Resent being spoken to like a kid sometimes

[Everybodyslookingforsomething]

I'm in my early 30s, temporarily working in a language school. I was teaching 2 children yesterday and they had a breaktime in the classroom.
They were sat eating their snacks and I decided to have a look at my phone.
The school director walked past at this point, burst in the room and said to me, "I do not want to see any phones."

I said it was our breaktime.
Then he started asking me suspiciously what they were actually doing, are they learning English, etc.
I told him and then he went.
He could have asked me politely to put it away? There's no rule either that says teachers can't use their phone at breaktimes, he could have first asked if it was the break.
Just feel that if I were older or male he'd not tell me off like a child

It was his tone really, not even a good morning, how are you, etc
Just bursting in to 'tell me off' without even asking whether it was break

You can't use your personal phone around children you are in charge of at work in a school. You're plenty old enough to know and understand why.

Either you are supervising them, and working, or on a break of your own in a space away from them.

That's patronising and not quite true. I was sitting away from them and I can use my phone discreetly, it's also my break. I wasn't taking photos of them or involving them in any way

I agree but I don’t think it would have made any difference if you were older or male. I think YABU for thinking that.

Was it your break or theirs?

Are you the same person who works at a language school who was getting annoyed the other day because people are allowed to come into the room when you're eating lunch and there is no entirely private area provided for you and you alone to eat?

You brought up your age. You think if you were older than early thirties, you'd be spoken to differently. I think early thirties gives you plenty of life experience as an adult in a workplace. If anything, I might expect a 22 year-old NQT straight from university to need telling about mobile phone use and professionalism, but not someone ten years older!

I didn't accuse you of taking photos of them, but they you're open to this from them, their parents or other staff.

The school director's words seem clear and to the point and I'd expect nothing less if a teacher thought it appropriate to use a personal device in the vicinity of the children, as I've never come across a school where what you were doing (whether you're discreet / the children are having a snack / whatever) would be deemed acceptable.

It’s not really your break time though, he has a point that if you are still supervising children you shouldn’t be on your phone.

Is there a school mobile phone use policy - or just a staff rule - which says staff shouldn't have their phones out in front of children?

Are these teens from abroad or what?