Job Discussion Forums

[leeroy]

Funny, we talk about the classroom all the time. Not much thought gets given to the staff room though..

Staff rooms are important to me - I left my last job not because of the students (or, really, the teachers) - but because of the rubbish atmosphere the staff room had. It might seem strange to place such importance on a room that, essentially, I don't spend much time in - but let me explain it...

The staff room is like a refuge - it is a place to escape the tyranny of student English and my role as "teacher" - somewhere where I can sit down, have a cup of tea and unload with a load of British humour (in a London accent) without being hit back by a room of blank stares.

(In Indonesia, in fact, during the floods - myself and 4 other teachers actually lived and slept in our staff room for a week! Ah! Good times... )

Staff room talk is rarely about anything serious - break times are almost always times to "fill-up" with chit-chat, irreverent humour and lesson ideas. (In a perfect world, Dave's would be a bit like this too ). Well, we might collectively whinge about the odd student too...

OK - it's not perfect - it's not big enough and the inside-plate thing on the microwave doesn't turn round, but my staff-room's cool.

It'll do.

Tell me about your staff rooms people! Do you care about it as much as me - or am I just overly-sensitive to this kind of thing?

[spidey]

Our staff room is like my own little sanctuary. Quite frankly, I need to escape the negative atmosphere of the teacher's room. I can relax and enjoy a coffee whilst I check out the daily dose of sales flyers. I would probably go crazy if I didn't have this little place.
So, I guess for me as well, it is quite important.

S

[denise]

My school doesn't have a proper staff room. We do have:

offices for pairs of teachers or, through luck/seniority/good timing/some mysterious stroke of fate, individual teachers

two program-wide offices, one of which has the requisite microwave that takes about 18 minutes to reheat anything

a smokers' balcony used by both teachers and students (I usually avoid it when there are smokers out there--don't care for that cigaretty smell)

half a dozen other congregating places on campus

We always stop and chat between lessons, at lunch, after class, etc. Topics range from teaching-related to... stuff not appropriate here. I really enjoy running into people and chatting, but I would really like to have a proper staff room/lounge with a comfy couch, squishy bean bags, etc. Just last spring we converted an old office into a student lounge, but we haven't got one of our own!

d

[merlin]

The joys of having an office, usually alone or with a newbie/temp who keeps his mouth shut.

Seriously, though. There's quite a bit to be said in favor of not participating too much in the ups and downs of people who are on an emotional rollercoaster ride.

An office is worth at least $500 US /month less salary.

[Gordon]

We don't really have a staff room. We all have our own offices which are absolutely massive. I could teach 8-10 students comfortably in it, but I don't. The foreign teachers don't mix much as our teaching schedules don't usually coincide with one another.
I do miss the old staff room life where we sit around, gab and have lunch together.

[shmooj]

Ours is called a chill out room (it is actually freezing too). Very well equipped and you can watch BBC world if that's your thing. It is a great place to have conversations that the managers can't overhear as they spend relatively little time in there. I appreciate it... though we do need a CCTV camera to catch rogue milk theives...

[ls650]

My previous school had a small staffroom shared by about 7 full-time teachers and 3 part-timers. It was cramped and messy. Ugh.

At my current school we have individual offices - though not enough to go around, so some of the larger offices are shared by pairs of teachers. We also have an infrequently used meeting room.

[merlin]

I remember one teachers' room was about two meters by two meters and was shared by all teachers - about 15. I have fond memories of it, though because there was a lot of hanky-panky there after-hours. There and on the sofa in the "conference room".

Ahhh, those were the days. Single and having fun...I din't post much to Dave's in those days.

[basiltherat]

size? 4 by 4 metres approx
condition ? excellent/new
view ? pleasant mountain/hill
facilities ? piped music, computers + internet + individual desks
No of teachers ? 2- one pt and one ft (your truly)

treated pretty well here. so far a very reputable, helpful, providing and hands-off employer. I count myself lucky cos I've worked in some places which turned out to be pretty mickey mouse.
regards
basil

[Ben Round de Bloc]

At the state university where I teach, we don't have a staff room, teachers' work room, or teachers' lounge. Many of us don't have desks or offices either.

[Twisting in the Wind]

When I was in school, making fun of the teachers, I always wondered what went on behind those hallowed halls of the staff room.

When I finally became a teacher, I Got my answer:

They make fun of the students!!!

I spent many happy a moment in the teacher's break room with my colleagues. It was sacrosanct. No ss allowed. Any student who stepped one foot in was promptly catcalled back outside where he/she "belonged" (being sarcastic here LOL)I think the OP mentioned making fun of the occasional "odd" student? Come to my old school, mate! It wasn't just the "odd" student either that was made fun of, we were sure we hit them all

In an old school, the staff room was constantly being changed. We were constantly being moved to increasingly cruddier and cruddier and smaller and smaller accomodations! The DOS would come in and we could just tell by the look on his face!

"Okay, everybody, grab your stuff and..."

But thankfully, we were moved outta the dinky little room with the bathroom whose odors would smoke us out, and outta the room with the copier, whose carcinogenic toner smells probably infected us for the next 50 years...

[matttheboy]

Had a great staffroom whilst working in sydney, fun staff, young and old we all went out for drinks friday night about 20 of us. Used to go in early just to chat and be somewhere i felt comfortable.

Coming back to england i found the staffroom really really boring, everyone kept their heads down and didn't really talk, except to complain about management atrocities (i didn't think management were that bad so i had less to talk to my fellow teachers about, although cancelling the 'paper subscriptions really pis sed me off). Spent as little time there as possible.

Ecuador, had another good bunch of teachers and the staffroom was often stocked with PG Tips or Tetleys that other staff members had posted over!

Do private classes now so my staffroom is my flat.

The job i enjoyed most was in sydney and i think mainly because of the people i worked with and the atmosphere in the staffroom. Students were fun as well.

Creating a happy workplace generally means the teachers care more about their jobs and are less likely to bugge r off after a couple of months so it's got to be in the schools' interests to indulge us, right? Oh.

[Nagoyaguy]

I work in a public JHS, the staff room is huge. About 40 teachers altogether, plus principal, office workers, nurse, all in one room. Teachers here do not get their own classroom, they work out of the staffroom. Meetings are held here too, plus there are the school computers and copier. It is a mess! Every teacher seems to be having a Messy Desk Contest, as if the messiness of the desk is directly related to the skill of the teacher. Desks are aluminum prison standard fare, there is a huge blackboard for messages, phones on every wall.

The atmosphere is generally controlled chaos. Students can enter, but must ask permission at the door and say "excuse me for disturbing you" when they leave. It is also the only room in the school with heating or air conditioning. Classrooms have no air con, in the winter they use natural gas heaters.

Oh yeah, also the school has no locker rooms for the kids when they take phys ed class. They change in the classroom- boys in one class, girls in another. Problem is , they dont shower after phys ed either (no locker room, I said). It can get a little spicy in the summer, let me tell you.

[Glenski]

In my private HS, the high school teachers (80) are in one large room, and the junior high teachers (about 30) are in another one. No cubicles, no walls except the four that surround everyone. No separate telephones, either. FT teachers sit together by grades, while PT teachers fend for themselves at a meager table or in the break room. If you want a private conversation, you have to go elsewhere.

[Alitas]

Hmm. We have a room for about 30 staff members. There's a couch and a chair, and a dining room table with matching chairs....30-odd mailboxes...two large soda machines....a sink and some cupboards...a box of graveyard utensils (the ones that get left behind, never to be washed, and eventually thrown away).....the teacher's bathroom (always well-stocked with air freshener)....and a copy machine.

It's not quite a sanctuary but we do gather at lunch (all twenty minutes of lunch, and done in 3 shifts). If you leave food on the table it is gone by three o' clock (great for those class party days when you get left with tons of half-eaten things).

Back in the old days they would leave a punch bowl out during the holidays and there would be drunk teachers on the job. But those days are over.