we must learn how to deal with it. I think like others said, the children come first. The teacher does well with them so that is most important. It would be a good idea to see what teaching strategies you and the teacher do agree on. Communication is very important, clear communication could help with certain issues that one could be having.
ReplyDeleteI think that no matter where you go you are going to come across people that we may not necessarily like and personalities clash. From my experience from working with strong minded people, I keep my opinions to myself. I would just let them think and talk the way they want because at the end of the day, it is not going to effect my life. I will try to communicate as best I could with that coworker, but if it is impossible, to avoid awkwardness, I would ask advice from someone else. As we advance in life, we will meet these people.. Communication is important, people should want to work together and help one another.
ReplyDelete