Togetherness

It's an occupational hazard of the "caring" professions (teaching, nursing, etc.) that you get so caught up in caring for your "clients" that you a) forget to care for yourself, and b) forget to care for your colleagues. Teaching is an amazingly collegial (is that a word?) profession, and I am in a very collegial school. We share resources; we share student-specific tips; we share germs and illness, thanks to school central heating systems; we also share stress at Report Writing times. All jokes aside, I've been amazed by how well the staff at my school get along, aside from the standard, only-to-be-expected workplace politics. We like each other. We like working together.

That being said, when you work in a high-pressure environment (and teaching, whatever they might say in the media, is high-pressure), it's easy to get bogged down in what you have to do, and not to take the time to enjoy the relationships you have at work. It's also hard, when you have so many students demanding time and attention to remember that your colleagues deserve time and attention too - and not always school-related attention.

This really struck me today for a number of reasons. The first reason was when I found out that one of my friends from work - a fellow graduate who sits with me in the staff room - had some sort of seizure/collapse at work late yesterday afternoon, after I'd left. Fairly distressing, really, and a lot of us were quite worried about her. Needless to say, she wasn't in today. Then, later in the day, I found myself in a number of quite meaningful and personally important conversations with colleagues who sit in my section of the staffroom.

Now, I was hardly lazy today. I taught five classes and got quite a bit of marking and preparation done. But I also took the time out to respond to the situations that arose with colleagues. I took the time to call my friend to see how she was. I took the time to have those important and valuable conversations with colleagues in the staffroom. And no, none of that counts as time spent on developing my teaching practice, or on actual teaching. Does that mean it was unimportant? No teacher worth their salt would say that time spent building relationships with students is less important than time spent "teaching" them. If that's the case, then time spent building relationships with colleagues is also essential.

I know that my day was enriched greatly by these experiences. And it was good to be reminded that our lives are more than what goes on in the classroom, and to see that our relationships as colleagues can go beyond sharing lesson plans, and can, at times, enter into the realm of helping each other personally, in ways that we may never full