It is important to pause and give full permission to catch up with those we work with.
The school timetable is full. It comprises of 5-6 hours back to back teaching and learning. The majority of the day is given to being in the classroom and a percentage of breaks can require playground duty. Therefore, the planning of lessons, the marking, reporting, adhering to data mandatories, administration is fitted in around these. There is a science to balancing the needs of all that is required. Without doubt, there is a volume of work to accomplish and cover off on.
As a result, the interaction with those we work with often takes a back seat. If there is conversation, it can tend to be short.
However, these interactions are the very nourishment which feeds the volume of productivity and quality required for the job. Whilst a chat can be a distraction, it also may be the very thing needed to bring the joy and spark back into our steps, which feeds directly back into the classroom.
Teaching situations are varied. Secondary teachers generally tend to teach in a variety of classrooms and their ‘base’ is a desk in a staffroom. Primary teachers will always have a staffroom but can be more based in the one classroom they teach in. Therefore, the flavour of how the interaction with others occurs looks different in any given day.
However, common activities such as heading to the toilet, a stationery cupboard, photocopier, pigeonhole, or walking around the school, offer opportunities to interact with those we share the school space with. There can be great conversations had in the loo, by the photocopier, next to the stationery cupboard or anywhere that might yield a lesson idea, answer a query, give a tip for dinner that night and/or open each other up to the joys of connection and collaboration in the workplace.
Taking time to turn around your chair, or sitting at the lunch table and building the relationship with those we work alongside is crucial to the heartbeat and operation of any school. Collegiality and working professionally alongside each other are standards in all education institutions' policies, but do we take the time to fully realise and activate the relationships with those around us?
We spend a great part of our week being around our colleagues. Developing these relationships and building a deeper openness with each other are resources at our fingertips that are priceless, cost nothing and yet yield enormous and untold wealth.