The Lounge

[kingrichie]

I hate the lounge. I'd rather eat with my students.

[CapeMayRunner]

i eat with my students on most days! some fridays i eat alone or in the teachers room! :)

[Boxcar]

I think it is good to mix it up. Sometimes the students are great, and sometimes you want to talk with your co-workers.

[Chef Dave]

The lounge is a great place to get to know your coworkers ... but it can also be a horrible place for gossip.

Throughout most of my career, I have voluntarily eaten with the students instead of eating in the lounge.

[mopar]

I like to eat with other teachers; however, we usually eat in one of our classrooms instead of the lounge or we go out to get something to eat. My students eat at a different time than I because the teachers monitor the lunch duty for kids.

[Chef Dave]

I ate in the lounge on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The students had early dismissal and most of the teachers had gone. I ordered take out with the building administrator, two secretaries, the book room clerk, and another teacher.

It was nice.

I provided complimentary beverages from the student restaurant. I also cooked up some onion rings and also provided slices of spiced pumpkin bread stuffed with sweetened cream cheese.

This was the first time I've had lunch in the lounge. I normally work during lunch since I normally supervise the student operated restaurant.

Eating in the lounge gave me the opportunity to get to know my colleagues a bit better. When they learned that I had no plans for Thanksgiving, I was even invited to several homes. :)

[kingrichie]

I may have another go at it. I only eat in there on rainy days because my class is taken by another teacher during my lunch time. I have to admit it was pleasant only having 4 or 5 of us in there.

[Oak Tree]

I usually eat alone but sometimes I eat with the custodians. The other teachers irritate me to the brink of insanity.

[Chef Dave]

I usually eat alone but sometimes I eat with the custodians. The other teachers irritate me to the brink of insanity.

Without naming names, how so? Surely you're not irritated by the entire faculty?

I once worked at a private American school in Saudi Arabia. We did not have a cafeteria and dismissed our kids to go home for lunch. The kids had a half hour for transportation via air-conditioned bus and a full hour for lunch. Teachers were free to go home but several of us brought lunch and ate in the lounge.

I enjoyed eating in the lounge ... but stopped after a new teacher was hired. The woman was a highly experienced teacher. She was probably very good at her job ... but she irritated the heck out of me.

Complaints - complaints - complaints. That's all I ever heard. She complained about our salary. I don't know about the other teachers but I was grossing $70,000 a year, TAX FREE since foreign earned income is tax exempt and Saudi Arabia had no taxes to speak of.

She complained about her housing. She and her husband lived in company built three bedroom house with a fenced back yard and a one car garage. I lived in a bachelor hovel efficiency apartment with walls that were so sheer that I could hear my next door neighbor doing private things in his bathroom. I could literally hear televisions and telephone conversations. I had no back yard and no garage.

She complained about her vacation. Granted, we only got one month a year instead of three months ... but the company gave us $7500 for an annual vacation allowance. When I went on vacation, I always got to go someplace interesting ... Athens ... Rome ... Zurich ... Bangkok ... Singapore etc.

There came a time where I just couldn't take it any more. The negative vibes from this woman were ruining my good spirits ... so I stopped eating in the lounge.

[leafy seadragon]

It's really important to get into the lounge or staffroom as we call it. You miss out on so much stuff. Also, it's easy then to feel isolated. Even if you don't spend all of your break there I think it's good to touch base with other staff we only form relationships by being around people. Over time I've found that some people I had trouble being around were not so unpleasant once you were more familiar with them. You kind of get used to them after a while. The other staff are your support network and I've really come to value that when after a difficult time with a violent student, family and the Depat of Ed. the whole staff came together and voted to take strike action if something wasn't done to ensure my safety in my classroom. It really didn't concern them at all, they don't come in or teach my kids at all, but they cared about me and some of them I only know to smile at and have a few passing words yet, the vote was unanimous. It meant a lot to me.

[teach1027]

I either eat with my students or in my room if I need some "quiet time"

[Oak Tree]

Without naming names, how so? Surely you're not irritated by the entire faculty

Oh no. I like pretty much everyone there. I just don't like to talk shop when I'm on break.

[Chef Dave]

Oh no. I like pretty much everyone there. I just don't like to talk shop when I'm on break.

I understand. Yes ... teachers can be horrible about talking shop. I think this is one of the reasons I like teaching at high school. Teachers at high school are much more specialized than elementary school, so there aren't as many common topics for discussion.

The one and only time I ate in the lounge this year, my colleagues asked how I was enjoying Arizona and whether I had finished settling in. Everyone shared their plans for Thanksgiving. We didn't talk about teaching at all.