Stop excluding others, it’s just not nice’
From Page 8
• Stop criticising others for trying new things. Best practise change, and you have to be able to ebb and flow with them! You can’t pass judgement on others who choose to have an open mind about new ideas. Of course, you can challenge new ideas, but don’t be closed off to trying them.
• Stop excluding others. It’s just not nice and although it may not be considered bullying, for an example, to buy two out of three teachers soda on your team it is just not nice. And on a wider level ... having groups of people that openly or secretly meet is just rude. What are you doing that is so secretive that others cannot know? Do you really think you are that much better than the rest of us? Because in my opinion, this very approach makes you weak and dependent and it’s not for the good of all! #counter-intuitive I don’t know what y’all talking about at your secret cocktail hours, but I really don’t care so stop going out of your way to make sure I know.
• Stop throwing me under the bus. Seriously, we may not be best friends, but we are in this together.We don’t all have to be exactly the same. We can respect each other and work together without having to tattle and talk negatively about what others are doing. If we are both a minute or two late for duty - you don’t have to tell everyone you were there first.
• Stop telling me what and how to teach. We all went to college and we all earned our places in the classroom! I can sleep at night knowing that I am a professional, and I take my job very seriously. Again – I can sleep at night knowing that what I am doing is right for me and my career. Not to say that you don’t, but I like to lift people up encourage and help others choose to do their jobs. It’s an issue for administration. Not an open issue you should talk about. So I will continue to do my work in dynamic ways and if there is an issue, someone with the authority to do so will inform me to stop.
• Stop talking about other teachers or professionals. If you have a problem with someone, go speak to them privately. Otherwise accept how they are and move on. When you talk trash about others, you are only making yourself seem weak!
• Stop being unwilling to change. If there is one thing that is constant in education, (and in life in general) it is that things change.
If you can’t get with the programme and change with how your professional environment thinks you should, then maybe this is not the profession for you. We are tired of hearing you complain about it and others feel as if we have to be on your side in order to not become the target of your negativity! Enough is enough. We are all here for students, and we all have different viewpoints and beliefs on teaching, learning, and the business side of education. We as professionals need to find a way to get along, respect one another and not to make anybody feel inferior because of our differences.
We should celebrate those differences the same as we do with our students.
To say someone is a bully is a big deal and doing any one or combination of these things surely does not make you a bully; it makes you human. But what I am referring to is those people who do these things in such a way to put others down in an effort to make themselves look better.
People who do these things again and again without any regard or concern for how others around them feel or react.
People who create a hostile work environment by their repeated negative actions. People who should know better because you have hinted through subtle statements, body language, or even a direct statement of “I don’t like it when you do this or that” This is directed at those people that you are afraid to reply to or avoid because of their negativity towards everything.
For me, I have no problem standing up for my friends in person (although online attacks are harder).
This has become easier as I get older, but standing up for myself is a challenge because I ultimately know that nothing good comes of many of these interactions, so I save my energy for things that bring good to the world. I go about my business the best way I can. I make decisions based off what I know as a professional.
I don’t have time for drama, shenanigans or people who are constantly creating or participating in it. I have been through enough in my life to know when to listen and when to realise that people are being self-serving at my expense.
I choose not to associate myself with bullies.
I choose not to associate myself with you and I will continue to keep my interactions to a minimum with you. It is a conscious choice I make, and it’s just not healthy to associate yourself with the crazy, I guess that makes me an easy target as well.
And for the record, I sleep just fine at night. Best regards. Please note: this article was written as a means to just bring light to an issue that is happening in many schools.