Teacher Tension

One other thing I wanted to mention was regarding relationships. On the first day I noticed the division between Exploratory teachers and regular homeroom teachers. They don't really like each other! The X (Exploratory) group teachers pretty much congregate together and avoid the staff room all together. Their "staff" room or hang out spot/ venting area is Shelley's office (the music teacher). When I asked Shelley about this her first response was "you weren't suppose to notice that yet." I figured their would be tension but guess I really didn't expect this much. Growing up I always felt this from the other teachers and students....music/band/exploratory's were not really subjects. Well it isn't just students with this problem but teachers too. The regular room teachers treat the exploratory teachers as not real teachers. I've already witnessed a venting session from one of the exploratory teachers to Shelley about issues and problems with other teachers. I now know that I am going to be looked down on by homeroom teachers when I am there and pretty much will have to find my only support in the 4 exploratory teachers. I will spend my lunch hour in the music office and I will probably never see the staff room. I can see the dynamic in the school homeroom teachers vs exploratory teachers, a very tense situation! It is going to make for an interesting practicum experience to say the least. I guess I am very curious to see how it plays out. I am more than a little worried about my first staff meeting considering the stories and topics that my sponsor teacher has told me about.

So far in this observation I am learning a lot more about the people (how the students function and how the teachers interact) rather than how to teach the subject. Which I think has been a real eye opener!