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[Roger]

In China, very variable.
My first school: a normal school, our living quarters on site. That's why we had no staffroom, I guess. We could be back at home within 3 minutes after hearing the chime.
My observation was that FTs don't harmonise well; the Brits spent their time together apart from the yanks, and I was in the middle, consorting with both and hearing complaints from both sides.

Right now, we do have a staffroom in one of our campuses (but not on the main campus were we are being housed). The staffroom is designed to enable us to take an after-lunch nap - we have a huge sofa and many chairs. There is one computer for the 4 or more of us. We have no telephone, no copier and no access to any library, but we have a bookcase for various textbooks. On one desk is a huge pile of composition notebooks left behind by a teacher that was not retained for the new semester. Some 100 students' essays are there, have been there for at least half a year... The CHinese have their own staffrooms, which are more complete, boasting telephones and fax machines...and a computer on each desk.

In Hong Kong we had a large staffroom with a cafeteria. On the ground floor was a tuck shop and staff would bring sandwiches or pizzas; the latter they would put in the microwave and bake. The majority of teachers hailed from the U.K., and this translated into some rather obvious form of apartheid: the Brits always together, the CHinese among themselves. I and a Spanish teacher by ourselves... I once asked the school's social worker what her name was; she decided I didn't need to know it since I was not British.

[Deconstructor]

Why I Hate The Staff Room:

There is always one teacher who's waiting for you to ask a question about anything so that she can rant and rave about her failed classes.

There is always another teacher who rants and raves about how her students except of course for one who is her favourite and they have a drink together now and then and that she makes her job worth doing� bla bla bla!!

There is the third teacher who snubs everyone because she's a legend in her own mind. She talks only to one other teacher. Thank God!

The fourth teacher is in constant despair because she is totally clueless as to where her next activity is coming from.


And so on and so on and so on and so on and so on and so on and so on...

All of these people converge on THE STAFF ROOM:

[Sweetsee]

Our staff room at this private girls'senior high school in Japan serves as office for about 40. In one corner is the sink and hot beverage area with a window which can be opened and affords a view of plants, flowers and such.

The desks are facing eachother in four islands, plus the head of the room has a desk bank facing us all, in which direction we bow and receive the morning's administrative briefing.

Teachers are grouped according to students' grades. Most desks have shelving on the desk to avoid staring at the opposing person all day. Mine didn't have any so I put up some large glossy photos I cut from a magazine and put them up on the back of the opposing teacher's shelving, he only has a top shelf so he has to endure the back of my photos, which as I glance around now I can see that the back of my pictures have done a fabulous job of decorating his area, funny how that worked out, especially since he is the basketball coach and probably digs it.

I used to have a kip if I was knackered at any number of places around the school but not these days. Several teachers are regular sleepers, not that they are regularly sleeping but that you can often find them during a free period sitting at their desks' zonked out in their own trademark position.

If I'm not in class than I am sitting right here on one of 2 terminals we have in this room or one of the four we have across the hall. Most folks seem to have their own laptops at their desks and there are only a couple of us regularly surfing. If I'm fed up with surfing I will be gardening around the school, shooting hoops, playing tennis or at home between classes.

I get along with evey one fabulously and have been made to feel very welcome, and that makes me very happy. I love to bring my little girl around at the weekend and she likes to draw pictures at my desk or just be a good little girl while I take people to the hole on the court.

Really can't say enough about having so much space at your disposal in such a cramped country.


Enjoy yourself,
s