There comes a time in every educator’s career where his/ her judgement, decisions, and actions will be scrutinized by someone. It could be a co-worker, and administrator, or even a parent that disagrees with something you have done or said in your classroom. We, as teachers, know that we are not perfect. We make mistakes. We get tired. We get cranky. Some days our students get on our nerves. We lose our cool, we vent to our co-workers, and then we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and take another crack at doing what we do best: educating a room full of children that come from different socio-economic, ethnic, religious, and educational backgrounds. We deal with a variety of behavioural issues and learning disabilities each and every day. Yes, that is what we have signed up to do and we possess the educational background and experience which make us capable to do it. We are the professionals inside of our classrooms. We are the captains of our ships!
The problem arrises when one of those co-workers, administrators, or parents turns toxic against us. These people begin to turn on you once you feel you have done something unjust to them or their children. They all tend to work in the same way. They like to talk behind your back, start telephone chains of negativity, write demanding emails looking for explanations as to why you instituted a certain discipline technique, and even spread vicious rumours about you to other co-workers or parents. Once that happens, you can pretty much guarantee that your days in your classroom will be hell – and your evenings will be spent over thinking, over analyzing, and sometimes even dreading returning to work the next day. It can seem like a lonely world to any educator who is being targeted for “x” reason.
This whole issue makes me bitter.
And then I came across this photo on my Facebook account and it changed my perspective of the whole issue. These truly are words every educator should hear.
Mind blown!
If only I could share this with the millions of educators around the world who have had to deal with obnoxious, toxic co-workers, administrators, or parents who deem that the way you handle a class of 21+ multi-level learners is not acceptable. These are the perfect words for any educator who has been belittled or not respected by someone who hasn’t spent any time in your classroom. These are the perfect words for those who are beginning to hate their jobs and leave the profession because of people outside of the system who think they know more about how to teach and deal with a group of students than a trained, professional teacher does.
These words are for any educator who feels like he or she is going through this alone.
Because you are not.
Check out this quick, informative video about toxic and positive people. See which category you fall into. We all can improve in some areas and this is a great place to start.
Let’s bring awareness to this issue and let everyone know that toxic behaviour towards teachers is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Please share this post with your fellow teachers/ educators. You never know who might be feeling or experiencing the negative effects of a toxic situation.
Have a great day!
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