As staff members do you try to avoid discussing staff room drama near trainees?

[fluffyslipper1]

As a general I'm just wondering. As staff do you guys have to think twice before you talk about staff around trainees? Just wondering because sometimes I feel bad being around the room when I imagine they just are stressed if there's people in the team not pulling their weight.

I think there's been a couple times where they've just realised I'm there and the convo just drifts into something else

@cantkeepawayforever
Our staffroom ( very large secondary) is open, as are the staffrooms at all the other secondaries in our town.
We have user number limits but it is most definitely open.

I think Loshad makes some really good points at 13:21:48 in honesty.

I'm no longer in schools, but I am still in touch with enough teachers to know teaching is really, really rubbish this year. People are at breaking point. Two people not wanting to include someone they don't know very well in a personal conversation that might have been about anything seems pretty reasonable to me.

Sometimes, when you are on a placement, as a few people have said, you have to accept it might not be the school for you, and you just have to put your head down and get on with it.

Going back 35 years, I still remember my fellow students having wildly different experiences on their teaching pracs, and what defined them was the way they dealt with those things.
For example, I was asked to apply for a job at the school I did my final TP at, the fellow student I was assigned to be with didn't fit in at all. Same school, two different responses to the challenges we found there.
In all the years since, there have been LOADS of students, and attitude is what sorts out the ones that are going to make great teachers, from the ones that aren't. Skills and techniques can be taught, but there has to be a certain 'je ne sais qois' in the student to begin with. A lot of that is realising everything happening in the school isn't about you, as the student, and that teachers have a lot going on, and sometimes need to have a rant or a cry or a little bit of time alone or however they deal with some of the stuff they might be dealing with.

Your repeated threads about feeling left out in this placement incline me to agree with @Loshad

It is a wonder that schools are managing to host trainees at all - you really need to cut your colleagues some slack and recognise that whatever behaviours you are witnessing/experiencing are likely the result of a highly stressed staff force in an extremely unusual situation. It is just a placement - it'll be done soon and you can find yourself a school that suits your personality and expectations.

I would agree with just getting your head down and enjoying the children that you teach and figuring out what positives you are gaining from the placement.

I agree with Loshad too,and i always go out of my way to include trainees. Everyone is bloody knackered at the minute, and as a trainee you're not really getting the whole juggling a million balls experience that the staff have. Its time intensive mentoring trainees and staff don't get any money or extra time in my experience for it. So please don't think its personal, and its a totally different experience having your own job.

@winewolfhowls

I agree with Loshad too,and i always go out of my way to include trainees. Everyone is bloody knackered at the minute, and as a trainee you're not really getting the whole juggling a million balls experience that the staff have. Its time intensive mentoring trainees and staff don't get any money or extra time in my experience for it. So please don't think its personal, and its a totally different experience having your own job.

That's really good advice. I do agree though. In a way it's hard to want to feel a part of the team when firstly I know I don't want to stay there and secondly I think they know that too. Often if asked I do say I've applied to jobs. Because realistically I can't lie as I need them as a point of reference and also it's better to be open and honest and not take a job there just because it may or may not hang in the balance at the end of my training

Conversations in any workplace should have professional boundaries, and part of that is being mindful of your audience.

For example, I've overheard some conversations that I don't think should have been had in the staff room, but we are all teachers and sometimes people need to let off steam. Had those conversations been in front of trainees, I'd have considered it unprofessional.

I also know that some placements blur boundaries with trainees and although that can leave trainees feeling like the placement was great/staff were super friendly, they've come to us and I've found gaps in their teaching that have been overlooked, or assessment forms were on the generous side. Equally, there are challenges that emerge out of being friends with trainees because as mentors and school coordinators our job is to train you as teachers. Sometimes that involves giving feedback that can feel at odds with being friends and it can cause friction.

I'm not going to repeat what lots have already said about schools being unusual at the moment, but please take on board what people are saying.

Having seen a number of your other posts, I still feel you might need do reflect on how what your expectations are of professional relationships.

@LolaSmiles

Conversations in any workplace should have professional boundaries, and part of that is being mindful of your audience.

For example, I've overheard some conversations that I don't think should have been had in the staff room, but we are all teachers and sometimes people need to let off steam. Had those conversations been in front of trainees, I'd have considered it unprofessional.

I also know that some placements blur boundaries with trainees and although that can leave trainees feeling like the placement was great/staff were super friendly, they've come to us and I've found gaps in their teaching that have been overlooked, or assessment forms were on the generous side. Equally, there are challenges that emerge out of being friends with trainees because as mentors and school coordinators our job is to train you as teachers. Sometimes that involves giving feedback that can feel at odds with being friends and it can cause friction.

I'm not going to repeat what lots have already said about schools being unusual at the moment, but please take on board what people are saying.

Having seen a number of your other posts, I still feel you might need do reflect on how what your expectations are of professional relationships.

Oh defo. I'm not there to be friends with them. I see what you mean though. My mentor doesn't cross the line ans try to be my friend at all.