Something came up in my Early Childhood Education Group, and I thought it would be perfect for a blog.
Someone put up that when she was out from work, her assistant teacher changed the room around. And put out toys that were put up for reasons that the assistant teacher was aware of. The lead teacher thought that her assistant teacher’s actions were disrespectful and sneaky.
- I do not know why the assistant saw the need to do the change while the teacher was out.
- I do not know if she had asked before and tried to give her ideas only to be turned down.
- I do not know what the circumstances were.
- But, waiting for another teacher to leave to change the room is unprofessional, in my opinion.
The classroom is not about the teachers in the class; it is about the students. When you do a quick change like that, you could disrupt the routine for the students, as they are used to seeing the room in a certain way. Or you can cause friction between you and the other teachers in your classroom.
Many students do not do well with change, and to abruptly change a room while the lead teacher is out, is not okay. The students were already dealing with the fact that one of their teachers was out. Now they must also deal with a room change.
In a classroom, there must be a sense of mutual respect; it must be; otherwise, the classroom climate would be negative.
If the teacher wanted to change the class around, she should have done it when the lead teacher was there, not wait until she was gone. For me, that sounds sneaky. I know there is a lot of factors as to why she felt the need to do this. Whatever the case was, it was not okay.
As teachers, we must learn to work together, if not for each other, then for the students in our care.
What are your thoughts? Have you had this happen to you? What did you do?
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” comes to mind. I would NEVER do what you described without talking it over with my co-worker.
I like that, it covers it all. Well said.
Yes!