Mr. Teachbad and Staff Meetings

I enjoyed reading the blog of Mr. Teachbad, and I was initially shocked that there was a teacher who had this much courage to publish their true feelings and ideas about the current school system that is their current employer.  At some points, I have had similar thoughts and frustrations, but I think teachers have a fear that anything they talk about will put their job in jeopardy. 

            One of my favorite posts on the blog was the fake news report about the teacher who called in a bomb threat to interrupt a staff meeting.  I had attended a few meetings while I was in student teaching and also while I was a substitute teacher.  While I did not call in any threats to make the meetings end; I definitely can appreciate the humor in this post.  Before I went to one of the meetings, I envisioned teachers working together with administration to come up with ideas to help the students in the school.  Some meetings started off with teaching comments; although many were not positive.  It seemed that the meetings were a place for teachers to vent about their day, what students acted up and how they were frustrated about ‘that kid’.  

            There always seemed to be a ‘that kid’ in each school or grade I taught/substituted in.  I often fell into the trap of putting these expectations on to the student, and would find fault in anything I could.  One evening, I thought about this and that I had been sucked into the self-fulfilling prophecy of finding fault that had already been shown to me even before I met the student.  After dealing with my guilty conscience, I went back in and decided that I would not listen as much during the staff meetings unless it had to deal directly with what was on the agenda. 

            So I guess I agree a lot with Mr. Teachbad on staff meetings.  Perhaps some teachers try to spice up the meetings with student gossip, but this defeats the purpose of the meetings (if there is any to begin with).  I would hope that a staff meeting of teachers could instead focus on classroom teachings and work on ways to help students instead of just gossiping about them.